Deer Season 2006 Opening Weekend

First posted August 14, 2006 Last updated August 19, 2009

Here are some pictures to illustrate the opening weekend. Hunter's individual reports are below the pictures.

Here is Bill cooking the famous barbeque and the gang around the table enjoying it.

Craig brought a great cake with a message to the hunters. He is holding a knife, but it was for cutting the cake, not our throats for bad jokes.

Eric Larsen and Glenn around the dinner table.

Guy Howard, just after a successful shot, and his "guide", who could not put the forks on the horns!

Here is a view of Ronnie's Swale. The two deer were seen at first light, about 6:05, traversing from left to right above the enclosure. Guy was the first to put horns on them, about at the right side of the enclosure. He was also the first to put forks on them, but then they passed into the trees at the right. He again picked them up at the upper X. He took one shot and missed, but they only ran about 5 feet. Then, at 6:10, he took a second shot, and it dropped. We could hear it slide and crash to the second X. It slid quite a ways.

Here is the slide path down to the deer, and we found it right at the bottom of the slide path (you can see it on the left photo also).

Here is the victorious hunter, about the field quarter the game. The heart shows why it dropped so fast: double lung shot plus heart. The .270 at 274 yards completely removed the top half of the heart: no valves, no aorta, no pulmonary artery, etc. No pressure.

Above left: a view back to Prune Ridge Hook. The lower arrow is the poison oak bush that we used to key onto the location of the deer. On the right, a blowup of the Hook, and you can see the tree in the center where we usually sit (with ants, if you look closely enough) <g> Guy took a prone position just to the right of the tree.

The hike out. Only slightly steep. <g>

Guy with the horns and Bill enjoying the banter around the campfire.

 

Ted's Story: The Coyote

Saturday a.m.: Up the Van Horn...2 does far side of Holmes' bowl, heard some shooting by the hook, snooped around Bobcat, nothing.

Saturday afternoon: Up the road, 2 does and a fawn spooked from hillside above the road before Bobcat. Snooped around Bobcat, a doe and spike (still in velvet) got up from their beds on the ridge above the rock. Nothing the rest of the way up. Turned towards the gate once on top...just before breaking from the trees and into the hot sun, to my left I noticed a doe under a tree...no wait: wrong color, too small...a coyote! Quietly down on one knee, I confirmed the quarry with binoculars and discovered there was a 1.5" branch lengthwise across the middle of the broadside body. I decided to wait for a better shot. The yote looked up in my direction (busted?) then off to my right and finally went back to worrying something on the ground. Although I have had poor luck with brush, I decided to try the shot, ignoring both the limb which was invisible without magnification and my thoughts of leaving it for Bill's later calling. My heart was pounding (odd) and hold was shakey (not odd) but kept focus on the front sight and concentrated on follow through. Bang! The coyote's back bent backwards as it smashed to the ground...nary a subsequent wiggle. I walked down and across the small draw, walking to the far side for a look at the eyes. It was occasionally opening its mouth as if trying to breath and I put another rapidly moving hollow point through the base of its head (medulla something I believe). My first shot had struck the spine just above the shoulder. I thought I saw a graze mark on the branch but need further forensic work to determine what really transpired with the shot. 

Saturday A.M.= Hummingbird w/Bill. Saw nothing.
Saturday P.M. = Prune Ridge Hook solo. Saw nothing.
Sunday A.M. = Prune Ridge Hook solo. Saw nothing. Well, except for a squirrel down by where Guy's deer ended up.

Bill's Story

Not much happened after you all left, though the quiet was palpable (and welcome).
I hauled Craig over to the range so that his skill could determine if the 140 Accubond was accurate enough for David to use in WY. His first three shots at 100 yards showed this result:

As you can see, it is.

Then we lopped diggers around Minnich's Roost.

On my way into South Flat that evening, I spooked a coyote.  Monday morning I returned to South Flat, and after a brief hunt sat to call.  The coyote came in, late, but I had to shift to bring my rifle around, and he noticed that movement with disapproval.  After he got out of sight I hustled over to the north point of Hummingbird and soon saw him top out on the hay bench of Matteoni.  At my shot, dust flew and so did he.  We now have one very scrawny but educated coyote running around.

