My opening day story in less than 200 words.

[Rattler]

Nov 17, 2018.  Upstate NY

A Catskill Mountain deer season starts.  Snow fell 24 hours earlier.  Cloudy, windless, good snow, 28 degrees.  In darkness, we hike uphill.  With John settled, I head further uphill.  At 2100 feet, I climb the ladder. Now wait.

Season 48 now.  How many do I have left?  One can’t hunt if weak.  I’m fit, but far from my prime.  I focus on shedding weight, in equipment and myself.  The mountains keep getting steeper.  Keep exercising. 

Daylight, then legal time.  It’s quiet.  Nothing moves for two hours.  A shot to the south stirs me.  A kill?  Half an hour later, a shot far east.  Coyote?  Not long after, a closer shot to the north, then another follows.  A miss?  I look for movement, Kimber Montana in hand, a 7mm-08 chambered.  Movement.  Binoculars identify a shooter! It’s running.  I mouth a bleat to stop it. My scope finds the heart.  I shoot once.  

Photos follow.  It sports only my hit.  I gut, drag and hang it.  Nice 8 point.  Good mass.  Goes 160 dressed, maybe 200 alive.  My biggest yet.  I still have enough in me.  God willing, next year I will too.

[NFA-ADK]

Awesome!  Glad you can still get it done, congrats!  Looking forward to pics!

[ny hunter]

Congrats!!!! Great story...!

[Rattler]

30 minutes ago, NFA-ADK said:

Awesome!  Glad you can still get it done, congrats!  Looking forward to pics!

Pic is in the deer hunting thread last month.

 

Edited December 20, 2018 by Rattler

[Rattler]

When the mount arrives from the taxidermist, I plan to put the photo on the wall beneath it, with this little story on the back of the photo.  Just thought it might be good for posterity to know the story of the hunt that occurred.  Too many times I've said, "If only it could talk".

Edited December 21, 2018 by Rattler

[The_Real_TCIII]

High and tight, with mass! Hes a beauty

[Rattler]

Thanks.  He's my best so far.  I've taken other 8 point bucks, but he's the heaviest with the best mass. 

Alas, my lifelong pursuit of a ten point has not produced one yet.  I missed two opportunities over the years.  One got lucky when the 12 ga slug hit a sapling on the way to him, and one was running full out almost under my stand, while I tried to shoot him with a borrowed shotgun, because mine was out of commission.

I also gave up a beautiful ten point when I took a job in D.C. for a few years.  I let a friend use my stand for the opener, as I missed that opener, the first ever in my life.  He scored on a big ten point within the first hour.

[landtracdeerhunter]

I can only image climbing up a mountain 2100 feet, shooting a  nice deer, gutting, and dragging that sucker down to civilization. Do you guys wear oxygen masks up there? LOL. 

Great condensed story. Congrats on the deer and the 48 seasons of doing.

[helmut in the bush]

Nice

[Rattler]

2 hours ago, landtracdeerhunter said:

I can only image climbing up a mountain 2100 feet

Think of it as 700 hundred yards and it seems easier. 

[Hunter007]

Be cool to see pictures of  the landscape  from that mountain most be a beautiful view . 

[wolc123]

Rattler, you definitely got my opening day big-buck story beat.  I killed mine this year on the edge of a flat-land swamp.  I could see a trailer park thru the trees (plastered with posted signs) in the background, while listening to traffic buzz by on the big highway a few hundred yards away.   A 3" spike mountain buck would mean more to me than a booner from the flat-lands around home.    Hopefully, next year I will be able to punch another tag on one up there. 

[UpStateRedNeck]

2 hours ago, Rattler said:

Think of it as 700 hundred yards and it seems easier. 

You and I hunt at the same elevation!  Top of the farm is at 2100.  Catskills are about 5 miles due south as the crow flies.  Maybe less.  My worst stand hike is down at 1500 elevation from 2000 where I park the quad.  Rather do the walk uphill on the way out when I'm cold!  Thankfully there's a road down at the bottom too, around 1000 feet elevation, so I just drag down hill if I get one on the side.

 

Edit :  It's 6 miles almost on the button to High Knob (snicker) from the farm.  

Edited December 22, 2018 by UpStateRedNeck

[Rattler]

On 12/22/2018 at 10:32 AM, Storm914 said:

Be cool to see pictures of  the landscape  from that mountain most be a beautiful view . 

Don't have any from the stand, but did find a winter in the area, a fall and some summers.

[Rattler]

This one is the back yard of the deer camp in late winter.

 

[UpStateRedNeck]

You on the south or north side of the Catskills?

[Rattler]

Western side.