2005 Book Cliffs bucks

grizzmoose · Oct 30, 2005

Here are a couple of pictures of 2 bucks we took out of the Book Cliffs this year. The smaller buck is one my brother took. We passed on several nicer deer hoping for a really nice one, but time got short and we couldnt talk him out of shooting this one. This is his first buck and he was anxious to pull the trigger. For his first one, this is a great buck. Hopefully this will help him get more into hunting in the future.

My buck was taken on Thursday evening. We spotted him earlier in the morning and after a short little stalk, some does he was running with were on to me, and they all ran off. I was able to pull the trigger a couple of times but Im just not good enough to take anything on the hoof. That night we decided to go back to the same spot and see if we could see anything else coming back. We thought there was no chance of the early buck coming back, but to my surprise, after 2 hours of watching a ridge, he popped up again with his does. I originally spotted him at about 600 yards. It took him about 90 minutes to feed his way down to me and I was getting impatient! He turned broadside to me at 265 yards and I felt confident that this was the right time. I swear I heard some quads coming, and didnt want him spooked, so I pulled the trigger. I could see he went down, and then tumbled into a ravine. I ended up hitting him right in the neck, just above the shoulder. I cant tell you how excited I was do "do it right" this time. I really wanted to avoid the "get out of the truck and blast" routine, so this was a great, great hunt for me! He is 23" wide and 20" tall. He has some good mass, and some great eye guards. This is my best buck so far!

When I get pics of my dads buck, Ill post those as well. He took a 24" 3x4 on Friday night. All in all, we had a great time! We saw tons of deer, and were all more than happy with what we came home with.

Prism · Oct 30, 2005

Looks like you guys had a great time. Sounds like the Book Cliffs are back in a big way. Man I wish I could swap my elk points for deer points!!!

Congrats on your bucks.

Gator · Oct 30, 2005

Nice buck, looks like he already into the rut with that swollen neck.

tgmulie · Oct 31, 2005

awesome deer. Where were you guys at? The bigger 4 point looks like one my brother missed opening morning. We were on McCook Ridge.

grizzmoose · Oct 31, 2005

The bigger one was taken out by Kings Well. It seemed to be the only place we could find with little pressure. The smaller four point was taken off Wolf Den Loop and Fuller Road. I dont think we even hit McCook. How was it out there?

DallanC · Oct 31, 2005

McCook was awsome, we had the top all to ourselves at first light, tons of deer, lots of bucks. I think we passed on 10 4pts before I shot my non-typical. Seems most people started hunting at the crack of dawn from Indian on up, they showed up around 8:30 - 9am on top. We had a good hour and a half with only a couple other guys very spread out. Very little pressure on McCook opening day.

I wanted to scout wolf den and kings well areas but trailer problems getting out there ate up too much time.

-DallanC

grizzmoose · Oct 31, 2005

Wolf Den was a circus. The first day, there was no one there at all, and there were deer everywhere . . . I mean EVERYWHERE. There were people passing up 26-27inch 4 points. I think the guys that were out there for the weekend only were shooting everything in sight and then spreading the word. By Monday morning, it was a freakin parade. I was somewhat surprised Matt Lauer and Katie Couric (sp?) werent out there covering the action. For the rest of the week it was like that. In fact on Sunday night, there was a stretch of road where we could see 4 people gutting deer withing 500 yards of each other. Kings Well was empty. We didnt go down there until Thursday though. I wish I could have spent more time there, but the one I shot was the best I had seen, and figured I better pull the trigger. Do you have pics of your buck?

holmes41 · Nov 1, 2005

I don't know, are you sure he's not still alive in that pic?:7

Glad you guys had an successful hunt as family. That is great when you can hunt all week with close family, especially when you are in big buck country. Congratulations on an awesome buck!