Opening morning started off on the back corner of our river place with my buddy and I looking at the largest group of mule deer I have ever seen during rifle season - well over 60 in the group. They were mostly does, but there were 6 or 7 legal bucks in the group. I told Josh to hold off and wait for a bachelor group that I had watched all year, there were 6 bucks in the group (all legal) and 2 24"-26" shooters. It wasn't long before I spotted a group of deer feeding out of a draw about 700 yards away. The Swarovski spotter confirmed that these were the bucks we were after. We headed down the ridge pack to the pick-up and headed to the "two point" draw to head them off. We made our way down to the draw and it was full of deer. There was a nice 24" buck about 150 yards away and I gave Josh the green light. Three shots later, the buck was headed over the hill unscathed. I told Josh not to worry, I knew exactly where they were headed. We headed back to the pickup and drove around to the "front draws". Again, they were full of deer with 9 or 10 bucks in view and a really tall 26" three point. I told Josh "that is the buck you need to kill". We parked the pickup and headed up the draw. I spotted a 22" four-point bedded in the next draw, but it was not the one we were after. The second draw had 4 bucks (two legal) bedded in the bottom, but no big boy. We worked up the last draw and a three point busted out of bottom 75 yards away. I whistled to get him to look at us so I could see his width - when all of a sudden "boom" and he dropped from sight. I guess Josh could not wait any longer. We both smiled, but the smile was short-lived as the big boy ran out of the bottom of the draw only 200 yards away. Josh was a little bummed, but pretty happy to get his deer. We laughed again when we saw that it was only 8:15 a.m. and we were done. We drove around a little and saw a ton more bucks, but not the big boy. I will try to post pics, having trouble for some reason? First time with my new camera.
