here's 'firsty's' first

littlefoot · Nov 12, 2004

tell us the story....

by the way, nice buck

boneaddict · Nov 12, 2004

LAST EDITED ON Nov-12-04 AT 07:29PM (MST)[p]Thats a heck of a way to start a muledeer hunting career. What state did you get him in. Congrats on a beauty!

Firsty · Nov 12, 2004

Littlefoot I sent you the wrong pic(the top one) I just sent you the right one(hopefully) could you please post it?

Firsty · Nov 12, 2004

This is my first time trying to figure out this picture stuff on a computer so bear with me. I'll try and get the whole story out in a bit. Its a 3rd season CO buck unguided on public land.

littlefoot · Nov 12, 2004

here ya go....

hornaddiction · Nov 12, 2004

Nice buck, congrats!

Horn
www.trophiesonthewall.com

kilowatt · Nov 12, 2004

Waht a "first" buck that is, a big congrats to you, now what are you going to do for an encore next year? Just kidding, that is a real nice buck and hope you continue doing as good.

Brian

Chef · Nov 13, 2004

Nice buck! You might as well quit now while you're ahead!

Chef
"I Love Animals...They're Delicious!"

DeerKing · Nov 13, 2004

Congrats on a great first! Nice job.

AntlerQuest Hunt Consulting

BCBOY · Nov 14, 2004

Very Nice First Buck!!! Wish I had of started on bucks that big.

eelgrass · Nov 14, 2004

Beautiful buck! Good job.

Firsty · Nov 15, 2004

Now that I have a little free time I'll get to the story. I had a little trouble with the pics as I said before.(top pic is my friend with the head after we were done boning it...I was just burning some film)(The other 2 pics are me with the deer....I have some frontal shots but cannot get them to download)So on to the story....we have hunted this area for the last couple years during 2nd season. This year I convinced my dad we needed to go during 3rd to hopefully get some snow and or a little rut activity. So we got our tags and had planned on camping the same place we had for the last couple of years. I said planned because once we got there we were greeted to about 15"of snow and it was still comming down hard.(This was at 9500 and we had camped at about 10000' before)This was Thursday and the season opened on Sat. So we got our camp set up in a blizzard(not fun) and spent the next day and a half sitting in the tent waiting out the snow storm and watching the snow build up. Finally it stopped snowing and we were ready to go.(we didn't even get to scout because the visibilty was about 100 yards during the blizzard) Our group of 3 hunted in the thigh deep snow all day and only saw 4 does. I was really thinking we needed to get to a lower elevation because everything was down but my dad said we would try it one more day. Day 2 it started snowing again and we talked to some locals who advised us to get off the mountain while we still could. So we loaded up our camp(what a mess) and barely made it off the mountain without getting sucked into a ditch(thankgod for tire chains) The good news was that now we were staying ina warm hotel romm..the bad was that we would be hunting virgin territory the next day. I stared at the topo map for about 2 hours that night and devised a game plan.Day 3 I saw about 20 does and 5 bucks(3 forks,small 3x3 and about a 20" 4x4 or 5x5 that I would have shot if I could have got close enough. My dad and my buddy hunted a different area and didn't see anything. Day 4 I took my dad and buddy to the area I hunted the day before and saw a big buck right at day break but he went over a hill before I could put a stalk on him. The rest of the day went slowly with us only seeing a few does. Day 5 we decided to try a different area and we all split up and went our seperate ways. I climbed to the top of the ridge and begain to glass that afternoon after seeing just some does earlier in the day. About 30 minutes before dark I saw a doe walk out in a small meadow. I pulled up my binocs and saw this guy coming up behind her. Once I saw his rack there was no doubt he was a shooter.(this was my first muley...i have shot about 30 whitetails) I figured he was about 300 yards away so I quickly got my bipod setup for the shot. I put the crosshairs behind his shoulder 3/4 the way up his body and slowly squeezed the trigger.
Boom....the deer staggered and started doing the sideways shuffle. I was taking any chances and put another round in him. I watched him fall and noted a few landmarks before sprinting to him. When i got there I was very happy with his size to say the least. His body was bigger than any Whitetail I've ever got. He is about 23" wide and his back tines are 15.5". I know he's not a monster but I'm very happy with him and it was awesome having my dad and buddy there to share the moment with me. We'll be back next year looking for his big brother. If your still reading this thanks for reading as I know I'm a crappy writer