After breakfast we went below Prune Ridge Swale with the loppers and chainsaw, and finished by clearing all of the pines out of the Swale itself.  Our total for the weekend was more than 700.

This was Craig's first time with a chainsaw.  He learned a few things.

I didn't hunt hard, saw one small fork high on Holmes'.

Thanks, all, for the enjoyable weekend.  Congrats, Guy.

David's Story

Guy and I met the guys at Nelson's cauz we could not make it to Nelson's. (No, Guy did not meet himself, and we didn't meet at our place. This is confusing.) Greetings were said, introductions made (first time I met Glenn, real nice guy, fits in perfectly). Bill led the group in and Guy and I drove sweep. I let them drive down past our gate and waited a bit, to see if they would scare anything up. While we waited, I asked Guy to get out his gun and put some stuff in the magazine, just in case. We drove down to the cabin, looking with bated breath. Bad thing: we did not see anything. As we were getting out of the car, Bill said: "Dave, you know the season starts tomorrow, right?'' Opps, we forgot. Good thing: we did not see anything. We started up a fire and fought for who got to sleep next to me, to be closer to the snoring. Everyone moved away after I picked a bed. Are they trying to tell me something? Went over to the shooting bench, several of us sighted in. Bill had loaded up some FailSafes for me, tried a few. Group was not tight but no first flier. Did some from a sitting position, too, but the gang thought I was taking too long. But heck, the paper needs some concentration, and I was going for a group, not a lethal shot. I also hit the gong at 100 yards each time, shooting more rapidly. They were satisfied.

Usual food for dinner: steaks, chicken, and hot dogs. I ran the barbeque fire while Craig made his usual killer salad, heated some garlic bread, some wine and coffee. I served the guys their meat. We stuffed ourselves. To bed, with anticipation.

Next am, up at 5 am, usual rounds of "Where you goin'?" "I dunno, where you goin'?" At the next round, I volunteered to take Guy to Prune Ridge Hook, to watch Ronnie's Swale. We loaded up our gear (new rangefinder, spotting scope, etc) and took off. On the Hook at 10 of 6:00, but too dark to see much. About 6:00, two figures move across the Swale above the enclosure, left to right. Deer, not sure if they have headgear. Guy picked them right up and put horns on them. By the time they were in the right half of the Swale, I could see horns, but not forks. As they reached the trees to the right, near Bill's Tree, Guy put forks on both of them, so I said to lay out and go. We had discussed where was the best place to go prone, and Guy went into gear. Within moments of deciding they were legal, they were gone into the trees. No chance for a shot.

I suggested that they might appear in any opening to the right, but unlikely. I had not ever picked one up in a clearing after crossing at that level and hitting the trees. It is getting lighter. Guy sat up, and I suggested that if he saw them again, the chance for a shot would be very short, and suggested he stay in prone position. About 6:10 Guy picked them up at the highest clearing on the Arroyo side. I could still not put forks on them, but Guy could, so I said, if you are sure, pick one and go.

He fired a shot and both bucks jumped, one about 5 feet and one 10 feet, but then paused. "What was that, anyway?" "Did you hear something?" "Yeah, I heard something." They stood there. I coached Guy to take it easy, don't rush, calm down, just squeeze off a shot. A pause, a bang, and down the buck dropped. Never took another step. I could not see him once he went down, but we could hear a Crash! Bang! Then a moment, then Crash! Bang! and then again Crash! Bang! I never picked it up, but the buck was obviously down and sliding down to the Arroyo!

The other buck just stood there, looking around for his buddy. He did not move for a minute or two, then took a few steps and paused. He finally left about 5 minutes later, slowly moving but not feeding, and disappeared over the crest of the ridge, into the grass and trees.

Guy and I waited for a while, took some rangefinder readings. I also tried to find landmarks for the shot and the suspected slide path. There was one nice poison oak bunch, two green and one red, that was clear. We then ambled back to the cabin. We got two frame packs, saw, water, bags, bug spray, etc, and got in the jeep and drove over. Went down through the blue oaks at the top and then along the north margin of the Swale, past Bill's Tree, then picked up a trail that traversed the hillside. Found the poison oak landmark, and 30 feet beyond was the slide path. At the end of the slide path, the buck. Still in velvet, which provided a kind of protective coloration and made the ID harder. But Guy was able to pick it up, and so harvested his second buck of his lifetime, both at the Ranch, and both at Ronnie's Swale. Congrats, Guy.

