# 2014 Deer



## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

It has been a tradition of mine the last several years to capture each hunting experience in a "dairy style" write up. I do this primarily to capture those little details that could be useful in future years but also as a good way to relive my time afield during the slower times of the slower times of the year. This write up is no different than year past... it's long. So if you care to read my longwinded story, enjoy:

Cody arrived from the airport Tuesday afternoon and I picked him up from his Salt Lake office on my way home. We packed our gear quickly and hit the road to the cabin. We unloaded upon arrival and headed up to a good glassing vantage point until light was gone. We spotted the elk in the bowl with the ponds, and I spotted a second small herd in an area that had not held elk before to the north end of the property. We decided on a plan to hunt an area that I call "the Boobs" on opening morning then eventually take the ATVs all the way over to a bowl that holds several large ponds that evening. We timed the drive back to the cabin so that we could arrive at the gate right a shooting light.
We arrived at the Vista gate opening morning exactly as we had planned, right at legal shooting light. We parked the truck and headed for the Boobs. We jumped a small herd of deer with a small buck at the top of the bowl and passed on him. As we worked our way into position to glass the bowl we spotted a bunch of deer. We couldn't make out antlers on any of them&#8230; although with every deer Cody spotted he would say, "there's a buck!" Then I would take a look and never be able to put antlers on any of them. Over the course of three days, he was wrong a lot more often than he was right&#8230; but every time he would say it was a buck the old heart beat a little faster. Ultimately we worked all the way down to some rocky ledges on the west side of the Boobs and watched the opposite hillside for a little while. We saw lots of deer that morning, but nothing worth getting too excited over.
Wednesday afternoon we saddled up the ATVs and headed out at about lunchtime. We rode to the end of the road and hiked the remaining 1.4 miles to a small razor-backed ridge within the bowl that overlooks the one spring-fed pond that has water all year long. We figured since it was so warm that sitting water would be one of our best options. We bumped a couple does from the pond when we arrived, and spotted a smallish 4x4 buck at 200 yards up the hill shortly thereafter. He disappeared in short order and we never did catch another glimpse of him again. We sat in the sun initially, but that was brutal, and eventually found a spot of shade under one only pine tree on the south aspect of that ridge. We waited out the afternoon heat there. At about 3pm we heard a bull moose grunting up the hill and realized that he was getting closer. When we finally got eyes on him he was coming down the same trail that we had used and every time his left hoof hit the ground he grunted. He made his way over the ridge we were sitting on at about 20 yards and stood in a small wallow in the shade just 42.3 yards below us. After several a cow moose stood from her bed about 300 yards up the opposite hillside and he leisurely made his way up to her. Although they are magnificent creatures, moose (especially rutting bulls) tend to make me a bit nervous. In my history with them I have found them to be irritable and unpredictable when they are at ranges of less than 50 yards&#8230; so although I spent a good amount of time photographing him, I was never too far from the muzzleloader rifle. At about 5pm the hillside began to take life. Deer began to come out of the woodwork and we were watching small groups of deer that ended up totaling near 30 deer in that small area. A bull elk bugled from the pine trees to the west, and the moose seemed comfortable where they were as well. Out of the pine trees stepped a cow elk and I seized the moment to potentially fill my control tag. I thought that I could get a better shot as she would work closer to the pond but she turned back to the pines. We spotted her again directly to the north and I took a rest for the 150 yards shot. I pulled the shot to the right, trying to peek around the scope as I pulled the trigger in an effort to see if I had hit her, poor mechanics on my part for sure. Cody couldn't tell if I had hit her or not so we hiked over to where she was standing. As we made our way over there we gradually began to pick out more and more elk&#8230; it was a large herd of cows all feeding in that area and none of them seemed overly concerned with us at the time. In fact, at one point we were within 20 yards of a casually feeding cow and calf and several other elk within 40 yards. We passed on any additional shots because we didn't want to risk having two wounded or dead elk with only one tag. Once they realized what was going on though they were out of there very quickly and the speed and organization in which they were gone was impressive. We worked our way up out of the bowl and made the nearly mile and a half hike back to the ATVs. We got back to the cabin after dark, which was an interesting proposition once we found that the headlights didn't work on one of the ATVs.
Thursday morning we hiked into the bowl that had held my trail cameras all summer. We bumped another small herd of elk as we hiked to a cluster of rocks that is my preferred vantage point. I spotted a large group of deer at the very top of the bowl, but couldn't make out antlers on any of the deer. They fed on over the top and off the property. I picked out a couple other small groups of deer, one group had a couple of small bucks but they were quickly working their way up opposite hillside. We were seeing deer, but we were not seeing many of the nicer bucks that I had seen and photographed throughout the summer.
