Holly's Deer Hunt 2012

This year was the first time I had a deer tag since Liam was 4 months old- crazy! I almost turned it in, because well, life is a little crazy right now! However, I really enjoy going and spending the time with my dad, so I didn't want to turn it in. The logistics ended up being a little bit complicated, but somehow I had enough milk pumped and Wes and my mom kept the kiddos while we went out to hunt.

We actually had Liam go out hunting with us the first morning. He had never been and we figured he was big enough. He had the most fun dressing in hunting gear and drinking hot chocolate. But, he really did enjoy seeing the deer too. It was VERY cold and snowed pretty heavily the first day. It made for some beautiful weather and scenery though!

We saw lots of deer and initially chased one buck around for a couple of days. I actually got a shot at him but I just grazed his back and he never got close enough or on the right property to get him. On the last morning, just dad and I went out and we went to Fulstones ranch because we were tired of chasing the other guy. We found a nice buck there and sat and watched the herd in the truck for a good 45 minutes. We decided to make a move and we sneaked into some trees by the field where they were. We sat and watched them for quite a while again. I ended up getting a shot, but apparently he was turned just slightly and the bullet just nicked his lung. So the deer took off and we had to go and look along a ditch and some willows. We hiked along the willows for quite a while and I finally spotted some blood where the buck crossed a little stream, so we back tracked to see if the deer was down somewhere in the thick brush or willows. Then we heard a big jump and the buck jumped up and ran in front of us. I got a shot, but sadly missed. :( And then the buck crossed the road into another property. However, we new he was wounded because there was significant bleeding. We got permission from the other property owner and went down in her property which was thick of willows and brush. We hiked around for literally HOURS looking for the buck. We found one really big pile of blood and couldn't understand how the buck still could be going with that blood loss. Eventually we lost the blood trail and we almost gave up finding him completely. I had to express some milk so I didn't die of oversupply during this hunt. haha. We only had one hour more to look before we had to head back to Reno and I told my dad I wanted to keep looking, just a little bit longer. At this point it was about 3pm and I shot him initially at 8:30am. LONG day. My dad spotted a mud pit on a little hill and Wes said, "I think that's the buck, sleeping!" Sure enough. He didn't even get up and we were able to get him with a close shot. Wes gutted the deer while dad and I brought the truck back. I wanted to get pictures of all the kids with the deer because I have a picture of 4 month old Liam with the last deer. Addy liked the deer in theory, but if we got close, she screamed. So, thankfully, we will soon have a freezer full of deer to feed our family! It was actually a fun hunt, if not a little frustrating. And I really enjoyed being able to spend some time with my dad.