BrowningRage
Long Time Member
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I shot 3 hours of video on my dad's hunt. If I can get a short video edited I will. It may take a while though.
Our hunt started off just the day before the hunt. We drove down and found a camp. The weather was so nice we were in T-shirts gettin camp set up. That evening we set out for our first look at the country and were hopeful to find a big buck. As luck would have it, we found this guy right at dark...
As you can see- this pic was not taken at dark. That is because the next morning we made our way back to where we had ween him. He was not there. We decided to hunt our way all the way down a canyon, hoping to catch some migrating deer. As it turned out, there was a sliver of private property in this canyon, and guess where we found this buck (with 20 or more does)...?? Layin out in the grass on the private ground... He had migrated down the entire canyon over night...
We knew he would not leave the private land, so we counted this buck as "protected"... We hadn't seen any other deer in the area, so we decided to just cut our losses on him and hunt in a different area that we had decided on prior to the hunt.
It seemed the deer's migration was a little messed up, but we were seeing enough deer to keep it interesting. Opening evening we almost ran over this 3-point... From the front, he looked like the above buck's little brother, with back tines that curved in...
But he was definitely not a shooter buck, at least not for 5 days or so...
My family has never hunted on Sunday, and in fact, when we arose on Sunday morning, we dressed in our church clothes as we would be making the long drive out to Fruita CO to attend church that day. We drove around early lookin for deer though, and we found this buck...
He was a good looking buck, though my dad would not have shot him even if it wasn't Sunday. We saw friends at church and enjoyed a relaxing day. In the evening, when we arrived on top, we were a bit surprised to find several deer, including this buck...
He was not a giant, but I got video and photos of him on the skyline. He was another buck that was just not what we were hoping for.
Monday morning was a welcome wake up call. We headed out early and were seeing many deer. There were several smaller bucks that we ran into for a second time. We spotted a buck ruttin up some does a long ways off and made a play towards him as he looked good. When we got close enough, this is what we found...
He was a good looking, heavy-bodied, 3x4.. Doh..!! My dad really wanted to get a solid 4x4 or better. This buck was tempting as this pose was almost too much to pass up. But my dad showed great restraint and let him walk. That evening we did not see as many bucks, but we did come across a little cheater buck... In fact, you can't even see his little cheater it's so small... LOL
Tuesday morning we drove to a new area. We did not see many deer, but we did see the best buck up to that time. He was a 24-25" buck, had amazing front forks, but his backs were a little lacking. It was too dark for pictures, but His G4s were 12" I'd guess, though his G3s were only about 7"... he looked really good, but my dad was hoping for something that was heavier than this guy. Though I told my dad he'd go 160", he passed him without batting an eye...
Tuesday evening was not very productive for nice bucks. We saw lots of big two points, including one that must have been an old deer. He was bigger than the two little four points with him put together. He was battle scarred and everything, but just a 2...
Wed morning was wet and snowy and miserable. We didn't venture out too far before deciding it was safer to just stay in camp. Now, my dad had planned on hunting for a Big One until at least Wed morning. By Wed eveining, he was going to lower his expectations a little and take the first solid, 25" buck we saw. As we set out that day, our hopes were high after the storm. As it turned out, we came across a very large 3x3. He was a 24" buck, heavy, and forked in the back. As a 3-point, I would have guessed his score at about 140"... He was good looking. but, my dad passed on him. I knew he really wanted a 4 point. (Sorry I couldn't get a snapshot of him, he never really gave me a good view for a photo once I was ready to snap a shot)
Thurs morning, we headed out. I spotted a group of deer a half mile away, in an opening. As we put up our binos, we could see there were 10 deer or so. Just then, the does started to run back in our direction. They were then followed by a couple of smaller bucks, and then a much bigger buck. As they were headin our way, we drove over to a better vantage point, and hoped they would come right to us. As it turned out, they did. Doe after doe filed passed us at about 100 yards. Then we saw smaller bucks. We were just waiting for the biggest buck to emerge. He did not. At least, we don't think he did. As we were sitting watching these deer. We spotted a deer back up the road from us about a quater mile. We looked, and it was the big 3 from the night before. I started to turn the truck around, but my dad said, "Let's go get a 4-point." So we let "Lucky 3" walk again.
