I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to hunt the early, black powder, mule deer season in Washington State with my son every year. The hunt always takes place in late September. The area is located near Pullman on the steps above Lewiston, Washington on the border with Idaho. The land we hunt is an expansive area of bean fields on top and the canyon breaks that fall a few thousand vertical feet to the Lewiston River below. The fields of beans and wheat start at the canyon rim and go from there all the way up to Canada.

I say fortunate because not only is it the early season with nice warm weather but we're also the only hunters allowed on the property. Four years ago my son cleaned out a huge old barn for the elderly gentleman in exchange for us having permission to hunt the property. My son is now a member of their family and we're very welcome to hunt his property at will. A big bonus is we also get some good reports on the deer.

The mule deer in “heavens valley” are big with some real trophies available if you’re lucky enough to get close enough to one. I say lucky enough because it’s all open country where you have to sneak into the deer’s kitchen to get an ethical shot. It always entails a lot of crawling and long periods of sitting still until you have another opportunity to move forward. The long breaks down to the canyon floor are very steep and filled with nooks and crannies that hold the bedding areas for the deer. Historically, we are successful in getting close enough to consider a shot one out of five times. Unfortunately...lol....there are so many deer that we have a good chance of getting busted by the does before we get close enough to the buck.

On our first morning the weather forecast called for temperatures in the 90''s. We arrived early and set up on a bluff across the canyon from the garbanzo fields. We glassed perhaps 50 deer in the field as they slowly made their way towards the canyon rims and then down the break to the bedding area. We spotted three really nice bucks… one of which we had seen before and named "Moses". He has a non typical rack that is wide and tall with crazy additional points. The buck went down the fourth break and we both looked at each other in memory of the fat-ass 5x5 we dragged out of there last year. It’s a steep ass canyon that’s hard to get into on a stock and dragging a deer out of there is a real bitch in the best case scenario. The alternative thought would be quartering any kill in there and end up lumbering up and down the canyon all day.

My son had put in the dibs for him last year so we set out on a stock. We glassed four or five possible shooter bucks bedded down on our stock over to Moses. We let them be because we were after Moses and because I had my eye on one of them and had a vision of me and my son tagging out on the first day. Unfortunately, we didn't find Moses even though we spent a good deal of time sneaking into the area. We felt that he must have got down into the lower breaks and bedded down in one of the nooks and crannies .He did the same thing to us last year. Dam!

We then turned our attention to the other bucks we has glassed. At this point it was in the nineties with no relief by shade. The deer I wanted was gone by the time we got closer enough to look. We knew the next canyon held a good size deer that had a funky rack. The buck was bedded way down in a steep draw, on the side of the hill, and on the cliff face making it a tough stock. We climbed down the previous draw and came up on him after forty minutes from the cliff face on the opposite side of the draw and his bedding area. He was right there at 80 yards and knew there was something going on but hadn't yet spooked.

His location was really cool tucked onto the ledge of the cliff. We both knew from experience that the drag would be a real bitch. The bucks rack was funky but he had a huge body. It was time for one of those decisions all us hunters face. I decided to take him since both my sons had tags to fill and they would wait on me filling mine before they filled theirs...(except for Moses or Big Red of course). I waited him out for maybe five minutes in the heat and finally said the heck with it and made some noise to get him up. He went very alert and got up only to promptly fall with a clean shot that made mince meat of his heart. He was a 6X4 and perhaps six or seven years old. I used a 300 grain buffalo bullet with 90 grains of powder. Carcass!

The drag out was horrible and perhaps the hardest thing I‘ve ever done. It was very hot and we were low on water. The terrain was very steep with lots of rock wash and thistle. We had no choice but to hike back the three or four miles to the truck and get more water for what was to be a long day. We drove around to the canyon break and hiked down for the drag. To make a long story short, it took the better part of five hours, six gallons of water, and six or seven trips back to the truck to cool off and re-hydrate before we got that beast (ugly) up to the top.

We should have quartered the deer but didn’t …last time we don’t do that. I am way too old to be doing that…Brutal! I have since talked my son into buying a truck with a winch and a long cable!!!!!!.

My other son joined us the next day which turned out to be very windy and warm. We had two unsuccessful stocks on marginal bucks which took up half the day. My second son passed on a smallish and young typical 5x5 that we passed on the day before. We have since named him “Lucky” since he survived three hunters who had their sites on him.

The third day arrived with a colder morning creating a blanket of fog in the valleys We got to the area later because my youngest son had a bit of hangover from trying to keep up with his old man. We spotted just a few deer in the field and decided to hunt the steep canyon draws one by one.

The fog lifted out of the valleys and draws as the temperature rose covering the garbanzo fields on top while we made our way around to the rim. We stopped at the first break and laid low till the fog burned off a bit more…no sense in spooking any bucks because we walk up on them. After another 30 minutes or so, the fog lifted exposing 25 or so deer feeding in the garbanzo field. There were five or six nice bucks in the mix and Justin and Brian set out on a stock while I stayed back. The wind the days before had pushed all the sage up against the barbed wire fence creating a nice long blind to hide him as they tried to make up some distance to get within shooting range. The fog was moving up the canyons still and he went through periods of thick fog and clearing over the course of his stock which lasted about 40 minutes until I heard the crack of his rifle. I took off running and found Justin and Brian gloating over his monster buck.

As it turns out, Justin had lost sight of the deer in the fog and crawled out into the field trying to find them and cover ground. The buck (Casper) came out of the fog and was stopped at forty yards. Bad move for him as Justin dropped him on the spot. He was a perfect 5x5 and big.

The best part by far was that I was able to drive the truck right up to the carcass…no drag….thank god!

Unfortunately, Brian was not able to find a deer that he felt was worthy of a shot but the entire hunt was a memorable one. He gets first crack next year!...unless it’s Moses of course!