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[Ryan&Amy]

My dad came down two days before the hunt to find him a deer. He had asked me for advice on where to go and I told him where the spots Amy and I have had success but he didn't like the idea cause he had never had success there before. We had both seen the biggest deer of our lives there but he had never killed. I had to work with only enough vacation left for mine and Amy's hunt. He hooked up with a friend of his and hunted very hard for the first two days and only saw about 4 does a day. My one day off was sunday before I started working graveyards Monday night and I told him Iwould be able to go that one day. Saturday night came around and he gave me a call and asked if I would be able with him and his friend and I confirmed I would be able to and at his camp around 5:00am.

 

 

I showed up at his camp and he advised me that his friend had backed out very respectfully to give us our father son time. So as we were driving outta camp ha asked where I wanted to go and i told him the same place I had advised him to go opening morning and he just "okay your the guide". I had found a decent buck that would have been 85" to 90" while in there scouting for our hunt and asked him if he would shoot something about that size and he said "absolutely" so we went to look for that deer. After about two hours of glassing I suggested driving up the road a little ways to the spot Amy shot her deer the year before and we weren,t there 15 minutes when I saw a huge rack moving aroud behind a tree and told him here we go if we get this one he will be 130" at least. I could barely believe it i couldn't stop shaking and he was asking "where son where?" I described it to him and then by this time You could see the entire head and he finally saw it and all heard was "holy $#!+ son you finally did it!" By this time I stood up I couldn't stand to look anymore cause I didn't want to start making him more nervous. After what seemed like forever of coming up with a plan he took one last look at the deer before we started our stock and the deer finally came out of behind the tree and dad just said "its a stinking mule deer." A mule deer it whitetail country in a place I had never seen mule deer before i couldn't believe it but after watching him for a minute we found 3 other really nice bucks with him but he was by far the biggest and was a really big 4 point mule deer but he was probably 1500 yrds away in the brush is the reason we couldn't determine he was a muley till we saw the full view of how big his body was and that white butt. So we drove about half a mile down the road to look at a few more hills sides and when we got out I started not feeling very well but kept on not wanting to take away from our one day together. We were glassing for about 10 minutes but i was just doubled over spitting. You all know the point your mouth starts watering just before you throw up. He said lets go in and get something to eat and watch some football so we went and got something to eat and I wasn't even half way done with my plate before I had to run to the bathroom and lost everything I had just ate and it was every 15 minutes for the rest of the day. I felt really bad for robbing him of our one day together. He called from camp Sunday night and asked how I was feeling and I wasn't feeling any better i just had nothing left to offer the porcellin gods. I told him I would be there by 5:30am and if I wasn't then I still wasn't feeling up to it and to just leave without me but if i did go we had to be back by ten at the latest so could sleep before work.

 

I showed up Monday morning at 5:30 not feeling any better but wasn't ready to give up either so we were off and on the way outta camp he asked where I wanted to go and I told him the same spot and do the same thing as the day before because I know that i can not go in there two days in a row and not find a buck. So we did the same thing and we didn't find a thing 2 does right around nine o'clock so he said lets get you home and get you in bed. On our way out I suggested stopping in one more spot that I wanted to the day before cause it was a litlle nob in the middle of a very large flat area tha is covered in cat claw and those bucks seem to hide down there during the saeson and from thins point we caould also see all the hills sides we already glassed. We weren't there 1o minutes when I him call me Ryan come here hurry I found two little bucks but they were every bit of 2000 yrds away. I told him to drive over there and get a closer look to see if one might be a last day shooter. I stayed and watched the bucks as he drove off. He was gone about five minutes and one of the little bucks dissapeared in a bush but out of the corner of my eye on the edge if the field of view in my glasses I saw another deer with his head down for about two seconds as he ran from one bush to the next and never came out but in the glimpse I caught i could see the sun reflecting off of what looked like a very nice main beam. I told him when he got into position not to jump the gun cause I think I saw a bigger one down there but I wasn't sure cause I never saw all 3 at the same time but by this time the two little bucks were back out feeding and he didn't want them and decided to take a chance and wait to see if there was a bigger one. The two little bucks kept trying to go into the same bush that I saw the other deer disapear into but they would never be in there very long before they would run out with there flags up and stop. After watching this for a while I told him that if there was a buck in there he needed to push him out so we can get this over with so I can go to bed. He finally decided to try and stood up took three steps toward the bush and I saw the deer stand up. I got on the radio and said "there he is thats the third deer" and before I could finish what i was saying the deer went down and about 3 or 4 seconds later i could here the boom.

 

The deer ended up being his biggest to date at 92" even with a 15" inside spread and 18" main beams and really big bases. We checked the teeth on this deer and from that we determined he was a very old deer and on his downward slope which means he was probably the 110" buck his prime that everyone looks for. So even if he isn't the biggest I found he was the oldest and smartest and has out smarted alot of hunters in his lifetime. I will have field pics as soon as my dad emails them to me.

[Coues Sniper]

Great buck. Way to stick it out for the ol' man

[izquik72]

Great story Great buck

good job

[bchoitz]

Congrats on a successful father-son outing!

 

Great Buck and story!

 

Way to go!

 

Bret

[kcw]

congrats on a nice buck

[D.F.M.]

congrats on a nice buck

Great job congrats.

[willhunt4coues]

Right on ryan.

[Coues Archer]

Thats cool mann great job.

[cohntr6]

Looks like a heck of a year for you all!

Jeff