We started up the road again, and as we got to where we had spotted this large group of deer just 10 minutes earlier, we could see a deer off in the same opening once again, and it was obviously a big buck. We looked, and sure enough, it was a big solid 4 point, just walking along, with a heavy head down. He was well over 500 yards away, so we drove out ahead of him and my dad and I got out of the truck to put a stalk on him.
Only slightly unfortunately for me as the camera man- the buck moved further east than we anticipated, so the video I got of the scene was mostly directly into the sun that morning. But, we hiked over and saw him come over the ridge. My dad took 2 cracks at him through the thick brush. One shot was an obvious hit. As we walked over closer, we could barely see, and suddenly he was running up the opposite hillside. My dad raised up and thumped him 2 more times. The buck staggered a bit and finally fell over, almost falling into the wash in the bottom. Luckily for us, he stayed just at it's edge.
This is my dad's biggest buck to date. He measures exactly 25" wide and 160" gross... He has 34" of mass and a total of 2 3/8" deductions. He is a beautiful deer..!! The truth is, as with many heavy deer, the measurements don't do the buck justice. In the second pic, I think you can see just how swollen his neck was... He is the heaviest deer I have ever seen killed.
Though you can't see it in either of these pics... This buck's back was all roughed up, and he had 2 puncture wounds right along his back. It appeared that he had just been in a fight. Our guess is that he was fighting with the other large buck we had seen running with the does just 20 minutes prior. The commotion made the does run off, followed by the victor. This old boy was left to walk home in shame. We don't think that other buck was any much better than this one, but one never knows.
It was the hunt of a lifetime for my dad, uncle and I. With a little bit of luck, my 8 points and I might draw it next year...
Congrats to all those other hunters that found success out there. We spoke with many hunters who told us they had barely seen any bucks, not even little ones. I guess they could have been lying, but we saw quite a few empty trucks and four-wheelers heading out of there... I hope everyone had a great year. Can't wait for this big buck to get back from the taxidermist and hang on my dad's wall- he deserves it more than anyone could know... Being able to walk beside him and film the entire hunt was a dream come true for us both. If I can get a video done, you'll hear how incredibly excited I was for him. I lost my voice from all my yellin, and hootin and hollerin... LOL Memories to last a lifetime...!!
"Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!" 2 Ne. 28: 24
Our hunt started off just the day before the hunt. We drove down and found a camp. The weather was so nice we were in T-shirts gettin camp set up. That evening we set out for our first look at the country and were hopeful to find a big buck. As luck would have it, we found this guy right at dark...
As you can see- this pic was not taken at dark. That is because the next morning we made our way back to where we had ween him. He was not there. We decided to hunt our way all the way down a canyon, hoping to catch some migrating deer. As it turned out, there was a sliver of private property in this canyon, and guess where we found this buck (with 20 or more does)...?? Layin out in the grass on the private ground... He had migrated down the entire canyon over night...
We knew he would not leave the private land, so we counted this buck as "protected"... We hadn't seen any other deer in the area, so we decided to just cut our losses on him and hunt in a different area that we had decided on prior to the hunt.
It seemed the deer's migration was a little messed up, but we were seeing enough deer to keep it interesting. Opening evening we almost ran over this 3-point... From the front, he looked like the above buck's little brother, with back tines that curved in...
But he was definitely not a shooter buck, at least not for 5 days or so...
My family has never hunted on Sunday, and in fact, when we arose on Sunday morning, we dressed in our church clothes as we would be making the long drive out to Fruita CO to attend church that day. We drove around early lookin for deer though, and we found this buck...
He was a good looking buck, though my dad would not have shot him even if it wasn't Sunday. We saw friends at church and enjoyed a relaxing day. In the evening, when we arrived on top, we were a bit surprised to find several deer, including this buck...
He was not a giant, but I got video and photos of him on the skyline. He was another buck that was just not what we were hoping for.
Monday morning was a welcome wake up call. We headed out early and were seeing many deer. There were several smaller bucks that we ran into for a second time. We spotted a buck ruttin up some does a long ways off and made a play towards him as he looked good. When we got close enough, this is what we found...
