Desert Buck

[DNS]

I've been a long time lurker of the site and finally decided to join to show some pictures of the buck my son killed yesterday afternoon on opening day of his mule deer hunt. He had basketball practice before school so we didn't get over to the unit until around noon. We got up in an area that I hunted last year. It's a tough place to get into, but I got a decent buck out of there last year and saw another good one.

 

We worked through some thick draws and did some glassing off of the points, but couldn't find anything so we decided that we would head into another area north of where we were that I've wanted to check out. We decided to to walk back up a thick draw that we couldn't glass into on the way down. There was sign everywhere so we knew there were deer in there somewhere. We had almost made it back to where we originally started and I saw a thick area that we couldn't see into and I threw a small rock into it. Out jumped this good buck less that 50 yards from us.

He was a smart old buck and took off in a direction that he just didn't have a shot. He was running as fast as possible and we were trying to move to the point of the ridge so we could see in all directions. We needed to move about 100 yards to see because it was so thick below us. We got there and I looked over to the right and saw the buck two ridges over and still moving fast. I told Derrik to set up and see if he could get a shot as the buck got to the top of the 3rd ridge over. The buck got up to the 3rd ridge and I was standing to my son's left looking through my binoculars. As the buck came through a shooting window he fired and it sounded like a solid hit. I was looking through my binoculars and didn't see the buck come all the way through the window, but couldn't see the ground because of some bushes. I moved over to my right to look in the direction that he shot from and I could see the buck's feet kicking around. I just looked over and said "I can't believe you just shot that buck". It was almost 400 yards away and moving. He had 3-5 seconds from when the buck came into his view to decide if he should shoot, how much to lead and how high to hold. He hit it right in the neck and the buck dropped in his tracks. He has put in his time at the range so I wasn't completely surprised, but still it was an awesome shot.

This is his 4th buck and best to date. It has an inside spread of 24 1/4" with a huge body. He also has a small cheater point below is left eye guard that Derrik calls his drop tine. The buck he killed ended up being the other good buck that I saw last year. He told me last night that he wants to kill a coues next year.

My dad and brother also had tags in the same unit and both killed on the first day. This is a tough unit and I don't think we have ever filled all of our tags on the first day. I didn't have a tag for this hunt because I was one of the lucky few to draw the December rifle mule deer hunt in unit 27. Hopefully more pictures to follow in about a month.

Sorry about the blood, I'm not much of a picture editor.

[loco4coues]

Very cool! Great shot and thanks for sharing with us.

[ZBAR]

Memories. Congrats!!!

[DUG]

Nice! Congrats to both of you!

[bbd1234]

Nice buck bud

[mklong40]

Welcome to the site. awesome buck. congrats.

[DNS]

Thanks for the comments. After spending years trying to teach him things that I have learned and teach him things that my dad taught me. Just standing there next to him when it all came together was as good as it gets.

[bonecollector]

Great buck and great shooting. Welcome to the site.

[Xforcebaby]

Good job fellas,way to get it done. Awesome !!!!!!

[trphyhntr]

thats a nice looking buck

[trophyhnter]

Put'm Down! Neck shot! Way to get it done! Congrats to the both of you! Oh yeah giant buck! Should look good on the wall!

[Mountainman99]

Nice desert buck and great shot!

[countrykid]

Very nice!

[Pine Donkey]

Great buck! Thanks for posting the story.

[johnnie blaze]

Braggin rights