I
ICHABOD
Guest
After talking to a few MMers about the Books, and some scouting of my own, I decided to avoid the "masses" and hunt the roadless on horseback.
This is how my solo Book Cliffs hunt went:
Day 1 (wed)
Arrived at main camp in afternoon. After setting up camp, did a little evening glassing a few miles or so from camp. Saw 4 decent bucks: a 26'' heavy 3x4, 24'' 4x4, 24-25'' GOOD 4x4, and a 27'' willowy 4x4.
Went back to camp, ate dinner and went to bed. Awoke at 2:30am to some very loud "sniffing" noises, and pawing on my tent! BEAR? No, worse! After grabbing my pistol from under my pillow, I clicked on a flashlight to find a skunk...INSIDE my tent! Holy crap! Well, after 30min of heart thumping terror, I was able to get the little time bomb outta my tent without him going off (thank goodness). Needless to say, I wasn?t able to get back to sleep, so after a cup of hot chocolate and a "cup of soup",I got any early start.
Day 2 (thur)
Rode out in the dark to the top of the canyon where I saw the bucks the night before. Glassed until 12:30 p.m. Found a GOOD vantage point overlooking a long saddle on top of a ridge. Saw the same bucks as the day before, with an added 26'' 4x4 that had GREAT forks, good mass and good height. Decided this would be a great "last day buck." Went on a long ride in some beautiful country, getting my bearings and looking for likely spots to glass deer. What a beatiful place!
Day 3 (fri)
Rode back to "my ridge" in the dark, glassed until about noon again. Glassed up 16 bucks...same deer as 2 previous days with a bunch of smaller 4x4's, threes, and forked horns. The deer were doing a lot of "sparring" today. Rode back to camp. Two other camps showed up this afternoon...until now I had been here all alone...knew that would be to good to be true. Talked to both camps, neither were going to hunt where I was, as they were on foot. Learned that 3 other camps with horses were coming sat night or sunday morning. Decided to "spike" in that evening, to save me the long ride in the dark.
Day 4 (opening day)
Hiked quietly up to "my ridge" in the dark, was on my vantage point with my spotting scope set up at first light. Started finding bucks all over the saddle. Watched and glassed deer for about an hour and a half...saw all my "good" bucks, but no "1st day shooters."
Then, I saw him.
He came out of the deep canyon, feeding up the saddle. I immediately put the swaro 20x60 on him and WOW! This buck had it all! He was a 5x5. GREAT mass, GREAT height. He had amazing tine length, with matching 13-14'' inlines between his G-3's and G-4's, 4-5'' eyegards with lots of extras at the bases. I put him at 32.'' (I don't throw out the 30'' mark often, but this big boy was every bit of it). I ranged him at 600yds...and closing. He was feeding toward me, so I got comfortable and enjoyed the show. I watched him for about 15min, when he started "shredding" a 4-5' pine tree. I ranged him at 530 yds. He stayed there broadside, raking that tree for 30min. Numerous times I settled my 500 yd crosshair on his shoulder...and decided to wait. Knowing that I was the only one up there that morning, I was hoping that he would feed closer. (there was no chance for a stalk, as I was sitting on the edge of a cliff). The 26'' "last day buck" I had first seen on day 2 had fed to within about 30 yards of "my buck", when suddenly the big boy turned from his tree (which was now void of all limbs) and charged him, chasing him 50 yards down the draw. "My buck" stood still for a moment, then turned and began walking directly AWAY from me. He was no longer feeding, and I knew he was leaving. It was decision time... not knowing if I would see him again, and knowing I had other horseback hunters moving in that evening, I decided to take him. I settled my crosshairs on him, and waited for him to turn. Still walking straight away he dropped into a small stand of dark timber--only 3 or 4 trees; knowing that he wouldn't bed there, I quickly ranged the backside of the timber, where he would come out...575 yards. Farther than I wanted to shoot, but still within my 600 yd personal limit. (I have no intention of discussing "long range ethics" with anyone, so PLEASE keep those comments to yourself.)
Suddenly, he burst out of the timber, running to my right. What? What spooked him? Without time to think, I once again found him in my scope, just as he turned, going straight away again. Still moving quickly, he came to a spot where the trail split-- I knew he would either have to go right or left-- when he turned I would kill him. He turned left, and had 20 yards to cover before topping out. I had a good quartering away shot...using my 600 yd mark, I picked a spot on the front of his chest, and fired.
My gun settled back onto my backpack I was using as a deadrest just in time to see the bucks' nose hit the dirt! He struggled back to his feet, stood there "hunchbacked" for a few seconds, and dropped back down to the ground!
