Back from 13B

[Coach]

What an amazing hunt. I knew up front it would take a lot of preparation and planning. Since it’s a 12 hour drive each way, scouting was going to be difficult. So turned to CWT and leaned on the members here, and some friends who have hunted the area before and anyone willing to give some advice.

 

It’s kind of a long story so I’ll try to sprinkle some pix in here and there to keep it interesting.

 

I can’t even begin to tell the story of this hunt without thanking all the people who helped make it happen. My mom and dad were there all along, willing to help out with the kids since my wife, Carrie was going to have to be doing things solo while I was away. Big Bry and Mark both brought over wall tents with stoves. Other friends provided extra gas cans. My mother-in-law lent me some Yeti coolers (these things are awesome). Kent McClendon, Eric Santanna, Jason Standage all were more than willing to give me some useful advice.

 

Special thanks go out to Ryan Ghan, a member here who spent 22 days up there during the archery hunt, and was willing to share everything he learned up there on his hunt. His advice was central to my approach as a “newbie” to the strip, along with Kent’s advice.

 

But the biggest thanks go to my wife, Carrie. Not only was she willing to hold down the fort while I was gone, she pre-cooked meals for the entire trip and even put together a little care package with a bag to open each day with a note and something funny just to give me a daily smile from home.

 

 

The journey started way back before the hunt when it’s time to wrap your head around having the tag everyone wants. Lots of reloading, shooting, preparing, map scouting, making calls, sending emails, making sure you’ve thought it all through and are as prepared as possible.

 

Day 0:

It’s Tuesday night and I’m at home ready to pull out. I’ve got a place to stay the night in Page (Mark's Camper) and if I leave by 4:30, I’ll be on track. A quick check and the trailer lights aren’t working. Frantic rewiring and new lights, I get out of town around 8:30 PM. I’m In Page at 1:00 AM. Between faulty smoke / O2 detectors beeping all night, I get around 2 hours of sleep, and I'm back on the road.

 

Day 1:

I left Page at sunup and headed for the Strip. A little running around in St. George looking for a charger for my laptop since I left mine at home (dumb, dumb, dumb) no luck, fill up my gas cans and head South into the unit.

 

About 50 miles in, I’m on a 10-mile long two track looking for a place to set up camp, and hear “bang, grind”….I know I have a major breakdown but I don’t know yet what just broke. I look around the trailer and find the passenger’s side wheel is broken loose and rubbing on the wheel well. The mount that holds the leaf spring to the frame has broken off.

 

 

 

At first, I was really worried about this – how in the world was I ever going to get the trailer out of there to where I could get it welded? Turns out the part that broke is about the only thing on the whole trailer that bolts on – whew! Both sides were pretty banged up so I removed both of them and planned to take them into town to get fixed later on. Luckily I brought a lot of tools and extra jacks.

 

No choice now, this is camp. I set up the wall tent, get as cozy as I can. I finished getting set up right about dark

 

 

One cool thing about Bryan's wall tent, dubbed "Camp Cantaloupe" (Our buddy, Jay's son thought they were hunting "cantaloupe", on an antelope hunt, and the name stuck), is that wherever it goes, the occupants sign the back wall.

 

 

Day 2:

It’s the day before the hunt starts and I head to a spot Ryan told me about to do some glassing. I turn up nothing and spend the rest of the day learning the area and looking for deer. Mid-day I head over to Whitmore and drop a few trail cameras down there and at Ivanpaugh. The "trick tanks" on Whitmore were a joke - they all had at least 4-5 cameras on them just a couple feet off the water.

 

Here's Whitmore "trick tank 1".

 

That afternoon I head back to my primary spot and glass until dark. Right at dark I spot what *might* be a buck bedded, but it’s just too late to tell.

 

That night, the wind was howling - 50+ MPH gusts. I tuck as far as I can tuck inside the sleeping bag, but it still sounds like I’m in a wind tunnel.

 

Day 3:

Opening morning: The alarm goes off - It’s time to hunt. The wall tent continues to huff and moan, but I manage a little breakfast, head back to where I thought I might have seen the bedded buck the night before and start glassing, wind in my face, sleet and rain. The “bedded buck” was just a bush.

