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Ashley Got Her Deer!
Posted by Junior Shooters
Ashley Rumble (18)
Circling around the hill and over the ridge.
For three years I have been attempting to get a deer. Each time I thought that we would be successful, but we had no luck. With the help of someone that had the resources and experience, it finally happened.
In the spring of 2019, my dad and I met Rick Brazell, the head of First Hunt Foundation, at a meeting where we swapped phone numbers and hatched a game plan for the coming season. Some may remember Rick from a previous story where he assisted my dad and I with our successful turkey hunt. After that, we began to plan for a deer hunt.
As October neared, I was provided a Savage AXIS XP rifle chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor. As with any game, I wanted the shot to count, so I then went to the range to make sure I had the rifle sighted in and get used to it. I’ve used Savage rifles before and know them to be reliable, and the 6.5 rarely lets you down.
Late October finally arrived, and it was off to North Idaho with high hopes of finally getting my first deer. I had a general youth tag that allowed me a buck or doe Mule deer and white tail. However, the area we were hunting limited me to only white tail buck. I also had a doe draw for the same area for both mule and whitetail as well. We wanted to keep our options as open as possible.
Rick Brazell, head of the First Hunt Foundation with Ashley and her first deer.
We met up with Rick and laid out the plan for the day. It was still early in the day, so we had plenty of time to get where we needed to be and set up for the evening feeding time. Deer usually come out twice a day, in the morning and the evening, while during the day they bed down to digest. With that info, we headed out to an area Rick thought we would find what we were looking for. We were going to be hunting on private property, so it was important to get permission before hand. Thankfully, it was already taken care of, but we figured the landowner would still want to meet us, so our first stop was his house.
The landowner Joseph was a very nice and knowledgeable man who gave us a few tips and showed us where he was going to let us hunt, and off we went. The wind was really picking up by this point, and I was getting concerned about how it would affect any long shots I might have to deal with. I decided to keep them close if I could. About an hour into our hunt, we came into a herd of mule deer on a hillside the looked accessible. We set up and I took a shot at one of the does, but I unfortunately missed.
We circled around a hill to another field and went over a ridge where we saw another doe all alone. This one was a white tail. We decided to see if we could cut her off.
However, we pressed on and went over the ridge where we saw a lone apple tree that looked promising. Just as we got to the tree, we saw where my doe had gone. She was now with several others, and a buck. This buck I could take, so that is where I settled my efforts. He was a nice six point and it was not going to get much better than this.
Again, the wind was in our faces, so our noise and smell would not carry so much to them. I set my rifle on a tripod that Rick had and tried to calm down. It could not get any better than this, so I had to make it count.
We were 175 yards apart, and I was confident that I could make the shot. I waited for the buck to turn broadside to me, and that seemed to take forever, but that is part of the process. Then he finally moved to where I could make the shot and I got my breathing level, took my time to aim right, and pulled the trigger. I saw his head jump up and I thought I had missed again, Rick insisted that I had not. The buck took ten steps and was down.
The walk over to him seemed to take forever. I kept expecting him to jump up and run off, but nothing happened. When we got to him, Rick told me to poke the deer to make sure. Rick had done this a few times, and walked me through the whole process of field dressing a deer. It was not anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be, and I had cleaned a turkey last fall, so I had some experience, but a deer is much more involved. First thing I learned was I did not have a good knife. It was too big, so we used Rick’s knife. Lesson learned for next time. Next is to be very careful not to nick anything that could potentially ruin the meat. After about thirty minutes, it was time to pack out. Fortunately, we had access to an ATV. We were about a mile from the pickup at this point, and he was not a lightweight. Having the ATV was a huge time saver, as we were losing light very quickly.
After we got it back to the house, we skinned it and cleaned the head in preparation for the euro mount I had planned. The next day we still had a whole day to hunt to fill my dad’s tag, or my second one, but we needed to get home. We thanked Rick for his hospitality, and his help, and made our way back to Boise.
After we were home for a few days, I was able to take the head to Swanson Skullery in Emmett, ID to have the euro mount done. They have a deal were any junior can bring in their first big game harvest and Swanson’s will do the cleaning process for free. A few weeks later, I got the finished product back, and it was perfect. It took a long time and a lot of help from others for me to get my first big game harvest. I am grateful to all of them for the effort they put in to help me out. It was a great experience and I cannot wait to do it again.
As far as any advice, I would have for others trying for their first game animal. Find a good mentor that knows the ropes. Have good boots, a good knife, lots of patience. and be ready to walk a lot. Most of all, enjoy the time in the mountains, and have fun. What happens out there you will remember the rest of your life, so enjoy it.
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