Edit. Wow what a wall of text. 
CTRL+F "Sunday" for the write up of just the deer I shot or read the first five paragraphs for the general thoughts. The rest is just Thursday - Saturday nothing burger.
Ok, time for the recap...even though I've tried to keep everyone updated on my hunt, I'll try to fill all the gaps between.
First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who helped me out with this hunt. If you're reading this, you know who you are. I won't mention names because I don't want you to be harassed in the future. Not that I'm any different from any other Joe Schmoe off the internet, but I took all of your combined knowledge and information, along with the countless hours of studying I did on my own, and I became a much, MUCH better hunter. Still not great, still have a lot of mistakes to make. But I've grown as a hunter 100%. I'll take that knowledge and it will serve me for the rest of my hunting life. Thank you.
I'll also be admitting places, although you could probably figure out most of them. I don't mind sharing what I have learned and figured out on my own, but if I got the intel from someone else, it'll stay between us. I wouldn't lend out a borrowed tool to someone else and that's what I equate that to.
I know it was discussed yesterday regarding the legendary status Hagerman has and whether or not it still exists. I'm here to tell you, it still exists. To my knowledge, it probably started in the 90s, and it continued through today. And in my opinion, it always will continue. Even if there are 3,000 applicants, this place will remain legendary as long as there are hunts there.
Technology only helps it maintain that status. The rumors swirling - "massive buck headed your way," "I hope I don't regret passing that 130," "I just saw a 150 - he was in and out like a ghost." To me, it's like playing at Fenway (although I haven't drawn that, either
)...Sure the Red Sox suck sometimes, but you're still at Fenway. Enjoy it. It's legendary.
Ok, enough of the boring stuff. LET'S GET TO THE SHENANIGANS!
Thursday - An interesting day. A new place, met a bunch of new people. Loaded the truck up and hit the road, arriving at 7:15 or so. Checked in, headed to my number one spot. I was the 1st vehicle there. I believe there were about 6 or 7 vehicles there before 9 when we all took off. We were all pretty lucky I would say as no one was really around each other. I got my Tethrd XL Platform and Hawk Helium sticks set up, I was probably about 20 or 25 feet off the ground looking over a dried up ditch. I had set up a mock scrape in October and it had looked like it was getting hit. Last Saturday I went back and freshened it up a bit... still looked like it was getting hit, no one around me...it was definitely going to get some action...
FRIDAY - ...and I was right. By 6:10 - because it was my very first time to climb into the saddle, hell, it was my first time to ever climb a tree with sticks and homemade daisy chains, it took me a bit to figure it all out. If you know me, you know I have a healthy fear of falling, lol. Heights don't get me. It's falling. Anyway. I sit patient, relax, get used to the saddle for the first time for an extended period (my poor elm tree allowed me to practice about 3 feet off the ground for a little bit.) Legal light is 6:32 that morning. I hear a grunt. I look, can't see anything. I hear another. I look at my watch, it is literally 6:32 and 3 seconds. The exact moment we had legal light and there are two grunts. Again - the legendary Hagerman living up to its reputation. Roughly 30 minutes later, I look behind me to the southwest. I see a buck! I couldn't tell how many points, it was about 75 yds away and the stuff is pretty thick. He is being trailed by another buck. They come north after making their way across the drainage ditch. They exit into an open field I came from. A doe is trailing those two bucks...she stops, stares...and walks out. I ended up seeing a pretty good buck if the left side matched the right, again about 75 yards away, and two more does. One of which was within 30 to 40 yards but was in quite a hurry. Finally, after about 8ish hours, I decided to get down. The deer I had seen were not taking the expected route I had planned on them taking. I wanted to get another full day of saddle hunting in and my hips were finally starting to feel it, so I decided to go back to the truck for a bite to eat, warm up quickly, and head back out. That's when I got the infamous flat tire.
Now that I was bound to walking the rest of the hunt, I decided to make the most of it and still hunt as I didn't think I could make it there and back quickly on foot since I was about a mile in. This worked as planned, a doe came out. It was my primary goal - get the golden ticket. I don't think most would try to take a doe on day one, but I want to hunt this place as much as I can in my lifetime. In my mind, doubling the amount of time I get is well worth it. So, I crawled a bit, got on my knees, ranged her at I believe 33 yards, and let one fly. A complete miss. Trying to figure out what happened, knowing I rushed the shot and could have had better form, I ended up discovering that my range was off. I believe I hit a patch of grass. Later at Chick-fil-a, I got some great advice. "Measure twice, cut once." Seems like I would have thought about that, but hey, in the heat of the moment, you don't really think. (This would come in GREAT later.)