 

By 1:00 PM with hours of freezing rain in my face, I knew it was time to regroup. I was chilled to the bone and didn’t want to take a chance of getting sick. So I went back to camp, started a fire in wood stove, dried my clothes and caught a nap.

 

That afternoon I saw my first deer of the trip. A little buck was bedded near the road. I wanted him to stand in case there was a big one with him, and he let me get 30 yards from him before he finally got up. I glassed the rest of the evening, but no more deer.

 

Day 4:

I decided to glass the same area one more morning, then get more aggressive and start walking it. There are supposed to be a couple really nice bucks in there, but I’ve yet to see them, and there is quite a bit of pressure in there. Glassing turned up nothing so I hiked in and started working the fingers one at a time. I bumped into another guy up on top of this ridge, and he informed me there was another group of 5 guys in there earlier – no wonder I wasn’t seeing anything glassing. At least 8 of us all hunting the same hill.

 

In the afternoon I took the broken/weak parts from the trailer into St. George to get welded. Big thanks to Wade at V.C. Milne & Sons Welding for meeting me on a Saturday when the shop was closed. That was a huge weight off my shoulders to at least know I can get my trailer and gear out, once I bolt it all back together. After getting the parts repaired, I headed back out, but it was getting late so I decided to drive some roads in the North part of the unit around Black Rock & Mustang – no deer.

 

 

Day 5:

With my “Plan A” spot getting a little over-pressured I expanded out to a new area. I got to the far end of a ridge with the wind in my face and just started sneaking into the wind and glassing. About 8:00 AM I see some does up on a little point just a couple hundred yards away. It eventually turns into 8 does and one scraggly little 4x4. It’s a good sign though, looks like the rut is on. I back out and try to circle around them, only to see a doe running down a different ridge. I was only able to see one other doe with her, but eventually a small but heavy 4x4 buck appeared just ahead of me, obviously following the does from a distance. Things are really looking up in the new area!

 

At lunchtime, I re-assembled the trailer with the newly re-welded brackets. Much better.

 

That evening, the wind had changed and was now coming out of the NW so I started at the South end of this long ridgeline and worked my way North. This end was much thicker and very hard to glass. I bumped one doe and then sat and watched a nice valley and a couple hillsides as the sun set. I was about to re-trace my path back to the truck just about dark, but decided to take a peek over the ridge just behind me. As I snuck into the saddle, I immediately see two white patches and realize a deer is right there. Up come the binoculars and I can tell it’s a buck, with a good looking frame, and he’s staring right at me.

There’s a Pinion tree between us with a little gap on one side that we’re watching each other through. I don’t dare move my feet because he can obviously hear me from this distance so I have to sort of crouch/squat and lean over to see him through the gap. I’m now shaking and trying to make out more details of his rack, but I just can’t see well enough.

 

Eventually he starts to feed and I try to take a half-step to my left so I can see him better, but immediately he was staring at me again. To make matters worse, daylight is running out FAST. We continue this "cat and mouse" routine right up until the final couple minutes of shooting light and he starts walking across the hill he is on, about to drop off the other side. I knew if he dropped off, I would have no chance at repositioning for a shot before dark but I still hadn’t gotten a really good look at his tine length – mostly just head on. Between low light, bad angles and my shaking hands I just could not make out many details of his rack. As he walked toward the edge, I looked as closely as I could and got a pretty good look at his front right fork. It looked good and deep, so I assumed that’s a pretty good indicator of the top forks as well, which would make him really good. I make the decision to go ahead and shoot.

 

As I squeezed the trigger….nothing….I still don’t know what on earth happened. I’m guessing the safety was in between safety and fire, but try as I might, I still can’t get that gun to do that again. So I rack in another round, check the safety, extend the bipod since he’s getting further away now and just about to disappear over the edge into the next drainage. I get on him quickly, but the gun is leaning. I grab the closest rock and stuff it under the left leg of the bipod. I get him back in the crosshairs just as he's breaking the ridge and fire. Boom – WHACK! I just love that sound. I see the buck spin and tumble sideways.

 

I know my hunt is over, now I just have to see if he is as big as I am hoping he is.

