ScottAdams Report post Posted January 3, 2014 I started this hunt looking for a real trophy. I hadn’t killed a deer since 2009 when I took a buck that scored 124, and I wanted another to hang on the wall. I have been only applying for the December 27/28 whitetail hunt for the past few years. The October hunts are very crowded and I’m usually out helping family and friends. I like the late hunt because it’s only you and 39 others for the whole unit, you have the rut starting to come on, the cooler weather keeps the deer moving about a lot more, and finally, you have 2 ½ weeks to hunt and you don’t feel rushed. While I run a lot of trail cameras, believe it or not, I didn’t have any bucks on those cameras that I wanted to kill, so I had to hit some different areas away from my cameras to try to locate something that was exceptional but not necessarily in the 120’s like my previous buck. My first day out was December 14th. It was very windy, yet we found some good bucks and with both my sons present I almost shot this nice 4x4 but it got dark on us. I wasn’t able to go again until the following Saturday, the 21st. I went into yet another area that day, the wind blew once again and I only saw a big 2x3 and Austin and Joey saw 4 other smaller bucks on another ridge. Here’s the big 2x3. I went into yet another area on Monday and found another 4 bucks but again, the biggest was a small 4x4. On Tuesday I went back into where I saw the big 2x3 and Austin and Joey had seen the 4 small bucks, but found only does. On Wednesday, Christmas day, I was out yet again in another area I had not hunted. The wind was blowing like on all the previous days and late in the morning I found a small buck chasing a doe. I watched him chase her around a ridge and disappear. I had never glassed into where they ran so I decided to go over and take a look. As I hiked to a high point to glass I immediately started hearing rocks rolling from across the canyon and thought I had spooked something. Once I had located the source of the noise I saw it was a buck chasing a doe, but not the small one I had seen run in here but a large, mature Coues buck that was well over the 100 inch mark! The doe he was chasing eventually ran over the ridge but he didn’t follow. I took some photos through the spotting scope and saw he had a broken G-3 and decided I would pass on him and maybe try to find him next year. He eventually headed for an obvious bedding area and it was then that I noticed another buck had started following him at a distance. I put the spotter on him and saw he was very heavy buck with some trash. I took a few pictures of him but it wasn’t until he turned to face me that that I saw he was exceptional! I quickly pulled the spotter off the tripod and set my rifle on it. I had the crosshairs on him waiting for him to stop, however, he never did. He kept walking right into a thick bedding area and disappeared. Unfortunately I had a Christmas Dinner to go to and wasn’t able to wait him out. But I determined right then that this was the buck I would hunt! Here are some pictures of the typical and non-typical. Trent Neff and Amanda Moors, my hunting partners had joined me this week and we were hunting hard for the non-typical, for 3 days we found some smaller bucks but that big non-typical was almost nocturnal, we only saw him once without a shot opportunity. Here are some of the smaller bucks we saw on this hunt. New Year’s Eve, the last day of the hunt finally arrived and I was still sticking to the “non-typical or bust” motto. Amanda, Trent and I arrived before sunup and began glassing. We found a few small bucks but not the one we were looking for. At 1:00 however, our day started to change. Amanda spotted some deer on distant ridge about 1500 yards out. We got the high power glass on them and saw one that I was sure was the non-typical, we couldn’t be positive because we only got a minute or so to look at him before he vanished behind a ridge that blocked our view. We quickly packed up our gear headed over to where we could glass the ridge he had been on. We setup and glassed till our eyes bled but couldn’t find him. We decided to wait the rest of the day there, hoping he was bedded somewhere in front of us. For three long hours we glassed as the shadows grew long and the sun began to set. As the sun reached the horizon and the area we were glassing became fully shaded…it happened. Suddenly a buck with tall, heavy antlers appeared standing under a tree at the edge of a small ravine! It was Him!! “I got him!!!” I whispered loudly. “Don’t move!!” the buck was staring in our direction. Soon the buck, apparently determining we weren’t a threat, turned his head away from us. “Okay, he’s not looking at us now.” I whispered. Our little glassing spot then became a flurry of activity as binoculars were aimed, range finders dug out and the rifle loaded! I ranged the buck at 527 yards. I rested the rifle across my tripod as Amanda told me the buck had walked down the ridge a little. I found him in my scope and was settling in for the shot when I realized I hadn’t dialed in my scope for the distance. I quickly set the scope for 500 yards and settled in once again. I was amazingly calm as I settled the 6.5 wsm into the pocket of my shoulder, held