SATURDAY - Not much to say on Saturday. My plan shifted slightly. Continue to play the wind, but instead of getting in the saddle, I wanted to hunt the same open field. I found a spot, and sat there. About 8:30, two does came out. They winded me and blew about 15 times, lol. I have the effect on women I guess. She was real PO'ed. After that, I went back into the saddle. Day two was much better as I was easing into a comfortable level within the saddle. I don't think the platform was on the best, but no worries. I just had a doubt in my mind. Not a big one, but it was there. Around 10:30 or 11, another hunted had passed by trailing a deer he shot the previous morning. I got down, helped a bit, but I felt the area was probably toast. And that's just the nature of public hunting - I wanted him to find that buck! Unfortunately, no recovery. Hopefully, he survived. At this point I felt it was time to make a switch. I moved to another unit and decided to hunt there. There was nothing until about 3:45. I only saw one side, but man, was it big. Big 8 point that I absolutely would have taken...no doubt. I grunted, he acted like he never heard it and continued on his path. It was at that moment I decided that a change of plans was needed. The plan... race to my spot in Sandy and take it down so I could pack it into a new spot Sunday. I left my spot at 4:15 and just barely made it out before 7 with everything.
SUNDAY - I decided on a new spot and felt it was perfect given the circumstances. While I had been seeing deer, it was very tough to get them to come close. For what it's worth, I learned that deer would be moving on or near embankments cruising along the embankment, sometimes through. The deer I saw I wouldn't say were traveling along the embankment, they were next to it. This whole time I was picking trees on the edge of overhangs and looking down, figuring to have shots of them traveling on trails crossing them. I think next time, I'll set up about 20 yards from these ditches and hunt outside of them, not in them. I think that's going to be the biggest take away as far as learning from experience. Blah blah - you already know about the dogs. Federal game wardens have the video of them crossing roughly 35 yards from me. Funny how 5 minutes after the video was posted here, the dogs stop barking. Then 5 minutes after I post that I shot the doe, they start heading my way. Hmm.
Anyway...So I decided since this drainage ditch is pretty open and steep in some places, I only needed to go about 8 feet up. I set up two sticks and the platform to the left of them. Now it's day 3, my third day in the saddle and ****, I'm comfortable in it. Real comfortable. A buck comes by, couldn't tell how big, but he was legal and since this was my last hunt, he would have been shot. He never stopped. He was head down sniffing something. I see a few more does being chased by dogs in the distance. I truly felt that while the dog thing was bs, I felt it would HELP me in the long run. 1 - all the deer in the entire unit are being chased by these **** dogs. This to me means that literally, any random deer could pop up at any time. The other thing was that these deer are now winded running miles from the dogs and they'd be making mistakes as their mental focus is now drained, and if shot, I bet they don't have that much energy left.
Not 20 minutes after the dogs left the area, two doe came in from directly in front of the tree I was in. I could not see them, and I could not hear them. I just happened to swing off to the left, because I was much more comfortable, to check a trail that the buck had used previously. I see one deer with it's head behind a pair of trees. I make my way toward my Obsession... DANG, forgot to nock an arrow! I grab one...nock it... she hasn't moved an inch. I look, she FINALLY moves her head, it's a doe. I range her not once, but twice, (told you it would come into play!) and confirm 41 yards. Disclaimer - I would typically not take a 41 yard shot through a shooting lane that has a decent amount of thorny vines, but the vitals were literally picture-perfect. I couldn't have placed her in a better area. I figured it's now or never. I moved my double pin to 30/40, backed off to confirm where I was at, pulled back, took a breath and let her rip.
