GRONG

Been looking forward to Dad's hunt for quite a while. Dad passed this buck Friday morning in hopes of finding a bigger buck. I told him he was nuts but told his friend Dave that it was his lucky day. We put a stalk on it he and ended up missing 4 shots at 350 yards. On Sunday we got on a really big 5x4 that Dad had seen during the archery hunt but things didn't work out too well. 2 other hunters' hunting style didn't go over to well with how we would like to hunt. These guys split up on separate ridges and talked back and forth to each other the whole time. The eventually blew a groups of does out and they spooked the big one. Boy was it frustrating..... Monday morning I went to a spot to look for the big 5x4 but never even saw a buck. Texted Dad and as of around 8am he hadn't seen a deer yet. Was thinking of moving when I heard a KABOOM!! I waited for a bit and BOOM-WOP!!! Could tell the 2nd shot connected. About 30 seconds later I got a text from Dad that said, that was me! A cow was staring at something below him all morning and Dad could never figure out what it was. He happened to look down again and caught a glimmer of antler of a buck bedded below him at a little over 200 yards! First shot missed and a buck came running out and took off. A 2nd buck got up and was making it's escape when Dad connected on that one. I had a bit of a hike and a 30 minute drive around to him and I finally got to see what he shot. It was the buck he passed opening morning! What a gorgeous buck it was too. I guessed it around 150 when I saw it alive on Friday but knew it was bigger standing over it. Haven't had a chance to measure it yet but it's probably mid 160's I'm guessing. Congrats Dad! This was also my boy Isaac's first deer hunt to attend with us so that was pretty special for sure. He had a blast too. To bad he had to get back to school on Monday when Dad shot his buck but at least he got to be with the guys for a couple days. First night in the wall tent. Isaac getting lessons on firearms safety and accuracy with the ol .22 I would glass, Isaac would excavate.... We sat around the fire, Isaac made his own..... Isaac found his first mule deer antler all by himself. All that hard work makes a boy tired.... Can't wait till next year!!

Ya those elk will eat anything, seems like right now there's a special runnin on juniper berries cause they're hittin those hard! I don't see how it's possible to go to 6a for 2 months and only see 15 elk though.... Either you've got horrible luck or you're sleepin in till noon then glassin the middle of the day, LOL!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! You guys kill me!!!!!

Wow that was great! Congrats on your success and I hope you find that heavy 4pt come January

HA!!! Ya you're sorta losing tine length but not really. I think they sort of make an even wash in the long run. I've never done the math to see which way works out better but I do understand how they call it double measuring. I guess I should clarify that if this were to happen in a spot where you're past the point on the beam to which you'd be taking a circumference then you'd draw your lines off the beams and not the points. Hope that clears things up. There's probably a paragraph on the B&C instruction manual that might even clarify it better than I've tried here but I'm to lazy to look that up.

The way I've always understood it is that the way it was mentioned above to measure it would be double scoring the antler, which is wrong. You draw your lines from the lower left side of the G2 up to the lowest spot in between the points where you would take that mass measurement. For the G3 you start at that same point and measure to the lower right hand side of it. You gain more score from the bigger circumference, if you cut the points down to the main beam, ignoring the palmation, then you're double scoring antler and that's not the right way. Here's a pic of a shed I have that falls into nearly the same situation. I drew lines on the antler so you could see where the proper measurement locations should be taken. On a side note, this way of measuring is not correct when scoring non-typical points, those you do measure further down on the beams cause there isn't a circumference to be had at that location.... mostly. If by chance you think you're side is a 2pt with a cheater coming out of the webbing and not off the beam per say, then you would take the measurement like this... You would gain more tine length cause now you're cutting the point at the beam but now you lose that circumference and have to take a double circumference halfway from the center of the G2 to the end of the beam. Hope that helps and if I'm wrong then let Den-Mother Amanda correct me.

RIGHT ON!! I bet that was way exciting! Thanks for sharing

Gary, 4 words... YOU ARE A STUD!!!!

