Grandson Code phoned yesterday afternoon and my wife and I could hear in his voice that he'd tagged a deer. He is camping in E WA and hunting whitetail with a friend who is a champion 3D archery shooter. It was Code's turn to stalk when they spotted a small buck bedded. They were on the rim of a plateau a couple of hundred feet above a valley floor, with ravines running down from the rim to the valley. The buck was bedded just above the bottom on a ridge between ravines.
Code stalked him and when within range, edged over the ridge for a shot and did not like what was offered. The buck had its rump toward him. Code eased back down and got closer, this time with a smidge of angle. As Code eased up to look again, a bird hunter fired a shotgun twice down the valley. The buck did not get up but he looked that way focused on the shots. Code stood and aimed to shoot slightly downward into his back. He hit the buck in the outer backstrap just ahead of the pelvis, and the heavy elk arrow angled forward and downward through some paunch, liver, one lung and out the shoulder. The buck ran 150 yards and bedded again. They watched it till it soon expired.
Spike year buck with 4x5 antlers. The first pic looks to me like the exit is showing on the shoulder.
(https://i.imgur.com/es9Ajgi.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/WnxCfg1.jpg)
That sure is some different looking country than what I'm used to, great story great hunt!
Code does it again! :yoyo: Congratulations :congrats:
Pat
Quote from: nastygunz on December 03, 2017, 03:32:59 PM
That sure is some different looking country than what I'm used to, great story great hunt!
Eastern Washington State is dry. Where I grew up in the south eastern part we had cactus, sage, sand dunes and less than 6 inches of rain per year. Code was hunting near the Canadian border, more grassland than sage, with pine and fir forest as the elevation climbs from these valley bottoms into mountains. Mule deer tend to be higher and the whitetails fill the valleys, but this valley is a wintering area where they mix.
Edited to add: Code just phoned again. His hunting partner killed a whitetail doe on their way out. They spotted three deer 200 yards above the road so they stopped and the partner went after them. Any deer is legal in this late bow season and they were in their last few minutes of hunting. The partner saw a doe 25 yards from him as he climbed toward the others, and shot it. For Washington State, with bows, that is a terrifically successful hunt for those two young men.
Very nice! Congrats to the boys. :congrats:
That looks like some horrible country to pack meat out of. Wow, Id be tripping all over that high ass grass. :whew:
Tough place for a tree stand :wink:
Both sound like exciting hunts. Stalking is patient mans game and I have to imagine so rewarding when successful. Congrats to both
Way to go Code !!