thanks guys. This is really something I've dreamed about for over 25 years, a 180 buck on public land.
He was down in a hole between sage flats with 8 or 10 other deer, one of which was a huge-bodied 24-incher, 3x4 with small forks. Once I got the big guy in the glasses, I knew I was too far for a shot but I had to crawl back to my pack, get a drink and calm my heart down for a couple minutes.
then I dogged this group for a half hr up towards one of the flats, for the life of me I could not evade the radar of 2 or 3 of those does, even at 700+ yards.
So I decided to circle around to the next draw and come up on the flat towards where they were. Sure enough, once I got to where I could see across their side of the flat, there were the does ears facing right at me. I immediately sat down; this was about 400yards. Then they got curious and worked toward me a bit. Then after a few minutes they started making their way out across the flat, sort of semi-trotting. Their route took them into shooting range and I knew what would be coming behind them.
So I had time to extend the bipod and sure enuf he was the 5th deer. they would run for a bit, then slow down, I think they knew something was up still. I grunted once loud and he stopped a few seconds later...high lung shot at 250, he went about 40 yards with the Hornady 140-grain lodged under the opposite side on the hide.
I'll never forget this one....Here's a shot from yesterday in the taxidermist's back yard.
