The Long Story….
It was a challenge getting ready for this hunt. Physically, mentally, and organizationally. I was preparing to go to a new area that I had never set foot in. I applied at the invitation Jerome, who has hunted elk with my family and I in Wyoming. Applying with me was my hunting partner Cal Farnsworth, one of my archery mentors, and good luck token.
Once we found out we were successful in the Draw, it was a scramble to coordinate schedules. Jerome volunteered to do the cooking, and shopping, as well as contribute a wall tent, folding woodstove, riding stock, and pack animals. His 25 years of hunting expertise contributed greatly to seeing the number of deer we did on the trip.
We met Jerome at his home on Friday. We packed coolers and panniers for the 3 pack horse loads, and organized our tack for the morning. We ended the night with a meal at a local Basque restaurant complete with lamb, sweetbreads, garlic and Picon.
In the morning we were at the door of the local supermarket at opening to purchase dry ice and cubed ice for our insulated panniers. Then we drove to our hunting area, finally arriving at the trailhead in the afternoon. We had horses saddled and packed and hit the trail at 5:00 pm. By 8:00 pm we had the tent pitched and a fire started in the stove for a hot dinner as the moon rose over the aspens.
The next six days consisted of many miles covered on foot and horseback from 8500 to over 10,000 feet in elevation.
I had numerous stalks that were foiled by brush, wind or other deer busting us.
On Sunday I got to 33 yards on a 3 point buck who saw me and bounded off before I could get a shot.
Monday, I stalked 3 bucks with Cal who we watched bed below us. Swirly winds must have alerted them because we arrived at empty beds 2 hours later. That afternoon, we spotted a buck below us who, by the time we got into position, got up to feed, and was spooked off by another buck. We were caught in the open as the new buck fed across the hillside, oblivious to us.
A doe bedded above caught our movement and sounded the alarm. Our quarry stepped off over the ridge not really knowing why. We named these two bucks “Butch and Sundance” since they managed to slip away. We laughed to ourselves that they were probably asking each other: “Who ARE those guys?”
Tuesday, we went on a long ride to see some new country. By 9:00 am we had seen 9 bucks. After letting the horses graze in a patch of aspens for a couple hours we rode up a canyon, spotting bucks in the mahogany above us. Groups of 3, 4 and 5 bucks peered at us from each finger. It was amazing despite the fact that the bucks had our wind and elevation.
We arrived near the 10,000 ft mark, tied the horses below the ridge and continued glassing for deer. A group of bucks fed out on the bare ridge 500 yards away. A bowhunter on foot crested a saddle 500 yards below the deer, unaware that they were there. When the bucks saw him they spooked towards us, and we ran for a saddle that looked to be a likely escape route.
The bucks didn’t run through the saddle but stuck to the mahogany and pinons. He ended up bedding on my right 50 yards away, and when I tried to get in a position to shoot, he spooked then stopped and gave me a final look at 110 yards. He was an honest 30 -inch wide buck of my dreams that walked out of my life on that hot afternoon.
If that wasn’t enough, I spotted a group of 10 bucks as we rode back to camp feeding on a sage covered hillside, 220 yards away. I was making a stalk when to my left, a group of 8 bucks spotted either me or the horses behind the hill, and ran through the group of 10 bucks. Following them was another 5 bucks. The Herd of 23 bucks all bounded over the saddle in front of me, raising a cloud of dust that stretched for half a mile. I was dumbfounded.
The day’s total of deer spotted was a Whopping 51 BUCKS. A remarkable day indeed.
Wednesday and Thursday we went back to country we had spotted and stalked deer in before. Once again we pursued “Butch and Sundance” but they managed to elude us each time. On one memorable stalk I had one of the bucks explode from an open saddle 38 yards away as I was looking at the mahogany patch we had spotted him in days prior.
Thursday night I sat near camp with binos and spotting scope and watched 4 good bucks feed out at last light. I marked the tree they fed out into the open from, and made plans for the morning.
Friday morning I woke at 4:00 am and started the 3/4 mile hike up the hill in the dark, gaining 1000 feet in elevation. I shivered until the sun’s rays reached my hideout just 20 yards back from the crest of the hill the bucks were on. I spied two of the bucks 100 yards on the other side of the hill feeding in my direction, but in the open. Then according to Cal and Jerome who watched from afar, the bucks fed back into a rugged steep tree covered draw. I retreated back down to camp hungry and tired. After a quick nap, and tending to the horses I filled up on water and snacks and hiked back up the hill, determined to catch the bucks when and if they decided to feed out into the open again.
The arduous climb was one to remember. It was 85 degrees in the shade and the sun radiated off the rocks, causing me to consume all my water on the way up to the dry, rocky lookout. It was going to be a dry, thirsty evening. By the time I reached the vantage point I had six hours of light left.
Those six hours were spent searching with binoculars through the cover the deer had fed into. I followed the faint hint of a trail up into a basin ringed by rimrock on one side and a grassy ridge on the other. The shadows were getting long when I spotted a buck bedded in the sage, with another behind him. the wind was wrong, the terrain was open, and time was slipping away. All I could do was snap pictures as they caught my scent and slipped over the hill.
The day ended without a punched tag, but it will be a hunt I will always treasure. My first hunt in Nevada with great friends, great country, and more of an appreciation for the value of pre-season conditioning and a good mountain horse. If the tag allotment will allow it, Cal and I plan to return for Round 2 in a couple of years. We have some scores to settle. Butch and Sundance will be saying ” Who are those guys?” I know it.
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