Letshunt
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This is a story of my cousins LE hunt.
This hunt was 20 years in the making. He had drawn a Vernon tag 12 years ago when the Vernon was really good but he ended up tearing his ACL a couple months before the hunt so he turned his tag back and has been getting the dreaded unsuccessful ever since!
This year was different! We had talked about which season to apply for and talked about the pros and cons of each. With limited tags on the muzzy hunt and the chance to have first crack at the bucks we find scouting, he decided to apply for the muzzy hunt!
Fast forward 4-5 months and we were in the mtn scouting. With each rain storm
our excitement would increase!
We set a lot of cameras and spent a lot of time behind the glass hoping to turn up some giant bucks that were worthy of the tag. From the start of the hunt my cousin would always say ?score doesn't mean anything to me. I want a wide, heavy, and good forked buck!? The scouting continued with some good bucks found.
As the summer passed, we had a buck that we liked hit our cameras quite a bit. As he grew, he quickly became a buck that fit the criteria of what my cousin was looking for as far as his goal for the hunt.
We liked this buck a lot but we found a few more that we thought were bigger. We kept searching for more deer, but couldn't turn up an absolute giant. Most of the bucks we liked were pretty similar in size. Some would score higher based on their frame, their tine length, or their extra points. Luckily for us most of these bucks were within a few canyons of each other. We knew the best way to locate one of these bucks was to get on a high point and glass. With how hot it typically is during the muzzy hunt, we knew the bucks would bed early and not get up all day.
A couple weeks before the opener. We wanted to do one last check of our cameras. This guy showed up again and looked even better.
The week before the hunt opened, we set up a wall tent and packed our stuff in to camp to try and cut down the amount of miles that we had to hike each day. This mtn is nasty to hike. There are no rolling hills or grassy hill sides. It's shell rock or just rocky hillsides that cause you to roll your ankle a few times. All the burnt pines that have fallen make the hiking tiresome.
We all had to work and weren't able to head up til the night before the hunt. We arrived at the trailhead at 10:30pm. And made the long hike in with some of the gear that we didn't pack in the week before.
All of our target bucks made it through the archery season. We were excited to know that the bucks we had found during the summer were still alive and we were going to be able to chase them. The day before the opener always creates some nerves. Excited about what may lay ahead doesn't allow for the most restful nights!
We hunted hard opening day and locates 43 bucks, but none of them were ones that we wanted to shoot.
Day 2 started fast and then was a loooong wait. We spotted the buck we called ?5wide? at first light. He was over 700 yards away working his way down the ridge. The closest that he'd get was 670. Having practiced multiple shots at this distance and having worked up loads that reproduced a lot of consistency we decided to take a shot if he presented himself. After 20 minutes of waiting he turned broadside. The shot just missed barely over his back. The buck was unfazed and slowly fed into a large patch of quakies. We have him an hour and started seeing deer that he was with bed down. We made the long hike to get above him and waited on a hillside for 6 hours. We spotted many of the deer he was with but not him.
The next 3 days came and went without much excitement. We passed on 2-3 180 class type bucks in hopes of finding one of the bucks we had found during the summer.
The morning of the 6th day of the hunt found us covering multiple ridges in hopes of turning up one of our target bucks. The weather dropped 25 degrees and the deer were up feeding til almost 10:00. At 9:30 Jake called and said he had found ?5wide? and the ?dagger? buck feeding together. Both were 5x5s. The dagger buck has 5-6 inch cheaters off of his G3?s on both sides. We believe he will be 208-212. He originally was our number 2 buck and thought for sure he'd be the one Kyle would want once we found him. However, when he saw ?5wide? and the ?dagger? buck together he wanted the big framed wide buck even though it might score a little less.
Hours of waiting and waiting some more ended up paying off. The buck was bedded 270 yards away with no clear shot. The buck only stood up one time throughout the day only to feed behind some trees and then returning to his original bed. There was only an hour left of light and tension was running high. The buck finally stood up and fed into a clearing. With the scope dialed, and Kyle set up in a prone shooting position the buck was all but dead. BOOM! the buck stumbled backwards and tipped over! High fives and hugs! 20 years of waiting had paid off in a huge way. All the scouting and hanging out with family and friends culminated with a buck of a lifetime. The buck measured 34.5 inches wide. He was much bigger than we thought he was which is always a good thing!
