- Joined
- Jan 28, 2003
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- 13,331
Both my wife and my daughter drew late season doe tags this year. Kim, my wife was first up. On the second day of our hunt we located a small herd of 3 does and two bucks. We jumped the deer down in a steep canyon at first light and watched them as they bounded Off. I was able to watch were they settled about a mile distant in a nice brushy little draw.
We circled so the wind was right and went in for the stalk. We were able to remain in decent cover until we got to just under 400 yards. Kim dropped her bipod on her Steyr Scout in .308 and settled in for the shot. The doe she picked out was standing directly in front off a short rock wall.
At the shot I saw fur fly, I saw the bullet impact the wall behind the deer and I saw the deer stumble before she disappeared into the tree line below. We went over to collect her deer and found nothing but fur, not one single drop of blood. We circled for over an hour without finding any blood. Finally I was able to spot herd at a distance and in it were 3 does and 2 bucks. She had cut hair but the deer was uninjured.
We hiked back to the truck made lunch and went for a drive looking for more deer. We didn’t find any. I told Kim that the deer we’d stalked this morning were most likely in the general area of where we last saw them and we should go back and give them another try.
The sun was low on the western horizon when Kim spotted the herd, 3 does and 2 bucks one of which was very recognizable. We were now 258 yards and I noticed that one of the does had a sizable patch of hair missing from her side. Kim laid down on a pack and quickly shot, it was a clean miss!
She was visible shaken and excited, Kim was telling me she couldn’t get steady, I helped her get steady by propping a jacket under the forearm. She couldn’t use her bipod because it was to low for the terrain we were perched on. The deer had milled around after the shot and were now starting to single file up and over the ridge line. I had kept an eye on the doe with the patch of fur missing and called her out to Kim. “She’s the one on the bottom, standing next to that big Cholla Cactus she’s exactly at 300 yards, when she turns sideways shoot her.”
Just then she turned to look down the hill at us as mule deer often do. At the report she jumped up and flipped over backwards, tried to get up once and kicked her legs. It was a perfect heart shot.
You can see the patch of hair missing just being the shoulder line in the picture. All we could figure was she hit low on the first shot earlier in the day. The doe was standing on a rock pile, the bullet must have skipped off a rock and skinned the doe, then smacked into the rock wall behind her.
My oldest daughter was up next. The day we were driving down to the unit Tori mentioned that she'd had a dream the night before. And in that dream she had shot her deer at 11:00 AM. We had to wait several days before I was able to take Tori down to our hunting unit do to work. On the first morning of the hunt we were treated to the best Southern Colorado has to offer. Blue skies, sunshine and the mule deer rut was in full swing. We watched multiple big bucks chasing and sniffing and posturing, we saw two bobcats milling about looking for breakfast, multiple coyotes, we watched a herd of 6 cow elk doing their thing and the antelope were out in force, all within an hour of the sun coming up.
We tried to stalk a couple of mule deer does right at sun up but they gave us the slip. A little later we drove up on a large group of does with a massive buck attending them. We weren’t able to get a shot and wound up spooking them off.
We drove around looking for deer but didn’t find anymore. I gave tori the choice, of either heading up into some high country or going back to the area where we had last seen the big group as they’d probably not have gone to far. She decided that we should try and locate the deer we’d seen earlier.
Here is where things got a little weird. We departed the truck at about 10:15. We started off in the direction we’d last seen the herd. As we entered the tree line were the deer had gone we slowed down and started still hunting. I was just in the lead and spotted 3 does in the shadows about 100 yards away. By the time Tori spotted them they took off to our left. I thought that was it, we’d blown it but decided to try and catch them and maybe get a shot. I started off to our left and Tori stopped me. She said “I feel like our deer are to the right.” I mentioned that the does went left but quickly decided to follow Tori’s intuition.
We headed off to the right, and about 150 yards later broke out into a large valley. And out in the middle of that valley was the herd from earlier that morning. They were 703 yards away, but we had a good group of scattered trees and were able to sneak to within 400 yards of them before we ran out of cover.
The deer were just starting to disappear into the opposite tree line. Tori dropped her bipod and went prone. She was to low so she belly crawled up onto a small rise. “403” yards to the doe in between those two trees”. I heard the safety click off and Tori sent a 130 Gr ABLR from her 6.5 CM. The little Steyr is accurate and shooter is a competent one. I watched the deer collapse into the tall grass and then observed some hair floating up from where the deer had been standing.
I looked at my watch as Tori turned to me, I mentioned that the time was 10:43. Her dream had been 17 minutes fast........
