As those who know me know, I love to hunt. This year I drew out for a Northeastern Utah general rifle tag. I've been looking forward to opening day all year. As the day got closer, I realized that we were going to be doing inventory at work the second weekend of the hunt. That meant that I could only hunt on opening day.
The night before the hunt opened was spent cleaning out Jared's truck and getting all my supplies ready. Amy and Lily were joining me so I had to get food and all the other goodies to make it comfortable for the entire day.
I set my alarm for 4:30 AM. The plan was to get out of town by 5:45AM. I got out of bed and went to get Lily up and before I even got to her room she was crying because the lights were on. "No! It's not morning yet!" she wailed. After putting her in our bed with the tv on for a bit she was good to go. We fed her a yogurt and got things loaded in the truck. The plan was Amy and I would get something to eat at McDonald's. I had made the assumption that they would be open by 5, so we'd be good to go. Wrong. They opened at 6. We were a bit behind schedule but all was good.
We made our way up to Mosby mountain. Growing up the times I did get to go hunting with my dad, this was the place to go. We got the truck parked just as light was coming. Unfortunately somebody was parked right next to where I wanted to be. Oh well, I was hunting.
The morning was full of deer. Unfortunately they were all does. Had we gone to the next canyon over, we could have seen something. It sounded like a military firing range at times. Shots rang out all morning. Either there were many people getting deer, or many people making their yearly lead deposits in the ground. We finally got bored not seeing any bucks and the deer had stopped moving so we went for a drive. We drove up the Paradise Park road and took a left somewhere between the Ice Cave Peak road and Paradise Park Reservior. We went down that road through many mud holes and puddles. We did see an ungulate. But it was just a cow elk. The road became narrow and the sides of the canyon became steep so we turned the truck around and made our way to the reservior.
When we made it to the lake it was time for a potty break since there were outhouses for Amy and Lily to use. After driving across the dam we got back to the main road and headed up towards Cliff Lake. Along the way we saw a grouse. .270s are not good grouse guns. Mostly because grouse have tiny heads, and it's illegal. We drove a ways farther and decided to turn around. No more ungulates were seen or heard from the rest of the day on this mountain.
We (meaning I) decided to take the long road around instead of the main road back to where we had started the day. We went to the Mosby sinks. when we got to the first clearing we decided it was time to make sandwhiches and eat some lunch. After filling our bellies it was time to put the truck in 4 wheel drive and make the trek through the trees and mud. The sinks loop road has always been a fun drive to me. Mud, water, rocks and trees always make for fun wheeling. Right towards the end of the loop we encountered another vehicle. Thankfully it was right as they were entering the trees and we were exiting. They backed up and let us on our way.
We went back to where we had started the morning and I made a call to my sister to see if her husband had seen/gotten anything. No luck for him either. Amy and I were tired so we called it a day and headed home. I was going to drive to Mt. Home to go with Kevin for the evening hunt.
After getting home and taking a short nap I was on the road again. This time by my self. Amy wanted to stay home and do things while I went out. I got to "the ranch" as it is known and sat around a camp fire with Tyra and Kevin and their kids. We then decided to take a spin on the 4-wheelers to see if anything was in the ranch. Nothing but a few cows.
It was finally late enough to head back up the mountain to see what we could see. We made the short drive to Pigeon Water Spring and marked the spot where we parked the bronco II with the GPS's we had. As we had driven up we saw a few deer hanging in the trees of a couple camps, so we at least knew that some deer had existed on this mountain.
We headed north across the hills and walked into a couple groups of does and fawns. They were unconcerned that we were even there. That was a good sign. As we hiked on, we thought we weren't all that far from the truck. We got to a clear spot in the trees that opened up to near the top of the hill. Deer! At this point we were over 300 yards away from them.
One deer in the group had decided to show itself soon after we spotted the group. It was above and to the right of the rest of the group. I put my scope to 9 power and watched it carefully. When it turned it's head just right I could see antlers! Kevin wanted to see if he could sneak up closer. He had his .30-30 which we all know is not a good long distance gun. I had my .270. Plenty of gun for this far of a shot.