As I chambered another "just in case" round, I saw a big buck running out of the same stand of timber, directly toward me. I put the scope on him, and to my horror...it was the big 5x5! Are you kidding me? I HAD SHOT THE WRONG DEER! Instantly I knew what had happened. As the big buck entered into the stand of timber, he chased the other buck out. That's why what I thought was "my buck" had spooked!
The big 5x5 ran right up the draw, and stopped EXACTLY 200 yds below me, and stood there for 10 minutes--looking back at where he had just come from. I FELT LIKE I WAS GOING TO PUKE! He stood there long enough for me to study every inch of his 210-215'' frame (conservatively). He then headed down into the deep nasty canyon he had come out of that morning.
I stood there contemplating throwing myself off the cliff I was on...decided against it (a decision that still haunts me); hiked back to get my horse, and proceeded to find a way down onto the saddle --which wasn?t NEARLY as easy as I thought it would be...
As I hiked, my mind started playing tricks on me...I knew that the buck I had shot was heavy and wide...but then again, ALL decent bucks look wide when running AWAY...When I walked up to the buck, I was doubly disapointed...It was the big 3x4 I had watched for three days...he would have been 4th on my HITLIST of the bucks I had seen. I had watched this deer move back down into the deep canyon a good 45 min before I took the shot, but I guess I was so intent on watching the big 5x5 that I hadnt noticed this deer come out of the canyon and cover the 75 yards of open sage to the small stand of trees. I had misjudged him though; I had guessed him at 26'', he ended up being 28.'' He is the biggest bodied deer I have ever seen. His ears measure out to 26''! He has a beautiful cape, with a big roman nose and black chest.
This is how he looked when I walked up on him:
Sorry about the quality of the pics; self timer-- couldnt budge the deer to get it out of the bushes, broke my bubber band so tried to use sage to hide the tongue. (why I didnt just cut it off I'll never know)LOL
(BY the way, I had taken off my orange jacket and hat to take pics and gut the deer)
He is a decent deer, but to kill this type of deer on the first day with eight days to hunt was pretty disappointing. (By the way, my shot entered about 12 inches behind his front side shoulder, zipped through his boiler room taking out a lung and the liver, and BUSTED his off-side shoulder; I recovered the slug, a perfectly mushroomed Barnes TSX match-grade 168g boat-tail. AMAZING bullet that I HIGHLY recommend).
I gutted, quartered and loaded the deer up on the horse, started back.
Seen a coyote crossing the ridge above and ahead of me--he saw me at the same time I saw him-- ranged him at 550 yds...why not? Slipped the 300wby out of the scabbard, sat down with my shooting sticks; centered the 'yote between the 500 and 600 yd reticle...boom! Poor "yote. I may be sadistic, but I'm pretty sure I laughed out loud when I thumped that dog...I stood up, turned around, and stuffed the still smoking barrel of my rifle right in my horses nose. I stopped laughing as I watched my horse (fully loaded with deer and gear) scramble around the side of the mountain in panic mode.
Now, where was that cliff again? Figuring I was too tired to hike all the way back up the mountain just to throw myself off the cliff, I tracked the horse down. Luckily she only ran about a mile through 2 steep nasty canyons before I caught up with her. Pack job held up suprisingly well! Didn?t lose a thing! (Unless you count the tripod, jacket, contents of both saddlebags, and the bits and pieces of the saddlebags that I collected along the way). Re-secured the load, made the (now) 8.5 mile hike back to main camp; storm moved in while chasing horse, snowed and sleeted on me the entire hike back;
Arrived in camp about 7:30pm. Too tired to cook--another cup of hot chocolate and another "cup of soup" hit the cot, slept like a log.
Day5 (sun)
Slept in till 8:00. Saddled up the horse, went on a 30 mile ride. Saw more beautiful country. First good meal in 4 days...ate almost a whole dutch oven of taters, onions, smoked sausage and drumsticks...
(I dont know why I showed you that! LOL)
Day6 (mon)
Starting to warm up. Saddled up, rode about 10 miles. Horse is real tired today. Saw about 60 head of elk. Got out the spotting scope...12 or 15 bulls...4 or 5 really good bulls...1 EXCEPTIONAL bull! Where did that horse go while I was watching those bulls?
Horse headed back to camp...she's had enough of this. I follow horse all the way back to camp...have plenty of time to devise a foolproof plan to push the HORSE off of that cliff...
BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY!
Day7 (tues)
Warm again today...time to get this deer off the mountain. Packed up and headed home.
Had a GREAT time... probably the most frustrating, difficult, and yet REWARDING hunt I have ever done. By far the most fun I have ever had hunting! Quite the adventure! Cant wait to see what next year brings!
------------------------------------------------------
By the way,
I live in UT.
There are a lot of UTARDS that live here.
