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[allwaysfishin]

well, i'm off for my LEH hunt in 3-30. going solo for a week... i can't wait... i love hunting deer on my own.
I generally park the truck, shoulder the mountain pack and rifle and sleep where i end up at the end of the day.
this should be a great hunt I'm itchin to hit the road.
after that i'll be heading north on a few private land deer control hunts and scouting for my elk draw, might not see me posting much for a while 
so with that, good luck to everyone with hunts planned... hope to see more pics posted in the hunting pic thread when i return.

I'm back with a good story 

[younggun]

i'm goin back to region 8 for my whitetail. to bad its sun down at 5:30 not to much time to hunt

[allwaysfishin]

So I left for 3-30 on friday night for my doe draw and intended to be gone for a week. The any buck season was done oct 31 so i was gunnin for a doe with hopes of spotting a legal 4pt buck as a bonus. This area north of loon lake gets pounded pretty hard, with lots of road hunters. I prefer to get into the thick, away from the roads.

so saturday morning i park the truck, shoulder my pack and rifle and off I go up the remnants of an old grown over logging spur. I'm seeing recent sign in the way of tracks, both moose and deer, but the ground is hard frozen so no way to tell how long they have been there. My pace is dead slow... 2 or 3 small slow steps and stop.... repeat.... an hour in i spot movement through the thick pines.... the antlers were stickin up pretty high but i coudn't count the tines due to the brush .... the wind swirls... busted.. all i see is a flash of body through the trees and that typical mulie bounce can be heard through the forest. I continue my way up the spur until noon, then have a snack and head back cutting through a large dried up lake turned meadow (dougherty)
I follow a fence line back around to the main road. Along the fence line i spot a large doe 50 yards in the thickest nastiest bush.... i have a shot, but it would be right between the eyes or nothin.... and i had maybe 1/2 hour legal shooting light and if it didn't drop right on the spot.... be a hell of a search .... I passed and continued back to the truck arriving 1/2 hour after dark.
more to come 

[allwaysfishin]

so, after spending an icy night sleepin in the truck.... I wake up at 6:00 a.m. and at first light , I put on my remeberance day poppy and sling my .303 enfield over my shoulder and I head back up the same grown over spur road and retrace my steps from saturday.... 100 yards up the road.... 3 does ... I quickly dispatch the trailing doe at about 40 yards with a solid boiler room shot. After getting the drag and the work done, and the doe securely hoisted up a tree in game bags.... I head for the meadow to sit and glass the tree lines, the weather was going south all day and around 2:00 it got down right frigid and the wind started blowing big time. It made hearing anything impossible and the winds were constantly swirling and changing direction.... not ideal conditions. At this point trees could be heard crashing in the forest 

At 3:30 ish p.m. I made my way up the same fenceline as the day before, pausing to have a 20 minute rest and just stood still, watching just in case any does were sneaking through the same area. Where there's does... there's gotta be a buck somewhere. With 45 minutes of shooting light, the wind was thrashing the forest... it was spooky... I turned to continue my slow pace up the fenceline. As I pivot , I nearly jump right outta my skin.... not 15 feet away.... looking just as surprised as i was... was one hell of a dandy buck, just standing there !!. I don't really remmember what happened next.... point blank range and my rifle was slung over my shoulder 
I was half way from slung to shouldered when this buck made his dash back the way he had come.... he made it maybe 30 feet and collapsed, dead as a doornail, quartering away lung shot, with part of the bullet fragmenting up to his spine. I don't even remember aiming.
I will post pics as soon as the throw away camera i brought get developed... estimated b&c score is 152

[allwaysfishin]

got tired of waiting to get my disposable camera developed... I'll post field photos in the hunting pic thread.... soon.
here's a couple from my yard.... with a little local wildlife in the background 
Imagine this beast lookin at ya from 15 feet away 

[Derp]

nice buck, congrats!

[younggun]

Nice, OW buck.  So i got skunked on the deer, but collected 3 coyotes and had a shot at a spiker but passed it up, had a nice thick and high 4 by 4 come out breifly into the clearing i was watching but said goodbye just as fast. he was about 300yards away, to far for the lever action 308. Oh well i got a muley and i'm thankful, i had lots of fun this year, and it seems like u did aswell Thomas, lucky guy.  I'm taking an ethical guess at 25" wide. Oh nice cat and is that weed i see growing to your left?    what are u up to Thomas

[Guppy]

nice looking buck

[hawg hunter]

Hey alwayfishin,' beauty Buck. Did you get this bad boy off of the mile 8 road? If so I used to hunt that area as well. If so, sounds like it may have been what we called the "honey hole," as there were always deer and moose there. Unfortunately never took a buck out of there of that size. I did find a really big shed there though. It was of very similar caliber.....Hmmmm....Congrats again!

[allwaysfishin]

there's an old spur.... at 5 mile......
I've seen this same buck (i'm sure of it) every year for the past 4 years, i think he owned a certain meadow in there. Never offered me a shot. I return to the place i saw him every year but have always, due to my work schedule in the past, have never made it there in the rut. I dedicated this entire fall to hunting..... so... i work here and there hehehe
It was pure luck that i got this guy.... it wasn't a spot and stalk..... it was just.... hey why hello there at 15 to 20 feet away and i got lucky 
His offspring will no doubt be cruisin around 

I know the place you mean off 8 mile. I've taken 2 spike bucks from in there and spooked up a big ol mature moose a couple years ago... too bad he wasn't a spiker

I've spent the past 8 or 9 years, backpacking the deer trails and old spurs off the dougherty main.... both in any buck season and in the summer.... you should see the maps i've made  . Have you ever met Ed with the camp on the west side of the Illahee meadow. He may not be hunting anymore.... he was an older guy back then. Shot my first buck there...... i've been hooked with the place ever since .

[2slow]

Nice buck   congrats

[hawg hunter]

Hey Alwaysfishin, too funny, you mention Ed. He is very good friends with the guys we used to go hunting with. His cabin at the meadow was very close to his original cabin that we used to use. It was just off of the meadow. He then built the one overlooking the newly logged off area. Well newly logged as in within the past 5-6 years. I personally hunted with old Ed a few times as we had limited vehicles. He has some pretty neat stories. The guys I used to hunt with, well my buddies dad and Ed have been friends for years; well before Ed moved to Clinton. Good on ya and cool to hear about someone else hunting the same area. Talk about a small world.

[allwaysfishin]

I would love to meet Ed again... have not seen him since that first hunt in there.... I owe him a bottle of scotch and a handshake  I did hear from a customer (back when i worked at berry's bait) who knew him and learned he had moved to clinton... lucky guy..... I just love that area and the terrain for deer hunting.... it's a very cool place.