Birthday Buck

[whitetail archery]

Dec the 4th was the last day of the hunt and my 27th birthday. I was a little skeptical about missing work and driving three hours at 2 am , but my two younger brothers and I managed to get out of bed and head up to an area where we had seen a few decent bucks. We arrived around 6:15 am the sun was just starting to come up .We knew we had a pretty big hike ahead of us. We parked the truck not far off the main road and watched as a few hunters on quads raced by us. We knew that the area had some good size deer and Hiking through some brutal country was the only way to get to them. The three of us stayed together for 20 min before splitting up. I gave my brother George one of my radios and he continued to hike where we had gone the week before. (Where he had missed a monster ..... with 6 boys in the family you can image what kind of mocking he heard from us). Anyway , my younger brother Jay and I took a different Route.

I had a good feeling about the country we were headed towards . The week before I had glassed up several deer that headed in the direction we were hiking . In addition , it was my Birthday and it all just felt right. We stoped every 10 min or so to glass each finger . Surprisingly we didn’t see a thing, no pigs, no doe, it even seemed like the birds disappeared. We hiked one more massive ridge and ended up in some prime glassing country. Within five min , 700 yards from where we set up , I found what looked to be a large lion bedded under a dead tree. I didn ' t see antlers and I didn’t see the back part of him . All I could see was a swollen neck and part of a face. I showed my brother Jay where it was bedded and he thought the same. Because I still had a ton of country to glass I didn’t pay to much attention to what was bedded under the tree. I would casually look back at the area, just to make sure it was still there and then go back to glassing different fingers. After about thirty min of not seeing a thing I decided to focus all my attention on this mystery creature. I had glassed up bucks before that looked identical to large rocks or tree stumps. I am sure many of you have seen this. So, I sat patiently waiting for a little movement or even a little ear flicker .

I kept telling my brother it had to be a buck the body on it was massive. As I was saying, I thought it was a large lion, but as time went by I knew it was a deer. I just didn’t know if it was a buck or not. And then it happened ; turning its head slightly to the left to get a little more comfortable this deer made the biggest mistake of its life. I saw three points on one side and I instantly became giddy. I quickly gave Jay a high five and said we got a buck. I gave him my 15/56 Swarovski’ and told him to make sure his eyes d id not leave this deer. I had two radios but had given one to my brother George so we could communicate. This will not happen again. I needed two radios to communicate with Jay to go after this buck. The only way Jay and I could communicate was by hand signals that we quickly threw together. My goal was to get to the two large bushes that were about 150 yards down hill from the deer . This would make it an easy shot. What I didn’t know was that 200 yards down the hill from where we were set up was the nastiest , filthiest canyon . Let’s just say from where I was standing, without a helmet and some rope I wasn’t going to get down it. The bushes that I was heading for happened to be on the other side of this canyon, so I quickly came up with another game plan. I quietly hiked along the edge , hoping not to slip on loose gravel and fall to my death , or worst, scare the buck .

Jay was out of sight and he didn’t realize that there was a canyon down below . He was waiting for me to get to the bushes, which obviously never happened. I started to get buck fever as I creeped in closer and closer toward a dead manzanita , which allowed me to get a better view of the buck and hopefully get a shot off. I was sweating, my knees were weak and I was shaking a little , which didn’t help. I had never been nervous about shooting an animal in the past , but for some reason I got a little too excited. I reached the dead manzanita and quickly tried to find the buck with some Nikon monarchs I had around my neck. I had a clear view of the dead tree but I saw Nothing . I put my scope on it and nothing. I moved in another 15 yards and put my binoculars on the dead tree and nothing , then back to my scope and still .... nothing.

How could this happen ??? I thought I was doing everything right, I was being quiet, my positioning was good, I was still 350 yards from him and it was like he just vanished. I couldn’t see Jay so we had,no way of communicating. I looked back at the bush one last time and was finnally able to see the upper part of his back. I aimed just a scosh high and took a shot . Scaring him, he jumped up . I found him in my scope again and took another shot, he ran 15 yards and stoped. I took another shot and then one more. I am thinking to myself; either I am a horrible shot or I got him. I heared rocks falling but couldn't see the deer. Deep down , I was thinking he ran mach 2 speed to the next ridge, but I didn’t have a clue. I ran up the ridge to where Jay was set up and yelled to him , " Did I hit it ? ". He yelled back he wasn’t sure but that it was acting a little funny, like it might have been hit. He also said that it bedded down not far from where I took the first shot. Needless to say, without any climbing gear we were able to make way across the canyon and head over to where the buck was bedded. I had a sick feeling walking over, the kind of feeling that one would have when you put so much time in hiking, missed work, drove three hours at 2 am, and having a decent buck in your cross hairs , then blowing it . I was wrong ! My brother walked right up to where he saw the buck bed down and there he was . We both went nuts . The buck was 16 inches wide a perfect 3x3. A friend of the family scored him right around 100 inches. That was my birthday present to myself. I could of killed myself for leaving my camera at home that’s not like me to do that.