We had planned to take it a little bit easier on Thursday morning so that we would have plenty of energy to go back into the bowl with the ponds. We also decided to leave the cabin a little bit later in the afternoon so that we wouldn't have to sit through the heat of the day on a nearly barren hillside. We timed it so that we would arrive at our sitting spot under that lone pine tree at about 3:30 or 4pm. As soon as we got settled into position I spotted a bedded cow elk about 200 yards away. As I watched her I noticed the trees behind her moving and a nice 5x5 bull eventually stepped out. We then began to slowly pick out elk after elk. Ultimately the small herd in front of us contained 10 bulls (the 5x5 and nine smaller bulls&#8230; a 2x2 and 8 spikes) and more cows than we could keep track of. I'm sure there weren't that many, maybe a dozen or so) but with all movement on the hillside it was tough to keep them straight. The 5x5 spent much of the afternoon & evening chasing the smaller bulls around the hillside keeping them away from the cows. The amount of energy that this bull was expending to keep these young bulls away from his cows was unreal, he was in constant motion and when he was stationary for just a couple minutes he was bugling to let the young bulls know he was close and still the boss. Each elk eventually worked its way down to the pond we were sitting over and presented what would have been a seemingly slam dunk shot at 70 to 75 yards. I was prepared to take one of those slam dunk shots on a small yearling cow when we spotted a nice little 3pt buck at about 200 yards up the hill. He was working his way down to the water&#8230; we thought. But he would get to 180 yards then go back up the hill. He did this several times as the elk milled around us. He never did get any closer than 180 yards, and in hindsight I should have taken the shot at the cow. The wind started to swirl and play funny tricks on us as the sun began to set and one of those swirls gave us away & sent the herd of elk up the hill and into the quakies. What a phenomenal experience, and what a fantastic bull for an any bull unit. I have high hopes for the future of the area with the number of spikes in that small herd. Not too many years ago they would have laughed you off the mountain for hunting elk&#8230; they just weren't there. Now it seems that a good herd has taken root in the area and has begun to increase especially over the last 2 or 3 years. As a hunter that just enjoys the opportunity to get out and see a variety of animals while hunting this is very exciting. As we worked our way up out of the bowl and jumped on the ATVs to head back to the cabin Cody crossed paths with a small 2pt & took a couple seconds too long to decide if he wanted to take the shot or not. 
Friday morning we hiked back into the Boobs and again saw a bunch of deer. We were able to spot what Cody thought was a good 2pt, but no matter how much I tried I couldn't put antlers on it. We saw a spike elk make his way over the saddle directly in front of us. I had my calls so I bugled and chirped at him, he responded but didn't change his path. Friday at about lunchtime we decided to hike into the bowl with my trail cameras to pull them down off the mountain for the year and to see if anything would come in to water. There was nothing moving at all and Cody and I were struggling to stay awake. I decided to go get my trail cameras and head back to the cabin for the afternoon. I found one of the security boxes deformed. An archery hunter had broken into the box and deleted the pictures on September 10th&#8230; go figure, on private property no less, I don't get it. 
On Friday evening we decided to check out the bowl where we spotted the elk on the north end of the property. As soon as we parked the ATVs the clouds rolled in and as soon as we had worked down into the bowl the heavens opened up. It rained hard and was cold&#8230; a huge contrast compared to the previous two and half days of hunting. The rain finally broke and as soon as it did the animals were on the move. I spotted a coyote at 250 yards in the bottom of the bowl. I was really tempted to try and shoot it. Then another coyote crossed the clearing&#8230; and another. I lost sight of the small pack in the quakies but was shortly started by some bizarre roar, grunt combination that I had never heard before. I heard it several times and seriously considered getting the heck out of there. I then caught a glimpse of a black object in the trees moving around quickly. I thought it might be a bear&#8230; we had never seen one up there in 30 years. It ended up just being a bull moose, but he was letting that small pack of coyotes know that they were too close and he didn't appreciate their presence. Cody had worked into the next bowl to the north so I decided to head over there to see what he was up to. I came over the ridge just in time to see him stalking slowly through the bottom of the bowl and figured that he had seen something so I ghosted him from higheras he worked through it. Sure enough, he pushed out five deer & one was a decent little 2pt. I had a perfectly clear broadside shot at him at 180 yards, but I didn't know where Cody was at in the trees below them so I passed. We made our way back up to the ATVs and back to the cabin.
I had to be back early Saturday morning to coach my kids' soccer games (which ended up getting cancelled due to rain), so that's how it ended. I had a handful of opportunities at smaller bucks but decided to pass them up. I didn't see any of the bigger bucks that I watched throughout the summer, so that was a little discouraging. Even more discouraging was having one of my cameras vandalized (I'm on private property not public land), I've had them in the same spots for the last couple years so I think I'll be switching it up and finding some new spots next year & or maybe even abandoning them altogether since I had so much fun actually physically scouting and glassing this summer. There is high optimism for the elk herd up there for sure&#8230; I would have never imagined that there would be at least a dozen bulls in the area (even though most are small). Here's hoping the muzzleloader elk hunt is successful because Lady Luck has been a cruel mistress for me this year.
My grandpa stayed at the cabin and hunted through the beginning of the next week and my brother made it up for the evening on Tuesday and on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning they each filled their tags with a young 2 point. I was then notified of the two bucks hanging in the basement of the cabin and it was my responsibility to get the butchering done. So I headed up after work and quartered and boned both animals on Friday and brought them home in a pair of small cooler for the final cutting and processing.


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## 12many (Apr 14, 2008)

Great story thanks for sharing wow thats one big bull.


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## Sawbillslayer (Oct 24, 2013)

That is a gorgeous moose.


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## Nambaster (Nov 15, 2007)

I will glady take the GPS coordinates from that moose off your hands.


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