It was hard to see the nocturnal. I heard a loud THUD...I thought I missed and hit a tree. She turned and ran...but I had hope. When she took off, she was stumbling pretty bad on her front two legs. I thought perhaps I missed high, or that thud was potentially her spine. After 30 minutes, I go look for my arrow. Can't find it. I can't find blood either. I was a bit confused...I thought I missed. I kept ranging the tree, saying, "Ok, she should have been here. Where's the blood." Nothing. Frustration starts to creep in. I give up on the arrow and decide to just look where she ran. That's when I noticed a nice big trail of blood. It was very easy to follow. I turn on my OnX tracker and start hiking. She went 75 yards before I find her piled up. I look at the entrance, ehhh...maybe not a golden ticket. I flip her, look at the exit. OK, now I felt confident that I would in fact get it! I believe it was a little far forward, but I also believe that the 628 grain pool sticks I was shooting went directly through her shoulder and came directly out the other side without much deflection. You could see the three cutting blades the Annihilator left behind on the exit. I drug her over to a trail, but the dogs were coming. I decided that it was a race against the dogs. I had to walk to the truck, about 1.25 miles, drive to the HDQ, about 25 minutes one way, get a cart, drive another 25 minutes and walk back in. I felt field dressing her would not benefit me, the dogs, the yotes, something would find her if I did that and left her for about 2 hours. I put her behind a shade tree and off I went. On the drive out, I got lucky and find someone driving in with a cart. That shaved off quite a bit of time. I walked to their stand, got the cart, go to the truck and drove back to where I parked. I made the hike in, and when I got there, an eye had already been picked out and her guts opened up by the vultures. I shooed one of them away, loaded her up, and got in a **** good workout pushing/pulling her uphill. I will feel this one tomorrow.
I got to the station, she weighed 120 lbs on the dot. I was correct about shot placement, still hit lungs, but a touch forward. I'll take for 41 yds and the first shot ever from a saddle. (I will update the Saddle thread on my experience specific to that...)
And that's it. I made a ton of friends, talk to some great people and learned more in the last couple of months than I probably knew about hunting up until this point in my life. I am super pumped and look forward to what I can do to those big *******s after a year to plan. Thanks for following me along this journey! I hope Segment B was a success from an onlookers standpoint. Goodluck Segment C hunters.
PS... PIGS... I've seen 2 for a combined 1.5 seconds in 8 days in Hagerman. And I've never even heard them the entire time I've been there...Maybe they are in BM or Harris, but they never were near me. Deer - in my experience, which is a small sample - run that place.
CTRL+F "Sunday" for the write up of just the deer I shot or read the first five paragraphs for the general thoughts. The rest is just Thursday - Saturday nothing burger.Ok, time for the recap...even though I've tried to keep everyone updated on my hunt, I'll try to fill all the gaps between.
First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who helped me out with this hunt. If you're reading this, you know who you are. I won't mention names because I don't want you to be harassed in the future. Not that I'm any different from any other Joe Schmoe off the internet, but I took all of your combined knowledge and information, along with the countless hours of studying I did on my own, and I became a much, MUCH better hunter. Still not great, still have a lot of mistakes to make. But I've grown as a hunter 100%. I'll take that knowledge and it will serve me for the rest of my hunting life. Thank you.
I'll also be admitting places, although you could probably figure out most of them. I don't mind sharing what I have learned and figured out on my own, but if I got the intel from someone else, it'll stay between us. I wouldn't lend out a borrowed tool to someone else and that's what I equate that to.
I know it was discussed yesterday regarding the legendary status Hagerman has and whether or not it still exists. I'm here to tell you, it still exists. To my knowledge, it probably started in the 90s, and it continued through today. And in my opinion, it always will continue. Even if there are 3,000 applicants, this place will remain legendary as long as there are hunts there.
Technology only helps it maintain that status. The rumors swirling - "massive buck headed your way," "I hope I don't regret passing that 130," "I just saw a 150 - he was in and out like a ghost." To me, it's like playing at Fenway (although I haven't drawn that, either
)...Sure the Red Sox suck sometimes, but you're still at Fenway. Enjoy it. It's legendary.Ok, enough of the boring stuff. LET'S GET TO THE SHENANIGANS!
Thursday - An interesting day. A new place, met a bunch of new people. Loaded the truck up and hit the road, arriving at 7:15 or so. Checked in, headed to my number one spot. I was the 1st vehicle there. I believe there were about 6 or 7 vehicles there before 9 when we all took off. We were all pretty lucky I would say as no one was really around each other. I got my Tethrd XL Platform and Hawk Helium sticks set up, I was probably about 20 or 25 feet off the ground looking over a dried up ditch. I had set up a mock scrape in October and it had looked like it was getting hit. Last Saturday I went back and freshened it up a bit... still looked like it was getting hit, no one around me...it was definitely going to get some action...