That was awesome!!! My goal is to one day take a true 4x4 and you've got what, 3 of them now?!?!? WOW!!!! Congrats on a sweet buck, sounds like you guys had a heck of a time. Kudos to all of you involved.

Fantastic bucks guys!

Oh my gosh, I'm not a goat guy but that has to be the prettiest antelope I've ever seen!!! WOW! Congrats to all involved!

Oh sweet this is an awesome topic! I'm pretty sure this was December of 1985 within a few days of my 13th birthday with I shot this buck with my Dad and late step-mom, Kelley Sullivan, in Fossil Creek in 6A. I remember Dad making a big to-do about it saying Josher, that buck is BIG! I didn't know jack at the time but was way pumped to have my first buck finally! The year prior I'd shot at a buck at probably less than 100 yards but only remember looking down the barrel at it when I shot, LOL!! Back then we didn't use binoculars much. Just walked slow hoping to see one up close before it ran off and that's how I killed this one. Good times for sure.... To bad this is the only field photo we got that day but it's better than nothing. It gross scores 101" as a 2x3. Bases were 4" and 4 1/4" Sorry about the brutally bad taxidermy but here's a much better shot of the antlers. Probably gonna have Bret Prentice remount it one of these days.

I'll agree with that! Bret just finished this one for me! Couldn't be happier!

