Those were the only words my buddy could mutter as the awesome buck bounded up the hill.
It was september in eastern Oregon and my best pal Johnny had a bow tag for deer. We were young, I was 14 and johnny was 15 and we were finding out just how hard bow hunting was.
We started bow hunting because we couldn’t draw a tag every year and we had to get our hunting in. The year before this hunt Johnny and I got an old hand me down bow from my aunt and uncle and started shooting. It took a while just to work up the strength to pull 55 pounds, but once we did those pie plates were in trouble. We shot until we could hit consistant at 30 yards and with tag in hand we hit the hills.
The first year turned into mostly exercise and not much deer sightings. Neither of us tagged a buck but still were happy just to be hunting. The next year I drew a rifle tag so only johnny would be hunting with a bow. During the summer we found a great little honey hole with several nice bucks running around. Johnny was getting pretty good with the old bow and every week we would go check on our bucks. Opening day couldn’t get there fast enough.
On the opener we headed to the honey hole. We saw 8 bucks that morning and blew plenty of stalks. We were quickly finding that in bow hunting hind sight is 20/20. As the season rolled on more and more stalks were attempted and blown. I know now that we were just in too big of a hurry, but try slowing two kids down when there’s a buck to be killed!
Half way through the season a bass fisherman told my dad about a nice buck he’d seen. he was kind enough to tell us exactly where and when he saw it. So with new and exciting info in hand we headed of to find Johnnys buck. We rolled into the area just as the sun was beginning to set. It wasn’t long before dad spotted a deer. It was hard to see just what it was because the angle of the sun, but with a quick look dad judged it to be at least a nice forky. Johnny and I hopped out of the boat and scurried up the hill. The buck was feeding down a draw towards water, the wind was good and the cover perfect. Things were finally falling in place. With each step the exictment and anticipation grew. We crept up over the ridged and peeked into the small draw. Suddenly Johnny froze “I can see the top of his back” He wispered. The buck was only 20 yards and unaware of our presence. “take a few more step and shoot” i said. Looking back i know this was rotten advice. It would have been a perfect time to draw, then step, then shoot, but did i mention we were young and inexperienced bow hunters! Johnny took two more steps and the bucks head snapped up. “HE’S HUGE” Johnny squeeled. The “Forky” dad had spotted was actually a dandy buck, a heavy 4×4 over 30 inches wide. The buck looked at us for a few seconds before bounding off, all the while Johnny repeated the words HE’S HUGE over and over again. The buck was kind enough to stop in the skyline and show us his beautiful rack, only adding to johnny’s misery.
As we trudged back to the boat dad reminded us over and over how beautiful that buck was. Johnny could only say, “I know, He’s Huge”
As i said before i had a rifle tag, But i better save that for another time

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May 09, 2008 | 1 comment | Uncategorized | By huntinfool

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