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Finally hit pay dirt

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Finally hit pay dirt

Postby 7mmfan » 06 11, 2021 •  [Post 1]

This year has been a Debbie downer for my group in the tag dept. Our group got shattered to pieces with Idaho's new non res tag system. A few are going, but none of them get to hunt together. We didn't draw MT, didn't draw WY. I was beginning to think that I was going to be relinquished to hunting spike elk and spike blacktail in WA. My last hope for a quality hunt came through though in the most unlikely of places. The Washington State special permit drawing. I drew one of the most coveted Mule Deer tags in the state. Unit 218 Chewuch, my stomping grounds in the Methow Valley. Hunt dates Nov 1-20. 15 tag holds in the unit. I'm am extremely excited for this hunt. I know the unit well, understand the migration patterns, and have some past experience in this time frame while joining others on their hunts. No elk hunting excitement for the year, but I'm banking on hanging my tag on a big old stinky Mule Deer buck!
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 06 11, 2021 •  [Post 2]

Yah, I knew something was stinky when you wouldn't buy the first round in the Hunt WA loser's lounge. Congrats mister, anxious to follow your hunt as it unfolds this November 8-). Here, I've selected one for you.

Rory's Mule Deer, November 2021.jpg
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby 7mmfan » 06 11, 2021 •  [Post 3]

WapitiTalk1 wrote:Yah, I knew something was stinky when you wouldn't buy the first round in the Hunt WA loser's lounge. Congrats mister, anxious to follow your hunt as it unfolds this November 8-). Here, I've selected one for you.

Rory's Mule Deer, November 2021.jpg


That's a nice one. Not a first day shooter though! I like the extra's though.
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby wawhitey » 06 11, 2021 •  [Post 4]

Awesome, a friend drew a quality tag in a neighboring unit last year and got a very nice muley. Edit, just looked, not quite neighboring, but close enough. Alta.

I only put in for moose on this go round, so i guess i dont have to clarify whether or not i drew. Im putting all my fall hunting eggs in the montana wolf basket. Just today picked up my new grizz defense gun to take with me.
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby Swede » 06 11, 2021 •  [Post 5]

Congratulations on the quality tag. You should do well with those assigned dates to hunt. I hunted very little on that side of the river when I lived near Twin Lakes. At that time it was open to everyone and was only so-so.
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 06 11, 2021 •  [Post 6]

wawhitey wrote:Awesome, a friend drew a quality tag in a neighboring unit last year and got a very nice muley. Edit, just looked, not quite neighboring, but close enough. Alta.

I only put in for moose on this go round, so i guess i dont have to clarify whether or not i drew. Im putting all my fall hunting eggs in the montana wolf basket. Just today picked up my new grizz defense gun to take with me.


Sidetrack a bit. What kind of hand cannon did you get?
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby wawhitey » 06 11, 2021 •  [Post 7]

.44 mag. S&w model 629, 4" barrel
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 06 11, 2021 •  [Post 8]

wawhitey wrote:.44 mag. S&w model 629, 4" barrel


Damn nice piece mister.
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby GoGriz1234 » 06 13, 2021 •  [Post 9]

wawhitey wrote:.44 mag. S&w model 629, 4" barrel


Sweet gun!
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby wawhitey » 06 13, 2021 •  [Post 10]

WapitiTalk1 wrote:
wawhitey wrote:.44 mag. S&w model 629, 4" barrel


Damn nice piece mister.



Just shot it today. Tamer than expected. Glad i didnt get the 329 titanium / scandium featherweight 44.
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby Trumkin the Dwarf » 06 24, 2021 •  [Post 11]

wawhitey wrote:
WapitiTalk1 wrote:
wawhitey wrote:.44 mag. S&w model 629, 4" barrel


Damn nice piece mister.



Just shot it today. Tamer than expected. Glad i didnt get the 329 titanium / scandium featherweight 44.


If you have big enough hands, the S&W 500 grip is way nicer. Covers up the steel backstrap and lets you control that baby nicely. You can get them aftermarket and do a swap real easily.
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby wawhitey » 06 24, 2021 •  [Post 12]

I actually have a set of the x frame grips in my closet from my .460 because i put wood grips on it, but this .44 has the full rubber gripscovering the back strap.
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby Trumkin the Dwarf » 06 25, 2021 •  [Post 13]

Sounds like you're on it then! I really started to enjoy shooting the .44 more once I put the bigger grips on there.