I carefully took off my bag and left it where we first spotted the deer. Kevin made his way up the hill to the right side of the clearing we were in. I worked my way up the left. I knew I couldn't get a steady enough shot from the center of the clearing so I decided to use a tree as a rest. I have hunted deer for 16 years and it was time I got a buck. I wanted to do everything I could to make a good shot. I moved to the left to a quakie that was about 3 inches in diameter. It would do just right as a rest to steady my rifle. Then came a problem. The buck had made his way left also. That caused a patch of quakies about 150 yards in front of me to be in the way.
Kevin was about 60 yards uphill from me and about the same to the right. I thought he may take the shot but he still wasn't close enough for the .30-30 to make a good shot. Then the deer made it's last mistake. It turned around and headed to the right. I made a silent but determined b-line for the tree I wanted as a rest. Slowly the buck walked to the right. With buck fever raging and adrenaline pumping I made a concious effort to control my breathing. The buck was in my cross hairs. I took one last breath, exhaled, and pulled the trigger.
BOOM!
He was down! I hit him! It was a 250-300+ yard shot. I watched him as I ran back down the hill to my bag. Time for the work to begin. He was still kicking some and using his front legs to try to get up. Oh no! Did I hit him in the back and only break his back? He rolled down the hill three times. We quickly worked our way up to him. We were within 100 yards and he got up on all fours. I took a quick shot and got him right in the neck. He was done for. We made our way above and behind him just in case he had any steam left in him. He was down. In all the excitement I forgot that I had a CAMERA in my bag. I didn't get any pictures with my first buck! I am still sad about this.
The Work:
Kevin ran up the hill to see if any more deer were still around, and to see if we were near a trail of some sort. That left me alone to attempt to clean the deer. I haven't cleaned a deer for years. 6 plus years. And the last one I cleaned was a doe. I hadn't seen a buck cleaned in well over 10 years. I did my best hack job and Kevin got back to see that I hadn't done much. Finally it got to the point where I just had to deal with how good we had done and get that buck off the mountain.
We tied his legs to a log and hoisted him up onto our shoulders. I was leading the way with the back end of the deer, and Kevin was following. We made it a ways and realized we needed to get more lights. Kevin had a tac light and I had nothing. We made phone calls to see if any of my brothers could come help. No way no how. Kevin and I were on our own. We made a b-line best we could back to the bronco with the intent to go back to the ranch and get some dinner and lights. Then we decided to mark the best spot to park when we returned. We drove past a camp and into the trees. According to the GPS we were about .63 miles from the deer and only 300ft higher. This was where we wanted to be.
It was late, and getting later. We asked the people in the camp if they would loan us a flashlight and they obliged. After following the directions on the GPS we made it back to the deer. We would hoist it up on our shoulders and walk as far as we could. Man I used to be in much better shape.
After hours of hiking and resting from the pain, we finally made it back to the bronco. It was midnight or so. We returned the flashlight with a small tip for thanks and to replace the batteries we used to the kind hunters from SLC. I saw the time on his watch. 12:20AM. I was beat.
After the rough ride down the mountain and the quick trip to the ranch, we loaded the deer into the pickup and had a quick bite to eat. I made the drive home just doing my best to stay awake.
I called Clark when I got to the Ioka turn off. That would give him time to get dressed and ready to help me skin the deer and hang it in his tree. He complained at how poorly I had cleaned the deer. The bladder and other attached organs were still in him. I reminded him of the last time I had cleaned a deer. After getting done there and getting home to clean up and shower I was finally in bed at 4:00AM. My left shoulder felt raw from carrying the deer. But even though I was beat, I was happy.
I finally was successful in getting a buck. He is an 18 inch wide 3 by 4 with eye gaurds. I'm still elated just thinking about it. If I remember I'll take a picture of the head with the camera and post a pic.
