excuse the absence.
I’ve been in the mountains looking for food.
Hubby and I went hunting for the past couple days.
Hubby had to work tuesday night and got off wednesday morning. I was up and in the gym at 0630 to crank out my 4 mile run on the treadmill. didn’t feel like running in the dark in 20* weather. Hubby got home and we quickly loaded up the truck.
we got to our first campsite around noon-ish. Hubby hadn’t slept all night (obviously) so he took a nap. I read a book and played with the puppies. Hubby then woke up and we went for an evening walk/hunt to see if there was any deer in the area.
remember how this is what Hubby sees when we run together?
well this is what I see when we hunt….I let him lead the way. just to be sure he’s the one scaring off all the lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
not a freaking thing in sight. we saw some tracks, but not a heavily used area.
we decided to stay the night at this spot and move locations in the morning.
our new little camper has officially turned out to be a great purchase! it kept us all plenty warm in the teen degree weather. the puppies even managed to stay plenty warm!
the next morning we were up, rocking and rolling before daylight. we had driven down a road to check if elk were moving (Hubby has an elk tag to fill too). nope, still haven’t see anything.
we got back out on the highway and I looked up on the hillside and saw a deer! a deer! a freaking deer! I was so excited. Hubby slammed on the brakes I looked through my binos and it was a buck. a buck! a freaking buck! just what we needed (we could only hunt anterled deer). Hubby pulled up further and we were hidden from the buck.
we climbed out, grabbed our guns and slowly climbed this hill. I laid down in the snow and tried to get my sites lined up in this buck. I had them lined up and then he started to move. I was petrified to pull the trigger for numerous reasons:
1. I have shot this gun 3 times in my life.
2. I was so scared how the kick of the gun was going to fill in a laying down (prone) position. I have only shot it sitting down.
3. I was terrified of the muzzle blast. I had one ear plug in, but had taken the other one out to hear Hubby whispering to me.
4. I was shaking so bad. I was slightly cold from laying in the snow, but I was so nervous. this was my first deer EVER seeing through a scope.
I had literally 5 seconds from the time he turned broadside and I had a perfect shot at him to pull the trigger before he started moving and moving away from us.
at this point I told Hubby to shoot while he was moving away from us. Hubby shot and missed. the buck only traveled farther away from us and eventually headed into the trees. Hubby and shot a few times and we weren’t sure if he hit.
we hiked up the hill where the buck was when Hubby shot. we followed his tracks clear to the treeline and didn’t see any blood. we turned around and started walking back to the truck and I just cried.
I felt awful. I should have freaking shot. I shouldn’t have been such a wimp.
I felt disappointed in myself. I felt Hubby was disappointed in me. I felt my dad would be disappointed in me even though he wasn’t even there. Hubby tried to comfort me, but I was just plain mad.
we had gotten back to the truck and decided to come back to town.
we got back to the house about 1230.
we went out to a walk in area and walked out there to see if there were any deer out there. nope. no deer.
I had calmed down a little better then and decided I wanted to go back up the mountain and camp and hunt one more day.
we hunted all afternoon and finally called it a night. we found a camp spot around 7pm. made some dinner, got the camper heating up, watched a movie and made a plan for the next morning. I wanted another shot a that freaking buck. I wasn’t going to let him get away this time.
this is what I woke up to (only I was IN the camper). I wished I could get into this spot in the middle of winter. it was so peaceful. both nights we heard coyotes howling, which for some reason makes me extremely anxious!
the next morning we went back to the same spot where we missed the buck the day before. we sat and let the sun come over the hill to see if he would show with the sun on the hillside. we never did see him again.
until next year. I will be back and I will redeem myself!
the season for antlered mule deer ends monday. but we have well into december to get a white-tailed deer.
it was a success because we tested out the new camper that we just bought. temps were well into the 10s and maybe even single digits last night. we all kept plenty warm and there was plenty room for the two of us and 3 dogs.
the dogs had a blast even if they were stuck in the truck most of the time.
no we didn’t get a new dog…we are puppy sitting for my parents again!
I will get a deer this season. it just may not have antlers and I’m ok with that.
I haven’t wanted to talk to anyone about this, especially Hubby, Mom, or Dad. Hubby told Dad what happened; and when Mom called today I told her I didn’t want to talk about it.
so…this is it. I won’t talk about it again…until I fill my tag.
even though I missed a cross-training/lifting day yesterday…I think I made up for it with all the hiking we did!
back to the gym and getting some miles on my legs tomorrow.
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