Thanks guys!
Tony - no doubt on staying home that night. If I had even an hour more to hunt that night I wouldn't have gone to the area where I took this one.
I figure I could tell the story for some good reading:
I've been hunting a couple of bucks since middle of August via the DH program. They are in tough country and they're smart old bucks - hard to close the deal! I had planned on hunting them again Fri/Sat/Sun to close out the rifle hunt here in UT.
Friday, two days before the end of the general rifle season, I planned to leave work around 1PM and head up for the evening hunt. As work goes, I didn't leave until 4:30PM. This left me with a 20 minute drive home, grab my gear, change my clothes and select one of my many "close to home" spots, but not the area of the "big boys" I'd been hunting. By the time I was on the mountain it was 5:30PM. I had about an hour of light left that day.
I started my way up the mountain, hanging near the edge of a canyon as I moved slowly up the hill. The wind was good and conditions seemed just right to see something move. I glassed slowly ahead of me and to the north and south of me. I spotted a few deer to the north, but they were at a pretty good distance so I pulled the spotter out and took a quick look - all does. I slid the spotter back in my Badlands 2200 and headed up the hill further. I had moved up maybe 100 yards when I spotted the butt end of a deer at about 350/400 yards.
As I glassed this deer up it was evident he was a buck by his actions. He was raking the oakbrush. He was a small willow horn 3 pt about 16 ~17 wide. I decided to close the distance to this deer in hopes that something else was with him. The deer was uphill from me with good vantage, so I had to use the hill and vegetation to my advantage. I closed to about 175 yards and didn't have anything else to conceal me so I stopped there. I watched this buck rake his antlers and move back and forth along the edge of some thick oakbrush. Showing good signs that the rut is near! The small buck stopped at one point and was just standing as I heard this thrashing back in the Oak behind him. I knew then there must be something else back in the trees, but I couldn't make it out. I figured I'd wait him out and hope it would come out in the open with the smaller buck. Two minutes later out walked another big bodied deer. I glassed him up and had a side profile of a nice looking 4pt that looked like he had decent mass in his beams.
I began to pull off my pack and the bigger buck turned and looked downhill towards me. I froze. Once he turned back and started to browse a bit I shed the pack. I needed to move up the hill a bit further to find a decent prone rest. I crawled in the grass about 50 feet very slow and cautiously. I'd stop every few feet and scope him out to ensure he wasn?t going to wander back into the oak. He stepped behind a wild rose bush and I could only see his head and antlers. I crawled forward a bit further to where I wanted to be. As I looked up out the grass the 4pt had moved forward and was broadside looking towards me. When he turned back to browse I eased up and took my first shot. He hunched up and came down the hill quartering toward me. I jacked in another shell, stood up, (had to given the contour of the hill)and took a second shot that put him down quick.
The Ruger .270 with 130gr Hornady SST Interlocks did the job! I'd put a new Leupold VXII on this gun this year and it was nice to use it in a harvest! I was pretty excited about the short turn of events this night and called my father, who lives just below where I took this buck. He came up the hill in the dark to see the buck and help out. One my buddies came up as well after a phone call and we had a good time getting him off the mountain.
