Heres how the cookie crumbled...or should I say buck.
Hiked our arses in on Tuesday for my elk hunt, set up shop and proceed to glass elk etc. Wed comes around and we were there to hunt elk. After the elk left the area we stayed up high to glass glass glass. I found this buck and he was sparring with another average size buck. I could tell he was a four point so I get out my spotter. We watched him, watched him, watched him and I said, "nahh to small and he is crabby." I don't brag to be the best eye out there but I'm not bad at glassing, did I ever screw up on judging this one. Since camp was not to far from where we were glassing this guy we decided hell lets get in closer just to watch them spar. After making the first succesful stalk of the day, the elk got the best of us all day, we were right on top of him and I thought holy smokes he is a shooter. I took aim and crack he jumps up. I knew I hit him, maybe a little far back but I hit him good. He takes off running and I thought uh oh. So I drop my pack and run to the hillside he bailed off of. It was a big barren hillside so I wanted a glimpse of the direction before he went to no mans land. Well the deer bedded right back down just off the other side. as I crested it he jumps up, I wasn't expecting it, and I missed. By this time Kelly catches up to me and we somehow lost a whole reload worth of powder on the ground. I only took 4 shots in due to weight, 2 were shot, 1 all over the ground so I had one more shot. After letting the buck settle down we proceeded to sneak in just as we were ranging him he jumped. I wasn't going to take a running shot. He bedded and we put the sneak on again. I was well rested and shot,thump, sounded like a well placed shot and the deer goes down. Well I had taken out both shoulders but this big ole bucks was not going down he took off running, well crashing, down the mtn. I thought holy hell is this guy going to ever give up. We watched him bed down again and I was out of bullets. Everytime he put his antlers down we thought he was done, then out of no where he lifts his head up then down then up. That happened until dark so we put the deer to rest.
We had to hike clear back to our camp ( up and up ) and after arriving I was bummed, way bummed. I thought I had given up a day or two of my precious LE elk hunt for a general season deer. My hunting partner was like DUDE he is a smoker buck and quit being such a woman with your mopey like attitude. Didn't sleep to well that night but at least the elk weren't there making noise...oh wait I wanted them to be so I was even more bummed knowing I would have to find, pack out a deer, pack out camp, and relocate the elk. Well in the morning we located the buck and the work began. We lost the cape due to the warm weather and how far we had to get him out, we tried to get ice in the nearest city, Delta, which was 1.5 hours away. The drive through the desert was 89 degrees and we were screwed. So after a big greasy burger and few phone calls we were on our way back to our camp so we could pack it up and chase elk the next day. Hind sight not a bad detour. Big buck and a greasy burger after several days of freeze dried foods was worth it.
