Washington Blacktail

[coonhound40]

I broke my cardinal rule, I have always been dead set against frontal shots. I've passed on many elk and deer that have been facing me. Of course this year I was having to work pretty hard to find a good buck. This guy came along and I got greedy and a little arrogant, I decided to take a face on shot. This is when it got tough, I hit the left shoulder only, I barely got any of his vitals. If there hadn't been snow on the ground I doubt I would have recovered this buck. I had to track him about a mile.

It gets worse, he took me down into a deep river canyon and when he died he fell off a 30 ft cliff into the river. It took me about an hour to find a way down to him and several hours to pack the boned out meat up the hill. I also had to wade across a swift stream with thigh deep water in the middle of a snow storm.

I think I learned my lesson the hard way, I don't care how good of a shot we think we are I don't believe frontal shots are ethical. I know a lot of game has been taken with this shot but I bet just as much has been lost and never talked about.

I feel pretty fortunate that I was able to recover him.

I didn't get very good pictures, my batteries went dead after one shot, after I boned him out it let me take one more shot. Pretty dissapointing, the pictures are just as important as the trophy to me.

Kind of a unique buck, I've never shot a 4 x 2 before, not a monster but respectable.

Coon

 

[scoyoc5]

congrats on your nice buck Jeff I can't wait to hear the story at work...Now I need some help getting Marcus a deer...Buddy.lol
John

 

[bonefreak]

congrats thats a nice bt
nice work sticking with it to find him and get him out.

 

[jmcenulty]

Congrats.
I admire you for setting standards, but keep in mind that others might have different standards then yours (or mine), but are still legal. There are quit a few out there that would say any shot is "unethical". Would I take a frontal shot? Probably not, but I would not judge someone that did. Don't get me wrong though, I am not saying anthing "legal" is ethical. Just saying we need to be careful about judging others hunting tactics based on our beliefs.
Once again congrats and way to stick with tracking him down. Some would have gave up without giving half the effort you did.

 

[lymanboy]

I dont understand what you mean by your post jmcenulty...He gave his story (which was a good one) and his opinion on taking his shot..I agree totally and you are talking about legalities of some sort..He didnt say anything about anybody personally and it was his honest opinion....Dont understand where your going with this post???

 

[jmcenulty]

Let's start with I thought my post wasn't an "attack" on Coon or at least that is the way I tried to present it. I said I admire him for his ethics. Most people don't have them. Maybe I read into his post. I got out of it that anyone who would take a frontal shot was not an ethical hunter. If this is not what he meant and he was only talking about himself then I appologize. If he did mean what I thought I still am not "slamming" him. Just saying that we need to be careful of judging others by our own hunting ethics. This applies to me also and if you see me judging someone's hunting ethics by my standards then feel free to call me on it. You can save this post and refer me back to it.

 

[jmcenulty]

Lymanboy,
One more thing. Your wrong, his story wan't good. It was great.

 

[lymanboy]

lol, yea it was...mybad...gosh i want a blacktail like that...someday hopefully...Justin

 

[coonhound40]

Let me shed a little clarity on my post.

I was, for the most part, trying to express my dissatisfaction with myself. I did however, after reading it, imply that my ethics were the only ethics and everyone should live my them.(sorry) I didn't mean to come across that way, I did however feel it was appropriate to share my experience in hopes someone might gain some valuable insight.

Coon