E
ElkScout
Guest
LAST EDITED ON Nov-15-06 AT 11:06AM (MST)[p]Well, I had a great hunting trip this past week in central Colorado w/ my dad. We saw lots of deer including dozens of bucks each day. Each morning seemed to bring with it better and better quality in the bucks we saw. We probably saw 75+ deer each day of which 30 were bucks. Most were small: spikes, two points, three points and small four points. All had spreads that were inside the ears, 20" or less. Some were tall. No trash points or odd shaped racks. My dad did see one very large buck that just went up in a big "V". He missed this buck early one morning. He was sick about it. Probably would have been 25+" wide he guessed.
The first couple picks are of my dad and his buck. He got it on the second to last day. From the bucks we saw up to that point, his was larger than all but one or two. It measured 22" wide. He put a good sneak on this buck and caught him unaware. With one shot at about 75 yards with his 300 WM, he only ran 30 yards downhill and collapsed.
On Friday, I spotted my buck around 1pm about 450 yards across a canyon. My dad put his binoculars on it from where he stood ( he was in the bottom working the willows / aspens) and quickly said "he's a keeper, shoot him". Well, after all the deer we had seen, I knew that this quick statement meant this buck was special.
I had a solid rest and the first shot from my 300 WM went thru his briscuit low in the chest and broke his front leg on the opposite side. Unfortunately, it was a few inches too low to hit the heart / lung area. He ran several hundred yards further up the canyon. I sent four more shots his direction and only managed to hit his antler and take a chip out of it (luckily that was all it did - see his right antler a few inches up from his skull in one of the pics). I was down to one shell and decided to hold onto it.
We watched him bed down on a cliffy slope about 900 yards away and I spent the next two hours driving the ATV back to the truck, finding my last 2 shells in my other pack (had a total of 3 now) and then drove several miles down to the highway, across to the other side of the canyon and back up. After parking, I walked about 1/2 mile across the top towards the rim until I could look down about 75 yards to where he should have been, laying in a flat spot above a bit of rimrock.
Just before peaking over the edge, I racked 1 of the 3 shells I had left. As I slowly inched over, expecting to find him laying there, I saw nothing. He was not there! So after glassing everything I could see, I cautiously moved down off the rim. The wind was still and it was totally quiet as I scanned left and right with each step. I sneaked down the steep slope careful to put every step on a rock or dirt so as to not make any noise. As you can imagine, I was completely on edge! Someone could have made me jump 10 feet high if they tapped me on the shoulder at that time. I walked down to the shelf and got within 10 yards of where he was last laying. Expecting to see blood where he had layed, I was shocked to see NO BLOOD in the dirt! However, as I looked to my left I caught the sight of a left antler, a big antler, about 20 yards to my left on a game trail. He had moved from the original spot 20 yards further north to behind a small pinion pine.
He was facing directly away from me and still laying down. He had not heard or seen me. His ears were still facing forward away from me. His head was up. I raised my rifle and found him in the scope. The bullet hit him low in the back angling down and exited his chest near the ground where he lay. But instead of dropping his head and giving it up, he got up and ran!! I quickly racked my second shell and took another shot at about 30 yards angling away as he was running. The second shot hit him hard I figured as he crashed to the ground about 35 yards away. I looked at him from where I stood. He was motionless, but his head was level while resting on some sagebrush. I yelled "hey deer"? "hey you". No response or flinch from the buck.
I had now hit this deer three times not including the one in the antler (sic) and had seen him get up each time so I was not about to take any chances. I had only ONE shell left. I racked it and slowly moved down the game trail he was on. I got within 15 yards and, once again, he jumped up!! I raised the rifle and pulled the trigger on my last shell hitting him basically point blank on the right side of the back and the bullet angled forward towards his chest. At the same time, he turned right and ran downhill somehow another 40 yards where he dropped out of sight.
I stood in complete disbelief. I had just used my last shell? hitting the biggest buck of my life four times with a 300 WM and he still had got up and ran. I decided it was best to wait for a few minutes. I knew he didn't go any further as I could see lower down the hill, I just could not see where he dropped. So after 15 minutes or so I slowly walked down. I then saw him, laying sideways on the sage brush "looking" dead. But I knew better? WAS he truly dead? finally?? All I had was a $1000 club in my hands at this point... completely out of shells!
I decided to throw a rock his way and see if he flinched. At about 35 yards away, I threw a rock high in the air so that I could pull my binoculars up and watch any reaction he may have? an ear flinching, chest heaving, eye blinking? anything. As the rock came down it hit him squarely in the ribs. What a shot! He did not move? or did he? after this point, I could not be sure enough. So I continued to throw rocks in his direction, hitting sage around him as I moved closer. Nothing, no movement that I could discern. I should have thrown a rock at him instead of .30 caliber lead I figured. The rock must have done the trick I joked to myself as I walked up to him. With my very expensive club, I touched his eye with the end of the barrel just to make sure. Nothing????? he was finally dead!!!! And he was finally MINE!!
After all the hard work, mostly in the dark, I packed his head / cape back to the truck and it was then I realized how wide he was. He was magnificent! An amazing answer to many prayers! A true blessing! He measured almost 29" wide and scored about 170" gross.
