Snapshot

Outstanding buck, and good story. I know what you mean about carrying him out the old fashioned way, I have done that with a long pole years ago and that is hard work.

Thats a great story Amanda. A big kudo's for you, Scott and Austin for going on a backpack hunt. Thats some great looking country in there. The warm weather is always tough to deal with. I wish they would change that hunt back to mid November. The size of Scotts back pack makes my back hurt just looking at it Great pictures!

That is one nice bear!

Very nice bucks indeed.!

Way to go.!

Great job. That smile says it all.

Happy birthday Bro! I am tipping a cold one in your honor.

Mule deer are bigger(yep), they have more meat (yep). bigger horns (yep), and they are just way more challenging (uhhh, no) and delicious ( ) than all these doggie sized Coues Deer that everyone seems to get so excited about. 3 out of 5, 60% . Congrats you get a "D-" Man, I was hoping to squeak out at least a "C" on that deal

Mule deer are bigger, they have more meat. bigger horns, and they are just way more challenging and delicious than all these doggie sized Coues Deer that everyone seems to get so excited about. Just because you can blindly stumble into a nice buck, doesnt mean coues are easy! Do it again next year. I dare ya! After driving all night to get there, it was pretty much a blind stumble Its all you guy's fault that I am now a Coues Hunter

Mule deer are bigger, they have more meat. bigger horns, and they are just way more challenging and delicious than all these doggie sized Coues Deer that everyone seems to get so excited about.

That explains it better. I understand the one deer per year, but was not sure on the types of tags alloted. Thanks!

Thats a great buck. Its good to see the young hunters taking some nice bucks. Way to go!

Thats excellent. I love to see those deer/lion combo's. 41 Coues Deer Man, you have been a dedicated Coues Deer for awhile thats an accomplishment to be proud of!

Thats one stout looking lock box. I am going to get a ScoutGuard hopefully next month.

Good job, with a nice looking fox!

That sounds like a great time and a great hunt, with a couple of very nice bucks. Great pics and story!

Here's the story. I will post pic's tommorrow. For those of you that read my other post you know my boss gave me the last two days of my hunt off. Tuesday night I got food and my gear together and planned on leaving at 1:00 a.m Wednsday morning, I finally left at almost 2:00 a.m after a meager two hours of sleep. So after 5 hours of driving and 3 monster energy drinks later I arrived at my honey hole at 6:45. The area I wanted to hunt consists of three drainages that taper into one creek bottom, and the spot I wanted to go was about a mile and a half back in where I have seen good bucks in past years. The trail runs along the top of a ridge and drops off into a steep canyon. Five minutes down the trail I happen to look at the hillside across the canyon and see 4 bucks feeding about half way up the side. 1 big buck, 1 fork horn, and 2 spikes. Man, I could not believe my luck. I quickly put down my pack, got out my range finder and lasered the biggest buck, it read 394 yards. No problem. I have taken a few deer at that range and a touch farther. I got into a sitting position and leaned the rifle against the tree and squeezed off a round. Whack! The deer ran into a patch of juniper. I must admit that I am not very proud of that first shot, as the deer limped out of tree's I could tell he had a leg wound, because of the angle, I had aimed a little lower than I should have to compensate. So I got a solid rest again and touched off the shot and could hear the telltale thump of a good hit. He must of fell or got into a patch of tree's as I could not see him again. I glassed the spot for twenty minutes and decided to go look. I memorized some landmarks so I would not lose the spot and as I got up there I found him lying dead In a clearing that was blocked from my view by a patch of juniper. The second shot took him through the shoulder and angled back where the bullet stopped just in front of the rear quarter. I found the bullet lodged just under the hide while skinning him out. When I saw the buck I was thinking that he might be a 100". I have not scored him yet but he has a 13 3/8" inside spread, 4" eyeguards, 6" G2's, but only 4 to 4 1/2" G3's, and maybe close to 17" main beams and decent mass. So I was thinking to myself that I could get this deer to the top of the ridge I could bring my quad down the trail and load him up. So I drug the deer 300 yards down the hill to the creek bottom, and hiked out to get the quad. When I got back I started to drag the deer up the side of the ridge, 25 feet at a time. Man what was I thinking? This was the fattest big bodied Coues I have ever seen. I finally got him to the top of the ridge. I think I lost 5 pounds in the process. I am no weakling, but it took me 5 tries to get this fatboy onto the back of my quad. I shot the buck at 7:15 and had him hanging by noon. I was wiped out. All I can say is that I think my Dad was smiling down at me yesterday as I have never been that lucky on a hunt before. Most of my animals required alot of hard work. This is an area that my Dad and I used to hunt alot for mule deer in years past and I saw some big whitetail in there, and this is the first time I have been able to hunt there since my Dad passed away in 2006. This one is for him! On my way out today I stopped along Eagle Creek road to get a cold soda out of the cooler, and a rancher stopped and asked what I was hunting, and I told him "Whitetail" he said "do you have your lion tag" and told him "not this trip" and he said " the rule for hunting unit 27, is you have to have a lion tag" He was very nice, but I could tell he doesn't like Mountain Lions even though he said this year was better than most as they only lost 4 calfs to lions. I ran some string on him and came up with 95 3/8" gross. His shorter G3's and 15 3/4" main beams kept him from reaching that magical 100", but I am very happy with him regardless of score. P.S - The reason I didn't bone the deer out on the spot is the flies and yellowjackets were so friggin thick because of the warm weather they were trying to carry my deer away before I could even gut it. I am very allergic to yellowjacket stings. The deer was shot in the clearing in the middle of the picture from the spot the picture was taken Unit 27 Coues country My buck. Glassing Thursday Morning with the "Ginoculars" Eagle Creek in fall splendor Mitchell and Gray's peak from a distance

I have heard that after a buck rub's the velvet off it's antlers he will get a little wild for 10 days or so.

Way to go. Its great to see all the youth hunters taking some bucks and having a good time!

Great bucks TJ. That one sure has a lot of points on him.

Very nice buck!

Man, getting charged by that lion is something else. It will make me think twice about using a predator call in that canyon country by myself. I hope to get a unit 27 lion someday, I just have never been lucky enough to see any, except for one along time ago.

Thats awesome. A big congrats to your wife. And a nice lion, the rancher I met would like the fact that you thinned the lion population a little. I drove my quad up and down the road all of Wednsday afternoon looking for you but couldn't find you or your camp. What time did you pull out? Is it just me or are all the bucks in that area nice and fat?

Thats one beauty of a buck. Congratulations!

No problem. I thought you might still be out hunting or at work. I am going to come up in January and chase around some ruttin bucks during the archery hunt if the weather is decent enough. Lunch is on me if you got the time.