Formerly “teen”bowhunter’s 2019 season

[teenbowhunter]

Afternoon 3:
We decided to start in about the same spot as the first night. I went up higher to look over the bedding area and the opposite hillside and my dad went 100 yards away to where he could shoot at one of the exit routes of the bedding area. Where he was sitting I shot my two biggest mule deer from.

As we got set up, we could see a huge storm on the opposite mesa. It blew left to right in front of us and thankfully did not head our way.

My view of the bedding area and storm:

After an hour of seeing nothing, my dad radioed and said he was going to still hunt down through the valley and then back up towards the ATV. Doing this is how we’ve killed two very nice deer out feeding.

I decided to hook up and around the hill to look over the cliff where we’d seen the huge bucks two days before. Where I was sitting it is difficult to see deer heading that way around the hill. I was watching another huge storm build up in the same area as the last. Lightning was pounding out of it every second.

I got over there and slowly edged towards the cliff scanning left and right to make sure I didn’t skylight myself. No deer. I worked around to a different angle to look into the bedding area again. No deer. The wind had been steady out of the north and switched to steady out of the east as I stood there. The storm took a sharp right turn and started heading straight across the valley towards us. This is a screenshot from a video, it was a mile wide wall of brown with lightning erupting constantly.

I turned and booked it back across the hill to get down into the valley and still hunt through the trees. As I got down into the valley, the wind started howling. You could feel the electricity building in the air. I decided it’d be smart to just still hunt in the direction of the ATV.

Within 100 yards the wind was absolutely ripping at my clothes. The feel of the air went from a serious storm approaching to “boy, you’re about to get your ass whooped.” I took off in a dead run back towards the ATV. I could see lightning flashing behind me brighter and brighter.

My dad is much more careful about these things than me, so I figured he’d be waiting for me. After a half mile run I got back to the ATV and he was nowhere to be seen. I got all my stuff ready to go and tried to figure out what to do. I was the tallest thing anywhere around me with lightning coming in quick. It was almost completely dark so I grabbed my flashlight and ran up to where I could see into the valley. Rain was starting to pelt down and lighting was all around me. My dad yelled from down below and I ran down to grab his pack and bow and take them back for him. He has a bad hip and moves very slow. As we hopped in to drive back to the house, rain switched to hail and the wind ripped it under the roof of the ATV. It felt like we were getting shot my airsoft guns for 15 minutes as I drove as fast as possible to get off the mesa.

We got back to the house completely drenched and covered in little red dots. Some of the hail was the size of quarters. Shitty night of hunting but very exciting [emoji23].

 

[teenbowhunter]

Morning 4:
The night before, my dad totally screwed up his knee trying to outrun the storm. When my alarm went off he told me to go out and hunt alone. Typically when I go out alone I am much more effective so I was okay with it, although having him along is more fun.

I drove up to glass over the main valley as I’d done the day before. For the first 20 minutes, I sat there listening to elk bugling constantly down beneath the rim rock. I never saw a deer, so I decided to go practice my bugling.

I hiked 1.5 miles down to where they were and started doing my best slutty cow calls and small bull bugles. I got one bull extremely pissed off and he came inside of 100 yards but the wind swirled and he started huffing at me. He had another bull a couple hundred yards uphill and what sounded like a herd bull down beneath them. I headed uphill to a cold bench that I figured they were headed to and started calling again. Over 30 minutes, I had 3 bulls bugling within 300 yards and was having a blast. The wind did a full 180 and they all went silent so I headed back up to the mesa to ride home.

I was passing my glassing point and decided to glass the clump of bushes that I’d jumped a deer out of the first morning. I immediately saw this view and about lost my shit.

I planned my route up and around the hill to try and come from the top on him. This would mean I would have to walk 1.5 miles around the huge bedding area to avoid busting deer into him. The concern was that He would likely move by the time I got there. As you can see in the picture, he was quickly losing his shade and was likely to get up and move soon.

I got halfway down my side of the valley and pulled out my binoculars again. The deer was not there and I started scanning. I eventually saw his tine tips move around behind the bush. For a few minutes he fed around the bush and then settled in behind it. I decided to change my approach to from the bottom. In the bottom left clump I knew there were two heavily used beds so I figured he probably had some buddies with him. I figured if I stayed 10-15 yards outside of the bushes in my socks I could stay quiet enough to not spook other deer.

As I was almost to the bottom of the hill I got a burst of signal and pictures from my buddy buzzed through my phone. He’d found my bull.

I had to stand there for a bit and try to regroup and push out the bad thoughts. I couldn’t help but wish I hadn’t looked at my phone until after the stalk. My confidence and focus were a bit shaken.