As I get over to him, I realize the first hit was back – not a surprise given that he was on his way over the ridge and out of sight when I shot, so I had to finish him off. At this point there was very little light left and I did my best to get a tripod and camera set up before it got totally dark. Wouldn’t you know it, the darn remote to my camera didn’t work so I had to use the timer to click a pic, then run behind the buck and pose, so the pix aren’t the very best in the world, but here they are.

 

 

 

 

Of course I left my big pack and field dressing stuff at camp so I had to go get it, hike back in and quarter him in the dark. I got back to him around 9:00 pm with a lantern, tarp, headlamps, game bags, pack and skinning knives. It was around 20 degrees and dropping fast. Finally around midnight I was making my last trip out and back to camp. At 1:00 AM I was done. It was around 14 degrees.

 

One thing that blew me away was the body size of this deer. He was HUGE! I’ve quartered cow elk that weren’t as big. I tried to take some pix to give some perspective of his size. The shooting stick is almost 6 feet long, and the knife in the pix is the standard Buck 119, around a foot long.

 

I was a little disappointed in his tops, especially on his left side. He’s a really nice buck, by far my biggest mule deer to date and I feel fortunate to have taken him, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit a part of me wondered if I didn’t get a little too caught up in the action. It was only the third day of the hunt, so chances of finding a bigger one were pretty good, especially up there. But given the situation, I had to make a snap decision and that’s how it goes.

 

He’s not the 200+ incher I dreamed of, but I can’t complain about him or the hunt at all. It was an amazing time and just beautiful country. The Strip is an amazing place. The minute you set camp and look upon it, you know you are in a special place. As I was driving out, I was already looking forward to the next time I’m lucky enough to be there.

 

By the way here’s a look at that front right fork that suckered me in. lol.

 

And here are some more pictures.

 

Got to add my signature to "Camp Cantaloupe"

 

A really cool "collage" that Carrie put together so I could dress up the tent.

 

Some trail cam pix off of the Ivanpaugh trick tank including a crazy non-typical buck.

 

 

 

 

 

The view off Whitmore...

 

A lion off of Whitmore trick tank 3:

 

I hope you enjoyed the story and pictures.

 

Best wishes to all of you CWT members out there.

[CouesWhitetail]

Wow! I loved the story!! Congratulations on your buck and thanks for sharing so many details and pics! You have a very supportive wife!!! Glad you had a great hunt

[Coues Sniper]

Great write-up and GREAT buck. That is a very special place. And you have a very special wife - that "motivational poster" she did took a lot of thought. Congrats on a great hunt!

[Chef]

Congratulations Coach!

I really enjoyed the play by play and thanks for taking the time to document your trip.

I know it can be tough to do but you will be ever so grateful you did.

 

Nice 4x4 and congrats again!

[idgaf]

Congrats looks like memories for a lifetime.

[coueshunter]

coach, great story and great buck. i got fooled two years ago on a great right front fork, so i know exactly how that feels. he is a fantastic looking buck, great mass, you should be proud......congrats......allen

[YoungHuntr]

I looked at that buck and my jaw dropped- he is no "last day" buck. That is a shooter anywhere, even in the strip, in my book. And I am sooooo jealous.

[loco4coues]

Congrats and thanks for sharing it with us!

[kennyazman]

That is a great buck!! Nothing to be ashamed of there. That is definitely a shooter to me even on the strip. I loved that "care package" your wife put together for you. I made sure to point that out to my wife.

[anthonyrmatthews]

Great story! Thank you for sharing with us. Nice buck too!

[hunter4life]

Congratulations, sounds like you had a great time!

[pwrguy]

Great story and buck. Definitely the hunt of a lifetime. Pretty tough doing something like that alone. Congrats.

[trophyhnter]

DIY....SOLO! Impressive! I had friends that hunted up there 6 years ago and they had high expectations also. So high that one never pulled the trigger and other shot a 185ish buck on the second to the last day (it was the biggest buck he saw the entire trip)! Your buck is a great trophy! Great story!

[mulie hunter]

Awesome buck! Great story! That buck is shooter for sure!

[Flatlander]

Great buck. I wish I could get caught up in the moment and shoot a stud like that! Thanks for the story, I for one have looked forward to this since draw results came out.