FRIDAY - ...and I was right. By 6:10 - because it was my very first time to climb into the saddle, hell, it was my first time to ever climb a tree with sticks and homemade daisy chains, it took me a bit to figure it all out. If you know me, you know I have a healthy fear of falling, lol. Heights don't get me. It's falling. Anyway. I sit patient, relax, get used to the saddle for the first time for an extended period (my poor elm tree allowed me to practice about 3 feet off the ground for a little bit.) Legal light is 6:32 that morning. I hear a grunt. I look, can't see anything. I hear another. I look at my watch, it is literally 6:32 and 3 seconds. The exact moment we had legal light and there are two grunts. Again - the legendary Hagerman living up to its reputation. Roughly 30 minutes later, I look behind me to the southwest. I see a buck! I couldn't tell how many points, it was about 75 yds away and the stuff is pretty thick. He is being trailed by another buck. They come north after making their way across the drainage ditch. They exit into an open field I came from. A doe is trailing those two bucks...she stops, stares...and walks out. I ended up seeing a pretty good buck if the left side matched the right, again about 75 yards away, and two more does. One of which was within 30 to 40 yards but was in quite a hurry. Finally, after about 8ish hours, I decided to get down. The deer I had seen were not taking the expected route I had planned on them taking. I wanted to get another full day of saddle hunting in and my hips were finally starting to feel it, so I decided to go back to the truck for a bite to eat, warm up quickly, and head back out. That's when I got the infamous flat tire.
Now that I was bound to walking the rest of the hunt, I decided to make the most of it and still hunt as I didn't think I could make it there and back quickly on foot since I was about a mile in. This worked as planned, a doe came out. It was my primary goal - get the golden ticket. I don't think most would try to take a doe on day one, but I want to hunt this place as much as I can in my lifetime. In my mind, doubling the amount of time I get is well worth it. So, I crawled a bit, got on my knees, ranged her at I believe 33 yards, and let one fly. A complete miss. Trying to figure out what happened, knowing I rushed the shot and could have had better form, I ended up discovering that my range was off. I believe I hit a patch of grass. Later at Chick-fil-a, I got some great advice. "Measure twice, cut once." Seems like I would have thought about that, but hey, in the heat of the moment, you don't really think. (This would come in GREAT later.)SATURDAY - Not much to say on Saturday. My plan shifted slightly. Continue to play the wind, but instead of getting in the saddle, I wanted to hunt the same open field. I found a spot, and sat there. About 8:30, two does came out. They winded me and blew about 15 times, lol. I have the effect on women I guess. She was real PO'ed. After that, I went back into the saddle. Day two was much better as I was easing into a comfortable level within the saddle. I don't think the platform was on the best, but no worries. I just had a doubt in my mind. Not a big one, but it was there. Around 10:30 or 11, another hunted had passed by trailing a deer he shot the previous morning. I got down, helped a bit, but I felt the area was probably toast. And that's just the nature of public hunting - I wanted him to find that buck! Unfortunately, no recovery. Hopefully, he survived. At this point I felt it was time to make a switch. I moved to another unit and decided to hunt there. There was nothing until about 3:45. I only saw one side, but man, was it big. Big 8 point that I absolutely would have taken...no doubt. I grunted, he acted like he never heard it and continued on his path. It was at that moment I decided that a change of plans was needed. The plan... race to my spot in Sandy and take it down so I could pack it into a new spot Sunday. I left my spot at 4:15 and just barely made it out before 7 with everything.
SUNDAY - I decided on a new spot and felt it was perfect given the circumstances. While I had been seeing deer, it was very tough to get them to come close. For what it's worth, I learned that deer would be moving on or near embankments cruising along the embankment, sometimes through. The deer I saw I wouldn't say were traveling along the embankment, they were next to it. This whole time I was picking trees on the edge of overhangs and looking down, figuring to have shots of them traveling on trails crossing them. I think next time, I'll set up about 20 yards from these ditches and hunt outside of them, not in them. I think that's going to be the biggest take away as far as learning from experience. Blah blah - you already know about the dogs. Federal game wardens have the video of them crossing roughly 35 yards from me. Funny how 5 minutes after the video was posted here, the dogs stop barking. Then 5 minutes after I post that I shot the doe, they start heading my way. Hmm.
