It is now always the size of the harvest, but the hunt and story!
Pine Grove, Oregon Blacktail on Opening Day
It is not always about hunting for the largest rack of antler on a deer. For the most part having harvest a number of dandy Mule & Blacktail bucks of the years, I have become pretty picky. Finding it easy to past up on smaller deer and sometimes just take a picture. Maybe I just don’t want the work afterwards that means a pack out.
Now that is not to say that I haven’t harvested some small bucks over the years, I have done so. A couple of them have been Blacktail bucks in more recent years than the past.
On one such hunt I had my son Frankie and another old hunting partner with me. We had gain access to a section of land up out of the town of Pine Grove on the way to Maupin, OR.
Now the rancher/farmer was a tough old bird and pretty picky who he would let on his place. He raised wheat, alfalfa, cattle and of course lots of deer.
My equipment was of course my Martin Pro Series Scepter II, Easton Arrows XX-75’s, Thunder Head 120gr. Broadheads, Mel Stanislawski’s Sight and Superb Arrow Rest. Ya! Know a bit of olds school on shoot aluminum arrows, sight and rest. I had been a shooter for Martin in the past on the word of Mel that I could get the job done.
Having been in the area before during scouting trips, it was pretty easy to get a lay of the land. On this hunt there where only two (2) people hunting, Frankie and myself, with MM coming in later from a scouting trip for a future rifle hunt in the Grizzly Unit. Frankie and I would hunt slightly different areas, as I wanted to explore and he could work the gravel pit on the property. In remembrance, I should have stayed with him, as he got close to a number of good bucks (No Blood, just rocks). I saw my share of bucks, but could never close the distance on the morning hunt. It had to be about 90 degrees from first light to late into the evening!
It was extremely hot on this hunt and even though I would use the trucks going by and the running canal water used for irrigation, I could not be that quite and there were a lot of deer in the area making close stalking difficult.
Frankie and I regrouped in the afternoon and the old hunting partner came by for the evening hunt. We only had one day to hunt on this opening weekend of deer, as I had to be back to Valley RV in McMinnville on Sunday.
We had about 1 ½ of light left and we started to work a spur road on the property. Frankie and I got glimpse of the buck at the same time to our left; I was already up at full draw and heard the call from MM that he was at fift———y yards as the arrow left my Martin\ Scepter. The arrow hit the buck right in the boiler room, even though he flinched a bit and he went straight up in the air and came down in where he had been bedded. The arrow went completely through the deer and never to be found again.
Not sure if Frankie and MM could believe the shot, as I had released as the range came out of MM’s mouth. We did have to Hawaiian field dress the deer out and make a short pack, the owner of the ranch did not want any kind of vehicles on the place due to fire hazard.
He was a small 3X3 blacktail buck, not much to hang in the garage, but a great shot made on the buck, reassuring my son that the old man can still judge distance and make the shot happen. It was a good hunt with lots of game seen and it was the second time that I have harvested a Blacktail with him along.