COOSEFAN Report post Posted December 22, 2007 Hey guys, here is a little story about the hunt I just helped on last week. A good friend of mine from CA came out to hunt Coues with me. This is his 4th Late Coues tag in 7 years! Appearantly not alot of non-residents apply for this unit! The adventure started when we were about 1/2 mile from my camping spot and the rain/snow storm kicked in and my 4-wheel drive "kicked-out"! I had it at the mechanics after the archery elk hunts to fix it and appearantly they didn't! I was stuck, had to unload the Rhino, use the ramps to pry the jumpin' jack trailer off the hitch and pull both the truck and the trailer out of the mud with the Rhino! It was freezing, I was covered in mud, the inside of my truck has mud clods stuck to the dash, and we had to sit inside my truck till daylight! I was a "little" upset to say the least 'cause we would have had no problem if my 4-wheel drive worked! We finally get camp setup the next day around noon and then finally slept until the following day. Still covered in mud but finally rested we started our scouting and found tons of deer and good bucks after the storm had passed. Opening morning had us passing up a 90" buck and 6 other smaller bucks. Opening evening we found 3 bucks with the smallest chasing and trying to rut a doe. The biggest was high 90's and was close enough to our goal to take him. My buddy set up for the 424 yard shot, I had the video camera rolling..........well,.....just click on the link and watch it for yourself, but remember, this is the "Bionic Deer" and all things are not as they appear! http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c365/jkm...nt=Lostbuck.flv Yep.....that buck regained his feet and took off! I sat watching the buck through the scope for several minutes to make sure he wasn't getting up. We were losing light so we then headed up there to only find a few drops of blood, and some small chunks of meat and fat! I reviewed the video that night and realized how high the hit was and assumed the buck crawled downhill farther than we thought. The next day we scoured the area with a fine tooth comb and then went to plan B. I've seen it before with a Muley buck where he was temporarily paralyzed and then jumped up and ran off, so we thought that was a possibility. About 2 hours later and 1/2 a mile farther I jumped the buck which stood for about a minute staring at me. I could see the chunk out of the top of his back and then watched as he bounced and trotted "up-hill" and run over.....seemingly un-hurt! I couldn't believe it and we thoroughly picked the area apart for the next two days and never relocated that buck! Finally, with time running out on the 4th day we decided we couldn't do anything more and just hoped for the best for the buck. We headed to a spot where we've killed a buck everytime we've been there.......this would be the third time there and the third buck shot from this spot this year. We glassed up a pretty buck and my buddy said it'll work for him. We watched him bed down in some thick cat-claw with his body/shoulder exposed and with a perfect shot at 380 yards the buck just put his head down. It was a relief to finally see it happen the way it's supposed to and even though it's a small buck, it's a very pretty one and my buddy is getting it mounted because of the memories from our adventure! I do have to give my buddy credit though, you guys read me talking about taking long shots. He practices with is rifle 3 days a week, has thousands of dollars in his rifle, spends a crazy amount of time working up loads and can punch a 4" group at 900 yards! He proved his skills in camp at 600 yards hitting a 12" rock everytime, and he just wanted to make sure the elevation change didn't have an effect on his zero! I would never advocate anyone taking far shots unless you've spent the time to make sure you can do it. The buck we lost was hit way too high and was a result of us not calculating the angle and rushing the shot........so there's another lesson learned Here's Steve's buck...... and here's some camp pic's and pic's of Steve's rifle set-up.......notice his "hand-made" shooting sticks and adapters for the Outdoorsmans tripod.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted December 22, 2007 Wow, that's pretty amazing that buck got up after that hit. That's a real bummer to lose him, but sounds like you did all you could to find him again. Nice photos and neat rifle setup. Amanda Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SilentButDeadly Report post Posted December 23, 2007 hope you leaked the info to somebody who is still out there, better that a 2-legs gets him instead of a 4-legs..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JACK Report post Posted December 23, 2007 Wow thats a crazy video...We had that same thing happen to us in a similar area a few years back...mabey it is in the water or something? ... Congrats on the buck that didn't get away! