Chris Palomo was glassing familiar terrain for blacktail deer high on a northern canyon ridge at 7 a.m. on Aug. 19. The 29-year-old was looking for an elusive giant Columbia blacktail he\u2019d hunted the last two seasons; he was determined this year would be his last.<\/p>\n
It was opening day in the northwest part of California. Palomo was hunting with an OTC tag on national forest land\u2014a place he prefers not to name but, having hunted the area for seven years, knows well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spotted the big blacktail buck that morning [Aug. 19], and I was stunned, because every year I hunted him previously he just disappeared once the season opened,\u201d Palomo tells Outdoor Life. <\/em>\u201cI tried using trail cameras to pattern him before the season, but I never could get him on camera. I would locate him with binoculars and spotting scopes from long range before season. But when archery season began, he just disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n Palomo closed the distance to the buck, finally sneaking into bow range. The buck remained bedded, and Palomo waited for the deer to stand to get a good shot.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just wouldn\u2019t stand up for me to make a clean shot, so I waited, and waited, and waited,\u201d says Palomo, a carpenter\u2019s union representative from Fairfield, California. \u201cBut five hours later, I was still waiting for him to stand so I could shoot. Then the weather started to deteriorate with a storm building.\u201d<\/p>\n The wind rose and swirled with the storm, and eventually it shifted so the buck caught Palomo\u2019s scent\u2014and bolted from its bed and disappeared into thick timber.<\/p>\n \u201cI worked around the canyon for the rest of the day, stalking and glassing for him, but I never saw another deer all day,\u201d Palomo says.<\/p>\n Palomo was back at the canyon ridge at dawn, glassing to see if he could locate the big deer again. At 9:30 a.m., he saw the buck\u2014just 200 yards from where he\u2019d spooked it the previous day.<\/p>\n \u201cI took off running along the ridgeline and came in from behind the bedded buck. About 11 a.m. I slipped in to about 80 yards from where I\u2019d last seen him, then started moving slowly and glassing the area carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n Palomo took his time, watching and glassing and waiting. Finally, at about 2 p.m., he spotted movement.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw his antlers just below me at 36 yards, then he stood up, and stepped into an opening\u2014head down, feeding.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s when the adrenaline hit him hard. Even though Palomo is a lifelong hunter and has been a bowhunter since for nearly a decade, the buck fever hit him hard.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought I was all set, and started to draw my arrow, but the shaft wasn\u2019t on the rest so if fell off the bow, clanking as it dropped,\u201d he said. \u201cThe buck heard that sound, turned, looked at me, and we stood staring at each other for the longest 10 minutes of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, the deer dropped its head as it returned to feeding at 40 yards. Palomo nocked another arrow, drew, and released.<\/p>\n \u201cI glassed the deer and saw blood and I knew it was a good hit,\u201d said the California bowman. \u201cHe ran about 50 yards and disappeared into some timber.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Palomo waited nearly an hour before looking for blood. He took off his boots and stalked to the spot where he\u2019d seen the buck last. If the buck was still alive, he didn\u2019t want to spook him.<\/p>\n \u201cI got to the timber, and he was lying dead just five yards inside the woods. He didn\u2019t run 60 yards from where the arrow had hit him.\u201d<\/p>\n Palomo packed the buck out and delivered it to Racks and Tracks Taxidermy in Hidden Valley Lake. The 4\u00d74 blacktail has split brow tines, with a wide 29.5-inch antler spread \u2013 a giant blacktail buck by any measure, but especially for a public-land archery buck. For reference, the state-record blacktail in California measured 175 2\/8 inches. That buck was killed in 1981 and its greatest spread measured 23 inches (hard-horned and after the mandatory drying period) .<\/p>\n Bear season is open in northern California, and Palomo plans to return to the same area soon.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve shot a few deer, small game, and some turkeys with my bow. A bear on top of my velvet blacktail buck would really make 2023 something special.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/uploads\/2023\/08\/25\/bloody_arrow.jpg\"){kind=icon}
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