Black powder deer

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After filling my elk tag I kind of figured I was done with big game hunting for the year and that my Washington deer tag would go unfilled. I had hunted a few days during early muzzleloader season without so much as seeing a deer and figured that would be it.  When we thought we may have had a mix-up on the elk samples for CWD then I realized that late muzzleloader season was my last chance to put some meat in the freezer should I have to throw out my elk so I started looking again.  I put out cameras locally again but the farm was flooded so I started looking east of the mountains back to special unit 3372 by Sunnyside and unit 130 over by Cheney.  I opted for Cheney since I had seen no deer at all in 3372 so I made a plan and set up a trip in early December for a few days to hit unit 130.  I had scoped out the small amount of BLM land there and gotten a bit of intel and also found Miller Ranch which offered access to its private land mostly via guided hunts.  I talked to Scott Miller and he was very busy with bird hunters and another doe hunter but gave me an offer of a small trespass fee to hunt on my own and I took him up on it.  (I know this wasn’t a Public Land hunt which I fully support but I’m taking baby steps, on my own in private this year, on my own in public next and I’d so far struck out on public looking in early season.)  Of course a few days before the trip we finally got resolution on the elk, mine was safe, and I really didn’t need to do the hunt but decided to go anyway since it would be my first totally solo multi-day hunt and I had scouted out some nice looking canyons where I hoped the deer were hanging out.

I headed over on Sunday the 3rd and drove to Cheney arriving after dark and setting up ‘camp’ at the Holiday Inn, hey it was COLD out there.  On Monday morning I set out before dawn and spent the day roaming coulees and canyons.  My first little venture was about 3 miles and I saw nothing except a coyote.  Just as I was coming back to my truck I saw a deer run by a few hundred yards away.  I wasn’t sure if it was a buck or doe, the unit was antlerless only for mule deer and 3pt or antlerless for whitetail, so I followed.  I came up on some rimrock  and the deer was broadside about 70 yards away but a mule deer buck which was off limits.  I watched him a bit as he wandered over and joined two does.  They were sort of bunched up on top of this area but close to a road so I couldn’t shoot in their direction and decided to go down the rim and circle around hoping to get a shot going back into the open area.  Well, they took off and I never got closer than 300 yards after that.  Had it been rifle season, no problem, but not with a muzzleloader.

I drove to another spot and saw a few does on top of some rimrock about 100 yards from the road so I drove a bit further, parked and got out to give chase.  I came at them from below in some thick trees and got within 40 yards but there were too many trees in the way to get a clean shot.  The deer moved on and I climbed the rim and followed but didn’t see them on top so assumed they headed into the thick ground below. I circled around the stand of trees and came down the rock  and again spotted the deer coming out of the trees.  They went into an opening and I stayed at the tree line to avoid being seen.  I actually stalked to within about 80-90 yards and had the larger doe broadside. I didn’t feel comfortable with a standing off-hand shot at that range so I knelt to get a better stance and the doe turned directly to me giving me no shot.  I waited and she waited.  Finally she got wise, turned and quickly headed into the timber.   I did not see those two deer again.

I tried another area around lunch time and then decided to come back  in the late afternoon to look for those two deer and hit the big canyon top which was one of the spots I had scouted via OnX Maps and Google Earth at home.  I had hunted the lower end of this canyon first thing so hoped everything was on this upper end of it.  Well, they were and I saw a TON of deer in the evening hunt but all on the far side of the canyon out of range for the muzzleloader, again with a .270 it would have been no problem. As it got dark  I decided that I would get up early and head right back but this time find a way down and across the canyon to the other side.

I got back to Cheney well after dark, was exhausted, I had walked 13 miles with a pack and a heavy gun and I was tired and sore.  I heated up food and ate for what must have been an hour trying to make up the caloric deficit, showered, re-organized my gear and then crawled in bed to read a bit before passing out.

