Hunting =
Riding the four-wheeler all over the mountain only to end up hiking...hiking... and more hiking only to find 16 doe.
Getting=
Driving in the truck seeing a buck (at least 50 feet off the road because it is illegal to shoot any closer).
I was not at all happy to find out that the 9 day hunt did not include the Las Sal Mountains on opening day or the next 5 days after that. This was my first hunt having a license and I was really bummed to find out I had to hunt on the Blues. The worst part was that on Friday while gathering cows I jumped a 6 point buck.
We gathered cows on Friday and Saturday and decided that since we spent all that money on 5 tags we might as well go hunt on Monday even though it had to be on the Blues. We started really early before the sun came up so we could be in the hunting approved area when the sun came up. We first just drove around and scouted out an area. My dad has to haul water to Island in the Sky so he knew there was a lot of deer down by News Paper Rock. We drove the area but only found a few doe and a lot of hunters. So we were forced to move on. None of us were very familiar with the area so all we could do was find a place that "looked" good and go for it. We stopped at Monticello Lake and jumped on the four-wheelers. Creighton drove me with my gun and Logan and Alan took the other one.
It wasn't too long before Creighton and I found some deer. We slowly snuck up on them but could not see any bucks with the 6 doe. We thought we moved them up the ridge so we circled around and went to comb the ridge. We saw nothing and as we got back on the four-wheeler we saw a butt staring at us 20 yards away. It was a sight to see, us crawling on our hands and knees trying to see if they were doe or bucks.
After only finding doe we decided to ride to another spot. We rode around but did not find anything and returned to the previous area that we actually saw deer. We walked and walked but only found doe. Later that afternoon, Logan and Alan came and we walked another ridge with them. On our way out we saw a bunch of deer and decided to follow them. We moved them all over that area, and other hunters were even telling us where they were going from the top of a hill. Still no bucks, only doe.
We found my dad back in the truck sleeping and decided to go drive the News Paper Rock area one more time before it got dark. We were on our way back out when suddenly appeared two doe. The boys all got out to see what they were when MY buck walked out from behind the tree. If you hear my dad tell the story he will say that I took forever to shoot. But it really wasn’t that long. I think the whole canyon heard that I just got my first deer. Not by the sound of the gun, but by the screams of joy from me.
It was a very exciting day and I am so glad that we went.
WARNING there is a little blood in the picture.
Riding the four-wheeler all over the mountain only to end up hiking...hiking... and more hiking only to find 16 doe.
Getting=
Driving in the truck seeing a buck (at least 50 feet off the road because it is illegal to shoot any closer).
I was not at all happy to find out that the 9 day hunt did not include the Las Sal Mountains on opening day or the next 5 days after that. This was my first hunt having a license and I was really bummed to find out I had to hunt on the Blues. The worst part was that on Friday while gathering cows I jumped a 6 point buck.
We gathered cows on Friday and Saturday and decided that since we spent all that money on 5 tags we might as well go hunt on Monday even though it had to be on the Blues. We started really early before the sun came up so we could be in the hunting approved area when the sun came up. We first just drove around and scouted out an area. My dad has to haul water to Island in the Sky so he knew there was a lot of deer down by News Paper Rock. We drove the area but only found a few doe and a lot of hunters. So we were forced to move on. None of us were very familiar with the area so all we could do was find a place that "looked" good and go for it. We stopped at Monticello Lake and jumped on the four-wheelers. Creighton drove me with my gun and Logan and Alan took the other one.
It wasn't too long before Creighton and I found some deer. We slowly snuck up on them but could not see any bucks with the 6 doe. We thought we moved them up the ridge so we circled around and went to comb the ridge. We saw nothing and as we got back on the four-wheeler we saw a butt staring at us 20 yards away. It was a sight to see, us crawling on our hands and knees trying to see if they were doe or bucks.
After only finding doe we decided to ride to another spot. We rode around but did not find anything and returned to the previous area that we actually saw deer. We walked and walked but only found doe. Later that afternoon, Logan and Alan came and we walked another ridge with them. On our way out we saw a bunch of deer and decided to follow them. We moved them all over that area, and other hunters were even telling us where they were going from the top of a hill. Still no bucks, only doe.
We found my dad back in the truck sleeping and decided to go drive the News Paper Rock area one more time before it got dark. We were on our way back out when suddenly appeared two doe. The boys all got out to see what they were when MY buck walked out from behind the tree. If you hear my dad tell the story he will say that I took forever to shoot. But it really wasn’t that long. I think the whole canyon heard that I just got my first deer. Not by the sound of the gun, but by the screams of joy from me.
It was a very exciting day and I am so glad that we went.
WARNING there is a little blood in the picture.
He was only a little 2x3 but I was sure glad to get anything.
The fun part of hunting is the getting part. The not so fun part is the “making of the white packages.” There was so much meat that for the next couple days I didn’t want any meat. Not because I felt bad for killing a deer, but because after handling, cutting, packaging that much meat you just don’t want to see meat again for a while. I could never be a butcher.
This only a very small amount of white packages!