I got down to the bottom of the swale and glassed up to make sure no deer could see me. I couldn’t see any eyes or ears, so I got ready for the stalk. I took my boots, backpack and binos off and emptied my pockets. I found four small rocks to throw and get him to stand up. I put one in each pocket to keep them silent. I tucked my pant legs into my socks to minimize brushing against the tall grass.

I worked my way slowly up and to the left to try and get above him. He was in the very top right corner of the bushes.

I edged my way closer and closer around the bottom of the bushes. I got about a third of the way up the left edge and stopped to think for a second and range everything. I took one more step and two bucks exploded out of the bushes 10 yards to my right. I kneeled down and turned around immediately, range finder in hand. The huge buck ran up and skylighted himself on the ridge. I clicked the rangefinder, nothing. I clicked it again, and again, and again, and again. After ten tries it said 69 yards. I realized it probably hit the grass so ranged his antlers three times until it worked and said 73 yards. I dialed my sight and drew back, settling on his heart. Just as I felt the trigger start to go, I saw my pin move from his heart to the back of his guts as he jumped into a trot. By the time the arrow got there it was completely behind him. The bucks ran off over the hill and I heard a scream that sounded half mountain lion, half deer, half calf. I still have not figured out what it was. I walked up to make sure I’d missed and found no blood or arrow. The arrow had probably gone a few hundred yards with him skylighted on the hill as he was.

Had my rangefinder worked the first time, I would have had a giant dead buck in my hands. He never saw me, and was only somewhat alert. Neither him nor the other bucks ever pinpointed my location because I’d ducked behind the bushes so quick. They didn’t see me draw or shoot either. My rangefinder has been incredibly unreliable the last two weeks, I believe it is time for a new one.

 

[Sgt Fury]

Man I really enjoy reading this! Did you ask if your friend could tell where the arrow hit the elk at?

 

[teenbowhunter]

Man I really enjoy reading this! Did you ask if your friend could tell where the arrow hit the elk at?

No, I’m gonna have to go hike in and tag it this week and do some deer hunting so I will see. I know I got lungs, I think I just didn’t do enough damage with the small 100 grain kudu broadhead.

 

[giles]

Even with all the bad luck you’ve had, it’s really hard to read this thread and not smile.

 

[Redhunter1012]

I appreciate you doing this for us. I get more enjoyment from reading this than anything on TV. Reminds me of Thunderflight's semi live caribou hunts he took us on years ago

 

[teenbowhunter]

I appreciate you doing this for us. I get more enjoyment from reading this than anything on TV. Reminds me of Thunderflight's semi live caribou hunts he took us on years ago

It’s fun trying to remember everything, glad you enjoy it!

 

[switchhitter]

It really is great to follow along
Awesome hunts
The elk looks like a monster
Keep it up good things are bound to happen


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Jackalope]

Too bad on the muley but man that elk is a slammer. Real close if not over the 350 you thought it was IMO. Great Royals and the whale tails are nice! I think i would have done drove up and tagged that sucker. How far did he say he went?

 

[MoonLab]

Good story. Nice elk.

 

[teenbowhunter]

Afternoon 4:

My Dad had to head down to town with my uncle. He had my first archery deer from four years ago and two other deer from three years ago and still hasn’t done the shoulder mounts. I’m extremely pissed off about it but he now knows shit will hit the fan if he doesn’t finish them by December. They showed up to his house with some words to say...

This is the buck from four years ago.

I wanted to head to a spot I like on the northern edge of the meadow but after shooting at the giant buck I felt like I had to go back and set up above the same bedding area that it looked like he fled into. I sat looking over it for an hour and once again saw no deer stand up. This is very odd, we have always had deer bed in here every day. I couldn’t decide if the deer were getting smarter or it was just random.

Once again, I circled back around the hill to look over the cliff and check if the bucks were slipping out the backside again. There were no deer to be seen anywhere. At this point I had 45 minutes of light left so I decided to jog back and still hunt through the meadows in the bottom of the valley.

Just as I was about to enter the trees, I saw a deer way up high on the opposite hillside. I pulled out my binos and saw that it was a doe. I stopped to watch because the bucks had been with does more this year than in the past. After about 30 seconds two bucks walked out behind her. Neither of them was too big. Then I saw a huge 4x4 rack appear out of the trees behind them.

They were all moving quickly out towards wide open ground where I wouldn’t be able to shoot. There was one tall clump of bushes about 20 yards wide in front of them that I thought I could get a shot from. I took off running into the valley to try and get up the other side before shooting light ran out. I got to the bottom of the opposite hill, took my shoes, pack and binos off and started sneaking up to the bush.

