SureShot's Prairie Ghost Adventure

SureShot

SureShot

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I couldn't decide which forum to put this story in. It seems like they're multiplying like rabbits. There are so many forums to choose from now, it's totally ruining this site. How is a guy supposed to get any work done when he has to catch up on so many topics?
 
Anyway, I was sweeping out the garage the other day (I do it about once a month), when I came across my old 3 wolf moon T-Shirt. You know, the shirt available from Amazon.com with mystical powers that causes your boss to immediately give you a $0.50 per hour raise and all of your female neighbors to mow their lawns in their bikinis, hoping you'll notice them and invite them over to your trailer. I don't wear the T-shirt anymore because I ended up getting the exact same picture tattooed on my chest, but it still has a lot of memories for me.

As I gently caressed the silkscreened figures of the 3 wolves howling at the moon on my 3 wolf moon T-Shirt, my thoughts turned to the power of an even mightier T-Shirt hanging in my closet: the Prairie Ghost Ultimate Camouflage in long-sleeve. I ordered this shirt two years ago from Cabela?s fall/winter catalog. 4-6 business days later, it arrived on my front doorstep. I kid you not, but when I opened the front door to pick up my package, there was a 30? 4-point buck nibbling the bushes in my front yard. I knew then that I had made a wise purchase.
 
You may or may not remember, but I was wearing my Prairie Ghost Ultimate Camouflage last year when I bagged this monster muley on the Utah general season muzzleloader hunt.

P1050429.jpg


I hate how much people worry about the camo patterns, fabric and scent-blocking properties of their clothes?it's totally ruining the sport?but I have no doubt this amazing shirt played a part in bagging such a fine specimen on public land in Utah.
 
Anyway, with that foreshadowing as background, let me tell you about this year?s hunt. I spent almost every other night all summer long scouting every mountain range in the Southwestern unit and found multiple trophy-book caliber bucks. One day last month, I was down on the Dutton looking for a huge non-typical I'd been keeping my eye on. I ran into this pathetic guy trying to fill his LE elk tag. I guess it was about the last day of his hunt and he was getting really desperate to kill a bull because of how much bragging he'd been doing before the hunt to all of his friends. The poor guy practically had tears in his eyes, so I decided to throw him a bone and tell him about a 400? bull I had just seen on the other side of the ridge. I kid you not, but the guy took off running over the ridge in his tennis shoes before I could even finish my sentence. He had bull fever so bad that he didn't even notice the perfectly symmetrical 400? bull 80 yards above him in the saddle on top of the ridge. Instead, he started flinging bullets at a busted up bull in the bottom of the canyon that was about 600 yards away like a maniac on steroids. But, at least he ended up getting the bull after 10 or 12 shots and seemed really excited, so I guess that's all that really matters.
 
So, after all that scouting, I decided to go back to the same spot I hunted with my brother and his son last year in the Central unit. He knew a guy that worked for Trophy Rock that gave him some Trophy Rock to see if the deer would come into the Trophy Rock. So my brother put out the Trophy Rock in a likely looking area and, sure enough, the bucks loved that Trophy Rock. He was able to get some really good trailcam pictures over the Trophy Rock of some huge bucks coming in to get that Trophy Rock. I personally hate trailcams, they're totally ruining the sport. But, since my brother had found these nice bucks and I had the chance to spend some quality time with family in the mountains, I decided to go with him and my brother-in-law back to one of our favorite haunts. That's what hunting is all about. That and the children. They are our future.
 
I could hardly contain my excitement as we packed up the horses and started our ride up the beautiful trail with all of the colorful autumn leaves on a gorgeous fall day on the eve of the Utah general muzzleloader season. We found our usual camping spot and got everything set up and then went out for a little hike to see what was in the area. A few minutes before dark, I spotted a group of bucks in a faraway basin. I could tell one of them had darker horns?I mean antlers; I can't stand it when people don't know the difference, it's totally ruining the sport?and was quite a bit bigger than his companions. I couldn't tell exactly how big he was, but he was definitely worth a closer look.

Sleep didn't come easy that night and it seemed like morning would never get here. It amazes me how excited I still get for opening morning. You?d think after as many successful hunts harvesting trophy animals that I've been part of, the anticipation and excitement would wear off, but it doesn't. In fact, it seems like the addiction is just getting worse each year.

Anyway, the black cover of darkness finally started showing signs of giving way to another beautiful day in my favorite place on earth. I eagerly jumped out of bed, drank a gallon of Tuscan whole milk, put on my Prairie Ghost Ultimate Camouflage T-shirt and set out with a purposeful stride towards the high alpine basin and my destiny.
 
