I started leave on Saturday for the remainder of deer season and all of elk season. Spent Saturday taking care of some housework and spent time with the wife before I packed up my camping and hunting gear to head out Sunday morning. It was a miserable day to head up into the mountains to set up camp (tent and basic gear). Rain was coming from every direction... "Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night" Forest Gump. Any how I was thinking to my self the whole way up this is going to be the worst hunting trip Ive been on. Then ten minutes after turning off the paved road onto a old logging road the rain turned to snow at approximately 4700ft. My depressed attitude twords this trip instantly changed for I knew this first snow would start moving the deer. Needing to stretch my legs, I stopped along one of the old loading areas that the logging trucks would wait for the loads, it is located near a creek that I used to take my dog to play before she passed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a large bodied deer just standing perfectly broadside to me not alarmed but just watching me and feeding. I did not see antlers so I went back to the jeep to get the binos as I was just going to watch "her" feed and have a snack myself. Thinking to myself "that is a large healthy looking doe" I raised my binos to my suprise it was a spike with a small fork on one side. I made the desicion that he would be the one, walked back to the jeep grabed the rifle and headed back to a point where I would have a clear shot. He was only maybe 125yds away I raised the rifle took a breath and sqeezed the trigger. The buck acted as if he had been hit by lightning jumping almost his body height into the air and it was over. No tracking requiered he had expiered before he hit the ground. I was as happy as could be even though this was the smallest buck I've ever harvested. I had meat to take home, did'nt have to set up camp in the snow and this all taking place in a spot that I used to spend time with my dog. The load was a 117 grain Hornady Interlock with a near max load of IMR4350 tweaked for accuracy in my rifle. Now I can spend the next week at home finishing painting the living room and getting ready for elk hunting.
