Hey fellas, thanks all. Ya, i glassed him on the edge of a draw and field edge along the Bow river breaks here in the south country. It was late afternoon and he had stood up from his bed and looked to be moving to another area with better shade, due to the sun changing direction on him, it was a warm early season day. I watched him and a doe he was with make the move through the spotting scope. He ended up working his way a short ways into the hay field, and bedded in a tall stand of koshia {spelling?} weeds adjacent to a small old stack of rounds. Once i put him to bed with the glasses, and watched where the doe bedded, i started to work my way in on them. The doe bedded in the worst possible spot, exactly on the down wind side of the buck, and approx 20 yards away from him. Anyways, it took me about 2 hours to get into approx 60 yards of where they were bedded. The dry koshia weed was hell to make ground in. They couldnt see me from the angle i was advancing from, so from there it was real tough to know what to do. I had made my stalk from a full value cross wind direction, so once in tight, I decided to come in from the down wind side, just to open up my field of view a hair into the weeds, so i began a small angle towards the doe. I was on my hands and knees and managed to close up about 20 yards in about 1/2 hour. The doe heard a small dry weed break that my knee put pressure on and stood up. She didnt know what was up but knew something wasnt right. She bounced a couple times down wind, turned back to look for her pal. I was covered by about 10 inches of weed and crouching as low as possible. He stood up and did about three bounces toward her. While he was on the move broadside moving to my left, i drew back holding my bow horrizontal and as flat as i could possibly be. I hit him with a quick bleet with my mouth and came up to my knees all in one motion. He stopped broadside and looked right at me. I shipped it as soon as the 40 and 50 bracketed and settled. I hit him higher than i wanted but he was down within 50 yards at a flat run. It was a great spot and stalk situation, that i got lucky on. Had the doe not been there, and things working out the way they did, i would have had to wait him out until he stood up closer to dark. I think anyone could have pulled it off though, it just would have taken time. Ive since got rammy and rushed things like how i did with this buck, and have learned afew pretty tough to swallow lessons. Ive blown it on more than one hoooog mule deer, but its been fun!!! This open country can be pretty tough going, so youve got to learn to take the good with the bad. Very few of these stalks work out. For every solid week of glassing hard, you can expect one or two honest stalk opportunities that have a chance of working in your favor. Thats where all the other little things come into play and work against you. Alot of these deer dont bed in a spot that allows a stalk or move where they are susceptible to ambush. It can take time to get the right set up on a deer before you can make your move. Its a tough game, but lotsa fun. Between field/ambushes and stalking, stalks are my favorite, but setting up on fields early in the season can be your best bet. Anyways, bla bla bla, pretty dry and bland, and all done with two fingers peckin away..... But, thats how i got that one. Good luck in the draws.......
keep a strain on er.
|