I made my way to a perfect vantage point on the edge of the basin and waited for shooting light to catch up with me. It didn't take long before I started making out the shapes of 4 or 5 grey bucks feeding in the brush below me. Sure enough, one of the bucks was in a class all by himself. He had 4 long, dark, massive points on each side that spread out well past his ears. This was the buck I had dreamed about all year and I knew with my Prairie Ghost Ultimate Camouflage, he didn't have a chance.

Since I was hunting on public land in Utah, I knew I wasn?t going to have this basin to myself for long. I ranged him at 130 yards feeding broadside. I carefully set up a steady rest and placed the open sights of my Knight T-Bolt .50 caliber muzzleloader behind his front shoulder and slowly squeezed the trigger.
 
A deafening boom echoed across the basin and a cloud of smoke momentarily obstructed my view. As the smoke drifted away, I saw my buck bounding across the basin at full speed towards a thick stand of pine trees.

After he disappeared into the trees, I immediately went to where he was standing when I shot and found his tracks. He didn't act like he was hit and there was no blood, but I kept tracking him because I know I don't miss and I couldn't live with the thought of possibly leaving a wounded animal out there.
 
I spent the rest of that day carefully following his tracks in thick brush, across rocky slopes and through icy cold rivers. I passed up several huge bucks during the rest of that day because I was committed to my dark-horned monster. Never once did I spot a drop of blood and I lost and found his tracks many times as they criss-crossed with other deer tracks in an effort to confuse me.
 
Finally, when it was too dark to see, I decided to suspend the search until morning and began to make my way back to camp. Something creepy and unexplainable happened during that night on my way back to camp. I don't like to talk about it, but I will since this is the Internet. As I was walking along the trail that would lead me to the friendly companionship of my family with a bright fire and a warm sleeping bag, I felt the unmistakable glare of a pair of wicked eyes burning into the back of my skull and causing the hair on my neck to stand on its ends. I picked up my pace and tried to ignore the fear washing over me of becoming prey to this evil monster?s nighttime hunt. Before long, I was almost on a dead run and I knew camp was just over the next ridge. As I passed under a tall tree, the stillness of the night was shattered by an unholy piercing scream straight above me unlike anything I had ever heard. I couldn't see it, but I'm sure it was a pterodactyl because I've watched dinosaur movies and heard what the pterodactyls in those sound like. I'm sure it was my Prairie Ghost Ultimate Camouflage that allowed me to make it back to camp in one piece that night.
 
I told my brother and brother-in-law about my experience with the buck that day. They know how good of a shot I am and knew I couldn't have missed, so they both decided to come help me look for him the next day. On our way over to the spot I had left off tracking the evening before, we decided to climb up to the top of the mountain to see what was on the other side. You?re not going to believe this and I kid you not, but when we looked on the other side of the mountain, my brother immediately spotted my buck with a different group of bucks feeding in a deep ravine about 400 yards below us. We watched them for about an hour until they fed into a string of pine trees and bedded down for the day.

We decided that this was the perfect situation to do the pick and roll (one of my favorite hunting techniques) and quickly drew up our plans. Since my brother was the first to spot him, we engineered the drive to try to push the bucks to him. He worked his way around to a nice spot above the bedded bucks and my brother-in-law picked his way carefully around to the other side and rolled into his position to push the deer to my brother. Meanwhile, I got below them just in case the bucks tried to sneak out the back door.
 
You know how plans never really work out as planned? Well, this drive was no exception. Those cagey old bucks held tight until my brother-in-law passed by them in the thick trees and then they tried to sneak out below. At least that's what they thought. In reality, they were unknowingly drawn to the mystic power of my Prairie Ghost Ultimate Camouflage. A nice 3-point led the way straight towards me as I hunkered down behind a granite rock on the edge of the trees. My massive, dark-horned 4-point buck followed a few steps behind him. When the 3-point got about 20 yards away from me, his eyes grew wide as he spotted me and he turned to run. But, it was too late. I swiftly raised my gun and leveled it at the monster 4-point as they bounded away. A deafening boom once again echoed across the hillside and, this time, the buck dropped to the ground in mid-stride and never moved again.

2009-09Deer1.jpg


2009-09Deer2.jpg
 
I'm not really into scores. I think the hunting community has put too much emphasis on scores and it is ruining the sport. The true measure of a trophy is the memories you made and the challenges conquered on the journey towards obtaining it. But, since I know a lot of you are interested in score and I've been responsible for so many record book animals being put on the ground, I'll go ahead and throw out the score.