the crosshairs steady on the bucks shoulder and started my trigger squeeze. It didn’t take long for the rifle to fire and I heard the telltale “whop” of the bullet hitting home! “You broke his left front leg; he’s going down the ridge!” Amanda said. I quickly chamber another round, but it wasn’t needed. The buck piled up in briar thicket and it was all over. The 140 grain Berger bullet had broken the buck’s left shoulder, went through his heart and out the other side. It didn’t take for us long to cross the canyon and reach the buck, and man what a buck he was! It was the non-typical I had been holding out for and he was worth waiting for! A heavy 4x4 with trash and even two little devil horns coming off his bases! He was a big bodied, mature buck that was certainly “a worthy opponent” as Trent aptly stated. We made it home just in time to bring in the New Year, and I couldn’t think of a better way to end 2013 and start off 2014!! We have a video of the kill shot and Amanda will hopefully post a link to that soon. I would like to thank the following people who helped me during the hunt: James Adams, Austin Adams, Joey Molina, Chris Seegmiller, Dustin Pollock, Jeff Hatch, Sam Lundquist and lastly my hunting partners, Trent Neff and Amanda Moors. I would also like to thank Trent for building such a perfect Coues rifle. He put together a 6.5mm Winchester Short Mag, Savage 111 action, Shaw Barrel, Savage composite stock, Talley lightweight rings and a Leupold Vari X 3, longrange, 6.5-20x40mm scope. An absolute, lightweight, mountain packing, coues killin’, tackdriver! 11 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sam Report post Posted January 3, 2014 Dang, that's a great buck. I can't believe you passed on a few of those other deer, but Unit 27 has some monsters in there. Great write up and you have better patience than me. And that is about as last minute as you can get - Congratulations. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kevinhunt1 Report post Posted January 3, 2014 WOW! What a toad. Nice mass there. Great story too.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Couestracker Report post Posted January 3, 2014 Holy mass! What an awesome buck. As usual, you document your hunt to the 10's Scott! Great series of pictures of other nice bucks too. Way to stick it out for that guy. Congratulations to you and all your helpers. Can't wait to see the video and more pictures of him. Happy New Year! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ernesto C Report post Posted January 3, 2014 WOW!! ...just amazing! Congratulations Scott to you and all your team involved. What a magnificent buck! Your persistence paid off my friend. Can't wait to see the video. Congratulations again! Ernesto C Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaffer62 Report post Posted January 3, 2014 Scott!!! What a buck! Love the frame on that deer. Pretty awesome stuff right there! Thanks for a great write up Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MULEPACKHUNTER Report post Posted January 3, 2014 great hunt and commitment, congrats. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted January 3, 2014 Here is the video! Trent did a great job filming the shot with his phone through his 20x binos. Near the end you can see the buck leap over a boulder and an oak bush before he piles up behind the oak. Seeing how torn up that buck was inside, we were all amazed he went that far and was able to run and leap. I edited it and did it full speed one time, then slow motion and zoomed in. Video loses quality when zoomed in and slowed down but you can still see the shot and see his front left leg is hanging and he is not able to use it after the shot. The buck was quartered toward Scott and so he placed the shot perfectly through the front left shoulder and it travelled perfectly through the vitals and out behind the front right leg. It doesn't get any better than that. This was an absolute dream hunt! Beautiful weather, great friends, gorgeous country, lots of great coues bucks and a dramatic finish to the last day! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AZP&Y Report post Posted January 3, 2014 Dream buck! Nice job ! Nice smiles Az Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaffer62 Report post Posted January 3, 2014 Great job. Shot looks right on the money!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apache7mm Report post Posted January 3, 2014 Whoa what a buck!! Congrats. DAN Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Couestracker Report post Posted January 3, 2014 Fantastic job on the video. What an amazing deer! Congrats again to all. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mocha1545 Report post Posted January 3, 2014 Fantastic Buck. He is Awesome. I don't know how you held out with all those other nice bucks you spotted. Great write up and video. Congratulations! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Big Browns Report post Posted January 3, 2014 Great job! That's a Toad! Do you know what he scores? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted January 3, 2014 Big Browns, I think we will run a guess the score contest on him, so not giving out score yet Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
