The deer season in Area Thirty-Nine was still open and would be for a couple more weekends. This was the fall of 1971, and the weather was nice for October. We had been out a couple times already for deer without much success. We had seen deer at Stewart Gulch, the weekend before, so Harry and I decided to take Uncle Lewie up there for just one day. We always enjoy hunting with him, he is a good dependable guy who hunts the same as we were taught. His age was starting to slow him down some now. We hunt close together as a unit anyway, so if he has any problems, we would be close by to help him. On this trip Aunt Lucy went with us also. The plan was for her to stay at the car, while we made a large circle towards the upper end of Stewart Gulch, then back towards the car. She would know about where we were most of the time. She knows the area as well as we do.
A couple of hours into the hunt we came to a large open area of Stewart Gulch. Harry was a few hundred feet from Uncle Lewie and I, when we peeked through the sage brush to see the Creek bottom. There was a small herd of deer standing around feeding on willow leaves. Most of them were does, but I could see one was a two-point buck. We were only about a hundred yards or so above them. Uncle Lewie uses a .270 caliber rifle with a scope while I had my .30-30 rifle. Harry also uses a .30-30 rifle, which was Dad’s old rifle. All of them are excellent for deer within their range. The deer either heard us or caught sight of us and started milling around nervously. I kneeled for a good solid rest and took careful aim at the two-point buck. I hit him squarely between the shoulders in the center of the back. Shooting straight downhill the bullet came out the bottom of his chest. He dropped flat on his belly with all four feet sticking out in all directions. The bullet had broken his back and killed him instantly, he never moved a muscle. When I shot, the rest of the deer started running up the far hillside. Uncle Lewie picked out a nice fat doe, put the scope on her and at the kick of his rifle, she came to a stop but did not go down. He took careful aim at her again and this time she went down like a rag doll. Harry came running over to see what was going on, only to find himself too late to get in on the fun. The rest of the deer were just going over the ridge, out of sight. He would have liked to have been in on the shooting, but he was happy for us.
Now the hard part was about to begin. We had two nice deer clean out and get to the road. We quickly went down to the deer to proceed with dressing them out. The buck was still all sprawled out the same way he had fallen. The bullet had done a number on the backbone. We went over to the doe to see where Uncle Lewie had hit her. The first bullet had hit her on the right shoulder, tearing it up badly. She was standing in shock when the second bullet hit her. However, the second shot was not necessary, but we did not know at the time. Most of the shoulder meat was lost, but there would be plenty on the rest of her. The doe was dragged down to where the buck was before cleaning her out. It did not take very long for the three of us to dress them out. The place picked was level and grassy, which helped a whole lot. When all was done, we put the hearts and livers in some special bags we had along, Aunt Lucy would be all over us if we left them behind. Now it was time to l○○k around to see where we were and where the nearest road would be. We thought the best plan would be to go right on down Stewart Gulch to the Bogus Basin Road. We were about a mile from it as near as we could tell. There was a good trail down the creek bottom, so that would be the easiest way to get them out. We decided to drag them in one piece since neither deer were very large. Harry and I tied a piece of rope to each one of them and away we went. Uncle Lewie would scout out the trail and help pull over the rough spots. Meanwhile back at the car, Aunt Lucy had heard us shooting. She knew very well that when we shot a couple of times that we shot something. She would give us an hour or so then start driving up the road to pick us up. She always knows where we would come out. We had both deer down to the road in about fifteen minutes, when she came looking for us. We always marveled at how she seemed to know where we were, but we were sure glad to see her.
The deer were loaded into the back of their 1949 Ford and away we went for home. The deer were skinned and sacked up to be hung for a few days to age before cutting them into steaks and stew meat′ we do not like venison hamburger so none of the scraps are saved. We made a good pile of wrapped packages, and the meat was good eating. Everyone had a good time, and it was a successful trip. We would go again before we go on our full-week trip for elk in November.