Oh, and congrats on the mule deer tag 7mm! Sorry to hijack this thread!
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby Lefty » 07 02, 2021 •  [Post 14]

So far none of us drew any Idaho tags :x
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby 7mmfan » 07 20, 2021 •  [Post 15]

Well, pay dirt is quickly turning to debt ash. Half the unit is up in flames this morning.

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7675/
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby wawhitey » 07 20, 2021 •  [Post 16]

7mmfan wrote:Well, pay dirt is quickly turning to debt ash. Half the unit is up in flames this morning.

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7675/



Well then, half of the unit wont have deer, so the other half should have lots. Kinda narrows it down for ya. :?
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby 7mmfan » 07 20, 2021 •  [Post 17]

wawhitey wrote:
7mmfan wrote:Well, pay dirt is quickly turning to debt ash. Half the unit is up in flames this morning.

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7675/



Well then, half of the unit wont have deer, so the other half should have lots. Kinda narrows it down for ya. :?


As long as that half doesn't burn too!
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby 7mmfan » 11 09, 2021 •  [Post 18]

Got over for my first hunt on the permit this last weekend. Saturday was bust with snow and fog all day, and a couple of does and small bucks seen. Sunday was much better. The weather cleared and the bucks were moving. In fact, the only deer we saw all day were bucks. Never laid eyes on a doe. Saw 6 bucks, three 2-pts, a huge framed 3x3, a nice 4x3, and a very nice 4x4 with eye guards. Ear width, mass, but short forks. He was in the process of violating a small tree when we walked up on him. He ran off with half the tree still hanging in his horns.

They got pounded with snow the last 48 hours over there. So hopefully the migration with get started. I am returning on Thursday afternoon and hunting through the rest of the season, which runs to the 20th. Man I couldn't be more excited! Dad and I sharing a wall tent in the November snow in Mule Deer country. I'll report back next week boys!
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby Tigger » 11 09, 2021 •  [Post 19]

Best of luck and take pictures that you can share of the total hunt experience!
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby 7mmfan » 11 19, 2021 •  [Post 20]

Well I'm back. What a hunt. It was one that my Dad and I will remember for a long time. I left on Thursday afternoon to head to camp. Of course North Cascades Highway, the most direct route for me to camp, closed the day before due to heavy snow and avalanche danger. It is a seasonal highway that closes every year, I just hoped it would stay open long enough for me to get to camp. I had to drive from my home in Marysville south over Hwy 2 and then back up north to Winthrop. Not the end of the world, but definitely adds time and miles to the trip. I met up with a gentleman named Rick and his brother on my way through the valley. They were kind enough to share some of their long tenured history in the area and locations that they thought would be worth spending some time in (and they were very right!). It was a real pleasure spending time looking through their photo albums and drinking their beer. They literally laid out a map and put x's on it for locations that they have had the best hunting in back when you could hunt the migration during the general season. I owe them big time.

Because of the forest fires this summer/fall, many of the auxiliary roads off the mains were closed. Much of the area was scorched, but within those zones was lots of unburned ground. It was clear from the general season that enforcement was lax, and an unofficial word from a officer was that they just didn’t want people driving in. So we planned on walking. And walk we did, a lot of it.

Moving on, I pulled into camp at about 7:30 and it was raining/snowing. A few times it really rained throughout the night. However, up where we were hunting, it was snowing. When we left the truck Friday morning, there was about 2” of fresh snow on the ground and it was cold. It was also foggy here and there, which would be a theme for the day. The first spot we stopped we spotted deer up in the head of a gully about 600 yards from us. Then the fog rolled in. I figured there were more deer than we could see so we made a loop on the road that would put us on a landing a couple hundred yards from where they were. When we got there, there were no deer to be found. We dropped into the timber and bumped a couple out, but the bulk had moved on. We found their tracks and followed them into an old burned canyon full of 10’ tall pine trees. Knowing we would never see them in there, we pulled out and carried on checking the rest of the area.

Around 2:00 we were passing the point we had initially seen the deer from that morning, and I pulled up my binos to take a look. My eyes immediately landed on a pine sapling being jerked this way and that in a violent manner. There was no wind, so it was obvious what was going on. I set up the spotter and a few minutes later a NICE 4 point stepped into the open. He was definitely worth getting a closer look at. At this point, the fog rolled in, so we used it as cover to move up the canyon on an old spur and got setup where we thought we would be 200 yards away or so. When the fog cleared I found all the does, but couldn’t find the buck. After about 10 minutes or so, the closest doe, approximately 100 yards away, must have got a faint whiff of us, as she threw her nose up, snorted and starting walking off up the draw. Well big boy was laying the trees just out of sight from us, and he stood up to follow her. I got a great look at him. Not quite ear width, equally tall, big fronts, weak backs, good mass. Man he was beautiful with a super dark chocolate coat and dark antlers. My Dad was quietly wringing his hands behind me when I told him I wasn’t going to shoot him. It was day one, and I had a lot more deer to see.