This is my second trip to Mexico with my friend Jim Reynolds. We (Gail and I) got talked into hunting a desert ranch so we did. Nate Jackson and Tim Maddock (TAM) booked with us and Alan Ellsworth also came down with us. Upon our arrival to the ranch we could tell right off the get-go that this wasn't going to be a typical Coues hunt that we've grown up accustomed to. There was plenty of glassing to be done but due to the thickness of the mesquite and palo verde trees and all the boofle grass it made visibility pretty tough in most places. Unfortunately our hunt started during an enormous full moon cycle and it definitely made the daytime rutting tough to see but we did our best. Glassing was tough but we spotted bucks, problem was that if you weren't already behind the gun, knew the range, AND you had an idea of how big the buck was you could shoot. Most bucks I glassed were on the move lookin for love and only offered glimpses of themselves going thru the tall brush. So after the 1st morning glass we started checkin water sources and realized quickly that we should be sitting water cause the drinkers were STOMPED with deer sign. 3rd afternoon of the hunt I sat a couple hundred yards from a drinker and waited and waited. I sawed out some limbs off a tree/bush and hung a shirt in the limbs for some shade cause it was hot! Only had one doe and fawn from noon till dark so that was a little discouraging, but that's sittin water. Here's the view I had to the drinker. Gail was over the small mtn range from me sittin another drinker and had 4 bucks show up chasin does and drinking water. He'd gotten video on his trail camera of a gorgeous 3pt buck and at 5:20 that afternoon in walks a huge 3pt buck with the tips of it's beams broken off as well as the entire G3 on it's left side so Gail let him walk. Next morning found us glassing another water source and the deer action was awesome. Right off the bat I glassed up a GORGEOUS buck but he's 600 yards away and it was still to dark to tell much about it other than it looked dang nice! Gail was half the distance to the buck closer but all my efforts to get him on the radio was useless since he didn't turn his on.... Nearly an hour later he turned it on but the buck was long gone by then. Knowing the deer were just pounding this spot Gail decided to sit there for the entire day while I took off for the water hole where Gail had passed the giant broke 3 point buck. About noon I was set up on the water hole. Actually I was laid on the bank of a giant dry tank in the shade under a big mesquite tree. From there I could see easily to the drinker across the opposite bank of the dry tank. To the concrete drinker it was about 135 yards. Around 2:30 I could see a doe running towards the drinker only to turn and run right back out of sight with a buck on her tail! I could see he was a young 3pt with HUGE eyeguards!! Was bummed they didn't come in all the way but it was neat to see regardless. At 3:00 I got settled in behind the gun cause I had a feelin it was gettin to be time! At 3:20 a buck comes flyin past the drinker with his nose to the ground as if a hot doe had just gone thru there! I frantically tried to keep him in the scope and tried my hardest to see if it was the buck with the broken G-3. Quickly noticed that this dude was all there and he needed to be shot!! Unfortunately the buck was just MOVIN and covered about 100 yards so quickly that it got behind some brush that was right in front of me to my right that totally blocked my rifle view of it!!! I was in total panic mode cause as quickly as it'd come out it was nearly gone! I sat up on my knees to watch him turn to it's right and come strait at me! Still behind the brush of course but then it turned a 180 and started back across the sunbaked mud of the tank right in front of me about 40 yards!!!! I held on his vitals and squeezed the trigger... NOTHING!!!!!!!!! Squeezed again thinking I was doing something wrong but nothing happened! Now I'm in panic mode all over again!!! I looked at the safety and it was on F but I put it on S and back to F only to realize that this time it went all the way up! MORON MORON!!! I got back on the buck in the scope just as it hit the edge of the dried baked mud and it stopped quartering away! What luck!!! I put the crosshairs on it's vitals and let her rip! At the sound of the gun I looked up only to see the buck laying on it's side with all 4's stiff legged! At this point I couldn't honestly even tell you if the buck was 95" or 115". All I knew is that he had a nice rack and it looked good enough for me on the 4th afternoon of a 5 day hunt. I grabbed the rifle and walked the 75 yards across the tank to my buck. As I stood above the buck I quickly noticed the height of the tines and the awesomeness of the main beams and did a couple heck YA'S with my fist pumpin in the air! I was totally stoked with this gorgeous and nearly perfectly symmetrical rack of this buck! I also realized that I was pretty sure that this was in fact the buck from Gail's trail camera video, not the busted buck he'd seen the afternoon before. I took about a half hour of pics as best I could and called it good. Went and got the truck and put the buck in the back and headed towards Gail about a half hour drive away. I pulled off the road about a half mile or so from Gail and called him on the radio and told him the good news. It was here where I pulled the buck out of the bed and gutted it. Just as I was finishing I heard a CRACK...WHOP of Gail's gun went off! I could tell he'd hit a buck and waited for the news. Got my buck loaded back up and Gail called and said, "Looks like my hunt is over." I drove much closer and got to the buck with Gail only to find he'd shot the buck I'd seen that morning in the darkness! We took some pics and quickly got it gutted and drug a couple hundred yards to the truck. It sure was sweet to have 2 awesome bucks in the back of the truck! My buck grossed 111 5/8" and Gail's grossed 106 1/4". Enjoy all the pics I'll hopefully get the 2 trail-cam videos Gail got on here soon. Day 5 we drove around and got our trail cameras picked up and did a little shed hunting along the way. We stopped at a spot where I'd glassed a nice 3pt shed up a few days before. Decent 3pt, maybe upper 80's. A few minutes later Gail says, "Hey get over here and look at this 4pt side off my buck!!". Way awesome! Another shed and a rack I found. Took this pic the last morning we were there, just before we left. Nate shot a nice 90" last day buck after missing a brute from the high-rack on the 4th day. Gail with his 106, Steve Shooks with his 114" buck he shot with Jim on the 3rd day. Then there's me with my 111. I think Nate said he saw at least 4 bucks from 110" up to who knows how big. Gail jumped and shot at a buck he swears was 120"er on the 4th afternoon. Alan Ellsworth was also there with us and he shot at a giant typical 3pt one day about 6 times and didn't connect. The buck was about 650 yards out and Alan was using Jim's gun but just couldn't connect. I killed the biggest buck I saw on the hunt and I think Tim saw at least one giant as well. Can't say enough nice stuff about Jim and the operation he runs. The camp cook was phenomenal and even cleaned all 4 of our deer skulls!! The ranch house we stayed in was just stupid awesome and had hot water and electricity. Not the generator kind either.

