Oct 22, opening day. 11:30 am. On my way back to the road where my brother will pick me up after my 4 hr "slow hunt" through Quakies, pines, and sage. 10 min from the road, caught two buckstrying to sneak from feeding in the quakes to move over the ridge and down into the pine bedding area. The first buck was about 24" wide, short and crabby. Glad he was there though, he was a nice benchmark to judge this guy against, this one looked lots bigger, even though he was stone still, and I could only see on fork through the trees. The first buck stared me down for a few minutes, while this guy looked at the first buck the whole time. Meanwhile, I am offhand in the middle of a sage clearing, nothing to rest on, the sage is too tall to kneel. Arms starting to get a little tired waiting for him to take one more step and expose his chest. Somehow, he figures out where I am, turns and looks at me, then turns around to head back into the quakies, the second I see some shoulder, I let the .257 bark. When I reload and put the scope on him again, hes stumbling throught the quakes, enters a clearing and stops, just as Im about to let him have it again, he tips over. At this point Im thinking heel go about 160, which was my self imposed minimum. The closer I get, the more I realize he'll break 170! I let out a rip roaring holler, and sit down to collect myself. WHAT A BEAUTY!!!
PS. Ive only gotten in 4hrs of deer hunting in the last 2 years, since I couldnt hunt last year (ded. hunter) since I killed a 180 buck wiht my MZ in 2003, I know, BooHoo.
As he lay
Me with a big smile (note the pack frame, no ATV abuse here!)