The first weekend in October I hunted with Dylan Carr of Diamond C Outfitters [707/926-5488] at his ranch in Humboldt County, Ca. I had an exciting, yet unsuccessful bowhunt earlier in the season. My first attempt at bowhunting, got close to some big bears and I blew many opportunities at nice bucks. So I was looking forward to having my rifle in my hands again for this hunt.

Dylan's ranch has some great blacktail habitat. Much of the time we spent glassing from a select spots and some driving the property dirt roads in his truck. I had originally planned a management hunt but now with two tags still I decdied if I could I would try to fill both.

We headed to a rock promentory that overlooks a huge area of rolling hills they called 'the slide'. ((video pan if you have broadband)This is the most beautiful vista and you feel like you could just sit here all day. I'm amazed that they can spot bucks in shadows at hundreds of yards away. After spotting a few different bucks all very far away Dylan sees one out now much closer and checks him out in the spotting scope. I know he must be near as the spotting scope is pointed down at an acute angle. Dylan says it's a great managment buck and has me slide over and check him out on their big swarovski spotter. He looks great to me. Dylan thinks it's the wide 2x3 he's been seeing here. He says we should just go right after him right now and 'git er done' as he would say in cowboy fashion. The buck is about 300 yards away. I'm all for cutting that distance so we slip back out the backside of our rock and then start to walk around a hill below and two the left. As we do Dylan looks back at me with a huge smile like he knows this is it! Now I start getting a little excited about the idea too. as we come around the lower hillside and start back up Dylan crawls the final distance up to the edge of the hill to see if the buck is still there. Dylan slowly scoots to the edge, then slips back a bit and motions me to crawl up on his right side. As I slide up there he's placed his fanny pack down for me to use as a rest. I slowly slide into place and slip my gun barrel onto his fanny pack. I get into a comfortable prone position and now try to ease forward enough to find the buck in my scope. the grass is still tall here and even on the pack I have enough strands that are obscuring my view. After ever so slightly adjusting my position a few times a very feint and hazy orange appartion seems to magically appear in my scope with the buck dead center, and my reticle small within his body. He turns broadside facing left and i'm rock steady on him squeezing and boom, i know I've made a good hit. He's down, then slowly back up again. I've reloaded and am on him again, Dylan says to wait as he's hit hard. I'm counting, he's shaky but starting to move. I'm wanting to anchor him and shoot again. He collapses, falls about ten feet below into the rocky creekbed. He's down. I watch him but he's done. I roll onto my back and take in the moment! Dylan is shaking my hand and congratulating me. We finally start to assess our situation. The buck was at 148 yards but is down a hill aways and now in a dry rocky creek bed. We make our way over there, we climb down into the creek bed, Dylan get's there first and raises his head, oh my god he's so wide! He's a great 2x3 and he thinks 22" wide. We manage to get him out of the creek bed, and Dylan actually carrying the buck on his back some of the way. Heath arrives with the ATV and we strap the buck on and head slowly back to the cabin. As we do the sun has sunk below the distant hilltops, a pale pink band above them blends into blue above.





When we get back I keep holding his rack in my hands and am so pleased, I've got such a great management buck, he's so wide, and sounds just like the buck that Dylan mentioned as a possible one many months ago when we first talked. My federal 140gr accubond hit perfectly on the shoulder and I didn't find an exit wound on his right side. I feel around his right foreleg and right in the underside I can feel my bullet! I don't know why but I"ve always wanted to recover a bullet and now this one's sitting right on the inside of his hide! We finally get him hung up on their scale and he's 137lbs! The biggest buck they've taken of the season. He's also 23 1/2 inches wide at the widest point! Dylan hands me the bullet as he and Heath skin the buck. It looks prefect, intact but expanded to the core. I'm so thrilled to have taken this buck cleanly on a perfect stalk. Dylan was great and really made it happen.

Sunday morning Melinda joins us. She missed a nice 3x3 earlier in the week and his trying again. I am so happy to have got my buck I let her take first shot. We ultimately don't find what she's looking for that morning and she has to head back up to Eureka.

