Just a few days later as I was leading a couple of horses thru a gate here at the ranch when one of them decided to get stupid which caused the other one to get even stupider and I got caught in the crossfire… Wound up with some real issued in my neck, left shoulder and elbow. It was all I could do to lift my bow much less pull it so I wasn’t going to be much of a threat to the local critters for a while.
Fast forward another couple months to November, I was still far from 100% but I was finally getting back to where I could at least draw my bow again hopefully without hurting myself further. Actually the Physical Therapist told me to do my normal activities as much as the pain would allow. I was being real careful and figured I had a shot or two at best so I started doing some stand sitting again. Mostly I was looking for a dandy whitetail I’ve been pursuing for three years now. I had seen this guy numerous times as close as 30 yards but he was either leading a charmed life or more likely just smarter than me…
I saw him once in early November this year as he snuck thru on the trail I hadn’t picked 50 yards to the East of me, After this one glimpse he went into ghost mode again. I had numerous smaller bucks coming and going in the post rut frenzy but couldn’t bring myself to drop the string on one.
In the mean time like always I’d been glassing the surrounding hills watching the mulies getting fired up for their rut which usually peaks around Thanksgiving here. With wolves, cougars and an overly ambitious local outfitter we seldom see much in the way of mature mulies but occasionally one will survive long enough. After ten days of watching and glassing I’d found a couple that were looking pretty decent thru my spotting scope from a half mile away. Since I was getting real frustrated from contrary winds and too many hours sitting in a stand I decided to do a little closer investigating up in the sage brush…
I’ve learned the hard way to be patient and wait for the right opportunity with these more mature mulie bucks. Typically you get one opportunity and if you blow it he’s going to be many times “smarter” next time. The next to last day of our general season one of the bucks I’d been watching bedded about 10:00 AM on an open knob with lots of big boulders and sage brush making for a good stalk scenario. The drawback was the five other bucks and probably 20 does that were bedded around him, you don’t know till you try right…
I was able to drive on an old ranch two track to the base of the cliffy area below the deer, this put me within a quarter mile and out of sight of them. An hour of switchbacking and angling to get the wind right and I was well past and above where I’d last seen the big guy. I crawled up behind a boulder glass and try to pick a good route between all those eyes and ears. Fortunately the whole bunch were above where the terrain dropped off sharply for a probably 300’ to the river below. The wind was good so I’d be able to get pretty close before having to worry about being busted, the biggest problem was four inches of noisy crusty snow. I spent another hour back tracking and moving at a snails pace thru the snow and sage brush. Finally I eased up behind a chokecherry bush I’d picked earlier that should have put me within spitting distance of the herd…
Topic: The Long Version - 2011 (Read 779 times)