I got to the bush slowly edged further and further around the right side of it trying to find the deer. I glanced down to my right and saw that the deer had quickly covered a few hundred yards up the valley and were looking back at me. I didn’t have binos to look, so I just slowly dropped down out of their few and ran towards them with bushes between.

I got right up to where I’d be 100 yards away and slowly peeked over. The deer were there, but they were bushes. This is why you buy a bino harness so you can actually take binoculars with you on stalks...

I slowly edged up the hill towards a cluster of rocks to peak up into the wide open grassland. I saw the deer out in the grass feeding. I could barely see them through my rangefinder but got a range of 103 yards. I can shoot baseball sized groups at 100 yards but I’m not going to take that shot at any time of day, especially last light. It was wide open between me and them, so I sat and watched for a few minutes because it looked like they were feeding my way.

It got too dark so I turned around to go and get my pack and shoes. As I turned I realized that it was actually still pretty light, I just couldn’t see them well because I was looking straight into the sunset. I still only had a few minutes to make a move so I strapped on my boots and ran a semicircle around them doing 3-5 loud steps at a time like a deer. I deer stepped up to the nearest clump of bushes to them and cow elk called a few times.

As I peeked over the bushes, they were all at 40 yards facing me. I bobbed my head side to side like a deer as I grabbed my binos to make sure I knew which buck was which in the low light.

(I’ve killed multiple deer by “deer stepping” towards them and bobbing my head side to side while ranging)

As I pulled up the binos their heads perked up even more. I located the biggest buck second from right and put down the binos. Before I even got them down the deer scattered in every direction.

I then realized they’d just watched the loudest, funkiest shaped elk they’d ever seen appear from behind the bushes. Then they saw two glowing orbs appear in front of it and then drop back down after a few seconds. They probably thought they were about to get probed by an alien.

I headed back to the ATV after that and drove back to the cabin. Sometimes you’ve gotta try some stupid shit [emoji23]

 

[teenbowhunter]

Too bad on the muley but man that elk is a slammer. Real close if not over the 350 you thought it was IMO. Great Royals and the whale tails are nice! I think i would have done drove up and tagged that sucker. How far did he say he went?

Looks like he went about three quarters of a mile. I’m going to head up there later this week to grab him and deer hunt. My buddy guesses 350+ but I don’t know much about scoring. His backs are friggin gorgeous.

Where he is laying dead is extremely close to where I grid searched so I either walked right by him or he lived quite a bit longer and died from infection. I’ll have to see when I get down there.

 

[OhioWhiteTails]

Great update and congrats on the elk, he's a brute! Should smell pretty good by now...LOL

 

[teenbowhunter]

I already typed this up but it got deleted so here goes...

Morning 5:

Probably the craziest 5 hours of deer hunting I’ve had.

I went up to glass over the main valley from my normal spot and my dad headed over to glass the north meadow.

...my first hour...

I got up to the point, sat down and looked to my left. For the first time all trip, deer were on my side of the valley. I could see three bucks and a doe working away from me at 200 yards.

I slid down into the trees towards the bottom of the valley to pursue.

They were heading out into the open again so I circled around to come out 80 yards from where they’d been. I came out and saw them 200 yards away entering the next group of trees.

I did another circle and cane to the bottom of their group of trees. Peeking around to see, there were no deer. I edged my way through the trees until I reached the end. Looking out over the open mesa I could just see the doe walking into the trees off the north side of the mesa, 400 yards away. I don’t know if they saw me or were already headed that way.

I sat there and contemplated heading to the north meadow to join my dad since I was so close. However, coyotes started howling back behind me so I walked back up to glass. They were surrounding the knob where the huge buck had run to the day before. I began to question if I might have actually hit him. Glassing closely, I could see a big light brown lump with what looked like a black bear head above it in the grass below the knob. All of the coyotes seemed to be facing this. I decided to hike up above the knob to try and get a look.

Getting above it, I couldn’t see anything. The coyotes winded me and ran off, so I walked out on top of the knob. It has thick 8 foot tall scrub oaks on the top and 2-4 foot scrub oak and locust all around the side so I couldn’t see without walking around it. I hiked around the left side, busting through brush and singing to scare the bear away. I got around and saw nothing. No deer, no bear. I looked through the clumps of bushes in the meadow and eventually discovered two perfect rocks that looked just like a bear head above a dead deer.

Confused, I looped to the other side of the knob and started wandering through the thick, nasty brush checking to make sure there was no deer. As I neared the top of the knob on the backside, I saw a flash of brown fur 10 yards above me. A young mountain lion was running away. He had been sitting less than five yards from where I’d walked up to the knob and there was no way I could have seen him. I don’t know if he was stalking me or just hiding.

