I promised DeerKing that I'd post a picture of my Colorado buck, if I happened to get one, so here he is. Not quite the calibre of buck I was looking for, but such is life.
The first few days of the hunt I saw a few small and medium-sized bucks, the largest being a 140 class 3x4. My chance came the morning of my second-to-last day, a few minutes into legal shooting light. I was watching a small pocket of sagebrush that other hunters (of which there were many!) seemed to have overlooked. As the sun threatened to break over the horizon, the sagebrush came alive with deer. The first few deer that I glassed were does, but then the largest buck I've ever seen while hunting walked out into the open - one of those deer that doesn't require you to add up his measurements, you just know he's the one you're looking for. Even being conservative in my estimate, I would say he easily surpassed the 180 mark.
I ranged the buck at 306 yards. I had a solid rest, lying prone with my rifle on my pack, and squeezed off my first shot with the buck quartering towards me. The buck didn't react at all at the shot. He continued to feed down the hill and turned broadside. I ranged him again at 294 yards and squeezed off a second shot. This time he leapt as if stung and headed towards thick cover on a dead run. I fired a third shot with no effect.
After waiting for half an hour I worked my way down to where the buck had disappeared, and immediately picked up a blood trail. Unfortunately, that was as close as I got to the buck. I tracked him for the rest of the day, finally losing him around mid-afternoon when the blood trail dried up. I still-hunted for a couple more hours in the direction he had been heading, but there was no sign of him.
As you can imagine, I was pretty down after this. I've never lost a wounded muley before in 20+ years of hunting, and it was pretty upsetting to start with the biggest buck I've ever had in my sights. I'm still not 100% sure what happened, as I haven't been able to check my rifle at the range yet, but I did take a bit of a tumble on the first day of my hunt that may have knocked my scope of out of line.
Anyway, I pulled myself together for the last day of my hunt, switching to my back-up gun. At first light I checked another pocket of sagebrush where I found the above buck and three smaller ones out feeding. They were across a deep canyon, and the closest I could get was 375 yards. Again I had a solid rest, and this time one shot did the trick. The buck staggered backwards a couple of steps and then dropped.
He's a 26" wide 4x2 with brow tines. As I said, not quite the buck I was looking for, but nonetheless the silver lining on my rather cloudy hunt.
Here's a couple scenic shots of the country I was hunting.
The first few days of the hunt I saw a few small and medium-sized bucks, the largest being a 140 class 3x4. My chance came the morning of my second-to-last day, a few minutes into legal shooting light. I was watching a small pocket of sagebrush that other hunters (of which there were many!) seemed to have overlooked. As the sun threatened to break over the horizon, the sagebrush came alive with deer. The first few deer that I glassed were does, but then the largest buck I've ever seen while hunting walked out into the open - one of those deer that doesn't require you to add up his measurements, you just know he's the one you're looking for. Even being conservative in my estimate, I would say he easily surpassed the 180 mark.
I ranged the buck at 306 yards. I had a solid rest, lying prone with my rifle on my pack, and squeezed off my first shot with the buck quartering towards me. The buck didn't react at all at the shot. He continued to feed down the hill and turned broadside. I ranged him again at 294 yards and squeezed off a second shot. This time he leapt as if stung and headed towards thick cover on a dead run. I fired a third shot with no effect.
After waiting for half an hour I worked my way down to where the buck had disappeared, and immediately picked up a blood trail. Unfortunately, that was as close as I got to the buck. I tracked him for the rest of the day, finally losing him around mid-afternoon when the blood trail dried up. I still-hunted for a couple more hours in the direction he had been heading, but there was no sign of him.
As you can imagine, I was pretty down after this. I've never lost a wounded muley before in 20+ years of hunting, and it was pretty upsetting to start with the biggest buck I've ever had in my sights. I'm still not 100% sure what happened, as I haven't been able to check my rifle at the range yet, but I did take a bit of a tumble on the first day of my hunt that may have knocked my scope of out of line.
Anyway, I pulled myself together for the last day of my hunt, switching to my back-up gun. At first light I checked another pocket of sagebrush where I found the above buck and three smaller ones out feeding. They were across a deep canyon, and the closest I could get was 375 yards. Again I had a solid rest, and this time one shot did the trick. The buck staggered backwards a couple of steps and then dropped.
He's a 26" wide 4x2 with brow tines. As I said, not quite the buck I was looking for, but nonetheless the silver lining on my rather cloudy hunt.
Here's a couple scenic shots of the country I was hunting.