She later told me that she couldn’t explain why but she had a strong feeling that our herd was to the right not to left where the other does had gone. I guess I’ll start listening to her more often!
We circled so the wind was right and went in for the stalk. We were able to remain in decent cover until we got to just under 400 yards. Kim dropped her bipod on her Steyr Scout in .308 and settled in for the shot. The doe she picked out was standing directly in front off a short rock wall.
At the shot I saw fur fly, I saw the bullet impact the wall behind the deer and I saw the deer stumble before she disappeared into the tree line below. We went over to collect her deer and found nothing but fur, not one single drop of blood. We circled for over an hour without finding any blood. Finally I was able to spot herd at a distance and in it were 3 does and 2 bucks. She had cut hair but the deer was uninjured.
We hiked back to the truck made lunch and went for a drive looking for more deer. We didn’t find any. I told Kim that the deer we’d stalked this morning were most likely in the general area of where we last saw them and we should go back and give them another try.
The sun was low on the western horizon when Kim spotted the herd, 3 does and 2 bucks one of which was very recognizable. We were now 258 yards and I noticed that one of the does had a sizable patch of hair missing from her side. Kim laid down on a pack and quickly shot, it was a clean miss!
She was visible shaken and excited, Kim was telling me she couldn’t get steady, I helped her get steady by propping a jacket under the forearm. She couldn’t use her bipod because it was to low for the terrain we were perched on. The deer had milled around after the shot and were now starting to single file up and over the ridge line. I had kept an eye on the doe with the patch of fur missing and called her out to Kim. “She’s the one on the bottom, standing next to that big Cholla Cactus she’s exactly at 300 yards, when she turns sideways shoot her.”
Just then she turned to look down the hill at us as mule deer often do. At the report she jumped up and flipped over backwards, tried to get up once and kicked her legs. It was a perfect heart shot.
You can see the patch of hair missing just being the shoulder line in the picture. All we could figure was she hit low on the first shot earlier in the day. The doe was standing on a rock pile, the bullet must have skipped off a rock and skinned the doe, then smacked into the rock wall behind her.
My oldest daughter was up next. The day we were driving down to the unit Tori mentioned that she'd had a dream the night before. And in that dream she had shot her deer at 11:00 AM. We had to wait several days before I was able to take Tori down to our hunting unit do to work. On the first morning of the hunt we were treated to the best Southern Colorado has to offer. Blue skies, sunshine and the mule deer rut was in full swing. We watched multiple big bucks chasing and sniffing and posturing, we saw two bobcats milling about looking for breakfast, multiple coyotes, we watched a herd of 6 cow elk doing their thing and the antelope were out in force, all within an hour of the sun coming up. We tried to stalk a couple of mule deer does right at sun up but they gave us the slip. A little later we drove up on a large group of does with a massive buck attending them. We weren’t able to get a shot and wound up spooking them off.
We drove around looking for deer but didn’t find anymore. I gave tori the choice, of either heading up into some high country or going back to the area where we had last seen the big group as they’d probably not have gone to far. She decided that we should try and locate the deer we’d seen earlier.
Here is where things got a little weird. We departed the truck at about 10:15. We started off in the direction we’d last seen the herd. As we entered the tree line were the deer had gone we slowed down and started still hunting. I was just in the lead and spotted 3 does in the shadows about 100 yards away. By the time Tori spotted them they took off to our left. I thought that was it, we’d blown it but decided to try and catch them and maybe get a shot. I started off to our left and Tori stopped me. She said “I feel like our deer are to the right.” I mentioned that the does went left but quickly decided to follow Tori’s intuition.
We headed off to the right, and about 150 yards later broke out into a large valley. And out in the middle of that valley was the herd from earlier that morning. They were 703 yards away, but we had a good group of scattered trees and were able to sneak to within 400 yards of them before we ran out of cover.
The deer were just starting to disappear into the opposite tree line. Tori dropped her bipod and went prone. She was to low so she belly crawled up onto a small rise. “403” yards to the doe in between those two trees”. I heard the safety click off and Tori sent a 130 Gr ABLR from her 6.5 CM. The little Steyr is accurate and shooter is a competent one. I watched the deer collapse into the tall grass and then observed some hair floating up from where the deer had been standing.
I looked at my watch as Tori turned to me, I mentioned that the time was 10:43. Her dream had been 17 minutes fast........
She later told me that she couldn’t explain why but she had a strong feeling that our herd was to the right not to left where the other does had gone. I guess I’ll start listening to her more often!
