passthrough
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As I said before, Wes had a great year in 2022. His hot streak extended into Colorado for his 4th season deer tag. I spent way too many hours this year trying to secure reissue deer tags for my boys being that we were unlucky in the colorado draw, but it was worth it. I ended up snagging Wes a 4th seson muley tag for a unit that we have hunted in the past. Any time we get to hunt deer in late November in northern NM or in Colorado we are both beyond excited. Our time was limited for this hunt, Wes had some thanksgiving plans that ate up the first 2 days of his hunt. We rolled into our unit around 1pm with no expectation other than to hunt deer and have fun. We climbed to one of my glassing spots and picked up ruttting bucks right away. As we waded through the younger bucks chasing does Wes caught a glimpse of a, in his words... A BIG ASS BUCK DAD... lol! I just saw him for a second as he chased a doe up and over a ridge out of sight, but I agreed with his assesment of the buck. We waited impatiently, watching the ridgeline in hopes of that buck making his way back over to us. An hour later he came busting over the top, hot on a doe. It was our chance to cut the distance and get to our shooting point. We got set up on a rock pile as he pushed the doe back to the top of the ridge. He stopped at 505 and Wes settled in on him and squeezed sending one just over his back, ugh! He franticly racked another one as the buck looked around on high alert. He settled in, I told him to slow down and hold bottom of his chest...CLICK! He short cycled the action and never fed a round in, he turned to look at me in disbelief. My 300PRC is picky about that UGH! The buck chased the doe over the ridge and gone. Wes was frustrated that he missed a shot that he normally makes. We made our way back up to the glassing hill and spotted the buck chasing his doe onto some private. We packed up and checked some other spots on our way out, finding a wide 170+ kind of deer that Wes calmly passed saying that it was the big buck or nothing this year. Saturday morning found us freezing on our glassing hill again, within a minute of glassing I found the buck. He rutted several does as he headed back into the canyon that we couldn't see into. I suggested that we make our way to the shooting spot just in case he came back over like he had the day before. We sat there for hours with no luck. We hiked back to the truck, got some soup and a nap, with plans of being on the glassing hill at 2. After glassing for an hour or so, I found a lone doe on a steep hillside just across from our shooting spot. As I watched her, our buck materialized in the view. We scrambled down the hill and to the exact spot he had missed him from the day before. This time we set up a little better, ranged him at 450, dialed and waited for the right angle. As the buck walked into a clearing he stopped broadside and I heard the safety click, I scrambled to shove my face in my 15's just in time to watch the bullet crush his front shoulder! Wes about tackled me! What an amazing experience with my son, memories that I will cherish for the rest of my days.
Wes's buck is his second biggest but his widest to date. He is 30.5 wide and scores 188. If not for somewhat short MB's he would have most likely been a booner typical. Amazing buck that evaded the orange army, a true trophy in its self. The conversations that I've had with my sons on long brutal packouts are ones that I will never forget, ones that remind me how blessed I am to have the opertunity to hunt with my boys.
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