I have also seen quite a few WYOMORONS, NEVADUHNS, COLORADORKS, ID-IOTS and AIRHEADZONANS in my travels.
This is how my solo Book Cliffs hunt went:
Day 1 (wed)
Arrived at main camp in afternoon. After setting up camp, did a little evening glassing a few miles or so from camp. Saw 4 decent bucks: a 26'' heavy 3x4, 24'' 4x4, 24-25'' GOOD 4x4, and a 27'' willowy 4x4.
Went back to camp, ate dinner and went to bed. Awoke at 2:30am to some very loud "sniffing" noises, and pawing on my tent! BEAR? No, worse! After grabbing my pistol from under my pillow, I clicked on a flashlight to find a skunk...INSIDE my tent! Holy crap! Well, after 30min of heart thumping terror, I was able to get the little time bomb outta my tent without him going off (thank goodness). Needless to say, I wasn?t able to get back to sleep, so after a cup of hot chocolate and a "cup of soup",I got any early start.
Day 2 (thur)
Rode out in the dark to the top of the canyon where I saw the bucks the night before. Glassed until 12:30 p.m. Found a GOOD vantage point overlooking a long saddle on top of a ridge. Saw the same bucks as the day before, with an added 26'' 4x4 that had GREAT forks, good mass and good height. Decided this would be a great "last day buck." Went on a long ride in some beautiful country, getting my bearings and looking for likely spots to glass deer. What a beatiful place!
Day 3 (fri)
Rode back to "my ridge" in the dark, glassed until about noon again. Glassed up 16 bucks...same deer as 2 previous days with a bunch of smaller 4x4's, threes, and forked horns. The deer were doing a lot of "sparring" today. Rode back to camp. Two other camps showed up this afternoon...until now I had been here all alone...knew that would be to good to be true. Talked to both camps, neither were going to hunt where I was, as they were on foot. Learned that 3 other camps with horses were coming sat night or sunday morning. Decided to "spike" in that evening, to save me the long ride in the dark.
Day 4 (opening day)
Hiked quietly up to "my ridge" in the dark, was on my vantage point with my spotting scope set up at first light. Started finding bucks all over the saddle. Watched and glassed deer for about an hour and a half...saw all my "good" bucks, but no "1st day shooters."
Then, I saw him.
He came out of the deep canyon, feeding up the saddle. I immediately put the swaro 20x60 on him and WOW! This buck had it all! He was a 5x5. GREAT mass, GREAT height. He had amazing tine length, with matching 13-14'' inlines between his G-3's and G-4's, 4-5'' eyegards with lots of extras at the bases. I put him at 32.'' (I don't throw out the 30'' mark often, but this big boy was every bit of it). I ranged him at 600yds...and closing. He was feeding toward me, so I got comfortable and enjoyed the show. I watched him for about 15min, when he started "shredding" a 4-5' pine tree. I ranged him at 530 yds. He stayed there broadside, raking that tree for 30min. Numerous times I settled my 500 yd crosshair on his shoulder...and decided to wait. Knowing that I was the only one up there that morning, I was hoping that he would feed closer. (there was no chance for a stalk, as I was sitting on the edge of a cliff). The 26'' "last day buck" I had first seen on day 2 had fed to within about 30 yards of "my buck", when suddenly the big boy turned from his tree (which was now void of all limbs) and charged him, chasing him 50 yards down the draw. "My buck" stood still for a moment, then turned and began walking directly AWAY from me. He was no longer feeding, and I knew he was leaving. It was decision time... not knowing if I would see him again, and knowing I had other horseback hunters moving in that evening, I decided to take him. I settled my crosshairs on him, and waited for him to turn. Still walking straight away he dropped into a small stand of dark timber--only 3 or 4 trees; knowing that he wouldn't bed there, I quickly ranged the backside of the timber, where he would come out...575 yards. Farther than I wanted to shoot, but still within my 600 yd personal limit. (I have no intention of discussing "long range ethics" with anyone, so PLEASE keep those comments to yourself.)
Suddenly, he burst out of the timber, running to my right. What? What spooked him? Without time to think, I once again found him in my scope, just as he turned, going straight away again. Still moving quickly, he came to a spot where the trail split-- I knew he would either have to go right or left-- when he turned I would kill him. He turned left, and had 20 yards to cover before topping out. I had a good quartering away shot...using my 600 yd mark, I picked a spot on the front of his chest, and fired.
My gun settled back onto my backpack I was using as a deadrest just in time to see the bucks' nose hit the dirt! He struggled back to his feet, stood there "hunchbacked" for a few seconds, and dropped back down to the ground!
As I chambered another "just in case" round, I saw a big buck running out of the same stand of timber, directly toward me. I put the scope on him, and to my horror...it was the big 5x5! Are you kidding me? I HAD SHOT THE WRONG DEER! Instantly I knew what had happened. As the big buck entered into the stand of timber, he chased the other buck out. That's why what I thought was "my buck" had spooked!