Muley Hunting is AWESOME!
p.s. As a side note, I believe my first shot sure could have been about 4" higher and much less of this situation would have occurred. I take full responsibility for that part. But bullet performance seemed to be very suspect. I was using Nosler Accubonds which had proven to be VERY accurate, but never expanded enough to leave a large enough wound channel for blood. Either at long range or short. My dad's buck was hit with Nosler Ballistic Tips. I will be switching to those. His bullet performance was much better on his buck as was obvious by the damage it did.
ElkScout
The first couple picks are of my dad and his buck. He got it on the second to last day. From the bucks we saw up to that point, his was larger than all but one or two. It measured 22" wide. He put a good sneak on this buck and caught him unaware. With one shot at about 75 yards with his 300 WM, he only ran 30 yards downhill and collapsed.
On Friday, I spotted my buck around 1pm about 450 yards across a canyon. My dad put his binoculars on it from where he stood ( he was in the bottom working the willows / aspens) and quickly said "he's a keeper, shoot him". Well, after all the deer we had seen, I knew that this quick statement meant this buck was special.
I had a solid rest and the first shot from my 300 WM went thru his briscuit low in the chest and broke his front leg on the opposite side. Unfortunately, it was a few inches too low to hit the heart / lung area. He ran several hundred yards further up the canyon. I sent four more shots his direction and only managed to hit his antler and take a chip out of it (luckily that was all it did - see his right antler a few inches up from his skull in one of the pics). I was down to one shell and decided to hold onto it.
We watched him bed down on a cliffy slope about 900 yards away and I spent the next two hours driving the ATV back to the truck, finding my last 2 shells in my other pack (had a total of 3 now) and then drove several miles down to the highway, across to the other side of the canyon and back up. After parking, I walked about 1/2 mile across the top towards the rim until I could look down about 75 yards to where he should have been, laying in a flat spot above a bit of rimrock.
Just before peaking over the edge, I racked 1 of the 3 shells I had left. As I slowly inched over, expecting to find him laying there, I saw nothing. He was not there! So after glassing everything I could see, I cautiously moved down off the rim. The wind was still and it was totally quiet as I scanned left and right with each step. I sneaked down the steep slope careful to put every step on a rock or dirt so as to not make any noise. As you can imagine, I was completely on edge! Someone could have made me jump 10 feet high if they tapped me on the shoulder at that time. I walked down to the shelf and got within 10 yards of where he was last laying. Expecting to see blood where he had layed, I was shocked to see NO BLOOD in the dirt! However, as I looked to my left I caught the sight of a left antler, a big antler, about 20 yards to my left on a game trail. He had moved from the original spot 20 yards further north to behind a small pinion pine.
He was facing directly away from me and still laying down. He had not heard or seen me. His ears were still facing forward away from me. His head was up. I raised my rifle and found him in the scope. The bullet hit him low in the back angling down and exited his chest near the ground where he lay. But instead of dropping his head and giving it up, he got up and ran!! I quickly racked my second shell and took another shot at about 30 yards angling away as he was running. The second shot hit him hard I figured as he crashed to the ground about 35 yards away. I looked at him from where I stood. He was motionless, but his head was level while resting on some sagebrush. I yelled "hey deer"? "hey you". No response or flinch from the buck.
I had now hit this deer three times not including the one in the antler (sic) and had seen him get up each time so I was not about to take any chances. I had only ONE shell left. I racked it and slowly moved down the game trail he was on. I got within 15 yards and, once again, he jumped up!! I raised the rifle and pulled the trigger on my last shell hitting him basically point blank on the right side of the back and the bullet angled forward towards his chest. At the same time, he turned right and ran downhill somehow another 40 yards where he dropped out of sight.
I stood in complete disbelief. I had just used my last shell? hitting the biggest buck of my life four times with a 300 WM and he still had got up and ran. I decided it was best to wait for a few minutes. I knew he didn't go any further as I could see lower down the hill, I just could not see where he dropped. So after 15 minutes or so I slowly walked down. I then saw him, laying sideways on the sage brush "looking" dead. But I knew better? WAS he truly dead? finally?? All I had was a $1000 club in my hands at this point... completely out of shells!
I decided to throw a rock his way and see if he flinched. At about 35 yards away, I threw a rock high in the air so that I could pull my binoculars up and watch any reaction he may have? an ear flinching, chest heaving, eye blinking? anything. As the rock came down it hit him squarely in the ribs. What a shot! He did not move? or did he? after this point, I could not be sure enough. So I continued to throw rocks in his direction, hitting sage around him as I moved closer. Nothing, no movement that I could discern. I should have thrown a rock at him instead of .30 caliber lead I figured. The rock must have done the trick I joked to myself as I walked up to him. With my very expensive club, I touched his eye with the end of the barrel just to make sure. Nothing????? he was finally dead!!!! And he was finally MINE!!
After all the hard work, mostly in the dark, I packed his head / cape back to the truck and it was then I realized how wide he was. He was magnificent! An amazing answer to many prayers! A true blessing! He measured almost 29" wide and scored about 170" gross.
Muley Hunting is AWESOME!
p.s. As a side note, I believe my first shot sure could have been about 4" higher and much less of this situation would have occurred. I take full responsibility for that part. But bullet performance seemed to be very suspect. I was using Nosler Accubonds which had proven to be VERY accurate, but never expanded enough to leave a large enough wound channel for blood. Either at long range or short. My dad's buck was hit with Nosler Ballistic Tips. I will be switching to those. His bullet performance was much better on his buck as was obvious by the damage it did.
ElkScout
