We set up camp beneath the wires of the 500KV Pacific Intertie and the snap and crackle of the conductors was all we could hear as we went to sleep each night. I woke up a few times thinking it was raining, but it sure wasn't.
There was an old shack that we cooked around and ate in each day, but tents were our home for the duration of the hunt. This is what it looked like on our arrival at the site.
As I said before, the terrain was steep and rocky, but quite beautiful in it's own right. These shots will give a small glimpse of the area. Even the flats were lava strewn, with lots of small round stones to roll under your boots. I stumbled around several times while hiking down those canyon hills and gullies.
This wily old buck is one that showed himself on the flats one morning, but made it into the canyon before my cousins could get a shot at him. I long shot with a 270 WSM put the brakes on this 5X5. As with most of the bucks taken on the trip, he had to be halved and packed up and out of the canyon.
Since my chance to take a big 4X4 was lost when my shots didn't make the mark I had to settle for a little forkie. We had glassed for most of the day, seeing several "shooter bucks" deep in the canyon, but had no chance to make a stalk on any of them. One was a heavy horned 4X5 that we coveted, yet couldn't approach anywhere near him. He's still there, surrounded by his does. This buck came across the ridge from another canyon and I spotted him from almost a half mile away. We had to walk slowly away from where he was standing and climb to the top to work our way toward his position. Peering through the brush told me that he hadn't moved much further down the hill, but getting to a shooting position meant crawling on our hands and knees on that rough lava. I "Injuned" up to the edge and peered over to see where the buck stood and if he was good enough to take. He was only a fork horn, but had good mass and a wide enough spread. We conferred and I made the decision to take the shot. The range finder read 229 yds and it was down slope at a 45º angle. In a hazardous prone position, I poked the barrel of my Remington 700 .30-06 over the edge and put the crosshairs on his back. The buck was standing directly away from me and facing downhill, which didn't offer the best shot, but knowing that the rifle was dead on I touched it off. SLAM! That buck collapsed like a house of cards, not moving one iota. We stood and looked down at him on the ground. A long way down, but not too bad.
You can see the bluff where the shot was taken from high above and slightly to my left of my head.After gutting the buck and removing his lower legs, I hacked him in half and the young kids hiked him right out. Here's the last pic of the deer before he was dressed and cut in half. Before I forget, the little fork horn weighed in at 139 lbs and the spread was 22" wide and 19 1/2" high. Good enough.
When I pulled out of camp yesterday at noon, 9 bucks had been taken by our 14 hunter group. There's still today and tomorrow, so hopefully a few more will be scored before the sun sets on Sunday evening.
