{"id":1755,"date":"2016-08-28T08:57:41","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T15:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/?p=1755"},"modified":"2017-04-08T11:24:26","modified_gmt":"2017-04-08T18:24:26","slug":"my-august-2016-california-blacktail-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/28\/my-august-2016-california-blacktail-hunt\/","title":{"rendered":"My August 2016 California Blacktail Hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

August finally arrived for my annual hunt at the Diamond C Ranch in Humboldt, California. Arrived Friday August 12th and sat a blind the first night hoping for a bow shot at a big 4×4 seen on trail cams and dubbed ‘Q-Tip’. The sit was fairly uneventful with only some does and a small buck seen at the periphery of the woods adjoining the field that the trial feeds into.<\/p>\n

Second night I moved to a new blind that had been more active hoping for a shot at a large non-typical that was called ‘Kong’. This time around 7:30 in full\u00a0 daylight Kong and a younger 3×3 emerged from the woods and came down the trail towards the blind without a care in the world. For the longest time Kong was behind the younger buck but eventually he presented a broadside at just under 20 yards. This whole time my heart was pounding. I couldn’t believe this had even happened. I drew my bow, was a little shaky, tried to settle my top pin on him, released, MISS! Not just a close one but by a mile like a yard high left. They run off. I can’t believe it. I must have been just white knuckling my bow.<\/p>\n

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\"Large<\/a>

Large non-typical Blacktail buck<\/p><\/div>\n

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I continued to sit the blind and then with about 5 minutes left of legal shooting light a 3×3 came in. Dylan had mentioned a 3×3 with one eye guard that was on the list. I decided he would be good bow buck, drew on him, relaxed, focused on my pin, released, and heard a good hit with my Nockturnal passing through him landing in the grass behind. I didn’t think he would go very far. We waiting about 45 minutes. Dylan arrived, we checked my arrow and it looked great. It wasn’t hard to find him, he went not 30 yards. Unfortunately he was not the buck we wanted to kill but a younger 3×3! Not a great day for me, missing a giant and then shooting a young buck.<\/p>\n

\"2016<\/a><\/p>\n

The next day we drove around looking for a buck dubbed ‘The Whitetail’ with a rack on one side similar to one. We never did see him and a hunter would take him with a rifle shortly after I left. The next night we decided I would sit for Kong again. Not much going on this time, a doe and fawns, a spike. Kong is probably not going to take the trail for a while, so disappointed with my showing this year.<\/p>\n

Monday I need to get back home but we decide to drive to a different area on the ranch. Early in the morning we spotted a wide 3×3 on a hill top. We decide he’s a good buck and as he disappears over the top we plan a stalk around the side. We get to a point where we can see his rack just above the tall grass. I quickly get prone with my new Browning A-Bolt Medallion, on the bi-pod, I can just make out his neck below the grass. I squeeze off a shot and he turns and moves off, not fast and I’m surprised I didn’t drop him. I work the bolt and put another in him from behind. We wait about 30 minutes and start to explore the area. Not finding any blood but I am positive he’s killed. We look a long time and finally find him, he was in a depression in the grass and hidden from view. I’m pleased with this buck, he’s fully 20″ wide. I’ll be thinking about Kong all year and if he survives I’ll hope I get the gift of another shot at him and can pull myself together and get it done!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The view of the shot for my 2016 blacktail rifle buck<\/p><\/div>\n

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Save<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2016<\/a><\/p>\n

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August finally arrived for my annual hunt at the Diamond C Ranch in Humboldt, California. Arrived Friday August 12th and sat a blind the first night hoping for a bow shot at a big 4×4 seen on trail cams and dubbed ‘Q-Tip’. The sit was fairly uneventful with only some does and a small buck […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,5],"tags":[34,15,50,89],"class_list":["post-1755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archery-2","category-hunting","tag-archery","tag-blacktail","tag-diamond-c-outfitters","tag-hunting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1755"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1834,"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions\/1834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mseanbrowne.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}