G-Hought3
Active Member
- Messages
- 136
I’ve been meaning to post this forever. I always enjoy this site and need to contribute more often. Me and a buddy had a great hunt a couple months ago. This was an area I had hunted in the past and knew well. On the archery hunt I went in hunting/scouting for the opener. I ended up missing a great buck with a radio collar, but the good news was I knew right where to be for the rifle opener. We came back for the opener surprised to only see 2-3 trucks at the trailhead, we started the long horse ride in at about 3:45 opening morning. As we got to “the spot” I told my friend where to sit, he had never been there before so I dropped him off in a spot down the ridge from me and told him where to be at first light. I went up another half mile to where I had seen the buck previously, expecting him to be in the same basin at first light. As soon as it’s light enough to see, my friend calls me “I’ve got the radio collar buck at 300 yards and I’m going to shoot him. Will you be mad?” My heart sank “yes I will, but I’d do the same thing if I were you” not long after he had the buck down and the celebrations began. It was bittersweet but we are good buddies, so for the next few days I continued to give him a hard time. “You know those stories that you hear about guys getting their buck shot out from under them by random random jerk? Well I never thought that jerk would be my hunting partner!” ?
We continued hunting hard for the next few days seeing decent bucks but not anything I was real interested in. We found a very nice 3 point one morning, and my buddy told me over and over again I should shoot it. Right as I went to make a stalk, I decided I was going to hold out for bigger, he called me crazy!
The last evening of our opening weekend trip, we got packed up to ride the horses 3 miles from camp, continuing to hunt our tried and true spots knowing eventually something would turn up. We started up the trail and for the first time on the trip, I said it was his turn to tow the pack horse and ride lead (they are my horses so I typically would tow and lead). About 15 minutes up the trail in some thick pines, I look to my right and not 80 yards off the trail is a big buck staring right at us in an area we would not have expected to see deer. “Big buck, keep riding” I whisper to my friend. I slipped off my horse, unshouldered my rifle and got him in my sights on the off side of my horse and verified he was a shooter. I smacked my horse on the butt, and once he walked out of my way shot freehand, dropping the buck in his tracks!
It all happened so fast the adrenaline didn’t hit till after the shot. Immediately the celebration began!
Just goes to show that if you keep hunting hard eventually things will work. I told my buddy I was still mad he killed my buck, just not as mad as I was before! The bucks score almost identical, with completely different looks. Couldn’t have asked for a better hunt.
We continued hunting hard for the next few days seeing decent bucks but not anything I was real interested in. We found a very nice 3 point one morning, and my buddy told me over and over again I should shoot it. Right as I went to make a stalk, I decided I was going to hold out for bigger, he called me crazy!
The last evening of our opening weekend trip, we got packed up to ride the horses 3 miles from camp, continuing to hunt our tried and true spots knowing eventually something would turn up. We started up the trail and for the first time on the trip, I said it was his turn to tow the pack horse and ride lead (they are my horses so I typically would tow and lead). About 15 minutes up the trail in some thick pines, I look to my right and not 80 yards off the trail is a big buck staring right at us in an area we would not have expected to see deer. “Big buck, keep riding” I whisper to my friend. I slipped off my horse, unshouldered my rifle and got him in my sights on the off side of my horse and verified he was a shooter. I smacked my horse on the butt, and once he walked out of my way shot freehand, dropping the buck in his tracks!
It all happened so fast the adrenaline didn’t hit till after the shot. Immediately the celebration began!
Just goes to show that if you keep hunting hard eventually things will work. I told my buddy I was still mad he killed my buck, just not as mad as I was before! The bucks score almost identical, with completely different looks. Couldn’t have asked for a better hunt.
