Bone's 2004 Bone

B

boneaddict

Guest
The rest of the story.... After being surrounded by orange, I bagged out and dropped about 1500 feet and climbed up a horrible looking ridge. I passed on a 4 then a three. I came around into the head of a new basin and walking across it was a huge muley. I knew it was a monster without even seeing horns. He was HUGE. I dropped my pack and went prone and he stepped behind some trees. When he stepped out I fired. I hit him back and low. LOVELY! I misjudged the distance, shooting across open air. He hunched up and moved sdown the hill. I had to try two offhand shots, which was pretty futile at that distance. I ran up the hill about 20 feet and went prone again in the rocks, and punched him in the boiler room. THUMP. He went down, floundered around and crawled, fell straight down through the rocks. I grabbed my gear after I sat and listened for a few. It started pouring down rain. I spent the next 9 hours scouring the slidechutes, rocks, downfalls etc, and couldn't find my buck. The first one in 21 years of successful hunts that I couldn't find. I was sick! He was on a very conservative estimate 28 inches with huge forks and eyeguards. A good 180 buck at worst. His fronts really flaired out, so had a huge inside spread. A true trophy for the Valley. I wanted to just rip up my tag for the year. A huge horse camp moved in just under me, out of the rocks. I can only hope they at least found him.
 
After a couple of more days of hunting, I settled for a decent four. It was the last day of hunting before I had to come home to get ready for my wifes elk hunt. Here is his photo...
00017.jpg

00018.jpg
 
What a story, that is pretty frustrating when that happens. The thing about it is it sounds like you really hit him good. I bet he is still on that hill somewhere. That happended to me last year, then after thinking about my buck all winter I went back into the area when the snow melted and searched the hillside where I knew he was until I found him. You might consider doing the same, especially if he was as big as you said he was. It was a long winter though.

Congrats on at least getting a decent 4 point though.
 
Sounds like you already know you got to go back and find him... Has is snowed there yet? Could you go and re-search? Just try the grid search until you have covered every inch of that hill. Nine hours... Look back in the obvious, already checked areas. Maybe something was overlooked. From your story... it seems it still is haunting at you that you couldn't find him... Good luck.
 
Thats a nice buck too Doug, but man, sure wish you could've found the big boy! I agree, I think a walk back there is necessary, in the spring I guess???

I talked to a guy that hunted the area I am going to muley hunt in a couple weeks. He hit a big one in the shoulder (25+ inch 4 point I guess) lost him, then saw a 3, then shot a forky. It sounds like I will at least have some action once i get up there!
 
Haunting would pretty much sum it all up. I know he died there. I was hoping the birds would show me the way. I finally sat down to eat a snack, and heard two magpies that seemed to be staying in the same area. I went and checked it out, and there was some blood and hair in the timber. My heart was racing. Then I found a cougar kill from that night. Of all the luck. I can bet that I covered 98% of that mountain in the appropriate area. He is in the other 2%. Its 4 grueling hours in, and I have already been back once. The weather came in hard, and the birds hadn't found him in the deep stuff yet I guess. I gridded the area again but nothing. It had been cold, so maybe the smell hadn't started yet. It really pisses me off that I lost AND wasted a trophy class animal. If anyone from that horse camp climbs up that hill, they are going to wonder who all the tracks are from and what the heck I was doing. I'm sure I'll be back again....haunting is right. The easist conclusion was that he got up and walked away, but I know I smacked him right in the heart and lungs with a 180 grain Hornady, plus the obvious gut shot. It was a learning experience that I hope to never relive.
 
When are you going in Ernie? I'll get Roses elk pictures on here soon. I tell you, when I was tracking it for her I had some serious flashback issue with losing big game. It bleed buckets at first, then closed up. It was tough stuff. It took about 2 hours to find it, and he only went about 300 yards. I wasn't going to lose this one though. One step at a time. She hit a little far forward, and a little low, but hit heart and lungs, so thats what counts. Not bad for her first elk hunt.
 
Sorry to hear that. I'm sure we all got stories of something like that happening, let me share a freaky story like yours. My brother smacked a 7x9 as we later found out, he was going down hill like yours, we knew he didn't miss, we spent several hours looking , horseback and on foot and never did find him till 2 wks later, the smell tipped us off, there he was in between 2 boulders and his head buried in a big clump of brush, we all walked right by that place i'll bet you 10 times and never seen it, when we got to the smell of it, it was even hard to see him then, blending right in with the suroundings. If you have the chance go back he has to be there as i'm sure you know that already... good luck! Greg
 
Every hunters nightmare! I stuck a good 4x4 blacktail just before dark with an arrow. While waiting for him to die a big thunderstorm came in and just dumped buckets. I took my flashlight and spent most of the night and into the next day looking.....nothing.

