The neat thing about this hunt was I got to share it with an acquaintance from further south in the farmland, who'd never done much timber hunting. He'd started doing trips into the more wild corners of Alberta and I was hoping to demonstrate some skills that would help him be more successful. My companion only had a doe tag on this hunt, otherwise I would have had him shoot the buck if he wanted. This particular buck played out exactly as I described, pretty much almost in real time as I explained what we were doing and why... "We're going to climb this ridge and hunt along that edge... see how this deer crapped while it was walking, its not concrete but thats generally a good sign its a buck... notice how his tracks are offset, not huge but probably fairly decent, oh there he is!" Twenty minuets in I was dragging a buck back to the truck. I have to admit it made me look a lot more pro than I actually am LOL.
The takedown was the exact opposite, I shouted at the deer to stop it when it bounced out of its bed. Then I used deer calls to confuse the heck out of him at which point he tried to circle downwind, and I dropped him en-route when I was able to find a hole in the underbrush to put the bullet through. I think it sort of blew my companion's mind a little that the whole sloppy episode worked at all, but it has worked many times for me. The moral of that story is don't just give up when you're busted, it is usually entirely possible to scrape together a win if you are persistent enough.
DSCF1244 by https://www.flickr.com/photos/153108294@N08/, on Flickr