He was a good looking, heavy-bodied, 3x4.. Doh..!! My dad really wanted to get a solid 4x4 or better. This buck was tempting as this pose was almost too much to pass up. But my dad showed great restraint and let him walk. That evening we did not see as many bucks, but we did come across a little cheater buck... In fact, you can't even see his little cheater it's so small... LOL
Tuesday morning we drove to a new area. We did not see many deer, but we did see the best buck up to that time. He was a 24-25" buck, had amazing front forks, but his backs were a little lacking. It was too dark for pictures, but His G4s were 12" I'd guess, though his G3s were only about 7"... he looked really good, but my dad was hoping for something that was heavier than this guy. Though I told my dad he'd go 160", he passed him without batting an eye...
Tuesday evening was not very productive for nice bucks. We saw lots of big two points, including one that must have been an old deer. He was bigger than the two little four points with him put together. He was battle scarred and everything, but just a 2...
Wed morning was wet and snowy and miserable. We didn't venture out too far before deciding it was safer to just stay in camp. Now, my dad had planned on hunting for a Big One until at least Wed morning. By Wed eveining, he was going to lower his expectations a little and take the first solid, 25" buck we saw. As we set out that day, our hopes were high after the storm. As it turned out, we came across a very large 3x3. He was a 24" buck, heavy, and forked in the back. As a 3-point, I would have guessed his score at about 140"... He was good looking. but, my dad passed on him. I knew he really wanted a 4 point. (Sorry I couldn't get a snapshot of him, he never really gave me a good view for a photo once I was ready to snap a shot)
Thurs morning, we headed out. I spotted a group of deer a half mile away, in an opening. As we put up our binos, we could see there were 10 deer or so. Just then, the does started to run back in our direction. They were then followed by a couple of smaller bucks, and then a much bigger buck. As they were headin our way, we drove over to a better vantage point, and hoped they would come right to us. As it turned out, they did. Doe after doe filed passed us at about 100 yards. Then we saw smaller bucks. We were just waiting for the biggest buck to emerge. He did not. At least, we don't think he did. As we were sitting watching these deer. We spotted a deer back up the road from us about a quater mile. We looked, and it was the big 3 from the night before. I started to turn the truck around, but my dad said, "Let's go get a 4-point." So we let "Lucky 3" walk again.
We started up the road again, and as we got to where we had spotted this large group of deer just 10 minutes earlier, we could see a deer off in the same opening once again, and it was obviously a big buck. We looked, and sure enough, it was a big solid 4 point, just walking along, with a heavy head down. He was well over 500 yards away, so we drove out ahead of him and my dad and I got out of the truck to put a stalk on him.
Only slightly unfortunately for me as the camera man- the buck moved further east than we anticipated, so the video I got of the scene was mostly directly into the sun that morning. But, we hiked over and saw him come over the ridge. My dad took 2 cracks at him through the thick brush. One shot was an obvious hit. As we walked over closer, we could barely see, and suddenly he was running up the opposite hillside. My dad raised up and thumped him 2 more times. The buck staggered a bit and finally fell over, almost falling into the wash in the bottom. Luckily for us, he stayed just at it's edge.
This is my dad's biggest buck to date. He measures exactly 25" wide and 160" gross... He has 34" of mass and a total of 2 3/8" deductions. He is a beautiful deer..!! The truth is, as with many heavy deer, the measurements don't do the buck justice. In the second pic, I think you can see just how swollen his neck was... He is the heaviest deer I have ever seen killed.
Though you can't see it in either of these pics... This buck's back was all roughed up, and he had 2 puncture wounds right along his back. It appeared that he had just been in a fight. Our guess is that he was fighting with the other large buck we had seen running with the does just 20 minutes prior. The commotion made the does run off, followed by the victor. This old boy was left to walk home in shame. We don't think that other buck was any much better than this one, but one never knows.
It was the hunt of a lifetime for my dad, uncle and I. With a little bit of luck, my 8 points and I might draw it next year...
Congrats to all those other hunters that found success out there. We spoke with many hunters who told us they had barely seen any bucks, not even little ones. I guess they could have been lying, but we saw quite a few empty trucks and four-wheelers heading out of there... I hope everyone had a great year. Can't wait for this big buck to get back from the taxidermist and hang on my dad's wall- he deserves it more than anyone could know... Being able to walk beside him and film the entire hunt was a dream come true for us both. If I can get a video done, you'll hear how incredibly excited I was for him. I lost my voice from all my yellin, and hootin and hollerin... LOL Memories to last a lifetime...!!
"Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!" 2 Ne. 28: 24
