My Dad started taking me out of state to hunt muleys about 25 years ago. He instilled in me the passion for hunting that I have today. Somehow, that big buck has always eluded my Dad. We arrived in Wyoming to the sight of bucks chasing does and chilly temps. Things were looking good for the both of us to take nice bucks.
The first day of hunting produced several opportunities to take nice bucks, but just not good enough bucks to end our hunt so soon. That was until just before dark, when my Dad spotted a smoker just off the road not 200 yds. before reaching the highway. The buck had amazing height, we guessed 24", and many extra points. We figured he would go over 30" wide with the cheaters. We had to pass because niether of us knew exactly when sunset was and the exact end of shooting time. We were also concerned because we knew that there was some private parcels mixed with the BLM land near the highway, even though there were not any fences. We were really depressed to learn that we actually had about three minutes left of legal shooting time and the buck was just within a small section of State land.
We headed out on the second morning, hoping to catch another glimpse of the monster. It turns out some local boys from town found him first. They killed him at 10:00 a.m. near where we saw him the night before. He turned out to be 31" wide, 22" tall and 8x8.
The first three days were filled with looking at nice bucks, but the best were in the 24" range and most were 4x3's. We were having a blast looking over about twenty bucks per day. The fourth morning started off the same, as we passed up a nice 25" 4x4 with really crabby fronts. Then we spotted a good buck and after a quick check in the spotting scope decided to go after him. My Dad and I hurried up the back side of a bare ridge that should have put us within 200 yds. of the buck and his harem of does. When we reached our vantage point, he was gone. We scurried up to the next peak and there he was not 150 yds below us. I ran the video camera as my Dad put down his best buck to date. We celebrated for a long time, reliving the stalk and the shot and taking pictures.
On the fifth day of looking at so many nice bucks, I decided to pull the trigger. Even though I still had three days to hunt, I was thrilled with our results and I know my Dad was too. Here is a pic of my buck. I was just so happy that after putting me on so may good bucks through the years, my Dad "finally" got go home with the big buck!