I did it! I shot my 1st buck. Below is the lengthy story of how it all went down. Travis put in for me without my consent, so I was kind of coerced into shooting my 1st buck. I only had one goal going into shooting it- pull off a good shot so it has a quick and easy death. My worst fear was that I would wound it and we would have to chase it down for miles and miles, meanwhile it would be suffering the entire time. Thankfully, that didn't happen and he had a good life with a quick death.
As the days were approaching our hunt, Travis would routinely mention to me that the forecast of Ely Nevada was getting colder and colder. He would remind me that we would be camped a few thousand feet higher than Ely and then of course would be hunting at elevations even higher than that. Although I love camping, I was not looking forward to our 5 days and 5 night camp out in the single-digit temperatures and snow storm.
We arrived late Friday night, Oct 10th. We met Rod, Travis' buddy from college in Ely and headed up to camp where Travis' dad, David, was already set up. He had arrived Thursday. As we pulled into camp, the snow storm was in full force. So we all bundled up and hurried and set up our wonderful "turtle tent". We settled into bed late that night getting a few restless hours of sleep in the wind and snow.
The next morning we woke up to overcast skies and a snow covered camp. Luckily we brought our ski pants, bundled up and headed to the top to glass and find our bucks. Travis, David, and I all drew tags this year, so all three of us were hunting. Travis had decided that he was only going to take a buck this year if it was a monster buck-bigger then any of the ones he's already shot in years past. So Travis became mine and David's guide. We spotted one smaller buck that day, but we spooked it from the truck, and no one was able to take a shot. The morning turned out to be unsuccessful and the evening even more so. The storm was too dense to see anything, so we went into town for a bite to eat for dinner at my favorite restaurant in town-Twin Wok. They have the best cream-cheese-wantons ever! Since we were up so late the night before, we retired to bed early hoping for better luck on day 2.
On the second morning, the storm had lifted and we had slept through a night in the single digits. I can't complain though-we have wonderful sleeping pads and sleeping bags and I was toasty! The plan for the morning of day 2 was to hike down a draw at the tree line on both sides and see if we could find anything. Since there was about a foot of snow on the ground we were able to see all sorts of tracks-deer, elk, coyote, and rabbit; but no luck in spotting any bucks. Since we finished that excursion at about 9:30am, we decided to head to the top to glass once again for the bucks we assumed would be up there.
The storm was rolling in again by that time. Our guide, Travis, headed toward the same area we were at yesterday at about 10,700ft. Travis and I hiked along the ridge line, and just as the clouds lifted he was able to spot 4 good sized bucks! We called for Rod and his spotting scope and found that there was a good size 4x4 among the bunch. Travis decided that this was the one we were going to take, so he and I proceeded our stalk down the face of the ridge towards the draw at the bottom. The storm and the clouds turned out to be perfect cover and my white ski pants worked as great camo! We stalked the bucks for about an hour. Although the temperatures were below freezing, I stayed warm due to something Travis calls "buck fever". Travis decided during our stalk that this was to be my buck and that I was going to take the shot. I disagreed and said that I can't see a thing through my binoculars in the storm much less through a rifle scope! He didn't pay attention to my excuses and hiked on. We came to a spot that got us pretty close-probably about 300 yards. We could see the deer through the bushes, but I couldn't even make out his head. I told Travis that I would not take a shot like that and if he wanted to shoot it right then, he would have to shoot it. He paid attention that time and we pressed forward in the deep snow. We kept getting closer and closer, becoming sneakier and sneakier. Finally the 4x4 came into view and we hunkered down for the shot. I had the 270 all set in front of me, resting on the bipod. Travis sat directly behind me and kept his eye on the buck through his binoculars. The scope allowed me to zoom in to the exact location on the buck I needed to aim at. Like I mentioned before, I wanted to make sure it was going to be a good clean shot with a quick and easy death. The buck was faced away from me, looking back over his shoulder at us. I had a perfect view of his butt and kept telling Travis, "I can't pull off a shot like that! I'm going to shoot his butt!" So I waited just a few more seconds until he turned his head, took one step, and pulled the triggered just as his front leg came into view. Travis heard the thud, saw the buck leap and I had shot my first buck! We called Rod on the radio and told him to come meet us down at the bottom, while Travis and I tracked the deer. Travis found him and he was down. He put in a finishing shot and I had done it! A great sized first 4x4 buck- 23" spread. I couldn't have done it without my amazing hunting guide!
Next came the work. This is when I check out and let the men take care of the gross dissecting procedures. Since I had shot the deer at a little less then 10,000ft with a steep uphill climb to the trucks, Travis and Rod decided they'd drag the deer down to the road at the base of the mountain. Since it was covered in snow, it made it a little easier, but definitely not an easy task over all. I ended up hiking back up to the trucks and definitely got my work out for the day! David and I went back to camp to get the ATV to go and pick up Travis, Rod and the deer at the base of the mountain. We had to use the ATV because the road was pretty hairy and covered with snow. By the time I had hiked out, drove back, unloaded the ATV, and made it out to where Travis and Rod were, they had gutted and skinned the deer. They brought it back on the ATV and we all headed back to camp for a much needed meal of spaghetti (prepared by Linda) and Texas toast, after a long hard days work! What an adventurous day! I definitely enjoyed stalking the deer and felt the rush of excitement as it got closer and closer to shooting the deer. (I guess that's also called buck fever). But I do have to say it was a good first and last experience, that is, it wasn't too enjoyable for me knowing I had killed the deer. So I'll leave the shooting up to Travis in years to come and go along for the hunt.
The next few days started to clear up and by the end of the trip we were down to our t-shirts in 60 degree weather. Travis had taken us to another part of the mountain range in our area to find David a buck. We had seen lots of does and elk by this time, but still no bucks. On Wed morning, our last morning. We woke up very early and drove about 1/2hr to an area that we figured the bucks would be. Sure enough, as we were heading up the ridge, just as the dawn was filling the sky, Travis spotted a healthy looking 4x3 as he was glassing the hill side. David quietly set up his tall bipod and took the shot. He went down right away and he had himself a great buck, right next to the road! His was a 22" spread, with antlers taller then mine. We were lucky to have Travis find his dad a great buck as well, but not so lucky to find himself a buck. We left David to the gutting and everything and went looking for a bigger buck for Travis, but to no avail. We saw all sorts of animals, bucks included, but there just wasn't one big enough. So we loaded up David's deer and headed back to our muddy camp to pack up.
It definitely was an adventurous deer hunt this year. I had never camped in weather so cold and snow so deep. But our gear and the nearby showers kept us sheltered and warm and we had a great time!
13 years ago