Greenhorn gets his buck!

[Greenhorn]

Well I ended up missing opening modern weekend because WSU scheduled Dad's weekend that weekend and then decided to only play 3 quarters of football against OSU on top of it.  So I have been going out for the first couple of hours each morning since Tuesday and then hopping on the tractor in the afternoon with my rifle.  I passed up a 3x2 every morning but I insisted on doing my same routine every day in the hope of scoring something bigger.  Well this morning (Thur.) I began glassing from my canyon edge and finally saw a nice buck across the canyon.  He was 383 yards and I am pretty confident with my rifle at that distance, but it was going to be one hard pack and I didn't know if I wanted him that bad.  But not one to turn down a challenge I sat there about 10 minutes and then decided to pull the trigger.  I shot him 3 times and I am not sure which order I hit him but he had one pass through his neck, one pass between the ribs right behind the front shoulder and blow a chunk of rib out on the other side but still inside the hide and then one go in through the neck and obliterate the far front shoulder.  I am pretty sure that was my third shot, because he went down after that and ended up in the bottom of the canyon.  Well I didn't bring a camera and wanted a picture before I cut him up and packed him out so I went down and gutted him and then drove home to get my camera and then headed back down with my pack.  I took me forever to cut him up, I retrieved the bullet that ended up in his shoulder and it is in the picture with his blown up shoulder.  It held together pretty well but I could see little metal flakes in with the bone flakes.  I am shooting 180 gr Berger VLD's.  I was really excited because I wanted to weigh it after all was said and done and see how much was left.  Well in the meantime I kept knocking it off of where ever I set it so I left it right on top of my orange hunting vest.  To get straight to the point I when I was ready to lace up my pack I picked up my vest and shook it and lost my bullet.  I think my one other one went out with the gut pile and the other one passed through his neck.  So now it is time to pack this bad boy out and straight up the hill.  I didn't want to make two trips so I just piled all of the meat, my supply pack, and the head into one pack and crawled one step at a time up the hill.  I posted a few pictures.  One is from where I shot, the deer was just above the sage brush on the bench across the canyon, most of the other ones are hoofing it out.

[carpsniperg2]

Congrats glad you got your buck.

[coachcw]

good job green horn !

[rtspring]

Nice job buddy!!

[Turner89]

Pretty cool Nice job Greenhorn

[huntnphool]

Great buck to eliminate from the gene pool, very unique.

[Michelle_Nelson]

Damn the bullet murdered that shoulder.  Always cool finding the bullet!

[MLBowhunting]

Great buck

[Whitpirate]

Great job.  Fine looking buck.  Pity about the loss of the shoulder though. (says the cook)

[Greenhorn]

Great buck to eliminate from the gene pool, very unique.

That is exactly what I was thinking, For a long time I thought that it was just a two point.  Then I made out the eye guards and maybe a third point on one side.  He ended up barely making a 4x4, but I am happy with him.

[ShaneTyTrey]

Very nice, good shooting.

[h2ofowlr]

Nice buck.  Definitely a blown shoulder.

[chukar hunter]

Way to get it done!   oh yeah.... GO BEAVS!

[bowhunterforever]

Great buck to eliminate from the gene pool, very unique.

Nice buck

[Bob Williams]

DUDE way to 'boss-up'.  I woulda smashed on that deer too!

Good story and a good shootin that shoulder was hashed and the bullet looks like it held together real well. Bummer you lost it in the shuffle but congrats on a successful 2013 season.