Leftover Luck "road-hunt"

[Tines]

School has taken up most of my time this fall. Thankfully, everything finished up the day before Thanksgiving. It worked out nicely because I was able to repay the favor and help my good buddy shoot a great buck on the 3rd day of his hunt. Maybe he'll let me share the pic soon. Let me just say, sleeping out on a mountain over night is NOT what it's all cracked out to be. We made it home about 2pm the following day.

 

Being in terrible hunting shape this season, some muscle relaxers, a heating pad and a bed is all I wanted to think of. The following day I managed to limp around town and run some errands for a few hours. About noon, my wife said "don't you have your own tag??". I told her, yes. But I honestly didn't think I could hike much. So she told me to just go drive some roads and see what I could find. I literally laughed out loud. But then I thought, "If my wife is telling me to go hunting, I'd better go!"

 

So I threw my bloody pack and gear I never unpacked, rifle and some Mountain House meals in my truck and said "See you tomorrow!!" My wife is pretty incredible.

 

I drove down and met up with a good buddy and his dad who'd been hunting for a couple of days already. His dad was pretty sore himself so we decided to make the afternoon hunt an easy one. It would be a nice break from the hunting I'd been doing all weekend.

 

We hiked up to a little knob only about 100 yards from the trucks. Naturally, the next knob higher looked too appealing so I told them I was going a little further while they stayed back. It's been a few years since I sat on this knob. I've glassed up quite a few deer from this point and it brought a familiar sense of confidence. It didn't take long until I found a few does. Then, not far from a doe I had been watching who kept acting nervous, this buck appeared. My first thought was "Dang! That's a wide deer!" I knew he didn't have much length, but I honestly wasn't going to be super picky on this hunt. I just wanted to have fun.....and not hurt myself anymore that I already was.

 

He was 575yds and I knew I could get a bit closer. My buddy hiked up to me and spotted while I cut the distance to 302yds. He was bedded and I could only see an antler so as I was trying to find a hole in the brush to sneak a bullet, he stood up. Do you guys ever find yourself saying, "okay, this is all coming together too perfectly. Something is going to screw this all up shortly"? Well, it never did. It went as planned! The 110gr Accubond went through his heart and the buck ran down about 30 yds and piled up. I literally hunted for about 20 minutes to find this buck. Crazy!

 

Thanks to my buddy Luke for spotting for me and helping this "old man" with a bad back pack the buck about 800yds back to the truck. I know, stupid.

 

He's my widest buck to date!

 

 

 

 

[el diablo]

Nice wide buck. Congrats!

[daryl_s]

Congrats on getting a very nice buck with limited time.

[Arizona Griz]

Sometimes it can and does come together. Congratulations.

[Will K]

Sweet buck.

[Guest 300ultramag.]

Great story, glad to hear you hung in there and it paid off. Fantastic Buck!!!!!

[CouesPursuit]

Very cool, great buck and story!

[Big Browns]

Sweeeeeeet, Congrats!!!

[Cola Blanca]

Congratulations on a great buck. Thank you for sharing

[Zeke-BE]

Congrats

[wildwoody]

Nice spread..

[firstcoueswas80]

Id like to see a buck like that in my crosshairs tomorrow!

[LovinthehuntAz]

Way to go!!

[creed_az_88]

I love that buck! Sometimes things are just meant to happen.

[Mesabulls]

Good looking buck!