Walleye gets his own buck

walleye1121

walleye1121

Active Member
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After spending all of my scouting and hunting time on the Henrys with my dad I finally got a little time for my own hunt. I was really just waiting for the muzzleloader hunt, but Saturday morning I ran into a damn nice buck and managed to arrow him. My son and I looked very hard for the deer most of the rest of Saturday but could not find him.

After returning home on Sunday the thoughts of what had happened were killing me and I discussed the possible scenarios with a few of my other hunting friends. We put the information together and made the 3 hour drive yesterday to make one more attempt to collect the buck.

The good news is that we found him, but of course the deer was not usable. I had made a bad error in tracking this buck that I won't make again and just barely missed finding him on Saturday.

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Certainly not the most satisfying result but I feel good about eventually tagging this deer and the effort that was made to recover what we could.

Thanks to Brett and Martin for taking the time off to help me complete this hunt.
 
great job, way to stick with it!! no pun intented there LOL

Get your hunt on!!
tixs,lodging,for you
cruises,trips for her!
songdogtravel.com
 
Very nice buck Walleye. Your family has been very fortunate this year. Those two bucks (yours and your Dad's) ought to look real nice together on the wall.
 
Great job on finding your buck. If you dont mind me asking, what was the error made with the initial tracking. I ask for the reason of helping myself and others who may face the same situation on future hunts. Congrats again!

"You only live once,but if you work it right, once is enough" -Joe E. Lewis
 
Sorry for your misfortune of not finding him in time to save him, but i TOTALLY commend you for not giving up and doing the right thing by not arrowing another until you made every possible attempt to find him....it paid off.
CONGRATULATIONS!! :)





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My mistake was insisting that this buck would not travel up hill after I hit him. His initial blood trail was down hill and the arrow was found slightly uphill from his lowest point of travel. At the start of a large grassy flat the blood trail became difficult to follow. He layed down near the edge of this grassy flat and then left almost no sign to track. I forced myself to look lateral to and lower than the bed for his route after that point. My experience had always been that wounded deer never want to climb steep inclines. This deer climbed a very steep slope before dying just over the crest of the ridge and falling nearly 300 yards down the steep rocky slope. There was almost no sign after his bed to the point he finally fell. He was hit a bit far back but I knew he was hit fatal. The under brush is so thick where this deer was hit that I kept thinking he piled up and rolled into one of the ravines.

After I got home and thought it through I knew the buck started up the hill because of the location of the arrow. It bugged me that I didn't explore the steep ridge above the deer more. We did look over the top of the ridge briefly but I just knew he wouldn't be there. In fact, we were within 75 yards of where this buck had started his fall.

I was pretty dissapointed with myself.
 
Great buck! No incredible buck! Congrats to you and your dad!

Wow another public land monster in Utah.

BS I think people are just lying and are killing them in Colorado where they micro manage the hunters.

There will never be big bucks in Utah until we restrict our selves to tags every 5 years.
Their will never be big bucks in Utah until we close the whole state down to hunting for 5 years.
There will never be big bucks in Utah unless you draw a once in a lifetime hunt
You will never kill a big buck unless you hunt on private land

Bla bla bla

Keep proving the skeptics wrong guys this state is rebounding faster then any one is reporting.

Healthy herds, healthy habitat equals better deer hunting.


Archery is a year round commitment!!
 
Thanks Walleye! I have TONS of respect for these animals we hunt. Their toughness and will to survive is amazing. I hope we can all give them our full effort after every shot as you did.

"You only live once,but if you work it right, once is enough" -Joe E. Lewis
 
Very nice buck! What a giant! Public land too! Thank you for sticking with it and finding your buck! It sets a very good example for the rest of us!

Chad
 
it is very satifying to know that with your tracking ability, consience and good friends you were able to find your animal.. great job...
and great buck, thanks for sharing.

Just4fun
 
LAST EDITED ON Sep-10-08 AT 04:11PM (MST)[p]I know this isn't the place to say this and i'm sure it will get nuked but i just can't take any more of swbuckmasters crap. Everytime someone kills a good buck he has to make his comments about utahs deer herd. I'm sick of hearing how amazing he is and all the great bucks he has seen. We get it, you are gods gift to archery hunting.

He made a post stating how he has seen more 160-170 class bucks this year running down the road then ever. This guys hunts the wasatch front. An area that never gets rifle or muzzle loader hunted.

Utah had an awesome antler growth year and a few truly exceptional animals have been taken. It doesn't mean we are out of the woods. Utah doesn't have the deer population that it should. You just have to step off the soap box to see that.

I think his comments take away from what an amazing accomplishment this buck really is. I'm glad you were able to get a great buck walleye especially after working so hard to help your dad get the buck of his dreams. Big bucks like this don't come easy and they aren't hiding behind every tree like some people want you to think. Congradulations!!
 
Congrats on a great buck and a great story to tell too! I am sure that mistake has been made many times as I have been told that too - "wounded animals won't go uphill". That is completely false as demonstrated by your experience. The truth is, they will go wheverever they feel it is safe, uphill, downhill, sideways, backwards, etc. to avoid becoming prey. Fight or flight kicks in and all rules are off. Great persistence though and I applaud that you didn't give up and continue hunting as many hunters probably would have. Taking a 3 hr drive back to find him again the next day takes extreme integrity! Good job!


UTROY
Proverbs 21:19 (why I hunt!)
 
NeverStopHuntin said: "I know this isn't the place to say this and i'm sure it will get nuked but i just can't take any more of swbuckmasters crap. Everytime someone kills a good buck he has to make his comments about utahs deer herd. I'm sick of hearing how amazing he is and all the great bucks he has seen. We get it, you are gods gift to archery hunting.

He made a post stating how he has seen more 160-170 class bucks this year running down the road then ever. This guys hunts the wasatch front. An area that never gets rifle or muzzle loader hunted.

Utah had an awesome antler growth year and a few truly exceptional animals have been taken. It doesn't mean we are out of the woods. Utah doesn't have the deer population that it should. You just have to step off the soap box to see that."

There are no bad posts from Utah.
There never will be a bad post from Utah.
To make a bad post you need to go to Colorado.

I agree- the never in Utah deal is getting a little bit tired.
 
Way to go Walleye! That's great you stuck with it and thank god for great friends that will help out. Great buck, and your dad's also. There were never any better times than hunting with dad. Wish mine could still go.
 
What a great buck and congrats to you!! Sorry it had to be after the fact but you/friends made the ending right!
 
I am sure glad you found him... sorry about the other stuff!
we never stop learning..
dam fine buck!
rm
 
Congratulations on continually searching for that buck....he's a beauty.

BOHNTR )))---------->
 
I got thinking about it and I believe that I have photos of this buck from two years ago. He was running with an absolute hog that I think is his dad. I am nearly certain these bucks are related and I think the smaller buck in these photos is the one I finally arrowed. It is interesting that he has neither improved or declined in this period. This was probably all of the potential this particular buck had. Which would indicate that maybe he is not the bigger bucks offspring after all.

The hog.

Picture018-2.jpg


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The one I arrowed. (I think)

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Picture026-1.jpg
 
Thats way cool to have live photos of a buck you eventually harvest. Looks like you have a dang good area to hunt.
 
Walleye awesome job and killer buck. Two years age I lost the biggest buck I have ever shot "around 210". I had tunnel vision were I thought he went from were I lost blood. Maybe he was up hill from where I was looking, next time I wont get tunnel vision after reading your post.
 

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