It was a double lung shot, plus tore the top off the heart. Probably why he dropped so hard. We field quartered him, including the tenderloins (I had one Sunday night for dinner; these are too good to pass up. I have not harvested them to date, but will not miss them again.) We each did one half. I did mine in 40 min, a big improvement over my 4 hour times previously. We packed it out starting at 11:00.

Where were the guys who called me "Friend!" when I served them their dinner the night before? Lazing at the cabin, eating breakfast! Whoa! No help. When Guy and I were only a few dozen feet from the top, Craig, Glenn, and Eric showed up. Better never than late! We gave them hell, they offered us beers, and we were friends again.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Guy's Story

Revived by a cup of Bill's coffee, I was hustled by David out of camp, having realized we would soon be late to our station. Grabbed rifles and binocs and hurried to the gate, where we chambered a round.   I was in the habit of loading only 3 rounds, and David suggested I load 5, and I discovered that the 5th round in the magazine would not chamber.  I fumbled around a while, figuring my rifle had suddenly fallen apart, miraculously got a round chambered, then hurried off to our station.

At David's suggestion I sat down in front of the tree at Prune Ridge Hook at 6:05. I took a few laser ranges at 270yds +/-, set scope to 10x and adjusted parallax for 250 yds.  Tried to get comfortable with holding the rifle on target, then discovered a few large red ants on my arm.  Had sat in an ants' nest!  Retreated behind old downed branch behind the tree and set up a rifle rest with my jacket on top of the log, shooting prone. Started to pick up my binocs when David whispered 'deer!'  (David always sees the deer before I do.) Found the 2 deer traversing Ronnie's Swale left to right. David said he couldn't find horns, then I saw forked horns on both deer, and knew they were legal.  (I use Swarovski binocs, David has a pair of Leicas.)  Again at David's urging, went prone on the scope, found the deer I'd tracked for a few seconds on binocs, but they disappeared behind trees.

The light was very low, and scoping was difficult, so I started to get up to use the binoculars to find the deer again, but David got me back down with the rifle immediately.  In a minute or so the deer reappeared in the clearing down and to the right, I aimed and fired.  The deer moved a few feet, then stopped and looked around.  Clearly I'd missed, though I remembered the stories the night before about elk who wouldn't die.  David instructed me to calm down (how did he know?), which I did, thankful for the advice, took another bead, and eeaasy squeezed the trigger. I knew the shot was good when I heard the deer sliding - it shot down the slope through a clearing, then disappeared.  At first we were concerned the 2nd deer had been injured by my first shot, since it was standing around wondering what had happened, but it wandered off after a few minutes, uninjured.

David and I took ranges on some landmarks to help locate the deer, then hiked back to camp.  Found 2 frame packs, got some water in a jug, packed the game bags, then started to head out of camp.  Stopped at the gate when I realized we had no bug spray, returned, found the bug spray, then started out again, when David realized the 'jeep' would be a great tool.  Drove to the top of Ronnie's Swale, then hiked down to the carcass, which was not down as far as we had thought.  Our landmarks and David's estimate of the location of the slide were exactly right, and we walked right to the deer.

The quartering went very smoothly, and I learned a lot.  David is a great teacher, and I really appreciated his confidence in me in letting me do half of the quartering.  The hike back up was a physical challenge for me, as I'm in terrible shape, but well worth it.  A good sore, as Eric puts it.   My wife has relented and is going to let me bring the venison home! Thank all of you for a wonderful weekend, especially to Bill and David.  Guy

This is coffeeberry, collected on Grasshopper Flat.

The seedhead of Clematis, collected from South Flat.

Dr. Orup's Story

Sat eve saw no deer on Matteoni and at dusk Glen and I saw a buck on the Van Horn trail at 295 yds (per Glens rangefinder).  We
watched and the buck watched us and we couldn't put a fork on either horn, which were about 2X the height of the ears.  Nice buck and probably legal.

Sun AM I had a nice nature walk up the road and around the parking lot without seeing deer.  Did find Paul and we returned to the cabin together.

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