Stickbuck's Late Alta Muzzy Thread

[jstone]

Tat country just looks like there should be lots of deer. Great pictures

[stickbuck]

Since, I had already posted a mid-week update, I will fast forward to Thursday. Thursday started off with a bang. As I walked up some very open public ground early in the morning, I quickly jumped a nice 24” 3x4. He ran to the west across the field and I stood there and watched as he entered an aspen patch on the other side. Shortly thereafter, I instantly began to hear this buck wheezing. I was in complete shock as I have never heard this sound being made by a deer before. It didn’t sound like a snort wheeze made by a whitetail. This buck was making this nasally wheezing sound that was extremely long and drawn out. As this continued for several minutes, I decided to head in his direction and use the aspens as cover. Halfway across this wide-open field, I walked past a tiny pond and jumped six mallards out of it. As they flushed, so did the muley buck. As he ran up the hill, he was accompanied by a smaller 3x3. Apparently, they must have been facing off on the other side of the aspens that was out of my line of vision. I took off on a dead run for the aspens and I as I cleared the other side, they were broadside at approximately 175 yards. Too long for a shot, I decided to let them go and then start tracking them once they were out of sight. I tracked them uphill and down another finger until they crossed onto private ground. At that point, I had to retreat and let them go. I made it back to a spot that overlooks the huge field I had just crossed and instantly glassed up a nice 3x3 and 10 does. Within a few minutes, I was blanketed with a dense fog and could not see more than forty yards. Since the deer I glassed were more than 7-800 yards away, I decided to close the distance since it appeared that the fog had set in for the day. To my amazement, I was able to close the distance to about 100 yards. The does however were all alone on this huge hillside. The buck had somehow vanished before I had snuck into range. After they fed over the hill, I decided to hike towards the north boundary. After several hours of hiking, I decided to head back to the truck and regroup and figure out a different approach for the afternoon portion of the hunt. I decided I would try a forest service road towards the north end of the unit. During my drive towards the top, I had not even reached the top and the wet snow was becoming too much to manage so I found a place to turn around and head back towards town. I was somewhat discouraged that driving up through 10-12” of snow there were very few sets of fresh tracks. However, as I was heading down the hill, I glanced up into the clearcut and there stood the second largest mule deer I had ever seen. With extremely deep forks and a set of horns that were 3+ inches outside his ears on both sides, I slowly got out of the truck and tried to get in a position to shoot. At only 132 yards, I felt I could make this happen. As I pulled the hammer back and rested the smoke pole on a Doug Fir branch, he quickly turned and started bounding straight to the top of this cut. I ran back to the truck, parked it and proceeded up the hill after him. I skirted the edge of the cut and proceeded to the top trying to stay out of sight. Due to the deep snow and how steep it was, it took me almost twenty minutes to reach the top where he entered the timber. Once on his track, I followed them for at least 400 yards and he was still bounding. I continued straight uphill and his track began to slow from a bound to prancing at a pretty good clip. As I looked ahead, I could tell that his track was leading slowly up onto a small rise and prepared myself to be standing there watching his back trail. When I crested this small bench, I could tell that he had been standing there for quite some time before I spooked him back to bounding. At this point, I realized it was probably a lost cause, but I continued slowly after him. I had now been tracking for almost forty-five minutes and had yet to see him since he left the clearcut. The track slowed again as it entered some dark east facing slope timber and continued uphill. At an hour and ten minutes, the track crested the ridge and proceeded down some of the most rugged terrain. At that point, I sat down in the nearly 14 inches of snow and waved the white towel. This buck had tested my resolve and determination and as darkness was merely two hours away, I elected to move on and find another deer. It just wasn’t in the cards on this day. This was by far the largest mule deer I had seen on the trip and the second largest mule deer I have ever seen while hunting. With the mass, deep forks, and extremely long main beams, there was no doubt that this buck would easily have netted in the 170’s. I know a lot of guys don’t believe it, but he was a true giant. To me, a score in the 170’s easily would have been extremely conservative. It just wasn’t meant to be on this day, so I forged on to try and locate another buck.