Anyway...So I decided since this drainage ditch is pretty open and steep in some places, I only needed to go about 8 feet up. I set up two sticks and the platform to the left of them. Now it's day 3, my third day in the saddle and ****, I'm comfortable in it. Real comfortable. A buck comes by, couldn't tell how big, but he was legal and since this was my last hunt, he would have been shot. He never stopped. He was head down sniffing something. I see a few more does being chased by dogs in the distance. I truly felt that while the dog thing was bs, I felt it would HELP me in the long run. 1 - all the deer in the entire unit are being chased by these **** dogs. This to me means that literally, any random deer could pop up at any time. The other thing was that these deer are now winded running miles from the dogs and they'd be making mistakes as their mental focus is now drained, and if shot, I bet they don't have that much energy left.
Not 20 minutes after the dogs left the area, two doe came in from directly in front of the tree I was in. I could not see them, and I could not hear them. I just happened to swing off to the left, because I was much more comfortable, to check a trail that the buck had used previously. I see one deer with it's head behind a pair of trees. I make my way toward my Obsession... DANG, forgot to nock an arrow! I grab one...nock it... she hasn't moved an inch. I look, she FINALLY moves her head, it's a doe. I range her not once, but twice, (told you it would come into play!) and confirm 41 yards. Disclaimer - I would typically not take a 41 yard shot through a shooting lane that has a decent amount of thorny vines, but the vitals were literally picture-perfect. I couldn't have placed her in a better area. I figured it's now or never. I moved my double pin to 30/40, backed off to confirm where I was at, pulled back, took a breath and let her rip.
It was hard to see the nocturnal. I heard a loud THUD...I thought I missed and hit a tree. She turned and ran...but I had hope. When she took off, she was stumbling pretty bad on her front two legs. I thought perhaps I missed high, or that thud was potentially her spine. After 30 minutes, I go look for my arrow. Can't find it. I can't find blood either. I was a bit confused...I thought I missed. I kept ranging the tree, saying, "Ok, she should have been here. Where's the blood." Nothing. Frustration starts to creep in. I give up on the arrow and decide to just look where she ran. That's when I noticed a nice big trail of blood. It was very easy to follow. I turn on my OnX tracker and start hiking. She went 75 yards before I find her piled up. I look at the entrance, ehhh...maybe not a golden ticket. I flip her, look at the exit. OK, now I felt confident that I would in fact get it! I believe it was a little far forward, but I also believe that the 628 grain pool sticks I was shooting went directly through her shoulder and came directly out the other side without much deflection. You could see the three cutting blades the Annihilator left behind on the exit. I drug her over to a trail, but the dogs were coming. I decided that it was a race against the dogs. I had to walk to the truck, about 1.25 miles, drive to the HDQ, about 25 minutes one way, get a cart, drive another 25 minutes and walk back in. I felt field dressing her would not benefit me, the dogs, the yotes, something would find her if I did that and left her for about 2 hours. I put her behind a shade tree and off I went. On the drive out, I got lucky and find someone driving in with a cart. That shaved off quite a bit of time. I walked to their stand, got the cart, go to the truck and drove back to where I parked. I made the hike in, and when I got there, an eye had already been picked out and her guts opened up by the vultures. I shooed one of them away, loaded her up, and got in a **** good workout pushing/pulling her uphill. I will feel this one tomorrow.
I got to the station, she weighed 120 lbs on the dot. I was correct about shot placement, still hit lungs, but a touch forward. I'll take for 41 yds and the first shot ever from a saddle. (I will update the Saddle thread on my experience specific to that...)
And that's it. I made a ton of friends, talk to some great people and learned more in the last couple of months than I probably knew about hunting up until this point in my life. I am super pumped and look forward to what I can do to those big *******s after a year to plan. Thanks for following me along this journey! I hope Segment B was a success from an onlookers standpoint. Goodluck Segment C hunters.
PS... PIGS... I've seen 2 for a combined 1.5 seconds in 8 days in Hagerman. And I've never even heard them the entire time I've been there...Maybe they are in BM or Harris, but they never were near me. Deer - in my experience, which is a small sample - run that place.
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