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coueshunter84 Report post Posted December 23, 2007 Congrats on the one that did not get away, definately a neat looking rack almost like hes on the decline but either way pretty. Nothing like good backstrap on the ground. Same thing happened to my daughter during the jr. hunt this year in 33. She hit a little forked horned muley at about 175 yards, it fell over and kicked for about 20 seconds then stopped. When it stopped kicking we stopped watching, and started congradulating her on her first buck. we looked up again just in time to watch it make tracks out of the area. Spent 12 + hours over 2 days trying to find it, without any luck. Talk about an emotional roller coaster for a 10 year old. But shes ready for this next year. And a friend of mine finally found her buck, about 3 weeks later still up a getting around pretty well. With a nasty little scar atop his back, right over the shoulder. sounds pretty close to your story. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Snapshot Report post Posted December 23, 2007 Way to go! Nice looking camp setup, and pics. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bill Report post Posted December 23, 2007 Tell us about Steve's rifle, looks first class. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest 300ultramag. Report post Posted December 23, 2007 its illegal to target shoot at rocks....... FYI Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Outdoor Writer Report post Posted December 23, 2007 Jim, I watched that video several times and noted that white puff of smoke when the bullet hit each time. Any idea what caused it? -TONY Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesFanatic Report post Posted December 23, 2007 I shot a deer also in 33 this year that fell down and rolled at the shot. It rolled two rolls down the hill and got up and ran away! I spent a looong time looking for him but never did find him. I'm still mad about it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
El Fuego Report post Posted December 23, 2007 Tony, It looks as if thought the bullet hit a rock. Do you think that the shock, or fragmentation from the bullet hitting the rock could have put the deer down? How much blood was at the site Jim? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fatfootdoc Report post Posted December 23, 2007 Jim, Well you just PM that unit number to me and I will make sure more nonresidents put in for it next year!! ag Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
COOSEFAN Report post Posted December 23, 2007 Thanks for the reply's. Neo, I did tell 3 other hunters in the area about the buck and where to look for him....never heard if they found em'. Bill, I will try to tell ya about his gun: It started with a Rem. 700 action then added a Hart barrel, Jewel trigger, McMillan stock, and everything has been altered, trued, etc. to make it completely custom. It is a 7MM Mag with a custom 6.5-20X Leupold that he had special crosshairs installed. I know that the bolt and several other parts of the gun have been shaved and fluted to take off weight as well. I had the good fortune to shoot it myself, I had a target at 560 yards with an uphill angle of 11 degrees, turned the target knob to 550 and center punched the target every shot with no problem! I've never been into the long distance shooting stuff and reloading, but I've already got plans on getting my own custom rifle built this Spring! 300ultramag.....we weren't target shooting at rocks.....we were killing them! Tony, the bullet struck above the spine on the left side of the buck and exited the very top of the back on the right side and hit a pile of rocks behind that green bush. There was very little blood......actually I found more small chunks of meat and fat than I did blood! When I saw the buck the next day I had the "exit" side facing me at 100 yards and could clearly see a golfball sized chunk missing out of the top of his back. If you didn't see it, you would have thought that buck had no problems at all watching him run uphill without a limp of any kind! El Fuego, the video on my TV is much clearer and I can clearly see the impact was so forceful that it caused the temporary paralysis, so it was the shock close to the spine that dropped him. I have seen it on one other occasion with a Muley and the exact thing happened.......little blood and after getting up, the buck went for miles with no problems. The whole situation made me sick and upset at myself, but there really wasn't anything I could have done different. I sat for several minutes, with Steve on his gun, making sure the buck didn't get up.........we do that everytime. It had to be the sound of us coming up the hill that got him up but the light was fading too fast for us to see him anyways. Hind-sight.......I should have left Steve on his gun while I put my hands on the buck. BUT, I really thought we needed to put another bullet in him where he lay, so I didn't want to walk up on him without a gun! Crazy situation, just have to learn from it and go on. Thanks again for the reply's, JIM> Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fatfootdoc Report post Posted December 23, 2007 That buck had a spinal concussion from the shot, kind of like a football player gets from a direct neck hit . He will have some zingers for awhile but as long as the flesh heals it will not kill him or even slow him down for long. ag Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
crazy4COUES Report post Posted December 23, 2007 Thanks for sharing, the video, photos really adds to the story. I felt as if I was there. Excellent photos. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
