What a great morning. Its the last day of my holidays and I had the urge to hunt a deer when I woke up. I grabbed the Model 70 and a box of shells, my camara and my binos. I dropped the Wife off at work and pointed the truck South. I got to the area I wanted to hunt, checked my map and decided to start by parking downwind of some small coulees. I crossed the barb wire fence, loaded five rounds into the Winchester and started up and into the wind. And boy what a wind. It's going between 80 and 100 KpH and it's enough to take your breath away. My target was mule deer and I have three tags in my wallet. I knew any mulies would be on the downwind side of the hills facing me but the sun was at my back and the wind in my face so I had the advantage. I would peak one top, then scan into the draw below. I did this for about a half mile when I crested on hill and started to dip down when a bit to my left I saw five deer bedded down about 100 yards away. In one motion I brought the rifle up and dropped to one knee and parked my ass on my heel. I picked out the biggest doe and as she stood I clicked the safety off with my thumb. The wind was hitting me full force up there but I waited the second or two until that gust died down, I settled the crosshairs on her and squeezed. And squeezed. And squeezed some more. F**K, three position safety! I hadn't fully disengaged the safety and only snapped it into the middle. Quickly I released it but now the deer were moving left. Just then another small group of six deer stood and were starting to move away. My doe was never in the clear. Then another from the second group gave me a perfect broadside shot. I settled the crosshairs on her and another passed right in front. I had no shot and soon I was staring at the South end of nine Northbound, bounding deer. There was nothing i could do but sit there and laugh for a minute or two. At that point I could have kept after them but I was sure I knew where they were going. I walked back to my truck and drove down the road towards where I thought they were going. They didn't. I decided to leave that group alone and wen't looking in some other spots. I drove down to a lake and headed West. I found a great spot to pee, but no deer and no sign. Then I wen't further West and to the top of a large coulee. The only bad part is the only access point from there is upwind but I felt because the wind was blowing so hard, nothing would here me and I hoped nothing could smell me. I started off, walking up coulees, scanning the area then down. I did this over and over for a couple hours. I came to one hill where on the other side there was a bunch of brush that I knew there was a deer in. There had to be. I sat down and stared at it. I was watching for any movement of anything that looked like a deer. I felt so sure there was one in there but I finally gave up and stood up. I took three steps to the right and looked at the brush again. Sure as ####, a whitetail doe bounded out of there then turned on the afterburners. It was fine as I have no whitetail tags. I continued further in and jumped two more whitetails, a 3 point and a doe. They took off to the next property and they were the last deer I saw today. I started the uphill death march back to the truck and when I got there I had to sit for quite awhile. I decided to call it a day but I admit, I wished I had brought my shotgun instead. There were geese by the thousands. The water was far too rough for any birds, but there were groups of geese, several hundred strong scattered through out the area. Snows and Canadas. No shot again, but still a great way to spend my Morning. Now I'm going for a nap.
