time to hunt

[twinkieman]

See you guys, sometime next week. My time to go pursue Blacktails

[twinkieman]

Well I would love to say that I had success, but nope!. We went in 5 days after the opener into my blacktail honeyhole, usually the 4 other guys that hunt this leave on the 6th day, only to find that their group had split into 2 pairs, so we never were all alone as we had hoped for. This wouldn't be any big deal if they were hunters with any kind of ethics. They are from the bay area, and do not care if they know you are stalking a buck, they will still come and hunt on top of you, and basically try to move in faster than you can. Anyway, first morning, nice 4 point, 130" buck, and 60 yards away, with 20 to go, deer running everywhere. I had a specific buck I was after, so it wasn't that big a deal. 3rd day I find him, in a very remote locale, watch him bed, stalk into 22 yds. I waited 40 minutes, and the sun finally hits him, and he stands up, and turns 90 degrees as I draw my bow. All I have is the hind end, he moves away from his bed to my left along a rock ledge. Now here is where I really BLOW IT! He stops, I re-draw without ranging him, which was incredibly stupid, as he has no clue I am there. I guess 40 yds., draw anchor, release, and shoot 2" over his back. GOOD BYE!. I then range, correct yardage was only 28 yds. I am a moron I have hunted this buck, for the past two years, and I can only hope next year I will perform better, he is huge, and while he wouldn't score a great net score, he is a gross 170" buck. I made other stalks on some great deer, but when it came time to release an arrow, I just didn't want to kill any thing else. There were 4 of us, two of the other guys were successful on their best deer so far in their hunting careers. Time to re-focus on elk, and I won't be able to try again this year.

[zpd307]

sorry that your hunt didn't end in success.... but if are like me, I know you enjoyed the hunt.

[twinkieman]

Enjoyed it immensely as always! It was a success, I did find the buck I was after, successfully stalked him, then became a dumb a$$