It poured rain all day Saturday, then turned to snow Sunday morning. This morning I got up to the area I wanted to hunt and found about 10 inches of snow on the ground.
I cruised a couple roads until I found numerous deer tracks. Several sets of tracks went down along the edge of some big timber and reprod. I followed the tracks for about 300 yds and set up and rattled several times. Nothing showed up so I looped back up thru the reprod and when I was maybe 100 yds below the road I cut some very fresh tracks. I followed the tracks for about 10 minutes and the tracks led to a clump of willows a buck had just thrashed, so I knew he was close!
I snooped around a few minutes and found a decent clearing with some shooting lanes. I rattled and waited maybe 4 minutes, I rattled a second sequence and had just set the antlers down and picked up my bow when I caught movement to my left. The deer stopped behind a fir tree for a short while and began walking quartering toward me in the small trees. He went behind a bushy fir and came out quartering away at less then 15 yards.
I drew back my arrow and the buck stopped to look. As soon as he looked I released. The buck bounded out of sight, but only went a short distance. When I went to where he was standing when I shot I could see the buck standing with his head drooping down. I quickly nocked and released a second arrow which I'm certain was unneeded. The buck was dead on his feet.
The buck rolled down into some thick brush where it was impossible to get any photos, so I gutted him and dragged him toward the road and found a better spot for the pics.
I used my Blacktail Elite VL and homemade Douglas Fir arrows tipped with Wensel Woodsman heads.
Ron