Over the next few days, we had ups and downs. The weather went from cold, to super snowy, to super warm and windy, and back to cold. We were seeing an average of 5-8 bucks a day with 1 or 2 of them each day being nice bucks. I was having a lot of fun looking at deer and Dad was finally coming around to the idea of looking at lots of bucks while trying to find “the one”. We got to experience watching big bucks chase does, and the pecking order of little bucks hanging close. It was really a unique experience that I wish we all got to do with a gun in our hands more often here.

Tuesday morning woke cold and relatively still. We had had nasty weather the day and night before, so I thought the deer would be out in force that morning so we started early and walked about 4 miles into a canyon we had been seeing the most deer in. We eased around the corner right at first light and immediately spotted a doe. Then another, and another, then suddenly the hillside was alive with deer. There were 15+ does and 4 bucks on the hillside. The smaller bucks were doing a fair amount of running, but the obvious big buck on the hill was tending a couple does and not leaving their sides. With the naked eye, he was significantly bigger bodied than any of the other deer on the hillside. He stood out like a sore thumb. My Dad got him in the binos first and said, “Rory, I think you should take a close look at this one. He is a DANG nice buck.” We set up the spotter and I located him. He was walking away up a steep hillside and his width and mass were obvious. The 4” kicker off his right side was also obvious. I was getting excited. He then turned and I saw his enormous fronts. His backs were weak comparatively but I knew immediately that I would be a fool to not shoot this deer.

The problem was, he was 500 yards away across the canyon, and between him and I was 500 yards of 8” deep super crusty frozen snow. This was legitimately as close as I was getting. I had practiced at this distance, but said I would never shoot at an animal at that distance. But here I was with the largest buck I’d ever had the opportunity to shoot at. The conditions were good, no wind, and I had a great spot to set up. So I dialed the scope up, dry fired several times, and got comfortable with it and then told Dad to get on the spotter, I was sending one. He was standing tall and proud on the rock outcropping, exactly 500 yards away, broadside. When the trigger broke, my site picture was of crosshairs exactly where they were supposed to be. BOOM! Dad says, “Nothing. He’s just standing there.” The deer was clearly not hit, and Dad hadn’t been able to see where the bullet went. Without that bit of information, I opted to not continue shooting. I just wasn’t going to keep throwing bullets across the canyon without any input on where they were going.

Luckily the deer were un-phased. A few jumped and scurried around, but within a few seconds everyone was back to feeding like nothing had happened. I decided at that point to do a long stalk and hope to catch them at the ridge top. ¾ mile later, I eased out on the ridgeline just in time to see them go over into the reprod a couple hundred yards below me. I tried to gain a vantage but it was useless. I opted to just back out and wait/hope for them to come back out that afternoon. At 1:45, we rounded the corner back into the basin and there they were, high on the ridge, just feeding away. Big boy was still tending his does, and the other bucks were losing their minds. I immediately started a long stalk. The wind wasn’t right for me to gain the ridge this time, so I was going to have to shoot from the bottom. I found the closest I could get and still see him was 370 yards. I made myself a little shooters nest, and got my gun on my pack and got comfortable, then proceeded to wait. For nearly 40 minutes. He was laying in his bed near the does and all I could see was his head and horns. I could see the big three point laying about 10 yards away as well. I really enjoyed just laying there looking at him. I wished I’d had a big lensed camera to take some photos as he was majestic up there on top of the ridge sky lined.

Finally, I noticed the big 3 pt that was bedded nearby stand up and stretch. I figured things might escalate so I got on the gun and got ready. Sure enough, the 3 pt came up and sniffed at big boys doe, and he did NOT like that. His ears laid back and I could see his hackles raise. He jumped out of his bed and hooked at the buck. The doe scampered down the ridge just a few yards and he came down just enough for me to feel good about shooting. I lined up, took a deep breath and squeeeeeezzzzeeedddd that trigger. BOOM! All I saw was legs in the air and a little movement behind a screen of brush. Buck down! I marked my shooting location, grabbed my stuff and headed that direction. Not 2 minutes after the shot, I was on the spur road immediately below him and the big 3 pt came down with a new 4 point in tow, chasing the doe that had previously belonged to big boy. They wasted no time. They also gave zero you know what’s that I was there, and just stood there looking at me. What an experience.