This hunt was 20 years in the making. He had drawn a Vernon tag 12 years ago when the Vernon was really good but he ended up tearing his ACL a couple months before the hunt so he turned his tag back and has been getting the dreaded unsuccessful ever since!
This year was different! We had talked about which season to apply for and talked about the pros and cons of each. With limited tags on the muzzy hunt and the chance to have first crack at the bucks we find scouting, he decided to apply for the muzzy hunt!
Fast forward 4-5 months and we were in the mtn scouting. With each rain storm
our excitement would increase!
We set a lot of cameras and spent a lot of time behind the glass hoping to turn up some giant bucks that were worthy of the tag. From the start of the hunt my cousin would always say ?score doesn't mean anything to me. I want a wide, heavy, and good forked buck!? The scouting continued with some good bucks found.
As the summer passed, we had a buck that we liked hit our cameras quite a bit. As he grew, he quickly became a buck that fit the criteria of what my cousin was looking for as far as his goal for the hunt.
We liked this buck a lot but we found a few more that we thought were bigger. We kept searching for more deer, but couldn't turn up an absolute giant. Most of the bucks we liked were pretty similar in size. Some would score higher based on their frame, their tine length, or their extra points. Luckily for us most of these bucks were within a few canyons of each other. We knew the best way to locate one of these bucks was to get on a high point and glass. With how hot it typically is during the muzzy hunt, we knew the bucks would bed early and not get up all day.
A couple weeks before the opener. We wanted to do one last check of our cameras. This guy showed up again and looked even better.
The week before the hunt opened, we set up a wall tent and packed our stuff in to camp to try and cut down the amount of miles that we had to hike each day. This mtn is nasty to hike. There are no rolling hills or grassy hill sides. It's shell rock or just rocky hillsides that cause you to roll your ankle a few times. All the burnt pines that have fallen make the hiking tiresome.
We all had to work and weren't able to head up til the night before the hunt. We arrived at the trailhead at 10:30pm. And made the long hike in with some of the gear that we didn't pack in the week before.
All of our target bucks made it through the archery season. We were excited to know that the bucks we had found during the summer were still alive and we were going to be able to chase them. The day before the opener always creates some nerves. Excited about what may lay ahead doesn't allow for the most restful nights!
We hunted hard opening day and locates 43 bucks, but none of them were ones that we wanted to shoot.
Day 2 started fast and then was a loooong wait. We spotted the buck we called ?5wide? at first light. He was over 700 yards away working his way down the ridge. The closest that he'd get was 670. Having practiced multiple shots at this distance and having worked up loads that reproduced a lot of consistency we decided to take a shot if he presented himself. After 20 minutes of waiting he turned broadside. The shot just missed barely over his back. The buck was unfazed and slowly fed into a large patch of quakies. We have him an hour and started seeing deer that he was with bed down. We made the long hike to get above him and waited on a hillside for 6 hours. We spotted many of the deer he was with but not him.
The next 3 days came and went without much excitement. We passed on 2-3 180 class type bucks in hopes of finding one of the bucks we had found during the summer.
The morning of the 6th day of the hunt found us covering multiple ridges in hopes of turning up one of our target bucks. The weather dropped 25 degrees and the deer were up feeding til almost 10:00. At 9:30 Jake called and said he had found ?5wide? and the ?dagger? buck feeding together. Both were 5x5s. The dagger buck has 5-6 inch cheaters off of his G3?s on both sides. We believe he will be 208-212. He originally was our number 2 buck and thought for sure he'd be the one Kyle would want once we found him. However, when he saw ?5wide? and the ?dagger? buck together he wanted the big framed wide buck even though it might score a little less.
Hours of waiting and waiting some more ended up paying off. The buck was bedded 270 yards away with no clear shot. The buck only stood up one time throughout the day only to feed behind some trees and then returning to his original bed. There was only an hour left of light and tension was running high. The buck finally stood up and fed into a clearing. With the scope dialed, and Kyle set up in a prone shooting position the buck was all but dead. BOOM! the buck stumbled backwards and tipped over! High fives and hugs! 20 years of waiting had paid off in a huge way. All the scouting and hanging out with family and friends culminated with a buck of a lifetime. The buck measured 34.5 inches wide. He was much bigger than we thought he was which is always a good thing!
