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Hey all, I found some more pics and took more pics of the buck with the sheds so I wanted to share em' with you all. Here's the story... So, back in 2008 we get the sheds from this buck and we know exactly where the sheds were found. A year later another set was found in the same area and the buck was bigger. I tried to buy the sheds but the owners felt they were worth thousands of dollars so I didn't get them. Over the years of hunting for this buck and this same area we find the Shed Buck along with several other great bucks and gain tons of knowledge about how to effectively hunt this area. So, with confidence that I can find at least one of the big bucks during the early season and with a client willing to do a backpack hunt, I have him apply for the tag, he draws it and the hunt is set! I went in early and packed in most of the water and when the client arrived we made the trek in with all our camping gear. I had several bucks that lived in the same small canyon figured out. The buck that the sheds came from, the "Shed Buck", I felt was the least likely to be there because he hadn't been seen in a while but I still felt confident at least one of the bucks would be there. The problem with this canyon is you have to sneak across an open hillside to get into position to effectively glass into the thick bedding side. You have to have the wind right in order to do this correctly and for the first 2 days of the hunt the wind was wrong so we waited and glassed different areas. We saw good bucks elsewhere but nothing over our lofty goal of 110". Finally on the 3rd day the wind slowed down and was finally blowing the right direction so off we went. We snuck down to our pre-determined glassing spot, I set up my tripod and binos and before Steve even had his backpack off I glassed up the "Shed Buck"! Here he is... I immediately knew it was the Shed Buck and told Steve to get set up for the shot because we need to kill this deer! Steve set up but was hesitant with shooting this buck just yet. We knew there was a higher scoring buck in the area and we hadn't even glassed the hillside yet! I agreed that we needed to look around in case this was a bachelor group but couldn't find any other deer. The Shed Buck laid there in his bed for over an hour as we watched him! We had the wind right, he was well within Steve's effective killing distance and we wanted a standing broadside shot. During that time frame we searched hard for the other bucks but it appeared he was all by himself. Steve still seemed hesitant to shoot this buck just yet but after I told him I'd give him the sheds and reassured him the character of this buck was off the charts, he agreed we needed to kill him now! Finally the buck stood up to stretch and without any delay Steve put the buck right back into his bed with a perfect shot! We hiked across the canyon and walked up to an amazing, once in a lifetime buck! The palmation and character of this buck is second to none! I have held the sheds for several years and as soon as I grabbed the rack and held this buck it felt exactly like the sheds, the curves, texture and angles were all the same but now one of his sticker points had turned into an awesome "J-hook" dropper! We packed him back to camp and savored the rest of the day! We no longer had to ration our water or food so we ate and drank like kings that night! Here's the mount that my buddy just finished last week along with the sheds!

Alrighty guys and gals, I seriously wanted to write a big story filled with pics for ya'll but I absolutely have no time and I just found out that I'm headin' down tonight to 35B to help fill some tags! Kaibab will have to wait, there's Coues to kill! I'll write a full story later, but here's a very fast version... Steve and I backpacked up a big mountain. Steve made a one shot kill at 408 yards. We packed the buck off the mountain. Obviously, there were several days involved with the hunt along with plenty of prior history and amazing experiences throughout...but I gotta wait till I have more time! Here ya go, it's not the highest scoring buck but I guarantee you'd have a hard time finding one with more character! Congrats to Steve, it was an unforgettable hunt! JIM>