Gentlemen, thank you all for all the kind words, means a lot to me. He is a great buck and the more i look at him the more i love him. Like i said i am sad that i am done hunting but just really pleased with what i got.
Now for the story, i hunted everyday all day long until i got him. I took him on the 7th in the afternoon. I have been all over the western part of my unit the highest i could get for the most part. i was in snow that ranged from 2 1/2 feet in a spot one day to another spot that had 4 inches the next and as you can see in some places none. I was hopeing to stay up top to catch one coming through up high. Come to find out the ones moving through the snow werent stopping at all in their usual places and i was getting really frustrated as a few people know. I saw tons of does and i saw several young deer, lots of spikes and two points and a couple 3's and a couple young 4x4's. The area that i hunted the deer just werent there, they were traveling during the night and i was missing them. They dropped down low on me and i was above them or i probably would have seen several more bucks. So come the 7th i got stuck in a huge snow drift and had to turn around, being mad that i couldnt get to my glassing spots i got out of there and went to another spot that was lower on the ridges. I am glassing the ridges and all of a sudden this guy pokes his head up and over the ridge and i sat and glass him for like 20 minutes. I was also looking at another heard of deer on the other side of me that had a couple smaller bucks in it. I back out of the spot and let the buck decide where he wants to go, i am sitting on a migration trail so i knew he was either skirting the ridge or he was going to come right at me. i wait 10 minutes and here he comes right at me with his nose on the ground. I backed off and pretty much paralled him down the ridge i finally got him to stop at no more than 50 yards and put one shot right through his heart and i had the biggest buck of my life.
He has a lot of points and from the pictures they dont do him any justice. if you count everything including eye guards he is a 7x8, he has a cheater off the back of his mainbeam on one of his sides you cant see in the pics. He scores a little over 185 gross non typical and typical he goes 171 3/4. all of his points have good length. He has good mass and hardly any deductions. I was quite suprised by his score since his width isnt all that great he is right in there at 24 1/2 inches but he is also 20inches tall.
I have many more pictures but tried to pick out a couple that showed everything. As you can see in that particular spot there wasnt any snow but it was close by. The deer are really moving now but i cant bring myself to go up and look at them cause i am afraid i might see something bigger.
I had a great hunt, and couldnt be happer, i told my self if i had the chance at a buck with character i would take him. Thank you to those of you that helped me along the way. You know who you are. And thank all of you for all your kind words. Now i have to get ready for Montana!!!!
thank you and sorry this is so long
Garrett
