Well, it's been a long few days. My son drew the late Pearrygin tag and we headed over on Thurs. night so we could hit it bright and early Fri. morning. First morning looked real promising. 3-4" snow on the ground and lots of fresh tracks. By 9:00, he had passed up 3 different 3 points inside of 50 yards. That's when we spotted 3 deer on a sage covered hillside approx 400 yards away. We kept to the cover and got within 300 yards where I could get a good look at what they were. WOW!!! 2 does and a Toad of a 4 x 7 which included a 4-5" kicker. Really tall and good mass. Mid 180's buck guaranteed. I got my spotting scope on him for about 10 seconds and he plunked down right behind a big age bush with his sentinal does on each side. What to do??? It was pissing cold, sleety rain. We decided to wait him out, but after an hour our plans changed. We backed out of there and decided to circle around the ridge and come up behind him. Got to the top and peeked down and one of the does was standing looking in the opposite direction. I told Scout to get ready and tried to find the buck. While watching the doe, 2 deer caught my eye heading into the trees on the opposite side. They give us the slip. Them big old bucks have a sixth sense when it comes to sensing danger. We waited a while and then tracked him into the timber. 50 yards into the timber, I spotted a doe milling around. Soon there were 4 does and a small buck milling round at 50 yards. Did the big guy hook up with them. We watched them for a good 1/2 hour, figured the big buck was gone and decided to slip out of there. We took 5 more steps and spotted a big deer bedded looking downhill. It was him. I grabbed ahold of Scout the movement caught his eye. Gone for good this time. Tracked him fo a good 1/2 mile and he showed no signs of slowing down. Them big bucks are amazing. All three 3 pointers we saw earlier were so freaking stupid and had no fear of us. That big boy spun around and sprung out his bed so fast, we were dumbfounded. Saw another big 20" 3 point right before closing that night and that was it for day 1. Scout's trigger finger was getting a little itchy. I assured him that we need to hold off for a while.
Day 2 brought fog and more fog. Very frustrating day. Fog was there at dawn and was there at dusk and all points in between. Still hunted through the timber and seen a handful of does and little 2 points/spikes.
Day 3 brought more fog. Damned fog is very frustrating. Couldn't see 50 yards most of the time. Broke at about 8:00 and we got to do some glassing. Saw lots of does, but the bucks didn't seem to be birdogging them as much as day 1. We were glassing a hillside oppositeus and spotted some deer. Got my spotting scope out and saw that one loked pretty good. We decided to slip down the hillside and get as low as we could get. I decided to get things set up and let Scout take a shot. He got the Harris bipod down and got comfortable and took a shot. All said and done, it took a few shots, and I saw the buck start to stagger. I told him he's hit and going down. He went down, and down, and down. The last time I saw him, he was cartwheeling over a 50 foot rock cliff. Then a lot of crashing and smashing. Excitement quickly turned to uneasiness. I figured the deer would be hammered, bruised and had no chance of having any antler left by the time he made it to the bottom. We headed down and down and down and I ended up finding him lying in the creek. To my surprise, all the hide, meat and antlers were intact. I yelled for Scout to come on down and have a look. The look on his face was priceless. Dad could not have been more proud. We got him caped out, quartered up and started packing. The fun sort of wore off real fast when he realized what we had ahead of us. I told him that the ones you have to work for are the ones you remember. Big racks also help to jog the memory. He was a trooper and did a fine job. 3 trips out of that hole to the top and it's all over. He his a real symmetrical 4 x 4 with one browtine. He goes 25" on outside spread. He has good mass. I am guessing he'll be in the mid-150's, maybe 160 but haven't measured it yet. He was a big old buck and has an awesome cape. I gotta say thanks to the guys on here who gave me advice on this hunt; Bone in particular. It was a great hunt and one we will remember for long time. This is Scout's second deer in as many years. He's spoiled now, but I think rather than being spoiled, it gives a kid an incresed interest in the sport knowing there are big bucks out there to be had. Of course, it helps drawing a hard-to-get late tag!!!