The big 5x5 ran right up the draw, and stopped EXACTLY 200 yds below me, and stood there for 10 minutes--looking back at where he had just come from. I FELT LIKE I WAS GOING TO PUKE! He stood there long enough for me to study every inch of his 210-215'' frame (conservatively). He then headed down into the deep nasty canyon he had come out of that morning.
I stood there contemplating throwing myself off the cliff I was on...decided against it (a decision that still haunts me); hiked back to get my horse, and proceeded to find a way down onto the saddle --which wasn?t NEARLY as easy as I thought it would be...
As I hiked, my mind started playing tricks on me...I knew that the buck I had shot was heavy and wide...but then again, ALL decent bucks look wide when running AWAY...When I walked up to the buck, I was doubly disapointed...It was the big 3x4 I had watched for three days...he would have been 4th on my HITLIST of the bucks I had seen. I had watched this deer move back down into the deep canyon a good 45 min before I took the shot, but I guess I was so intent on watching the big 5x5 that I hadnt noticed this deer come out of the canyon and cover the 75 yards of open sage to the small stand of trees. I had misjudged him though; I had guessed him at 26'', he ended up being 28.'' He is the biggest bodied deer I have ever seen. His ears measure out to 26''! He has a beautiful cape, with a big roman nose and black chest.
This is how he looked when I walked up on him:
Sorry about the quality of the pics; self timer-- couldnt budge the deer to get it out of the bushes, broke my bubber band so tried to use sage to hide the tongue. (why I didnt just cut it off I'll never know)LOL
(BY the way, I had taken off my orange jacket and hat to take pics and gut the deer)
He is a decent deer, but to kill this type of deer on the first day with eight days to hunt was pretty disappointing. (By the way, my shot entered about 12 inches behind his front side shoulder, zipped through his boiler room taking out a lung and the liver, and BUSTED his off-side shoulder; I recovered the slug, a perfectly mushroomed Barnes TSX match-grade 168g boat-tail. AMAZING bullet that I HIGHLY recommend).
I gutted, quartered and loaded the deer up on the horse, started back.
Seen a coyote crossing the ridge above and ahead of me--he saw me at the same time I saw him-- ranged him at 550 yds...why not? Slipped the 300wby out of the scabbard, sat down with my shooting sticks; centered the 'yote between the 500 and 600 yd reticle...boom! Poor "yote. I may be sadistic, but I'm pretty sure I laughed out loud when I thumped that dog...I stood up, turned around, and stuffed the still smoking barrel of my rifle right in my horses nose. I stopped laughing as I watched my horse (fully loaded with deer and gear) scramble around the side of the mountain in panic mode.
Now, where was that cliff again? Figuring I was too tired to hike all the way back up the mountain just to throw myself off the cliff, I tracked the horse down. Luckily she only ran about a mile through 2 steep nasty canyons before I caught up with her. Pack job held up suprisingly well! Didn?t lose a thing! (Unless you count the tripod, jacket, contents of both saddlebags, and the bits and pieces of the saddlebags that I collected along the way). Re-secured the load, made the (now) 8.5 mile hike back to main camp; storm moved in while chasing horse, snowed and sleeted on me the entire hike back;
Arrived in camp about 7:30pm. Too tired to cook--another cup of hot chocolate and another "cup of soup" hit the cot, slept like a log.
Day5 (sun)
Slept in till 8:00. Saddled up the horse, went on a 30 mile ride. Saw more beautiful country. First good meal in 4 days...ate almost a whole dutch oven of taters, onions, smoked sausage and drumsticks...
(I dont know why I showed you that! LOL)
Day6 (mon)
Starting to warm up. Saddled up, rode about 10 miles. Horse is real tired today. Saw about 60 head of elk. Got out the spotting scope...12 or 15 bulls...4 or 5 really good bulls...1 EXCEPTIONAL bull! Where did that horse go while I was watching those bulls?
Horse headed back to camp...she's had enough of this. I follow horse all the way back to camp...have plenty of time to devise a foolproof plan to push the HORSE off of that cliff...
BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY!
Day7 (tues)
Warm again today...time to get this deer off the mountain. Packed up and headed home.
Had a GREAT time... probably the most frustrating, difficult, and yet REWARDING hunt I have ever done. By far the most fun I have ever had hunting! Quite the adventure! Cant wait to see what next year brings!
------------------------------------------------------
By the way,
I live in UT.
There are a lot of UTARDS that live here.
I have also seen quite a few WYOMORONS, NEVADUHNS, COLORADORKS, ID-IOTS and AIRHEADZONANS in my travels.
