2017 Muzzleloader Buck

aaronjo2324

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I had posted the pictures of my 2017 buck in the Colorado forum, but figured I'd give a more in-depth story here.

Any guesses on gross score? I didn't rough score him before taking him to the taxidermist, just wondering what you all think. He's kind of a unique buck to even guess on for the score for me with those high, upright main beams.

Scouting -
Scouting the high country can be frustrating at times waiting for the snow to melt off enough to access areas that the deer will spend their summers in. The first scouting trip ended up being in early July and luckily my buddy, Matt (who also had the same tag), was in town visiting and we headed up to the mountains. Within 5 minutes of getting to our glassing spot, we spotted two bucks feeding about 600 yards away from us. We knew that the two bucks would definitely be shooters in a couple of months once they were done growing.

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Over the next couple of months, I was up on the mountain every weekend keeping tabs on the deer in the area. In mid-August, I was able to finally spot the bucks from the previous July scouting session that we thought would be trophies. One narrow, tall, heavy buck and one wide and tall buck with a kicker coming off of his right antler. I simply starting referring to these as the Narrow Buck and the Kicker Buck. I would have been more than happy to be able to take either one, but I really liked Kicker Buck for some reason. But over the next few weeks leading up to the hunt, Kicker Buck simply vanished. I saw Narrow Buck on every single scouting trip up the mountain and essentially figured that this would be the one that I hunt on opening day of muzzleloader season.

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The Hunt Begins
Fast forward to the opening day of the hunt. Three of us with tags head up the mountain to my usual glassing spot. We spend the first hour of light up there picking apart the willows and mountainside with 10x binoculars, 15x binoculars, and spotting scopes. We see nothing. Matt and I head higher up the ridge to try to get a better view of the bowl. When we get to the top, we start glassing and only about 500 yards from where all 3 of us were glassing earlier, we see a buck. We had left the heavier optics with Dano at the original glassing spot and could only glass off-hand with 10x binoculars. We could see that he had a huge body and could see antlers, but I didn't know which specific buck that it was. I was 100% sure that it was Narrow Buck because the day before the hunt, he was within 200 yards of the same spot that this deer was now.

The Stalk
We immediately start to figure out a plan for the stalk because it wasn?t too long before this deer buried himself in the willows which would make everything much more difficult. We check the wind and everything is perfect. We hike down the top of the ridge and pick out a group of trees that we figured would put us 300 yards from the buck and that's where we would drop our gear and get light to close the distance. We get to the trees, drop the gear, and do a quick scan to see if we can see the buck. No luck. We look up to the top of the ridge and Dano is giving us hand signals that the buck is to our left. We pick out a rock that we wanted to get to and start walking slowly that direction. When we almost get to the rock, Matt tells me ?Stop. There he is.? Everything after this was just a blur, I know that I put my binoculars up and saw a big rack on the buck. I didn't even give thought to whether it was Narrow Buck or Kicker Buck. I spring out my bipod and ask Matt the distance. He tells me ?142?. I had practiced out to 200 yards and knew that at 150, I would have 6 inches of drop. I settled the sights on the upper 1/3rd of his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. I heard BOOM, SMACK. And knew that I hit him good. He starts running to his right into a little dip and I put my binoculars up trying to see if he came up the other side. No movement. I then focus my binoculars on Dano at the top of the hill who has his arms raised in excitement. The willows in this area were about 3-4 feet tall so it took about 5 minutes of him guiding us to find the buck. When I walk up, I was in disbelief. It was Kicker Buck. I had only seen this buck 2 times vs 8 times for Narrow Buck. It's always been my dream to kill a trophy mule deer. I've hunted elk, oryx, antelope, bears, and mountain lions, but in my mind, none of those compare to a trophy muley.

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As for Narrow Buck, Matt was able to take him that same evening (http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID34/7408.html)
 
A couple of nice, well-earned bucks. It's kool to spot and follow them through the year and then close the deal. Congratulations!
 
Couple of super deer, like Joe2kool said very satisfying to follow them with pictures during spring and summer then kill him during season. I know that's a lot tougher with mule deer than the whitetails I hunt, a big thumbs up.
 
Great story and a fantastic buck! I would have to agree that there is nothing that matches chasing big muleys (except maybe screaming september bulls)! As far as score goes I would put him in the low 180's
 
Got him back last week. Awesome job by Todd down at Real Wilderness Taxidermy in Poncha Springs

Scored 179 and 6/8ths and 26 inches wide.

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