With only several hours of darkness, I moved on and quickly found a group of deer out on an open ridge. With the permission from the landowner, I attempted to close the three hundred yards between this tall 22-inch wide 3x3. As I closed within 150 yards, I quickly realized the three does he was with had grown to at least 15 does and 1 spike. When I closed to 130 yards, I put the gun on the shooting sticks and pulled the trigger. To my dismay, I missed. I quickly reloaded and now had the attention of the entire herd. The 3x3 remained alert for several minutes before going back to his rutting behavior and chasing several of the hot does in the group. The closest I was able to get to him was 106 yards and proceeded to watch as I missed shots two, three, and four. After the fourth shot, I sat there with an unloaded gun and was trying to contemplate what had just happened. How could I have just missed four times with a gun that was dead on prior to the trip? This will probably haunt me for quite some time. I believed in the gun, but I should have fired at least a couple of rounds down range once I set up camp on Saturday. After retreating back to the truck severely defeated, I knew I had to head back to camp and shoot the gun before going into the field for the last day. What a day this had been, I had seen several beautiful bucks and squandered every opportunity that had come to me. It was a great lesson learned and something I will never let happen again. On the way back to camp, I touched base with another hunter in my unit that had connected on a beautiful 24” 4x4 earlier in the day. After hearing about my hunt, he offered me his gun for the last and final day of the permit season. After sharing stories and laughs over dinner, I was somewhat rejuvenated for the last day. As I returned to camp and turned out the lights, I struggled mightily to fall asleep. Over and over again, I kicked myself as I relived every second of the day that seemed not to go in my favor. Every year in the woods, I learn a lot and this year was no different, but this day was just too hard to swallow. Here are a few pics from Thursday's hunt.


This is a pic that was taken just minutes after I was glassing a nice buck and ten does and then the damn fog rolled in.

[BoomWhop]

Wow there was really not much snow.  Did you hunt booth canyon?

[stickbuck]

Boom, I worked over towards Booth and that is where I saw the majority of the animals. I came in from the low public side. It was barren until Wednesday's snow and then all of a sudden the deer were there Thursday and Friday.

[BoomWhop]

Yeah its a long walk up from the bottom.  When I pull this tag again I think I am going to back pack in from there and just stay up high on those open ridges.

[jstone]

we saw a few bucks in that are last year too. The lower portion.

[stickbuck]

The last and final day. As I approached the area we would hunt on the final day, my heart quickly sank at the amount of fog that had rolled up the valley. I proceeded to check my weather app for the area and saw that dense fog would blanket the region for the entire day. As daylight approached, you could see just over 100 yards and that was it. If the fog remained as forecasted, I would definitely not get a chance to go after that 3x3 or any of the other nice bucks on the hill. Once out of the truck, we started glassing doe after doe. There definitely was not a shortage of does in the area. We just couldn’t come up with anything bigger than a spike. On our way out, I glanced up on a finger and spotted a decent 2x2 at just over 50 yards. As the fog worsened, I elected to pursue this rut crazed young buck. At just under 20 yards, this buck turned broadside and I slowly squeezed the trigger. As my shot rang home, I watched this buck go about 20 yards before falling dead to a well placed shot behind the shoulder. Wouldn't you know that while I was gutting out my deer, more bucks passed through the same spot with another larger buck.

A lot of people will look at this buck and just see a small racked, two year old buck. To me, this is one of the hardest earned bucks I have ever killed. Obviously it is not the biggest buck I have ever killed, but it is one of the most special ones. I endured a lot on this trip and I learned a lot as well. When hunting alone, there is no one to blame when things go awry and when plans fall through but yourself. I learned that even though I may think I am prepared and ready, it never hurts to test the most important part of the hunt once you arrive in camp; THE GUN. I am truly blessed at the opportunity I had with this tag. Thanks to BoomWhop and PacificNWhunter for your knowledge of the area. Especially, thank you Keith for all your tips and ideas regarding my hunt. A big thanks goes out to Trevin for letting me shoot your gun on the final day. I hope I can repay the favor to you all someday.

[jstone]

Nice job great adventure.

[jrebel]

Excellent story and great hunt.  Congrats on the buck.   

[BoomWhop]

Very cool buck.  Even cooler story, thanks for sharing.  You took us all on a memorable hunt with ya.

[Ridgerunner]

You definitely made a lifetime of memories and in the end that is the most important thing. 

[Skyvalhunter]

Matt,
   Again congrats on a fine deer. While it might not have been what you had dreamed of it's good to know that you earned this buck. The Alta unit has been going thru alot of changes the past 8-10 years. It was a pleasure to help you out. Some good meat in the freezer and the best part a load of memories.

[PacificNWhunter]

Congrats!

[Pathfinder101]

Congrats

[WDFW Hates ME!!!]

Congrats, nice deer. And it is yours so as long as you are happy with it is all that matters.