[JTRED]

My mule deer drought is finally at an end. Four years of just not quite pulling the trigger, just can't quite make out if he's a 4-point, in the right spot just not quite the right time, won't step clear of the willows covering everything. Finally this past Saturday a really nice 5x3 stepped into my scope.

It was a perfect day to be up on a mountain overlooking Kootenay Lake, snowing but not hard enough to restrict visibility, steady breeze but not too strong and temperature hovering around 0 C. I was hunting a new area that I didn't have any expectations of. I left the truck just shortly before daybreak and hadn't walked 5min before I was running into does, I bumped 4 does off my friends lane way where I was parked. His new property backs onto crown land and just happens to have a cutblock across the mountainside behind his land. By crossing his property I am able to hunt the area without having to first drive through it.

I spent the next six hours slowly making my way up the ridge skirting the south side of the block watching numerous small groups of does feed and bed all across the hillside. One small buck(regs here require us to only shoot 4-point or bigger) and a small herd of elk round out my morning. Lots of activity to keep a guy interested.

Around 1:30pm I decided to make way north across the cut and slowly circle my way back to truck. Half an hour later I spot a doe, she quickly becomes two, followed shortly by a third. Number four appears and the fifth takes some finding. Six and seven appear out of nowhere and right behind them is the buck. It's steep uphill with little cover no way to shoot prone or even sit and besides it's just too far. So despite really wanting to shoot I could only watch them as they slowly fed across the mountain, not really getting farther away but not getting any closer either. So as soon as they disappeared into a hidden ravine I scrambled uphill as quickly as I could towards where I thought they might come out. I cut the distance by 150-200m and was scouring the area where I thought they should be when I just happened to glance up and to my right to see the whole group staring down at me from a very steep section of the mountain. How they got there so quickly I couldn't guess. The buck is sort of just milling through the herd while some feed and others take turns keeping an eye on me. They're approximately 180-200m away so I get set up on my shooting stick and follow the buck in my scope as he's making his rounds.

He just won't step clear, every time it looks like he'll be clear another doe moves in front or crosses behind him. This goes on for a while. Finally it looks like he's going up and will clear the does and be in a good spot for me, but no he wheels around and heads very steeply downhill almost straight for me. A lot went through my mind right about then 1)he's at a terrible angle for me to shoot 2) he's going to clear the does 3) he's going to disappear from view into the ravine and never be seen again in about 1/2 a second. I watched him stagger after I squeezed the trigger and then he was out of sight.

The does were not concerned at all as I made way up and across to where I watched him go out of sight. For those who have not hunted mule deer in the mountains before, 200m away is not 200m of walking. Steep loose shale, logs and debris from logging hinder every step. When I got up to him I had to finish him, I hate that part when I haven't done my job properly and my shot doesn't kill instantly. He ended up sliding and tumbling down hill for quite a ways, helped me out since that is exactly the direction he had to go. What a beautiful animal to end my four year curse with. A big bodied 5x3 with lots of character.

It took a bit of work to get him down the mountain and into my woodshed but it all worked out. It was a great hunt on a spectacular early winter day in the Kootenays. The rifle I was using is my 25-06rem shooting Federal Premium 115gr Nosler Partitions. I'll try again tomorrow to upload a couple of pics, stay tuned.