If you guessed 180, you were dead on. At first glance, he may not look quite that good. However, the mass on this old majesty is simply incredible and makes the tine length a little deceptive. Plus, his body and ears are really oversized and add to the difficulty of accurately field judging him. Luckily, I've seen literally thousands of monster muleys and immediately knew what I was looking at.
 
I want to thank my brother and brother-in-law for all of their help in making this dream hunt a reality. If it weren't for family, hunting just wouldn't be the same. I also want to thank Prairie Ghost Ultimate Camouflage, Cabela?s, Trophy Rock, Knight Muzzleloaders and all of my other sponsors. And, the children. They are our future and it's all about them.
 
You got some really good stories I find them kinda funny no pun intended. Man how many words can you type a minute?
 
Your funny... that is a good buck but he doesn't go a hair over 178. So true about the kids being our future, teach them well and let them lead the way, is what I have always beleived.

Thomas V. Caldwell renowned author and public speaker...as well as other cool stuff I tell my kids.
 
>Your funny... that is a good
>buck but he doesn't go
>a hair over 178.
>So true about the kids
>being our future, teach them
>well and let them lead
>the way, is what I
>have always beleived.
>
>Thomas V. Caldwell renowned author and
>public speaker...as well as other
>cool stuff I tell my
>kids.

oops I didn't account for the eye-guards on that buck he is at least 180, if the mass is as good as you say maybe more. Congrats on a hunt of a lifetime, you got me way jealous!!


Thomas V. Caldwell renowned author and public speaker...as well as other cool stuff I tell my kids.
 
Here is your yearly reminder about fibbing, and I don't want to hear anything about your being taught by the best.

PS Had a good visit with your dad the other day.
 
I do feel like you are going to be called out on one thing in your post by some of the guys in this forum. I totally think it is cool and it doesn't matter to me at all, but the camo nazi's on here are going to be all over you for mentioning the drawing power of Cabelas prairie ghost camo. I kind of see what they are saying, I wouldn't use it, I mean not that I have to all I have to do is hike into the country and hunt them, which is much more satisfying than shooting a "big one" down in the foothills when all it took was enough money to buy that camo. Honestly, given a week with that "magic" camo, how could one NOT get a deer?

Thomas V. Caldwell renowned author and public speaker...as well as other cool stuff I tell my kids.
 
LMAO that's a great 09 story and end result SureShot, but dude I'll never forget about your 08 muzzy hunt!! In a league of it's own lol...congrats on your monster muley!!

~Z~
 
As always, great story and great buck. I think you may have underjudged this dear. I got an email from my best friends mother-in-law's uncle that had a cell phone picture of this buck and said it would go well over 200"
 
That's an awesome story. Any chance you could tell me where I can get a camo shirt like that?
 
New- Fish and Game Departments figured out how effective that camo is and they banned it. So the company went out of business and the only place to find it is at hunting expos and outdoor shows. They sell it is XXXXXL and Triple small. Who knew there were so few XXXXXL hunters out there.

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www.sagebasin.com
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you summed up 90% of this site's posts in just one story. you may truly be the hunting world's most interesting man.

the funniest thing about the story is that as i read it, i had an overwhelming urge to move closer and closer to my computer screen. must be the shirt...

mshred
 
Look out Jim Shockey!!!SureShot is about to boot you out of a job!!LMFAO!!!It's this kind of crap that is ruining our sport!!
 
I would like to help some on here out

sar⋅casm  /ˈsɑrk?zəm/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [sahr-kaz-uhm]

1. harsh or bitter derision or irony.
2. a sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark: a review full of sarcasms.
 
A Pterodactyl?!?!?!?!?! Cmon man - WAFJ (that was for Bessy or YoungCountry or whatever he is going by now on MM) :)
 
DUDE, Some of the funniest stuff I've read on hear in along time!

Love your post's every year. Wish they were a little more frequent.

Your writing and humor is just spot on.

THANKS!!!!
 
Great post...

Best one I have read on here in some time...

I have a wolf with a dream catcher t-shirt and may just have to try it out here in colorado come sat!!!
 
As with any SureShot post, it's really hard to determine fact from fiction. Except the scores of course. I've learned to trust you on that.

Congrats on another great hunt!

Eel

Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.
 
I believe this makes 4 great stories in 4 years. I think Founder should thrown you a bone and give you his next give-away prize for writing such classic stories.

I loved it.
 

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