Thanksgiving Day Buck

2008 Whitetail, Thanksgiving Day Buck.
I started this rifle season like many before, with a focus on filling my Elk and Mule deer tags during the month of October, and waiting to focus on my mountain whitetail during the rut of November. This year was going to be different due to a new extended season for the unit I hunt, instead of the season ending on the 20th of November, I would have until December 1st. The extra days at the end, during the peak and post rut, had me excited for the better odds of crossing paths with a bruiser buck. The other change would be that since the season continued through Thanksgiving we would be bringing up friends and family and have our Turkey Dinner in the wall tents, which sounded like a better way to get to spend quality time without the distractions of TV, phones, etc…..

We set up our camp the weekend of the 15th and I planned on hunting a few days here and there and then taking off the week around Thanksgiving. Most years we have had a lot of success around the 17th of November, but this year we had the misfortune of having clear skys and a near full moon which sent the deer into their nocturnal mode, making hunting difficult. I did manage to call in several decent bucks but none that were worthy of my tag this early in the season. I had one 5×5 in particular that was kind enough to pose for my camera as I debated taking him with my revolver since he was only 20 yards away. I decided to let him walk since he had a couple of broken points, and I was looking foward to having the extra days of the extended season to hunt. Here is a photo of this buck over the sights of my S&W 686.
I hit the deer hunting hard the week of Thanksgiving. There seemed to be more hunting pressure this year than in years past so hunting was tough. With the terrible economy, more people were out to put meat in the freezer. Some of our local sawmill workers and loggers were laid off from work, and the majority of these guys are die hard hunters, so they had more time than normal to head for the hills. Most years we can count on a good dusting of snow in mid to late November which seems to get the deer moving and concentrate them at lower elevations, but this year the weather never did us any favors and we were not blessed with getting to chase these mountain bucks in the snow. The evening before Thanksgiving I ventured out of my normal grounds to a higher elevation in an attempt to get away from areas hit by other hunters. I was walking down an old logging road, making my way back from some clearcuts before dark, when I heard a deer blow and start running towards the road thru the timber. Like an idiot I waited to pull up my rifle until I could see what the deer looked like, and by the time it registered that it was a very large buck, he was already across the road and headed out thru the dark timber. After messing up on this buck due to my picky ways, I decided it was getting late enough in the season that I needed to stop looking and maybe start thinking about actually tagging.

The morning of Thanksgiving I returned to the same spot where I saw the buck the night before. As I was approaching the exact same spot from the day before I once again heard deer blow and start running towards the road. I back peddled a couple of steps to where I had a nice clear shooting lane and put my cross hairs where I thought the deer would go. While looking thru my Burris rifle scope I saw doe, doe, doe, horns, and let a shot go from my Tikka .243. I thought for a minute I may have shot low, and began the look for blood, hair, and the signs of a connecting shot. I didn’t spot any blood but could clearly see the bucks tracks so I followed them. After about 45 yards I could see the buck ahead of me piled up over a downed cedar. Upon approach I could see he was not the large buck from the night before, and that he was a smaller horned 4×4 with a couple of broken points. He was an older deer, and I could tell he was on his downhill slide as far as antlers go, but he definitely was the scrapper of the area with his broken tines, tore up hide, and other signs of battle.
In short order I had the buck back to my vehicle and loaded up. I was a little disappointed that he was not the buck I had seen previous, and I also have a problem with shooters remorse, I love the hunt so much I hate to see it end. My mood changed however on the way back to camp and upon getting to share the experience with friends over our wonderfull turkey dinner. This has been a tough year for a lot of people in our area, but I at least had one thing to be thankful for on this day, and it was hanging on the meat pole at the edge of camp.