Last Day Bruiser Update

[kevinhunt1]

Well, back to the rest of the story all…What a hunt!

 

It started on Thanksgiving eve for us. First I want to thank the 2 guys and very close friends I hunted with, first and foremost, Mike Grootegoed, he is the most avid Coues fanatic and the most knowledgeable hunter I have ever hunted with, especially Coues. His glassing abilities are uncanny…..shoot, he glassed this monster up! Then, John Vaudo, who I have hunted with for many years, and at 67…He is still getting up some of the tough hills. That tough ole “former” Marine, can still pack out some meat too. We seen so many things on this hunt, we had Goulds Turkeys roostin right outside our camp, seen and had coatimundi’s stealing Johns food, bread, and his precious reeses mini peanut butter cups (boy was he mad). We glassed up a huge 400 lb Black bear…on two occaisons, saw alot of Javalina, and even did a little Mearns quail hunting too.

 

The weather for the most part was atrocious, we had rain, freezing rain, snow, wind and then more wind! We were not seeing as many deer as in prior years and we were getting concerned about even taking one buck much less three. Three days before the end of the hunt, I glassed up a small three pointer way out there and Mike decided to take him to fill his freezer because it was looking like this might be the only buck we would get. Took him right out too! Then, of course, the next day or so the weather was absolutely perfect for Coues deer.

Clear, Crisp and Cold, still a bit windy though and Mike glasses up this Beast early Saturday morning. The buck only showed one side of his horns moving through the brush, and as soon as the buck disappeared by walking over a ridge away from us, Mike just blurted out to us a bunch of un-intelligible gibberish. From the way he was jabbering, we knew he saw something. Finally he gets out that he just found a Monster, and of course being a jokester, we thought he was feeding us a bunch of BS, so we didn’t really make too much about it.

But his face became serious, and soon after, he showed us where he last saw the buck and we watched the area for a couple of minutes to see if the buck would make a turn and head back toward us.

After those few short minutes, we decided to Haul @$$ down the mountain and see if we could get around the front and find a place we could glass the buck up again. We found a small hole through the trees that had a slight rise to it which allowed for a pretty fair view of the front of that mountain he was on. Sure enough, we found him feeding just over the edge from where we last saw him, and he was casually feeding in and out of the trees. Mike was done, he had his buck, so it was up to Me or John to take the shot. I owed John so I just told him to take the shot.

We quickly cleared the tall grass in front of us out, and John set up on the buck. The wind was kicking up pretty good and when John took his shot, he missed the buck…The bruiser trotted off, not too freaked out, but there was never another shot opportunity for John. (boy was he angry with himself after that)

We decided our best approach was to haul butt back where we started from on the other side where we could get a better angle.

After climbing back up the mountain to our previous glassing position, we spent the rest of the day trying to locate him again. Fat chance it would be, the wind started Howling and reached up to 40 mile an hour gusts. We were not even positive the buck was across from us. We had a feeling he didn’t go far, but with an old stud like that, you never really know where he would run off to.

Our gut feeling told us to keep glassing on that mountain, bottom to top, left to right. We stayed in our positions the rest of the day and into the late evening regardless, hoping we would catch a glimpse of him again, but never saw him.

Dejected, we hiked off the mountain we were on, and drove back to camp.

Sunday morning rolls around…last day of the hunt, gotta find him…Mike and I were up the mountain early to glass where we had last seen him run off to. John went back to the area where he had shot from to try to re-locate him. We were up there just before first light, and of course 4 trucks roll in all around us, pretty serious judging from their equipment. They divided up by two’s and headed to different points to glass.

Being human and a little curious, we occasionally checked on them to see if they were still in position. They were glassing the mountain we were on but around where we could not see. All of a sudden we see one guy start scrambling around his truck, getting his rifle and pack on and hauling butt up the hill. We had this sinking feeling at the time that “Oh No, the Bruiser moved over there when he ran from Johns shot yesterday, or sometime during the night he moved”.

Not much we could do at that point..so we continued to glass where we thought he would have been the day before. Low and behold! About 10 minutes later Mike see’s a little 3 pointer, but there is another buck with him…Oh Man…it’s the Toad!

 

Oh boy, now it’s my turn to shoot…The buck is out there in front of us, and I am going to have to deal with the wind gusts just like John did the day before and that alone can screw this whole thing up. My first shot went just wide of him, and the buck ran into some thick trees. Mike watched those trees closely and waited. The Buck stayed in them for about 10 minutes, then finally, Mike catches a glimpse of his antlers at the edge. He was moving, and he was extremely cautious at first. He took one step, then slowly took another. I was back on him, ready. He took a third step. Looked around then started feeding on a bush next to him. Now he is facing towards me. He starts thrashing a bush with his Antlers for a minute. Then he does what we hoped for. He turns to the left, and slowly stretches his body out to offer a perfect broadside shot. I compensated for my previous mistake, and slowly squeezed the trigger. BOOM….!!!!

We heard that loving sound of a smack. The buck lunged, then ran into the thick trees, 5 seconds later he slowly walks out and lays down under a tree. He starts wagging his head about 3 times side to side, then it drops to the ground with no more movement at all. The Buck is down, and I was basically a nervous wreck at this point. I hiked down to the bottom and across the canyon. I climbed up above the buck and snuck down toward his position. Still nervous about the situation, I am always paranoid about walking up to an animal after it is shot, as if he would get up and run. That was definitely not the case here.

This Buck was ENORMOUS !!! It hit me hard just how big this guy was. Man, was I thankful.

The shot was perfect…Right behind the shoulder. Everything worked out. Soon after, John and Mike made the climb up and both dropped their jaws when they saw this buck up close. Everything a guy who has worked so hard to get, ends up with something he will cherish for the rest of his life. Thanks for taking the time by reading my story folks. I wish you all could have been there to see him on the hoof. But only if I got to shoot him again afterward.

 

Kevin

 

[Scooter]

Dandy buck and great write-up!!!

[Matt Meyer]

Great write up and awesome buck. Congrats

[2 Full Curls]

Amazing buck!! Great write-up too!.. one of the better ones this season IMO. Congrats to you and your buddies, and thank you for sharing

[papa]

That is a great Buck and great story as well!

[motoxno53]

Great write up and awesome buck. Congrats man.

[ElkyG]

Congrats on a great buck

[Couestracker]

Great story on a awesome hunt! I can't wait to see it in person. Congratulations on a super buck.

[Hunting6]

Awesome Job Kevin, it was a blast to be part of the hunt....Pretty intense there for a while but you got it done.

[randyolson]

Very nice buck! Really enjoyed the story! Thanks and congrats!!

[Matt S]

Well done Pa, he is a sweet buck. I liked the write-up, there's nothing quite like a hunting trip with your best buds!

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations again on a great buck! Thanks for sharing the story with us, I can only imagine the roller coaster of emotions after first spotting him to the successful conclusion. Huge bruiser of a buck!

[JLW]

uh...... yeah! great buck!

nice write as well!

thanks for taking the time to write that story up, awesome buck!

 

James

[bchoitz]

Beautiful Trophy and a great story to go with it. Congrats on sticking with the plan and getting your deer!

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

great write up and nice shot, congrats all around