With the general rifle opener upon us, I opted to take the first 3 days of November off and take my young family hunting. That being, myself, my wife and the first real full on trip for our 7 month old daughter. We headed out to our zone, where we are both drawn for mulie bucks.
We opted, due to the little one's feeding schedule, that Momma would hangout in the motel while I went out for a morning sit. I would then return for breakfast and then take the girls out for the rest of the day.
Morning one had me on a coulee top that produced a good buck for me closing day of 2008. I found myself amongst a herd of cattle, then about 20 big eared does showed up, but no boys with them this time. I headed back to the motel and picked up the ladies, fed Momma some premium truckstop swill, and headed out for a hike along the coulee edge. I decided that pushing the draws up from the bottom to my wife, who was waiting on top.
2 draws in, a nice tall 3x3 mulie broke loose and gave my wife some excitement, but no shot. We chased him, draw by draw, for about a mile, until he decided to cross the coulee into unpermissed property, all the while only offering me, and not my wife, a shot.
We killed the day by driving a few unexplored roads and getting permission to hunt the property where the 3x3 ran.
Day 2 was more of the same, minus the deer sightings. We parked in a gravel pit and walked into where i had a glance of a 4x4 mulie the evening previous and sat down. Nothing but a trio of moose to look at, and of course they hung out in easy range of the hunters with no moose tags.
Today was day 3. After herding deer to get back my truck the night before, I opted to sit at the gravel pit for the morning. Pretty uneventful for the first hour, so to try and honour an agreement with the landowner, i pulled a coyote call from my pocket, and began the dying rabbit blues. Two bucks immedeatly popped up on the horizon, one I believe to be the 3x3 we had chased on day one, the other, a 120ish whitetail that seemed to be hanging out with the mulie. I had several opportunities at 270 yds or so, but passed them up, being so early in the season and all. I noted where they had went and planned to bring the missus back after a quick bite.
After all stomachs were satisfied, and some diaper shopping attended to, we opted to come in from the opposite side of the area the morning bucks had gone into and use the wind. This would take us past the series of draws we had hit on day one, and wanting to be through, i decided to repeat that plan, but with more strategic placing of the shooter/blocker. If that 3x3 was present, and also planned on repeating, he would have a better chance of catching a bullet.
2 draws in, with the wife positioned at the point of the draw, i began my descent into the bottom of the draw. Just as I reached the bottom, i heard crashing and branches breaking, and looked up the trail. My mind had enough time to think "Whitetail. Buck. He's gonna hit me!!!!" The buck was head down and full speed towards me on a narrow trail. Instinctively, I raised my Model 7 in 308, filled the scope at 3x with hair, and pull the trigger. The first shot was at about 10 feet. He turned sharply and crashed into a steep bank, then regained his feet and went 180 degrees and started climbing out of the draw. I managed another shot at this point and centered the vitals with a 168 gr gameking. He climbed a bit more (thank god) before crashing. I was then able to judge his antlers and admire him for the deer he was. I was going to hold out for a monster or eat tag soup this year, but some times fate can be fickle.
The best part for me, no doubt, was being able to have my wife and daughter along. We were aprehensive about hunting with an infant this year, but aside from a few little tantrums afeild, she was a pretty good little girl. She is even a natural at field photos, as she posed for these with no encouragement.
We opted, due to the little one's feeding schedule, that Momma would hangout in the motel while I went out for a morning sit. I would then return for breakfast and then take the girls out for the rest of the day.
Morning one had me on a coulee top that produced a good buck for me closing day of 2008. I found myself amongst a herd of cattle, then about 20 big eared does showed up, but no boys with them this time. I headed back to the motel and picked up the ladies, fed Momma some premium truckstop swill, and headed out for a hike along the coulee edge. I decided that pushing the draws up from the bottom to my wife, who was waiting on top.
2 draws in, a nice tall 3x3 mulie broke loose and gave my wife some excitement, but no shot. We chased him, draw by draw, for about a mile, until he decided to cross the coulee into unpermissed property, all the while only offering me, and not my wife, a shot.
We killed the day by driving a few unexplored roads and getting permission to hunt the property where the 3x3 ran.
Day 2 was more of the same, minus the deer sightings. We parked in a gravel pit and walked into where i had a glance of a 4x4 mulie the evening previous and sat down. Nothing but a trio of moose to look at, and of course they hung out in easy range of the hunters with no moose tags.
Today was day 3. After herding deer to get back my truck the night before, I opted to sit at the gravel pit for the morning. Pretty uneventful for the first hour, so to try and honour an agreement with the landowner, i pulled a coyote call from my pocket, and began the dying rabbit blues. Two bucks immedeatly popped up on the horizon, one I believe to be the 3x3 we had chased on day one, the other, a 120ish whitetail that seemed to be hanging out with the mulie. I had several opportunities at 270 yds or so, but passed them up, being so early in the season and all. I noted where they had went and planned to bring the missus back after a quick bite.
After all stomachs were satisfied, and some diaper shopping attended to, we opted to come in from the opposite side of the area the morning bucks had gone into and use the wind. This would take us past the series of draws we had hit on day one, and wanting to be through, i decided to repeat that plan, but with more strategic placing of the shooter/blocker. If that 3x3 was present, and also planned on repeating, he would have a better chance of catching a bullet.
2 draws in, with the wife positioned at the point of the draw, i began my descent into the bottom of the draw. Just as I reached the bottom, i heard crashing and branches breaking, and looked up the trail. My mind had enough time to think "Whitetail. Buck. He's gonna hit me!!!!" The buck was head down and full speed towards me on a narrow trail. Instinctively, I raised my Model 7 in 308, filled the scope at 3x with hair, and pull the trigger. The first shot was at about 10 feet. He turned sharply and crashed into a steep bank, then regained his feet and went 180 degrees and started climbing out of the draw. I managed another shot at this point and centered the vitals with a 168 gr gameking. He climbed a bit more (thank god) before crashing. I was then able to judge his antlers and admire him for the deer he was. I was going to hold out for a monster or eat tag soup this year, but some times fate can be fickle.
The best part for me, no doubt, was being able to have my wife and daughter along. We were aprehensive about hunting with an infant this year, but aside from a few little tantrums afeild, she was a pretty good little girl. She is even a natural at field photos, as she posed for these with no encouragement.
