Thanks for posting some pics up Matt, I'll bring my camera to work tomorrow and get some on here also.
As far as shot distances, Jason's was by far the longest at 620. He spent the off season working up a good handload that shot well, Chrono'd it, and sent off his ballistics info to Leupold to have a Ballistic Drop Compensator built for it.
My brother, Ben, ended up shooting his at 134 yards after a hellish run up a ridge. We had originally spotted the buck running a doe across and down an open hillside that we had walked just the day before. By the time we got the spotter out and on the buck, he had switched direction and was heading up the hill, hot on the does heels, but from what we could tell my brother said he would take him. So up the ridge we go, once at the top, we spotted him with the doe, resting luckily, and Ben put him down.
Not long after Ben and I had started boning his buck, we heard Cody shoot from way across the Canyon. Matt (Skinner) has more on that story but I believe it was shot from around 450 yards.
The day that Skinner shot his was pretty nasty, and we hadn't really seen many deer, in fact he hadn't spotted a deer all day,
, but as luck would have it, the first deer he spotted was the buck he ended up with. It was a fun stalk, with a few ups and downs,but it ended up being way worth it. When Skinner's Federal Fusion hit him at around 120 yards, their wasn't much the Buck could do but slide down the hill...and slide he did.
On the eve of what was to be our Sixth day of hunting, the rain was non-stop. We woke many times in the night to the sound of High Winds and BIG rain drops. (Kinda like Home) That morning, Skinner and I slept in a little, although we were still ready to go a little after dawn. We both kicked ideas around on where to go, but finally decided to head up the ridge where my Brother had shot his buck. So off we went.
We'd made it up the ridge about 400 yards when Skinner spots a buck on the skyline of another ridge, quite a ways away, I'd say at least a 1/2 mile away. From what we could tell from there, I decided that I couldn't pass on him this late in the hunt. So back down the ridge we went, towards the buck, all the while watching him push does across the burned hill side. After about an hour of working our way towards the buck we'd come to the ridge we thought he was on, and much to our dismay, we spotted him crossing into another drainage still pushing does...
So we continued on, pressing up the ridge, when we spot the buck and his girls at
the TOP of the ridge, in the snow. Boy, he was really after it. At that point, we decided to sit down, get out the spotter and wait to see what he did while we ate some lunch (Granola Bar). As we were finishing up, the buck finally decided to give it a rest and scratched some snow off the steep slope and bedded down! As luck would have it, he bedded down next to a large red rot that looked different than anything we could see on the hill. So along with the red rot and a large snag at the top of the ridge we figured we had a landmark on where he would be.
Off we went up the hill with a renewed vigour, and after about an hour and a half we figured we were within shooting range. We slid off our back packs, and slowly inched up to a log that would make for a good rest. The only problem was, the buck wasn't by the red rot any more. They were GONE. I was pissed. Let me be the first to tell ya, I wasn't happy.
We both looked and looked and looked, but could not turn up a deer. So we threw our packs back on and I slipped my gun back into my Eberlestock, and off we went in the direction that we thought the deer had gone. I'd probably made it 50 yards across the burnt hillside with my head down plugging away, when I happened to look up above me, and guess who had re-appeared....My Buck. It seems there was more than one big red rot on that burnt hillside...
In a nano-second, I had my pack off, and rifle shouldered. The only problem was that my Butler Creek scope covers had held a BUNCH of moisture on the lens of my scope, (I guess thats what I get for not opening them up for a week in moist weather) so after a warning shot, the buck took his last steps, and hit the dirt! The shot was probably a little over 100 yards.
We had a great hunt, I had tons of fun, but also learned alot of valuable info. It was a great group of guys to be out there with, every one
worked there ass off and deserved what they brought home. I can't wait to go next year!
