This summer was not a typical one, spent waiting for fall to come to dust off the bow and arrows; we booked an early August hunt last spring for the Nevada High country Mule deer and with the anticipation of a challenging hunt in rough country, I set out to get my body in shape and stretch my affective range with the bow. Jogging was out of the question with my ankle and I really cannot say I am sad about that haha. I was fortunate to have a buddy back from college to wrestle with I think that helped my legs a lot, soon I knew conditioning wouldn't be a factor and I shot my bow until I was tired of it day in and day out for months on end, trying to make the correct form for a consistent shot as natural as breathing. Its always good going into a hunt with complete confidence in your abilities, its far from guaranteeing success, but it definitely tips the odds in your favor. Our guide on this hunt was outstanding from having all of the camp materials ready for us to plenty of deer located he made things easy, his positive attitude was motivating and most importantly he helped me give Jesse a hard time all day, everyday; I really cannot say enough good things about Kelly, just a neat, good Christian guy that became like family to us in 5 days, hence the moniker "Uncle Kelly" I believe he got an education on how three young guys talk and he was not spared the constant ribbing everyone in the group took in good fun. Thanks to his pre scouting for us we were glassing bucks from the first glimpse of daylight, but for these flatlanders learning how to stalk them and hunt affectively was foreign territory to us. The First afternoon we hiked into the roughest country this area had to offer at 10,000 feet of elevation with no deer to really focus on and just wandered about exhausting ourselves with nothing to show for the effort, except rattle snake sightings. I think it was mostly for our ego's to prove no terrain or mountain could break our spirit. "When I was young, I observed nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work." This has always been my favorite quote and it definitely was our mantra on this hunt. Each day we learned a little more, adapted and innovated a little more, closing the gap between the embarrassment to all mountain bow hunters we started out as, towards the skilled and successful hunters we are still striving to be. It was not by coincidence or chance that each day we got a little closer on our stalks to the game we were hunting and possibly even some that were hunting us. Tony, had a Mountain Lion sneak within 15 yards of him before they locked eye's and he almost had to kill it in self defense. Jesse took a buck on the second to last day of the hunt and the last morning of our stay he located a nice buck for me to ambush, he did a great job putting a strategy together for me to belly crawl within range, the stalk was made interesting as every sage bush I crawled past was checked for Rattlers, once I arrived at the spot Jesse chose for my shooting vantage point only the smaller buck would stand up and cooperate for a shot, I could have waited for the better buck to stand and most likely had a chance to take him, but I chose not to be greedy since it was the last day. My first shot at 56 yards was not where I wanted it, the buck bounded down the hill and stopped, giving me one last shot at roughly 80 yards, I would like to say all my practice paid off and it was all skill that my arrow found its mark, but I'm sure I proved again luck trumps skill, either way it was a shot to remember and the best part is Jesse got to witness the stalk, shot and my deer expiring; As any extreme bow hunter can attest the elation of hearing your arrow hit the target and knowing you have been successful after all the hard work and dedication you put in really leaves you speechless, but I told Jesse when he got to me for the retrieval job, there was no one else in the world I would rather have with with me at that time; I think us three on this trip are perfect hunting companion's in the sense that we want success for each other more than we want it for ourselves', Tony told us he was so nervous watching through the bino's as Jesse and I tried to ambush some buck's it was worse than if he had been hunting them himself, we had more laugh's on this hunt and great memories than any other I can ever remember. That's what hunting is all about to me spending time with the people your closest with, that you don't get to see enough because of how busy our lives get, its about the memories whether or not you come home with horns and that's why I write this blog, so someday when I am to old to walk or wheel myself into the outdoors to hunt I can read through these blogs and reminisce about how blessed I was to have hunted in the beautiful places, with the people that meant so much to me. At the end of the week we came away with two bucks, (Zeman passed on the nicest one we had in bow range on the second day,) and Tony had a 15 yard heart stopping encounter with a Mountain Lion, we made a new friend and have a great new place to return to. Life is good.
