I hunted my home state of Oregon for deer this year. I was with my dad, brother (Clay), and my brother's 17 year old boy (Ryan). We hunted the Buelah unit just outside of Prairie City. It was our first time hunting this country.
I carried my Browning model 71 the first two days, then switched to my Weatherby in .30-06 when we hunted an open area where the shots could range up to "too far." Beautiful country.
We saw quite a few does and some small bucks the first two days. It became obvious that we were on a meat hunt, so we decided to quit passing on small forkies or spikes. Good thing, because after my brother got this buck the deer became very scarce.
My brother, his boy and I were hunting a large knob. My nephew and I were watching about a dozen does and fawns around 300 yards out, trying to put horns on one of them. They were below us on the scree slope of the rimrock. They never knew we were there. I thought my brother was watching them, too, but a small group of deer walked up the ravine right behind us. He thought we were watching the same deer that he was. Imagine my surprise, then, when he shot. A 3x2 brought up the rear of the herd and my brother shot him at about 125 yards. The neat part was having his boy there.
The next day we hunted a thicker area. We figured that the deer would be pushed into thick cover, and we were right. While we were making our way to start the hunt at first light we noticed that the wind was wrong. We wanted to hunt downhill, but the wind was at our backs. We decided to wait a while for the air to warm, hoping to pull the air uphill. As we stood waiting in the chill of first light I noticed that I could see the sky uphill from us. Being unfamiliar with the area I did not know that there was a big meadow at the head of two finger ridges just uphill from us. I asked my brother, "Hey, what's up there?" He replied, "I don't know." So I said, "It's upwind. Looks like a meadow. Let's go look." So look we did.
When we got near the edge of the meadow I positioned my brother and Ryan near a big pine. I told them that I would circle near the top of the meadow. If any deer were in it, I figured, they might run by Ryan. Ryan had killed his first deer the previous year but we all wanted him to fill his tag. I snuck out to the edge of the meadow and scanned for deer. There, near the bottom, were white butts. They were close to 200 yards out, standing in the puckerbrush. One of them was looking back at me. It knew something was there, but I hadn't spooked them. I couldn't get Ryan into a better position because of the mahogany thicket between him and the deer.
That's right about when the deer remembered an urgent appointment that he had elsewhere. He turned his head and the branches turned with him. Antlers! Off he went, straight away from me. I was on one knee, my favorite shooting position. I tried to shoot him in the back of the neck but I missed clean. I came down from recoil and jacked in another shell. Looking through the scope I expected to see his tail disappearing out of the meadow but for some reason he decided to take a 90 degree turn to the left and give me another chance. He passed though an opening about eight feet wide, 172 yards away. The crosshairs centered at the front of his brisket and I squeezed the trigger. The bullet destroyed both lungs and took off the bottom of his heart.
He went about thirty feet. The icing on the cake was having my dad, brother, and nephew with me.
They continued the hunt and I walked back to camp for the buck cart. It took me about two hours to get him back to camp but I got the cart right up to him.
That was the last buck we got that trip. A wonderful season, meat hanging, and great memories.
Pharmseller
Thanks for not being like me. 
Love it!! 