I really like the way you have your pictures set up. Clever idea.
 
man thats too bad,i had the same ordeal on a muzzle loader hunt in 01 in colorado,hit him a little to far back,lost him in the thick timber,felt sick about,got both my hunting partners to help me,we looked and tracked found hardley any sighn,the next day was 9-11-01 and with that we all just wanted to get home to our families and our duties,to this day i think about that buck,you will too,good luck one more look if your in the area never know.congrats on your other buck.
 
Bone....that's too bad man, I feel for ya. That's a decent buck you ended up with though. Thanks for the story.
 
2 things here.

One is that if you don't disturb a gutshot deer it will be very close to where you shot it. Usually 100-300 yards. If you leave it 12+ hours IE you never go to where you hit it and go out the other way AND no one else jumps it, it will be very dead. Every time. Jump it out of the first bed and it may well keep walking with no blood till it falls over which could be a mile away......

Other is none of my business but having killed one buck I could have never thought to take another. But thats personal to me.

Sorry you lost that one! I bet, like others say, if you keep going back you'll find him. But be careful if you do find him. If you take the horns at that time, you may well be considered illegal and over the limit by a warden!

And if you find him someone can always get you a cape!
 
I was on a deer hunt a few years back with my brother, and we happened upon a nice wide 3-point. The first buck is always for meat then we start looking for trophy. Well I shot and seen it go down in my scope, my brother even said he seen it go down. I went walking into the area, keeping in mind there is very little for trees just tall clumps of grass, and as I approached the spot I seen him go down I looked up to the tree line and there was a buck that looked very similiar to the one I shot and of course one bounce and he was gone. We looked for awhile and then took off. A couple hours later we were talking about it and my brother had me convinced that I dropped him like a bag of hammers so back we went again and after scouring the whole area nothing. To this day I wonder, cause, of the 12 shots I have taken since that moment a few years back all have been lethal kill shots into the boiler room of whatever I have shot at. The only thing i can think of is that maybe I flinched and that bugger belly crawled to the timber line, sounds funny but had he walked or ran we would have seen him plain as day.

Well bud sounds like you hit him hard a couple times good luck looking for him, wish you luck with your search.

Shane
 
Thanks everyone. You can blame my wife for getting me back into the saddle hunting again. I was in deep depression and was done hunting. I met with her and my kids, and she could tell I was very upset. She coaxed me back into the hunting mode. I was very near done with it. She said I would really be tormented in a week or two if I didn't go out to fill my tag. I'm sure she was right.
 
Bone, sorry about the buck but thats a nice 4pt you got. Were you up in your old stomping grounds.
Your wife saw my wife last week and told her she got a bull, tell her congrats.
 
Bone:

Been there done that, and I know its a terrible feeling. You did what you could, and sometimes that has to be good enough. Nice job on the 4x4. Thats a nice buck!
 
LAST EDITED ON Nov-02-04 AT 09:50AM (MST)[p]Finally, here are the elk shots of her bull. It wasn't the biggest, but I have never been happier with any of my kills. I was the proudest guide in the USA for 2004. The story is in the elk forum.
00008.jpg

00011.jpg
 
Sounds like you had a tough/good season. Just curious but were you hunting in the entiat area? Just because I know it was a zoo up near Crum Creek, and the Potato and Mud Creek areas. I hunted the Oklahoma Gulch Area for 2 days (Sat, and Sunday of the 2nd weekend) saw 15 deer first day, 14 does, 1 spike buck, and saw nothing the second day. Then during the last week, we hunted up one of those STEEP HUGE MOUNTAINS in the Swakane, and saw 5 deer. 4 does, and 1 decent looking 2 point about 800 yards away without any possible way to get to him even if he was a Big deer. Had a good season, but struck out for the third time in a row.

Michael~All Gods creatures welcome... right next to the mashed potatoes and gravy.
 
Hey Michael, Sorry to hear you didn't score this year. I was up in the Methow as usual. It was a zoo as usual, but I think it was even worse this year.
 
Idaho bone to follow. I got tired of this tag burning a hole in my pocket. I scored a 176 inch massive 4x5.
 
Can't wait to see your Idaho Buck. Congrats.

Michael~All Gods creatures welcome... right next to the mashed potatoes and gravy.
 

Click-a-Pic ... Details & Bigger Photos
Back
Top Bottom