East side 2013 muzzy buck

[EGrady]

First a little background about myself. I've been a member for a few years, but only have a few posts (I forgot my login info and could not reset it till a week ago). I have lived in Wa for 8 years, first 5 in south King County and last 3 in Grant County. I have hunted elk every year that I have lived here and have hunted deer 4 years. I have not been able to get an elk but I killed my first deer in Wa last year. The only other deer I shot was when I was 16 in Arizona. I introduced my wife to hunting in 2004 when we were living in Alaska and last year she finally got her hunters ed. This will be our 3rd year as elk hunting partners, first year was with a hunters ed deferral. I talked her into getting a muzzleloader to go deer hunting with me this year, I only had to mention it once and she was excited to do it. We went out opening morning to the same place I got my deer last year, we saw 2 legal bucks but could not get close to them. My wife got sick this week so I was by myself for Friday. I was in position on a cliff before first light and started seeing deer as soon as I could see through my binoculars. I was watching 2 bucks but I could not tell if they were legal, they were big 2x2's. I was trying to spot a third point on them when I saw another buck come into view, I put the bino's on him and saw that he was a legal 2x3. I ranged him at 140 yards and knew I could hit him (I shoot a 6in group at 100 yards). I got my rifle ready, put my sights on him and squeezed the trigger. He looked up to see what the noise was and I knew it was a miss (I couldn't stop shaking, too much adrenaline), then he started to slowly walk away. I reloaded as quickly as my shaking hands would allow, put my sights on him with a better rest and waited for him to stop. He was slowly walking parallel to me and finally stopped at 155 yards to start feeding again. I waited till he was broadside to me and squeezed the trigger again. It was another miss. This time it was too much noise for him and he ran away to join a group of doe's. They were definitely too far away now so I reloaded and waited to see what they would do. The deer didn't know I was there and we're not spooked. They started slowly walking and feeding towards a canyon about 1/2 mile away. I knew if I could get there before they did I would get another shot at the buck. I grabbed my gun and pack, crawled away from the edge of the cliff and took off towards the canyon. When I got there I crawled up to a rock outcrop and spotted the deer again, they were at 180 yards moving towards the mouth of the canyon. I backed off and moved into a better position. This time I was 130 yards from where I wanted to ambush them, I had a solid rock rest an was could not get any closer. I waited till the buck had moved to the spot I wanted, waited till he was broadside to me and slowly squeezed the trigger. At the shot he ran up the canyon and I thought I missed again. I called my wife to see how she was feeling and to teller her that I was a terrible shot. I couldn't believe that I missed again. After about 10 minutes I walked down into the canyon to see if I could find any blood and there he was, dead about 50 feet from where I shot him. Whoo Hoo  buck down He isn't the biggest, but I want meat more than I want antlers. I spent the next 2 hours quartering and boning him out, then I got ready for the hike out. It was a little over a mile back to the truck but I packed him out in 1 trip, I thought I was going to die when I got there. We are going to Idaho on Wednesday for modern elk. My wife is the only one with a tag and I hope that I can help her get her first elk. Thanks for reading my long winded story. I hope everyone else has as much fun and luck as I have this year.

[JakeLand]

Nice congrats hope your wife tags out

[Hilltop123]

Congtrats!!!  Is that a peep on that smoke pole?

[MLBowhunting]

That's a great buck.  Welcome back 

[EGrady]

It's a Williams peep sight on a White's whitetail muzzleloader. I was using 95 grains of pyrodex with a 250 grain knight's bloodline bullet.

[carpsniperg2]

Congrats

[JJB11B]

Great Buck congrats!

[Bigluke1981]

Very nice, congrats!!!!

[buck man]

Very nice, congrats!!!!

 

[curlewkiller]

Great eating.  Nice story.

[beave]

 

[adictd2hunting]

Congrats

[Widgeondeke]

Thanks for sharing your hunt with us. Congrats on a very decent buck. 

[bowhunterforever]

Congrats

[FordGuy]

Nice job and congrats!  Good luck to your wife as well! 

[elkoholic1]