Life is good. The season ended well and I'm a little bit up from last year. I shot a few rounds in the seventies and I'm working hard at getting Cutter to the point where he can retrieve ducks and so I don't have to strip down to my skivvies...(yes I did have to do that twice this year.) I've had a great beginning to the hunting season and I will definitely share some stories soon and all in all, the last few clients have been awesome. One such client helped produce an experience that makes me want to share.
I guide a group every year of a few ranchers and a pharmaceutical rep for them. I've gotten to know one of the ranchers well enough to gain access on his ranch for hunting. He's been very generous and I've shot quite a few deer and some birds out there. His name is Bruce Keaster. He's a great guy and funny as hell so the days on the water with him are pretty cool. (We guided his group on the 10th of October.) I talked to Bruce this year about bringing John La Rue's kids up there to hunt deer during the youth hunt and he was all for it.
I met John and his two eleven-year-old boys in Wolf Creek on the first day of the youth hunt at about 7am. We loaded up our gear and made the hour-and-a-half drive to Bruce's ranch. When we arrived we were greeted by a herd of about 20 antelope. We parked the truck and started seeing whitetail does immediately. John told Johny and Gage it was their choice to either shoot a does or a buck but they had doe tags for another area so it would make sense to wait for a buck. Gauge had made up his mind that he just wanted to shoot something so he was ok with shooting a doe.
The wind was blowing from our back so we decided to hike down the drainage we were in and then work the tops of the coulees back towards the truck. On our way down we saw a few more does and a few coyotes. We glassed a bunch of deer at the top of one of the coulees so things were looking good.
We hiked to the top of the ridge started working back up-wind. We spotted a couple does at the bottom of a coulee that were in-range but we decided to wait a bit before shooting one with the hopes of finding some bucks. The area we're hunting is wide open grassland with some brush in the bottoms and small groups of trees. We glassed the top of one of the coulees and spotted a couple good bucks about 600 yards away. There was nothing between us and them so getting close enough would be tough so we back down the hill and worked our way around them to get up hill and glassed again.
We found another couple bucks a little higher and figured we could get low enough in the coulee that they couldn't see us and then come up over the top to get a shot. Once on top we would have to belly-crawl for about 50 yards or so to get into position. I led the way and once I got as close as I thought we could get without spooking them I motioned back for one of the boys to crawl up to me. Johny was up first.
Johnny took a few shots with his 6mm that week and was feeling pretty confident. Gauge was a little afraid of his .243 so he was fine with Johnny going first. Johnny crawled up to me and got into position. I had the shooting sticks ready for him and pointed out a nice mule deer buck bedded down in a thicket. It was just under 200 yards so it was a little long. The boys had practiced at a hundred.
"Where should I shoot it?" Johnny asked.
"You see his head? Just below his head and just to the left." I whispered.
Johnny took aim and I plugged my ear. What was only about 30 seconds seemed like ten minutes and then Johnny squeezed and with a "CRACK!" he sent one flying. The deer tipped over and never moved. Gauge's turn....
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