Oh my gosh I just got to reading this all over again and sweet moses am I gettin pumped to get back down there!!!!!!!!

FANFREAKINTASTIC!!!!!!! I wonder who is gonna mount that beast............................ Just kidding!! Congrats Payson, what a buck!!

HELLS YES!!!!!!! That last rack you all are standing in looks like some sort of WR!

Oh it'll be beaten! By me, this coming season in Mexico. Charging my camera batteries now cause I'm gonna take A LOT of pics

I thought that head looked familiar... What a beast!!!!!!!!! If any of you went to the AZ Antler Fest at Alan's house you would've seen it there

Wow, just an absolutely amazing story and some of the best pictures I have ever seen!!! Seriously man that was fantastic! And I love your bow of choice too Congratulations......

Scouted my tail off for elk prior to the hunt and in 3 weeks I saw a total of 3 bulls. It was nasty hot and I just couldn't find em. Checked most all the places I've seen them in the past and nothin! Was very discouraged going into the the hunt but a week before it started I got pics near a water hole of a real pretty 6pt bull I though would go mid 350's maybe. He was there 3 days in a row with about 20 cows. No idea where they came from but I didn't care. I set up my ground blind and opening morning I crawled into the blind at 4:30AM to the sounds of bulls bugling all around me. I got lucky and nobody else came in there. As it was getting light the elk were moving off and I never got to see one of them. My buddy Chris called me and said "You need to get over here and look at this thing, he BLOWS that 6pt you're hoping for away!!!" I bailed out of the blind and hiked over to him to see this bull bedded and boy was I shocked! First thing that came to mind seeing it's left side was THAT SIDE HAS TO BE 200"!!!!! We sat and took pics and video of him for most of the day as he just wouldn't stay bedded. He was all over the place keeping his 3 cows and one calf in close. I don't mean to frustrate any of you that like all the details but to make a long story short I saw him 3 different days during my hunt and when I could no longer find him I moved a couple miles away to hunt near that water hole where most of the activity was at. Tues morning I was slowly hiking thru listening to the elk bugling when a bull started making that glunking sound right above me about 100 yards away. One short and quiet cow call later and here it came. His cows came by me to my right at 15 yards when I heard him push his antlers thru the trees. I saw that giant right G-3 peek around the next tree and I couldn't believe myself. I was at full draw when he came around that tree and he stopped broadside at 25 yards and bugled. That's when I sent that nasty ol 2-bladed RAGE on it's way!! Man I love those broadheads! They're wicked wicked heads for sure!! I wasn't to far off on my guesses. His left 8pt side with a 58" beam scored at 195 6/8"!! Simply stunning! His right side comes off the front of it's head and is still 55" long and measures 153 6/8". Despite not even having a G2 at all on that side the antlers still gross scored 395 6/8"!!!! Truly a bull of a lifetime and I'm way stoked that I got to harvest one for myself, by myself, with my bow. A very special thanks to my buddy Chris Gravatt who spent several days out there in the heat with me, helping me glass. Thanks to Gail Herrick, Tim Maddock, Lane Buck and Jimmy May who all pitched in to help me get him out. Luckily we got the truck to within about a third of a mile or so, so the pack out wasn't all that bad.

HAHAHAHAHA!!!! That is just plain awesome right there TJ! Thanks again to everyone and all your kind comments. Just checked all my trail cameras from out there today and I've got about 7 pics of him from a couple days before I got him. What a treat!

Right on!! Congrats!

Ya buddy! You should've called! I went in there to show Jeremy since I shot it with my awesome Hoyt that I got from him earlier this summer. Well if you're in Payson again tomorrow we should hook up, I'll be there around noon to pick my rack up from my friend Gary Iles, he already cleaned the skull for me. Can't wait to get it back!! Thanks for all the kind comments everyone! I'm gonna have Bret Prentice mount it for me and I think I've just gotta have a pedestal mount of it. Gotta do something special with it since there's a good chance it'll be the biggest bull I'll ever kill.