I just thought I would post a few pictures, as you can see we got pretty lucky this year. I didn't realize how small these Coues deer are compared to Mule deer. I was feeling pretty proud of mine until Nate showed up the next day with this "Monster" as they call it, I guess my glory days were short lived.... Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I got to go. Thanks to my mother-in-law for coming to babysit so I could go!
I don't think I'll be forgetting this hunting trip anytime soon. After we shot these two deer Nate, Daniel, and Gunner hiked down the mountain to get them and I stayed up top with the binocculars to lead them to the deer. Well, it started to get dark so I hiked down to the spot where I was supposed to meet up with them to hike back to the Artic Cat. When I got there I called Nate on the radio and told him I was there and he said it was going to take a couple of hours so I better find a comfortable spot. I started to sit down right where I was but I heard something. Then Daniel calls me on the radio and says if I start to get scared to start singing Primary songs. I figured the noises I kept hearing must be them trying to scare me, so I hiked down a little ways and hid in a bush. I kept hearing noises so after a little while I cocked my gun hoping this would end their little joke. Well, I must have heard something real close because all of the sudden I jumped up and turned around to see an outline of an animal less than 10 feet away. I knew it was too big, but I was really hoping it was a coyote. Sure enough it turned to look at me and I could see it's cat face, I had a little of that "Life flashed before my eyes" thing happen and I honestly didn't think I was going to walk away from it. My legs froze, I couldn't remember if I had left the bullet in the hole or if I was going to need to cock my gun, but I did know that I only had one bullet. I didn't know if I would be fast enough or if I could even hit it. It's a little harder to shoot a rifle at something that close than it is to shoot a deer 300 yards away let alone the fact that it might be on top of you before you get your gun up. Anyway, it didn't move eithor, we just stared at each other for about 10 seconds that seemed like forever and then it turned and walked away. I called Nate on the radio, let a few words slip that don't usually come out of my mouth, and he grabbed his pack with just about a whole deer in it, and ran up the hill to save me....30 minutes away!! So I stayed right where I was because the only bush to put my back up against was the one with my back already to the Mountain Lion and I wasn't going to sit there again. Instead, I did circles with my little green light, trying to see eyes flash. I could still hear it out there every once in a while so I have to say that 30 minutes was like 24 hours, I guess I'm just lucky it wasn't that hungry!