I continued to grid the area and saw not smelled any sign of a dead deer. I think the coyotes were just messing with the lion. As I searched, I got a text from my dad that he’d found a big group of 10 bucks, including the one I’d shot at the day before, and was moving in for a stalk. The text was from 30 minutes before so I decided to hustle over to the north meadow and try and set up in an escape route.

 

[OhioWhiteTails]

And then.....

 

[giles]

And then.....

He got drunk and kissed his cousin. Worst part about the story is that his cousins name is Frank. He’ll probably turn it into some cool sounding story about a hunt, but that’s the cliff notes.

 

[teenbowhunter]

Had a ton typed up and then erased it so I’ve gotta wait til I have some more spare time to type it up again.

My buddy found the buck that was next to the one that I shot at in Oregon. His right side was hidden from me, if I’d seen that I think I might’ve tried a little harder to not shoot the small buck [emoji23]. Buddy put a stalk on him but never saw him once he got there.

 

[teenbowhunter]

...dad’s first hour...

Crossing the open mesa to get to the north meadow you are very exposed.

He followed the fence line up then cut across open ground to get above the meadow. There is a 100 yard wide, 300 yard long swale you dip down into before coming up above the north meadow. As he dipped into the swale, four huge bucks came trotting his way from the right. One stopped and stared at him so he turned and walked directly away from them, sat on a rock, and watched.

Six more smaller bucks and five does followed behind and they all slowly worked their way out of the swale into the north meadow. This is when he texted me what he’d seen and headed in for the stalk.

Over the next two hours, he snuck in close. At one point he laid behind a bush for 30 minutes as the big bucks moved in close. He started to crawl to the next clump of bushes where he would be in range. As he got halfway there, four moo cows walked around the bush, saw him and stampeded off, pushing the deer well out of range. He continued to stalk and shadow their movements.

By the time I reached the north meadow, I could see all of the bucks standing in a huge clump near the only large tree on the northern edge of the meadow. Behind what you can see in this picture is a few hundred foot sheet cliff. I’ve always dreamed of having a stalk work out to where I could sneak along that cliff edge.

I hooked left to where the deer have a trail that can take them down and around the cliff. I have seen the deer do this before as an escape route if they are pushed from the right.

 

[teenbowhunter]

I started to set up in a 30 yard wide meadow that the deer follow down to under the cliff. After a minute, I saw a small buck up on the hill above me and decided that the big bucks might be in the thick bedding just on the other side of the meadow. I decided to take my boots off and push through slowly to either get a shot or push them out towards my dad.

I got about 20 yards into them before I realized it was way too thick for me to get through. I worked back out to the meadow and circled around to sneak up the hill. Just then I saw my dad up above me on the hill headed down towards the thick bedding. I figured the deer must have headed into there so I rushed back to my set up offer the escape route.

I sat there for 30 minutes and didn’t see anything. I slowly edged back up to the front of the meadow to maybe locate the deer or my dad.

My dad saw me from up above and waved my up. I started walking up but as I got close he motioned for me to crawl. I got up to where he was and he told me he had a nice buck at 80 yards.

I glassed the buck and all you could see was antlers sticking up above the scrub oak. I ranged the antlers and kept getting 90 yards. I realized this was probably the trees behind the antlers so I started to range the bushes in front of him. Just then I saw another deer standing to the left with a giant body. I ranged him at 103 and watched to see if it was a good buck or not. His rack poked out and it was this deer from the first day.

We were below the blue arrow and they were at the red.

I started to knock an arrow and get myself ready to crawl up through the bushes to where I would have a 60-70 yard shot. As I cleaned my glasses and put them on my face, a cow burst through the trees next to the deer and they all stood up. There were three other huge bucks right behind the buck laying down. I ranged them, and ranged them, and ranged them... and my range finder wouldn’t work. My body went into panic and my legs started shaking. This damn rangefinder induced buck fever because I couldn’t get it to work. All of the bucks walked behind a big dead lightning struck tree where I could range them but could not shoot. They were all inside 80 yards, broadside. They all slowly turned away and walked around the edge of the trees along the cliff edge.

 

[Wildlife]

MAN,,,

I truly appreciate everything you've shared thus far and with all the excellent documentation that you're doing, that's truly commendable to say the least.

Just so you know, I'm really looking forward that very moment when you connect, successfully retrieving a nice fresh kill and you get to place your hands it.

I'm comping at the bit here...

Just remember, you're no 'Mickey Spillane'.

"You're a killer"

Just messing with you...

Keep at it MAN and best of luck to you, I'm really rooting for you!!!