After a nice lunch back at the cabin we decide to head back out early. It's overcast and cool with a 50/50 chance of rain. We need to head up to the upper ranch to check on a cow that was hit by a car. After the trip up to the top we pull over and can glass a huge area from the roadside. Soon Dylan has spotted a couple nice bucks and breaks out the big spotting scope. There are two bucks bedded down along a barbwire fence line, way down below us. With the spotting scope he makes out a nice 4x3 trophy buck with a 3x3. He asks if I want to try for them. I say definitely yes. As I say it I am noticing some very dark clouds blowing in from the coast. By the time we get in the truck and get down to the gate to head back onto the other side of alderpoint road it's now pouring rain. We slowy drive a new road further east towards where we saw the bucks, an area they called 'Crandall's' for a neighboring property they lease for hunting. As we drive down this dirt road it's now hailing! We have a creek to cross which they seem a little concerned about. Sure enough we have a hard time getting out of the creek and up the steep road on the other side, but eventually do. Now the hail is stopped and its just pouring rain. We are nearing the spot where we'll begin our stalk. I put on my lightweight rain gear and am thanking myself for thinking to stuff those into my backpack! We emerge from the truck in pouring rain and I'm a little skeptical about this stalk being successful. We walk slowly down a dirt road several hundred yards to a slight rise. Now Dylan is in front and we are crawling through the wet grass. Fortunately it's now stopped raining. We crawl about fifty yards and now have the barbwire fence on our left. Finally Dylan motions me to come up on his left. I rest my rifle barrel on one of the wires and after what seems like an eternity finally make out the back of a deer. Only it's the 3x3, Dylan tells me to wait for the 4x3 to step out. The rest on the wire is not that great and after a while the 3x3 moves off to the right out of sight. Dylan decides we need to circle back. We go back aways and cross a creek on our right and emerge on another grassy hill. Now we're crawling again and getting very close. Dylan again tells me to come up even with him. The wind is swirling and by the time I get up to him, several deer burst out from just beyond the hill in front of us, I stand aiming but see only the backends of moving deer with no shot or idea which is which. I think we've blown it but Dylan is watching and soon they cross the creek to the right of us and emerge on a grassy hill way off to our right, just outside the trees. The 4x3 is in front separated from two others. Dylan puts the sticks down and I quickly get him into my scope. The stix are a little shaky and my heart is pounding now. I squeeze and boom, I MISS! I can't believe it. But incredibly all three just stay put. Dylan even has to tell me to load another which I do quickly, now I'm back into the scope and I hold my barrel to the stix which is steady enough now. I have the buck broadside in my scope and start squeezing the trigger just as he starts walking to the right, I am tracking with him on his shoulder and on after a few steps I fire hitting him. He kicks out and they run into the trees. I quickly ask Dylan if it was a good shot and he says it was, right behind the shoulder. I ask him at least a few more times! He says we'll wait here for fifteen minutes or so. Now's the hard part again. I keep asking and he tells me he 'feels very good about the shot'. We wait an extremely long fifteen minutes before checking him out. Dylan ranged the shot at 168 yards. We cross the creek and head over to the grassy area looking for blood. Not finding any and I'm starting to worry . Finally Heath finds the blood trail. Once you see it you realize you can't possibly miss it. It's a six foot wide crimson spray dusting the yellow grass clearly leading into the woods to the creek's edge. We follow it up and when I get to the edge of the creek just inside the woods, there is the buck laid down peacefully on his side in the dry creek bed of grey quartz granite rock, bright orange leaves are scattered around him and green moss covered oaks boarder both sides of the creek. I'm elated to see him down and express myself a little colorfully (F Yes!!!) as the video captures. Dylan and I get down into the creek to see the buck. He's another really big bodied one with a beautiful 4x3 rack. Both side a great example of each.

I can hardly believe we have made this stalk work and after an hour and a half from first seeing this buck so far away, through rain and hail, and now I've somehow shot the very one we were after. I can't believe my good fortune to have taken two great deer in this weekend. Finally Dylan goes off to fetch the truck and Heath and I find a low spot to drag the buck out of the creek. The rains have made the fields nice and slippery and the drag about 100 yards from the creek down to the road is easy. Dylan finally drives up with the truck, he says he ran into a bear on the way back and thought it was headed our way but we never saw it.





Back to the Cabin for dinner and sharing our stories. What an amazing day and two great hunts. The next morning we take a quick tour for pigs but don't see any. We head back to the cabin for pictures of the new deer. Dylan thinks to bring the first buck as well. While we're taking pictures they spot a coyote in the distance. Heath breaks out his .300 and tries a shot. By the time he's on him it's at least 500 yards. The shot his feet below him and he runs off. Dylan and Heath decide they want to score my bucks so they break out their tape measure. The management buck was 23.5 inches wide but only scores 98 1/8. The trophy buck scores 107 7/8. I still can't get that excited about the trophy scoring thing as several 3x3s they've taken score higher than my 4x3 but don't seem nearly the trophy. I guess any deer I take is a trophy to me.

Dylan and Robert and I head into town for a nice lunch before we say our goodbyes and I head back home. This has been an incredible weekend for me. I will definitely hunt with Dylan and Heath again, certainly for blacktails again and possibly I'll try hunting turkey with them this spring. If you are looking for a great blacktail deer hunt in California you should get in touch with Dylan. I have a bunch of nice pics from the trip here if you are interested:Pics on Flickr

Looks like a great hunt to me. Good photos,thanks for posting.

Hey Neighbor,

nice bucks....very nice 3x4.

Hey Sean, Congratulations on a couple of fine Hunts.

Way to go Sean!

After seeing your bucks antlers, I'm more sure mine was all blacktail in spite of it's appearance. Nate

Nice deer!

How do we contact this outfitter?

E-mail or website?

I would love to take a blacktail someday.

I've met Dylan a couple of times and have a couple of friends who've hunted with him--good guy no doubt---chris

Those are a couple nice blacktails. Better than anything I got in Cali when I was stationed there. Would you happen to have some contact info on the outfitter? I'm up for orders in the next couple months and may be headed back west.

Mac

Here is the full info for

Diamond C Outfitters

Dylan Carr
redryder@directway.com
P.O. Box 53
Alderpoint, Ca 95511
(707) 926-5488
498-8124 cel
496-0849 cel

he said they were getting a web site going but don't have the url yet. -Sean