Deer Hunt 09

The Deer Hunt ranks pretty dang high on my Top 5 Favorite Activities. I love being in the hills, walking down a ridge (down being the key word), cruising on a fourwheeler, or bouncing around in the truck, I just love it!!! For many families they talk about the good ole days of hunting and how they miss them, but for us these ARE the good ole days. Everyone got to come hunt, at least for the first weekend, Kelsie couldn’t come for the second on though.

During the deer hunt we will be found on Haycock from the very first sunrise to the last sunset of the hunt. At 10am you can find us at the trailer eating a delicious cholesterol raising breakfast. I enjoy every minute of the hunt!

This year the new hunting store in town, The Shed, had a big buck contest. The day before the hunt we all went in and bought a new shirt or hat and got our names in the contest. There use to always be a contest, then as soon as I was old enough to hunt no one did one any more. I was so glad that The Shed owners decided to bring back this fun tradition. The biggest buck, points + spread, get a Muzzleloader, The smallest buck binoculars, and the first one measured a hat.

Boys cooking breakfast

The Girls Hunting Together

haha- we really did hunt!! We took this picture of my moms cousin Joyce, who use to come hunting. It is at her favorite breakfast spot, Sausage side hill. I love our poses!Dad on his 4wheelerKLC and Bron in his jeep It snowed, and it just happen to be the on a day I had to go to school. Mom, Dad, and Grandma built this snowman to watch over our camp! So, Derek spotted a nice buck clear down below his special spottin spot clear up on a hill. He having already shot his deer called mom and bronson to some get it. He bedded down and we made a plan of attack. Derek stayed up on the ridge to guide us to the buck and I drove Bronson down and dropped him off on the east side of the buck, then dropped my mom, and I went with her, on the west side of it. We walked to where we had planned and called Derek. He said the buck was just 50 yards away from us and stood up, but Bronson was on the other side so he didn't run. He was just down in a wash low enough that we couldn't see him. It was so frustrating. We tried to get closer and he took off runnin towards the hill Derek was on. We ran over to wear we could see it and it stopped about 300 yards from me and my mom. My mom had a cold and was coughing and then we were running so when she shot without a dead rest she missed. The buck went running up the ridge towards Derek,but was well out of range and running. Derek took off running towards it trying to scare it back down. It was so funny seeing Derek running on the top of the hill trying to get it to turn around. I wish we would have had a video camera to capture it. It got within about 50 yards of Derek, but kept running over the hill and out of sight. Anyway the picture below is them looking at the buck from above, I had to take a picture of them.
Opening Morning I decided I would venture out on the fourwheeler. It worked well last year so I wanted to do it again. I headed out for my Dads beloved flats. Derek and my Dad were also out there. At one point I saw my dad going down a hidden road on the North side of a draw, so I was going to go on the south side hoping he would scare something to me. On my way there I saw a deer about 150 yards off the road in the shadow of some thick trees. I looked in my binos. I could clearly see its body and neck, but its head was in some trees, and although I couldn’t see its head I could see one side of his antlers. Not knowing how big it was, I still got excited and cocked the ol lever action 243 and shot it. It jumped, but I still never saw the full set of antlers. I went to where he was standing when I shot and there was a lot of thick, pink blood, a sure sign of a lung shot. So, I knew he hadn’t gone far. I lost the blood track so I had to call for back up. I tried my Dad but he didn’t answer, but I soon heard his fourwheeler coming down the road. I flagged him over, and told him I shot one. He, of course, asked me how big and I said, “well, I don’t know.” And he was dumb founded at why I would shoot it until I told him. We couldn’t find any more blood, so we just kept searching for him. I finally saw his big body and head laying under a bush… this was the moment I would find out how big he was, and I was nervous that maybe he was just small. When I saw his antlers I was not disappointed at all!
My dad was so funny. He kept giving me crap about how I was hunting in ‘his spot’ and that he should have never let me ride on the back of his fourwheeler and should have never showed me where to big bucks are. But, I knew he was proud that his daughter who was hunting in his secret spot, and got a bug buck opening morning!!!
We brought it into town after breakfast and got it measured at The Shed, 26 inches!! I was the first on measured and won a hat, which I gave to my dad since I look like my brothers when I wear a hat.

Derek also got a buck later on in the hunt, a 4x4, 26 inches wide, however mine was bigger and was still winning at the shed. Mine was bigger because it had eye guards and Derek’s didn’t. I was having a blast reminding him that his little sister was beating him in the pool, and that it was written down so that everyone will know. After Derek got his buck I was left with 2 packs to carry back to the truck. I guess when you can't hunt any more you become a back mule Bronson and Grandma got this 3x3 with about 20 minutes left in the hunt... Not small enought to win the binos.

I was winning in the pool until the very last day when 2 bucks beat mine. Zach Owens won the muzzleloader with a 4x4, 27.5’ wide.

This hunt was so fun and we saw so many nice bucks!! We also saw some little tiny ones and every time we did I told who ever I was hunting with to shoot it, so they could win the binoculars, but they never would.

The 3 bucks the Barton Family got this year!!