Buck Lite at last light

by: Gary Sorenson

Sometimes things just don’t turn out the way we envision them.  Of course every hunter is an optimist before the season begins and sometimes it works out and other times we find we had no clue as to what was going to happen.  I guess thats one of the things that keeps us coming back and encourages us to enjoy more of the hunt then just the taking of game.  This season was especially suspenseful as I had drawn a goat tag and Sue had drawn a moose tag and we realized with these two hunts we were going to be in a pinch to work our bow elk and deer hunts in.  All these hunts were to began on September 1st.  The season for deer and elk closed on September 30th, goat closed on November 12th and Moose closed November 23rd.

We decided to hunt goats first as the weather could easily make an enjoyable hunt a miserable and dangerous hunt real quick in the high mountains.  Next we decided to leave for the moose hunt the day after the deer and elk season was over as that should put us in the middle of their rut which seems to run from about the 3rd week of September to the middle of October.  This was a necessity we found out from past experience.  So that left us with a short three weeks to chase elk and deer.

I have no idea how many miles our shoes put on, or how many gallons of sweat we poured out, all I know is that we were pretty well exhausted and we were not only approaching the end of the season but also needed to get ready for the moose hunt.  So on the 29th of Sept. we went out for the last time in the morning, were in our position at 6:00 AM and were disappointed to hear (to dark to see at that early hour) elk leaving their feeding area already.  So at 8:00AM we waved the white flag and headed back for the truck.  In our minds elk and deer hunting was over.

The evening of the 30th Sue and I were packed ready to leave for her moose hunt in the morning.  We were spending a few relaxing minutes that evening out looking over her garden and eating a few tomato’s off the vine, when Tom hollers from the deck and asks if season is really over.  I had to give that a couple of thoughts before responding that technically it wasn’t over for another 45 minutes or so.  He then clues me in that there is a buck out in the pasture and there is enough grass there to make a stalk.  So the bow comes down from the rack and the fun begins.  When I got out there I couldn’t find him, so was about ready to turn around when I heard the unmistakable sound of horns rattling.  So there was two bucks, awesome!  I edged my way to the left till I could see the rump of one of them and ranged it at 23 yards.  He backed up and I could see he was a nice forked horn.  I waited till the other one came forward and they engaged again and withhead and horns all mixed up I checked body size and it appeared the second one was a bigger deer.  So with the last light of season disappearing the arrow slid between the barbed wires on the fence and found its way home.  Must have been a fair shot as he only went about 25 yards and expired.  Tell me I wasn’t a little surprised when we got over to him and  found him to be a forky on one side and only a spike on the other.  Definitely a little lite. 

In fact Shanna, Toms wife, made some remark like, ‘the horns rattling must have sounded like toothpicks hitting each other’.  Anyway we finished with the dismantling in the dark and finished the processing and he was safely in the freezer by 3:00AM.  So much for starting off on our moose hunt rested and raring to go.  But its funny cause I enjoyed every minute of it and wouldn’t have it any other way.  All the tired muscles and heavy eye lids will be forgotten, but the memories and the tender table fare will get us through another winter and beyond.