Saturday November 14th morning was perfect, 2-3 inches of fresh snow, no wind and the tail end of the rut!
I arrived at my hunting spot at 5:30am, it was totally dark, no moon and overcast. I proceeded to get all my hunting gear together for a long morning hunt. The hunting conditions were perfect! I slowly walked down to the end of a logging road, jumped over a small stream and started hiking up a very steep hillside on public land. From the moment I left the vehicle I was crossing fresh deer tracks. The trees and vegetation were loaded with fresh powdery snow and every step I took or branch I touched, down came a landslide of powdery snow. I had lens cap covers on the 3x9 Bushnell scope and my Remington Model 700 BDL .30-06 rifle slung over my shoulder. Patiently I maneuvered myself uphill in the dark, taking my time to side step big branches laden full of snow.
Just at first light I was about 65 yards from the top of the hill where an old logging road cut along the face which lead to a clear-cut basin. Overlooking this basin is where I was planning on sitting for the first hour of my hunt. I was just starting to break out of the timber when I crossed a fresh buck track. Kneeling down to study the track for a moment, I knew in an instant it was really fresh, slowly scanning ahead of me, following the track uphill it skirted to the right side of a large spruce tree.
The spruce looked like a perfect snow flocked Christmas tree, loaded with snow and its branches hanging all the way to the ground, it truly was a beautiful sight…. I slowly took 2 or 3 more quit steps and stood motionless for a few moments…….. Total silence was broken by a series of grunts, I couldn’t pinpoint the exact location at first but my heart started to pound….. Slowly my eyes caught movement to the left as a buck appeared stepping out from behind the spruce tree.
Until this morning I had never heard in the wild a buck grunt-wheeze before, the sound vibrated through the earlier morning silence and that’s when I started to shake, not more than 12 yards uphill from me standing broadside was a beautiful buck….. A huge adrenalin rush was going through my body and then reality set in….. My rifle was still slung over my right shoulder and I have my lens covers on my scope, fortunately the lens are clear but I had no way of knowing if they were free of snow!!
Much to my surprise the buck started to posture, he laid his ears back, slowly dipped his head and took two stiff legged steps almost like he was waddling. When his head went down below the vegetation covered in snow, I slowly eased the rifle off my shoulder, thumbed the safety as I raised the rifle butt to my shoulder wondering if I was going to be able to see through the lens covers. To my surprise when I looked through the scope I saw crystal clear crosshairs in the middle of a big brown deer chest, right behind his shoulder the cross-hairs rested and I slowly squeezed the trigger. The silence was broken and he disappeared into the timber to my left. I stood there amazed at just what happened, straining to listen to his crashing through the ringing in my ears from the muzzle blast. The crashing stopped and I felt confident the bullet found its mark.
To my amazement I eased up the hill to where he was just standing a mere 12 yards away, I could see his bed and the two steps he took when he postured towards me, then on top of the snow a red spray of blood testified that my aim was true. I decided to give him a few minutes and enjoy the morning giving thanks in silent prayer to Heavenly Father. Sometimes you get Lucky, but I also believe in Blessings! And I was truly blessed this morning!
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