steelheader
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LAST EDITED ON Oct-28-12 AT 08:07PM (MST)[p]We made it up on monday and set up camp, (wall tent and cargo trailer) the road was in good shape even though it had rained all day. We were able to get a little spotting done that night but all we saw were a few doe. The next morning my son and I got up to a inch of snow. As we hiked up to a high spot to glass it started snowing again and as we sat on the ridge for the first hour it really started comming down. Wet and froze we went back to the atv's and 3 miles back to camp we were covered in wet snow. Most of the morning was wasted. By early afternoon it started to let up with the sun comming out a little. My friend Allen then made it up so us 3 set out to glass. We saw several small bucks and a doe's but nothing to peak our interest. Wednesday we set out lower and split up, right after sun up my son and I spotted two 4 pt's, the first bedded down before we could get a very good look at him, but the second stayed out till the sun hit him. He was worth a closer look. He left the brush patch the other buck was in and went over the ridge to a small group of bushes. We moved in on #1 to get a look but a group of sage grouse busted up and flew over him, and he was out and on the move. Not one we wanted any way. Luckly he headed out in a way buck #2 didnt see. We moved over the ridge going slow and trying to spot his antler tips. We made it to 20 yards from the bush he was last standing by but I couldn't see any hint he was there. As we tried to look more into the pocket he busted out from right there in the spot I had last seen him. Even at 20 yards there was no shot as he skirted every tall bush until he made it out to 120 yards, to far for a running shot. Boy was he a site, great mass deep forks, one I would have loved to have taken. We spent a few hours trying to find him but couldn't. The next two days we found and passed on a few nice bucks. We even had quite a morning going after a nice full in the rut buck, but lost him. Friday we went low again looking for the deep forked buck. At first light Allen spotted two bucks in the flats, we made a game plan and headed out. The one buck had headed into a small canyon so we split up planning on getting him between us. As Dustin and I moved in to our spot we spotted antlers in a small sage pocket to our left, another buck we had not seen earlier. He seamed to know we were there but chose to stay put. We moved in on him and at 20 yards I could see his neck through the sage in the morning sun. One shot and he was our's. It was a great last hunt with my son as he will now leave on a church mission for New York. It will be two hunting seasons.
