| Hi gang,
I have hunted the opener for X9A in Mono County
The Base camp was at 7500 feet and the deer were in the
10000 foot to 12000 foot areas. The first day out I
climbed up to a meadow up about 10500 feet. I spotted
several deer milling around a grove of aspen. Glassing
the herd, I notices that all the does had two fawns.
I had seen 30 deer in about two hours but no legal bucks.
I had seen one buck yearling. He had a small spike on
the right side and a button on the other with a one inch
spread. (thats for you Boons Book fans). He stood and
looked at me for a while until his mom called for him and
he ran off.
I had taken a fellow hunting who was once the worlds
fastest quick draw artist with live ammo. He is now
disabled and so he had to quit hunting 9 years ago.
I set him up on the edge of a meadow and went up into
the hills to chase deer down to him. A Forked horn buck
came out of the trees and he was about to shoot when this
road hunter drove his car between the deer and this fellow
the deer ran off and the guy just drove away after saying
that he was sorry as he didnt see Tom. I hate road hunters.
So does Tom. In tyhe evening we were covering a part of
the meadow that had some old salt licks in it and we counted
46 deer out there but no bucks. So we went to sleep and
woke up at 4:30.
I followed the deer prints that left the field up to the
right of camp. This trail took me to an area that was
near a road but very steep. At the altatude that we were
hunting it was hard to get up the side of that hill but I
managed to get about 90% of the way up the 2000 foot climb
in about 45 mins. I was sitting there panting like a dog
when up jumps a doe about ten feet to the left of me.
She scared the watsits out of me because she was so close.
I then noticed that there were at least 30 deer laying down
in different spots on the side of this hill. I took a few
more steps and they flushed like quail. I was still a
little out of breath from the climb but I tried to get
control. I saw three deer running tow does and a buck.
I had to make sure that he was legal, (forked horn or better.
I had no shot as they ran but I covered the buck as best
I could. He was running toward the top of the hill and
towards some trees. He Broke free of the Does and I fired
the sound was deafingin. I watched through my scope as
I killed a beautiful forked pine tree. I cranked in
anouther round, leveled again. By this time the deer
figured out what I wanted and his feet no longer touched
the ground as he flew over the sage and shin tangle.
I fired again and I thought I hit him. He kept running
and as he topped the hill he looked back and I could see
though my glasses a perfect .30 cal hole in his left ear.
about an inch high, and to the left. I tracked him for
about two hours but he never let me get close again.
Coming down from the hill I found a fresh file of poop
It was as large as any I have ever seen. It was also
accompanied by large prints and a urine sample. I figured
that it must be a buck and a large one as the pile looked
like a great dane had left it. I tracked this buck for
45 mins and found him on the side of anouther hill. He
had his butt sticking out and I could make out horn but
I still needed to be sure he was legal. I waited for a
few mins when he stepped out to run off. Well the California
laws say that a buck must have a fork to shoot it and here
stood a Big buck well past one year old about 150 lbs
dressed and only spikes 14 inches long. About normal!
On the way back to camp I found a small buck yearling.
He had a nice fork horn on the left and a button on the
right. Nice buck too. Would have weighed in about 30 Lbs
dressed out. I hope the little fellow makes it through
the season. Had a great time, saw deer got to shoot and
had good company. See ya next week with a new story.
Joe
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