I got up early, ate breakfast and got ready to roll early.  I was out of the hotel and on the road again in the dark and got to my spot just at the start of shooting light with the nearly full moon setting.  I began walking along the upper rim trying to find a way down into the canyon and finally found the trail down to the middle level and traversing that a bit found a tail down to the floor.  I got down, found a dry spot to cross and traversed down the canyon and finally found a trail that started leading up just as I was about to hit a marshy area.  I was moving slowly, more still hunting than anything, taking a few steps then glassing.   Coyotes were singing in every direction, a big owl took  flight, I was finding turkey feathers every few hundred yards and things just looked good.

As I got on the mid-level on the far side of the canyon I saw a deer on the rim above me about 60-70 yards away.  It was moving and followed by a second deer, a doe.  They slowed an a third doe was behind the first two and stopped, broadside to look at me.  I slowly took my gloves off, shouldered the gun, pulled the trigger and NOTHING – misfire.  Argh, I pulled the hammer back another time, sighted again, squeezed the trigger and BLOUCH!  When the smoke cleared I saw the deer shake a few times at the edge of the slope then vanished. I reloaded as quickly as one can reload a muzzleloader then walked up to see if the deer had moved on but it was already dead on the ground, it had basically just fallen over away from the edge so I couldn’t see it from below.  Amazingly I had a pretty direct hit, a few inches above where I was aiming but for an off-hand shot it was pretty good and took out both lungs.

I thanked the doe for giving its life, tagged it and texted Catherine on my InReach saying just “Got One” at about 8 am.  She texted back, “Great, now the work begins” and she was right.  I pulled out my kill bag and first thing got my new CWD blood test out and took samples, I’m taking no chances after the elk incident.  I snapped a few pictures with my almost dead iPhone then gutted the deer and got the liver, heart and kidneys in a double bag in the pack.  Now I had to figure out how to get the deer out.  I decided I would drag it down hill to the floor and then evaluate the situation.  The downhill drag was pretty easy as the ground was frosted and going down the floor a bit was pretty easy too.  When I got to the trail I went up on I decided to drop off the deer, mark it’s location and at least get my pack and gun back to the truck and figure out what best to do.  I thought maybe I’d be able to find a way to get the truck into the floor and not have to go up the skinny trails through the two rims or I’d get my big pack and just quarter it out down on the flat and hike it back to the truck, I was only 400 yards from the truck it was just that there were two layers of rimrock to go up through.

As I got up to the “road” I heard someone approaching.   I took off on a jog and saw a guy in a quad that was equipped with tank treads for snow.  I waved him down and told him what was up, he was out looking for elk and had his rig ready for snow but figured he could drive it down the trails I’d come up and we could get the deer.  Well, we couldn’t exactly go down the way I had but we found a path that worked.  This thing was like the Mars rover as far as going through anything and we managed to pull up right next to the deer.  We tossed it in the back and headed back to the truck.  We even backed the quad up to my tailgate and slid the doe from one to the other.    It was about 10 am and my hunt was over.  I went back to the ranch where I was able to hang the deer to skin it and had a nice area to quarter it and de-bone it to get everything in my coolers for the drive home.   That made life much easier and was worth the amount I paid to access the land.

I was very happy to have #1- finally fired my muzzleloader at something other than a pair target, #2 – to have actually hit the intended target well and #3 – to have just been out on my own, hunting land I scouted online and finding critters.  Even if I hadn’t pretty much lucked into this shot opportunity I felt the trip would have been a success just in finding animals and putting the stalk on a few.  I was lucky to be blessed with a deer who did seem to present itself to me when it’s buddies kept on walking.  We will enjoy the bounty of that deer over the coming year.

Shooting Gear:

Warm clothing by First Lite.  It was COLD, around 15 in the morning, highs in the mid to upper 20s.  I wore a base layer of Smartwool 200g merino with the First Lite Obsidian Merino Pants over top, my legs never got cold.   On top I had two merino layers, a 170 g Llano top followed by a 230 g Chama Hoody and then the North Branch Soft Shell Jacket which came off once the deer was down and during the mid-day period when it was a balmy 27 out.  I used the hood and my Filson Insulated hat in hunter orange.  I really never was cold the whole time, the dry air helps.  Boots – Meindel Perfekt 10 by Cabelas.

Packs by Kifaru.  I only carried by little Antero day pack and never had need for the Woodsman to haul which I thought I was going to do.  Knives by SOG.

 

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