I climbed up the ridge and as I neared, I heard a weird knocking sound. As I cleared the last pile of rocks, there was my buck piled up against a rock outcropping and a burned log, very much alive. He was floundering around trying to get his feet but could not. I quickly dispatched him with a shot to the neck, now with my elation deflated knowing he’d been laying up there with a broken back for 10 minutes. I felt terrible. However, it get’s weird. Upon closer inspection, the only visible wound was a crease across his back about 2” long. There was no blood, heck the bullet hadn’t even hit meat. When quartering him there was some bruising however, so the only thing I can think of is that the shock of the bullet grazing him was enough to bruise his spinal cord and incapacitate him for a while. His back was not broken. I honestly think that given a little time, he’d have gotten his feet under him again and been back to chasing does.

I honestly feel a little sheepish that my shooting was not better. I haven’t had time to verify my guns zero but I suspect that somehow the scope is high because that shot at 370 was a no brainer. It’s a shot I’m very comfortable making. I’ll have to get out and shoot soon to verify so I can make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Either way, I spent the next few minutes with the buck, just quietly honoring him and his life. He was a magnificent animal and I wish his death had been a little cleaner. The view from where he died was absolutely stunning, and one that I’ll remember. At that point I drug him down to the road just as Dad came up the hill to us. He’d been lucky enough to watch it all unfold in the spotter from several hundred yards away. He told me that in the last couple hundred yards coming up to me, he had nearly been run over twice by bucks chasing does! He was loving it! We had a game cart in the truck, which was 4 miles away, but Dad offered to all night it and walk out to get the cart, and then hoof it back in so we didn’t have to pack that huge SOB out on our backs. I built a fire and got him field dressed. I knew it was cold but didn’t realize how cold until I went to dump my water into his cavity for a rinse, and it was all frozen! I then got to enjoy about 45 minutes next to my fire, while the buck aired out and drank some coffee from my thermos and ate a snack while the moon rose up from the east.

Finally I saw Dad’s head lamp come bobbing around the corner a mile or so away. I met him half way and drug the cart the rest of the way to give him a breather. It was a late night getting back to camp and getting that buck hung. We enjoyed some chili and celebratory pull of scotch next to a roaring campfire. Man, what a hunt. It was one we’ll not soon forget.
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby 7mmfan » 11 19, 2021 •  [Post 21]

From the kicker to the other wide, puts him a little over 30" outside spread. I guess I have joined the 30" club! Even more exclusive is the 30" Washington buck club. I'm not sure I'll be allowed to hang out here much anymore. I'll be too busy drinking scotch and smoking fancy cigars with my fellow club members. ;)
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby Tigger » 11 19, 2021 •  [Post 22]

Awesome hunt, awesome experience, awesome time with Dad, awesome writeup! Super Congrats!

Well you are still welcome here if you want hang out with the likes of us. Just be easy on the vortical, okay?
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby 7mmfan » 11 19, 2021 •  [Post 23]

I've never been a fan of exclusive clubs anyway. If rather sit around the campfire with down to earth folks and relive past hunts.
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby longbowelk » 11 19, 2021 •  [Post 24]

Congrats on a beautiful buck and also joining such a fancy club. Do you have to show up to the club meetings with a smoking jacket and slippers on? :D
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby 7mmfan » 11 19, 2021 •  [Post 25]

That's what I'm told. I've also learned that just shooting a 30" deer isn't enough, they charge steep dues annually. They also require new guys to clean the jet and mow the lawn... wait this still sounds like WapitiTalk, minus the dues.
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby 7mmfan » 11 26, 2021 •  [Post 26]

So I cut and packaged all edible meat before my family left for Hawaii. This was by far the largest deer I've ever killed. Cut and packaged edible meat came in at 100.5#! What a brute!
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby Trumkin the Dwarf » 12 22, 2021 •  [Post 27]

Wowza! What a tank man! Congrats! Sorry I missed this earlier.
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Re: Finally hit pay dirt

Postby 7mmfan » 12 23, 2021 •  [Post 28]

Trumkin the Dwarf wrote:Wowza! What a tank man! Congrats! Sorry I missed this earlier.


Thanks TTD, I appreciate it. Should be getting the euro back from the taxidermist today or tomorrow.
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