He has had quite the year trying to live that one down. But to his credit, he has remained undetered and started planning for hunting season again this fall.
Unfortunately, for Jared's hunting plans, we've had an Indian summer. The weather was beautiful through mid-October. However, because of the warm, dry temperatures, the department of Fish and Game had declared the area where Jared would be hunting as "closed" due to the risk of fire threat when firearms are discharged.
When the rains finally came (and boy did they come alright), Jared still had to wait a week for his area (up near Vernonia) to open up. He went last Saturday, for his first hunting opportunity. Our friend's dad, Art, who lives in and hunts the area regularly, knows the hot spots and took Jared and our friend Brian around. Sadly, it was a bust.
This weekend was Jared's last shot (no pun intended). In fact, he and Brian took a half day off on Friday, so they could use what daylight was left that day to hunt and then spend the night with Art and get another early start at 6am today.
This morning they drove to an area where Art had seen signs of deer and proceeded to lead the city boys on a strenuous 5 mile hike up and down hills through that entire area. And didn't see anything. Nothing. Maybe 2 bluebirds. Oh and a frog. Jared also slipped and fell twice as they trudged through clear cuts. So all he got out of that was a 5 mile workout, blisters and a flare up of plantar fasciitis.
They finally left that spot and started "road hunting"--basically driving around the logging roads and looking for deer from the truck. (Like what Jared did last year, when he shot the wrong deer).
They used this method for another hour or so. A couple of does were spotted, but Jared refrained this time.
The two "office men" decided they were getting tired so they tried one more logging road as they made their way back to Art's house (which sits on 64 acres) and saw nothing still.
As they headed back to Art's house around 1:30 in the afternoon, Art mused facetiously, "after all we've done today, watch us find deer in my yard."
As they drove up the beginning of a very long driveway, would you believe Art spotted 2 deer...a doe and a buck sitting in his yard?! He told Jared, "get your gun and get out of the truck." Jared did as he was told but kind of stood there for a minute because all he got a good look at was the doe--and was a little gun shy (literally). Art urged him on, "walk forward a little bit." Jared did so and when he looked through his scope, he saw the doe and finally saw the buck walking behind a tree. As it cleared the tree, Jared knew the safety on the rifle was off and readied himself for the shot.
He took careful aim and "click". (Whoops! A dry fire.) Obviously, you don't want to have a bullet in the chamber of the gun when you're riding around in a truck on a bumpy road and in all the unexpected excitement, Jared forgot to put a bullet in the chamber.
So...he had to lower his gun, pull the bolt back, load a bullet in the chamber, (making a lot of noise and out in the open no less), raise the gun, and look through the scope again. [At the same time, in the truck, Brian was asking Art if he should be getting his rifle ready because all they could see was Jared dinking around, wasting precious time with a buck that had been served to him on a silver platter.] While Jared was making his gun more effective, the deer had walked maybe 5 yards then stopped. When Jared looked back through his scope, the deer was standing broadside and turned to look right at Jared while he was taking aim. Jared said the buck looked like one of those lifesize archery targets that just stand there. So he shot it. He shot a little high, but he dropped it in one shot nonetheless. Jared said it wasn't a very smart deer and deserved to die since it just stood there with a rifle pointed at it.
Art graciously gutted and skinned it. Apparently there was a lot of fat on that buck and Art commented it's gonna be some good meat because of all the apples the deer eat on his property. It'll be like eating a grass fed cow :) Our friend's husband Rick (who took Jared on his infamous hunting trip last year) is taking care of the hide as well as mounting the antlers and will take the meat to be processed for us after it hangs for a couple days in Art's barn.
Next year for hunting season, Jared and Brian said that they'll just bring lawn chairs, sit in Art's yard, eat Doritos and drink hot chocolate while they wait for the deer to walk by. Whatever works!
1 comment:
Too, too funny!
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