Deer Slayer

Someone had to bring home the bacon... er, deer this year! I had a land-owner tag in the Owyhee unit courtesy of our friends in Adrian and we (Chad and I) had high hopes because last year there were several big bucks in that area.

Opening morning, it was like rush-hour traffic in Nyssa - so many people were out and about in the wee hours of the morning. Chad and I got to the hunting spot just before someone else did - and since we were the only ones with permission, we sent them over to the landowner's house to work it out... always something to keep it interesting!

After stumbling through the dark and watching the sun come up, we didn't see any bucks. We saw several does and fawns, but no horns. We hunted/glassed most of the day and came up empty handed. We did hear a few shots and across the way, we saw a buck killed. Chad said it was "like the Outdoor Channel - but live" through the spotting scope. Haha!

I think my season was about two weeks long and we hunted after work during the week and spent all day out there the Sunday before the season ended and saw a decent four-point buck, but he was pretty far away and it was getting dark so I didn't feel comfortable taking the shot. At that point, we had only seen that buck and a forked horn. Where were all the deer?

In the corn! It rained quite a bit toward the end of my season and we went out after work the second-to-last day and after we hiked in from the pickup, Chad said, "Now, I am just going to glass for about 15-20 minutes so why don't we just sit down." I get a little impatient and bored at times when I am not in charge - surprise, surprise. So I tried to document the hunt a bit while I was waiting...I didn't get very far because all of a sudden Chad was freaking out. Seriously, having a panic attack brought on by excitement. You would think he was the one with the tag! After marking the spot of the deer (who was bedded down), we trekked a little closer, checked in to make sure he hadn't moved, repeat, repeat, etc.

Finally, we got close enough that the deer stood up because he realized something was up. Chad stuck the shovel (my shooting stick) in the ground and I started shooting. How many times did I shoot, you ask? Enough. I shot enough times.
While setting up for the photo shoot, a pickup we didn't recognize pulled in across the draw and a guy with a gun got out and started glassing - looking and walking around. Naturally, I thought he just wanted to look at my deer - I gave him the thumbs up, waved at him, you know, typical "I'm so excited, look what I just did" stuff.
Apparently, he didn't realize we were there - or that he was on private property, because he shot. It was then my turn to freak out. Thank goodness he missed the little buck he was shooting at because we started hooping and hollering to let him know we were there and he ran to the pickup and got out of there in a hurry!
Once we were ready to go, Jim came by with the ranger and we loaded him up, hung him up, and cleaned him up - well the boys did most of the cleaning... I would say Trina and I supervised and brought beverages. So where did this deer come from, because he wasn't there all season? He came from the corn (we found some in his stomach) - it must have been too wet in the corn fields after all the rain.

Big thanks to my guide, photographer, skinner, cleaner, and husband Chad for helping me kill yet another buck bigger than he's ever killed :) Also thank you to Jim & Trina for allowing us to hunt and for all your help and friendship during the season (and the rest of the year too)!