Utah Extended Buck

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IHuntNUtah

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LAST EDITED ON Jan-05-14 AT 10:21AM (MST)[p]This was my first year archery hunting. I have always been one to criticize archery hunters for wounded/lost bucks. Many of my friends have been long time dedicated archery hunters and finally convinced me to give it a try. I didn't have much time during the early archery season to hunt. I only got to hunt weekends because we were too busy at work for me to take much time off. I had a great time on these weekend hunts packing a couple miles into the backcountry and seeing some pretty good bucks. I came close a couple times but quickly learned this bow hunting thing is a little different than hunting with my 7mm.
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When the extended archery hunt came around we were finally catching up at work so I planned a few days off with a good friend and we headed up for a good time.
We had spent a little time spotting the area we were hunting earlier during the extended hunt and we really hadn't seen many bucks that were the caliber we wanted to hunt but we decided to stay close to home and hunt up higher than we had spotted previously.
The first morning of our hunt we got up as high as we could and had a ton of country to look over. By 8:30 I had a better buck spotted than we had seen previously. He was smaller than we would usually pursue but due to the lack of bigger bucks I decided to try a stalk.
I started my stalk close to 10:00 and quickly found the country was a lot thicker and the snow a lot deeper than I had thought. I moved slowly and took my time keeping the buck out of sight and the wind in my favor. About noon I was one small draw north of the buck creeping down to get to the level the buck was at. As I was making my way a couple deer stood up in front of me, a small buck and a doe. They were at the same level as the buck I was stalking so I tried my best to walk at an angle hoping they would run away from my buck. I slipped, fell, and slid down the mountain about 10 yards. The small buck ran right toward the bedded buck I was stalking and I worried he was gone. I continued my stalk anyway. I made it to a cliff above the buck and ranged a tree I knew the buck was bedded close to at 50 yards. I wanted to get a little closer. I tried going around the cliff one way and a doe that was bedded close to the buck was faced toward me so I didn't dare go that direction. I knew the buck would see me if I went around the other direction so I took off my boots and made my way down a small crevice in the cliff. I had a good size boulder still between me and the buck. I climbed up the boulder and this is what I saw.
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I had a short wait for him to stand up and had a pretty easy shot at 30 yards.
Looking back from his bed to where I shot from:
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And where I spotted him from, the bare hill in the distance:
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I waited well over an hour for my buddy to make it up to where I was and we followed a good bloodtrail for a long time. I began to get worried when the blooddrops got smaller and we were still following blood 3 hours later. He went up hill in over a foot of snow the snow was starting to come down pretty good. I followed him down through some pines and when I got out of the pines I was surprised to see him jump up and run up wobble up the hill ahead of me. I had been going for so long in the deep snow that I had tied my bow up onto my pack. I quickly dropped my pack and grabbed my bow and ran up following his track. I didn't go 50 yards when I watched my buck tip over. I couldn't believe it. He was done.
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This hunt was hard and very rewarding. I would like to thank good hunting buddies Clayton Coulam, Jimmy Higley and Willy for all their help on this hunt, wouldn't have been half as fun without them. And I better thank my good wife for letting me do what I love even if I spend a little too much time and money! Hope this wasn't too long I drug it out a little but it was an awesome beginning to my future in the sport of archery!
 
Fantastic hunt!! I began my archery career this year hunting Nebraska (using a bow not cross-gun), and was not as lucky. Missed a couple of easy shots that I should have never missed, and had way too many close calls to count. It was the best hunting experience I have ever had. I gained a new respect for all the guys & gals that consistently put deer on the ground doing this. In my opinion, any animal with a bow is a treasure because you have to get in their house to get 'em!! Congrats, I am happy for you!!
 
Nice work man!
Congrats on the deer and that's how it's done!
Thanks for the story and the pics!

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For the love of the game
 

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