The day started very early. My buddy had scouted the area for a couple of days and said that there was alot of activity and basically had to draw out the plan due to my work schedule. We walked in to a ridge in the dark and just made it to our glassing location probably about 15 minutes ahead of another group of hunters heading for the same spot. After they spotted our flashlights already on the little ridge they very respectfully turned and headed the other way. The morning got off to a great start and we were glassing up deer all over the ridges and finally spotted a spike chasing a doe in the flats. As tempting as it was to put some tasty venison in the freezer we opted to stay still and keep glassing. We were both glassing different ridges when I spotted another deer at the very top of this ridge, but he had his head down about to bed. I waited until he layed down and saw antlers, I told my friend "I'm on a buck", after a quick description he picked him up on his binoculars. We made sure he was a shooter and I decided to go after him while my friend kept a close eye on him, but once I started to make a move he got up and moved to the very top and was out of sight. We decided that this was the deer we were going to go after and made our way up the steep ridge. About half way up the hill I remembered why I should have been in better shape for my hunt. After climbing and climbing we heard a noise behind us and it was another hunter on horseback making a bee line for the deer. We weren't sure if he had seen him, but we were sure he was going to spook him so we hussled up the last few yards of the ridge and we spotted him at 130 yds. I tried to steady my rifle and with my labored breathing I missed the first shot right under him, I tried to steady myself and missed the second shot. He ran further away and crossed a short draw on the side of the mountain and came up on the other side and stopped to turn back and that was his final mistake. The 3rd shot put him down and after a brief celebration and some careful glassing we made our way over to him. This was an awesome experience and some important lessons learned.
