thanks guys heres the story of the hunt.....
I was hunting solo and even though it was snowing for the 1st 2 days of the hunt I walked into a basin anyway to see if I could find a huge 5x5 that my friend was trying to get earlier on the muzzleloader hunt. I found 27 bucks on wednesday and only 15 bucks on thursday but the weather was real bad. There was one pretty nice 4 point about 28" wide or so but I was really wanting something better.
Friday the weather was supposed to break, and I had pushed the other basin a little bit the day before, so I went to another spot.I had to chain up the truck due to the new snow to get in there at daylight and it was still snowing bad.I decided to drop into a big canyon and try to get below the snow and clouds. I walked in a mile or so and found a good choke cherry bush to take shelter under to wait out the weather. After a few hours the snow started to break and almost immediately the deer started to step out of their beds to feed. I found 2 bucks here, then 5 over there then 9 in another draw and pretty soon I had seen well over 20 bucks in the spotter.
There was many good bucks in there but I really wanted 30" and some extra points. Then I saw him. I was familliar with this buck as I had a 147 yard encounter with him last year while helping my son hunt. He some how eluded us that day but today would be different. I decided to try to get on him even though there were lots of deer between he and I.
I had to drop off of the mountain I was on and cross the big canyon. He was 4 drainages down the canyon, up on the other side. The drainage he was in was very shallow, as was the one before. There were 9 other bucks with him and a handfull of does. A couple of those bucks were VERY nice but he was the only one with extras. The little drainage before his had at least 5 bedded bucks in it and I needed to go through them to get to my buck.
I started down the hill.It was wide open with no cover and a few inches of wet slippery snow. As i decended 15 does and 2 little bucks came trotting from the canyon to my right and started feeding 300yards in front of me!!! S*!T !!!! well I couldnt just sit there so I went down the open hill hoping they would either go back where they came from or up the left side of the canyon.They almost let me walk right by them then at about 60 yards they noticed me and took off straight toward my buck!
D@*%!T!!! I sat down in the brush where they had been feeding and as they got up the other side they paused to try to figure out what I was. When they couldnt see me they calmed and went straight up instead of going toward my buck, PHEW!!! So I continued my stalk.
I climbed the other side of the canyon and started to crawl into the shallow drainage before the one my buck was in. The 5 bucks there had got up to feed and I worked in below them. Finally they knew something was wrong and all but the biggest went straight up the mountain. He was a 28" 4x5 with a split g3. Nice ,but I wanted My buck. He let me get within 130 yards and finally, instead of going straight up the mountain, he blew out about 300 yards above my buck, side hill!! ( insert cuss words here....)
I was only 3-400 yards away from where I had last seen my buck feeding so I had to press on and hope he was still there then BAM.... A bunch of chuckar bust up all around me and fly right to where my buck should be!! AAAAAUUGH!!! I take a few more steps and BAM.... More chuckar bust up and go to..... you guessed it, my buck. A few more steps and the little devil birds had left some stragglers so naturally they too went right to my buck. @#%# !*&%$!!!
Now my hopes are crashing. I can only pray the bucks are still there.As I get over the small swell between the two shallow drainages I see a couple of deer slowly walking straight away down the canyon. This is when I left my pack and only grabbed my shooting sticks and rifle. The mountain is very steep and I had to slide along on my right hip rather than belly crawling. The snow was wet, slick and melting so as I went forward I would also slide down. There are just a few bushes on this hill with some scattered grass mixed between. I would slide a few yards and then glass trying to see into the bottom of this draw. I was seeing some of the small bucks but not the one I wanted .They were all on alert looking my way to try to see whatever blew those devil birds out. I got up on one knee behind a bush and glassed into the bottom and there he was, 209 yards. I needed to get a bit closer so I could shoot from my shooting sticks on my knees. So I crawled onto the next bush and then the next ranging the bucks that I could see at each bush. Finally, I was at a big bush I could hide behind and shoot from, 167 yards. He stepped up just above another buck, quartering away and BAM...... He reared up, slid down the hill and my hunt was over. Now the work begins.
I got a few pictures, caped him out boned him out and loaded my pack for the hike out. I started walking at 6:15 pm and got to the truck at 10:30 Pm. It was a grueling hike. My pack seemed to weigh 200lbs and every time I would start climbing I would tell myself I had to take 50 steps before I could rest. The last hour or so I would black out every time I sat down to rest. It was like little naps that only lasted a few minutes or so. I was at camp and in bed at midnight and VERY glad to be done!!!