[willhunt4coues]

Congrats on a great looking buck.

[elkman]

nice buck, he sure looks like an old buck by his face and nose.

Im confused on the part where you fired at where you thought the buck was. Sounds like a poor choice of a way to jump him out.

but congats on the good buck

[crazyaboutcoues]

I couldn’t wait anymore, I put my cross hairs where I thought the buck was and took a shot .

 

 

[JMP]

awesome deer P. Congrats, you hunted hard and deserved this one.

[whitetail archery]

I couldn’t wait anymore, I put my cross hairs where I thought the buck was and took a shot .

 

 

I know I know I knew I would get a ear full for posting that, I didnt have much of a choice. You can argue and say that you would of waited it out or maybe not have taken the shot at all. The truth is with not having any contact with my brother and not being able to see the buck from where i was at i was limited to what I could of done. My goal was to scare him up to get another shot off, sounds dump but it was the last day and we didnt plan on hunting the evening.

[vegasjeep]

DA BEARS!!!!

[Coues Archer]

Wow. talk about spread that buck is a dandy. Great job.

[Gr8 White Jr]

[AZhunterNCJ]

I dont want to give you a hard time and Im sure no one else here does either but the point is that hunting is under extreme speculation all the time and when you do something like take a shot when you are not 100% sure where and what your target is that gives the antis ammunition and makes the sport look bad. It ended well for you and you took a great buck no doubt but ethics has to be number one in our hearts and actions. Even since it ended well this a public forum and everyone has access to it; hunters and antihunters alike can peruse the site. Just be conscienscious and aware of what is at stake. Is one great buck worth putting our sport in jeopardy?

[mattobertin]

That is a great looking buck! I'm jealous!

[jake]

and i doubt the anti's care that we're essentially using portable benchrests these days, having the outfitters sight the rifle in for a client that cannot see the animal, all the hunter/shooter really does is pull the trigger (it's on the website), might as well tie a string to the trigger and let him pull it from the truck. thing is, different people do different things. you made a good clean kill on this buck. you hiked your tail off to find it. don't let the ethics cops detract from a fine animal and a good kill. people shoot at rocks all the time. i'd give the same goofy eyes to the guys shooting off of tripods at 800 yards away, the next verion of the claw will probably have windage and elevation adjustments.

[Hunter X]

Congrats on a great buck. I don't have a problem shooting to scare the deer up as long as you have a clear view of what your shooting like a rock or something. Normally I'll try other things first like throwing rocks down the canyon, banging rocks together and even yelling to get the deer up. Once again congrats on a great hunt and an awesome buck.

 

 

Mathews sent you a PM.

[whitetail archery]

I dont want to give you a hard time and Im sure no one else here does either but the point is that hunting is under extreme speculation all the time and when you do something like take a shot when you are not 100% sure where and what your target is that gives the antis ammunition and makes the sport look bad. It ended well for you and you took a great buck no doubt but ethics has to be number one in our hearts and actions. Even since it ended well this a public forum and everyone has access to it; hunters and antihunters alike can peruse the site. Just be conscienscious and aware of what is at stake. Is one great buck worth putting our sport in jeopardy?

 

Is one great buck worth putting our sport in jeopardy are you kidding me. If thats the case how about letting every hunter on this sight know that taking shots over 500 yards is not the right thing to do and unless you know you can drop the buck where it stands you shouldnt think about shooting,sounds stupid doesnt it. If I had a better arm i would of tried throwing a rock but 350 yards is a lttle out of my distance. I wanted to post my buck for people to see not hear about what I should of done. I didnt break the law and I deffinately didnt put the sport in jeopardy. I know you said you dont want to give me a hard time but thats all I am getting from your response.

[John O]

Nice buck! Did you put a tape on him?