Entiat Late modern rifle buck hunt

[huntnphool]

 

[MLBowhunting]

Great buck.   

[westernarcher]

That is one sweet buck. Congrats!

[jae]

Very Nice, Congratulations!

[C-Money]

Oh man! That is a dandy!! Congrats!

[carpsniperg2]

Great buck! Congrats

[jrebel]

Very cool and it made for an easy pack out.   

[Buck Rub Jr]

Congrats!! He's a stud of a buck, man!

[Lambaster]

Congratulations!  Great Buck!
Way to hold out and have patience!!

[jrebel]

Hey Payne....is his back left broken?  How wide is he?  Thanks

jrebel

[Rainier10]

Great buck, I would have pulled the trigger on that one also, love the 5th point.

Good job on the hunter orange and tag on in the photo, you covered all of your bases.  Should be nothing but praise on this thread.  Well except the truck is too close for a real hunter.  Just kidding, you have to shoot them where they are and sometimes they are just close to the truck.

Sounds like a warm bed is going to feel great after that two weeks.

[Boss .300 winmag]

You'll never get him out of your head now! He'll be on your wall for a daily reminder. 

Nice one. 

[Payne]

Hey Payne....is his back left broken?  How wide is he?  Thanks

jrebel

Yeah back left fork broke on his fall down the hill. The pic really doesn't show how steep that hill is. It was actually kinda hard getting him down the rest of the way, because I didn't want to damage him anymore than he already was. The good thing though is that we found most of what broke off so taxidermist should be able to patch it up good.

[Bigshooter]

Very cool buck congrats

[Payne]

Here's the story (sorry it's a bit long)

So where to start with the story…

I guess I’ll start about in the middle of my hunt. I had been seeing on average of about 3 - 5 nice bucks a day. Nice as in the type of buck that I would shoot in a heartbeat if I saw them in the regular season. 3 and 4 points 18-24.

First encounter: Around the 8th of Nov. I saw the 5x4. At first I was just impressed by his width then when I got the spotting scope on him and saw the extra horn I was pretty excited. But held off since I had a lot more hunting time and I didn’t think that he would be in the 170+ range. So I pasted… later that day we ran into him again and decided to sneak in just to see if I could get into a good range. The wind was blowing hard and in the perfect direction to let us get on the other side of a ridge and pop up on top to see him and his does. As we poked our heads over the top and we were spotted, they ran and I blew my bleat and they stopped at 150 yards. I could have had him there no problem. So in doing this I was a bit more satisfied knowing that I could have had him.

Second encounter: About a week later I ran into him again and I decided I would stalk him again and shoot him because I felt a cold coming on. I climbed to the top of a hill and found an awesome spot where I glassed 4 or 5 nice bucks four points. It was one of the best day of hunting so far. I saw bucks as close as 30 feet away and one was the 5x4. It was so cool up there I decided to pass once again… I also saw three fights up there. Two smaller 4 points fighting about 30 yards away and two 2 points going at it. When I decided to walk back down the hill I ran into another big 4 point, although his horns were not that nice. I bumped him and a doe and they ran in the direction I last saw the 5x4. So I thought, I really should peak over the side of the hill and see if I saw a confrontation. The doe ran right into the 5x4 and went and mingled with his does… Haha, I bet that the 5x4 thought he was pretty cool. The 4 point looked pissed and they went at it. The 5x4 got his butt whooped and ran off, loosing all his does! This day made my trip.

Third encounter: As the days went on, I was getting more and more ready to end my hunt. 3 days after the second encounter with the 5x4 a friend met up with me early in the morning and we took off in my truck. I told myself, if I see that 5x4 again and have the chance I am taking him.  Only 30 minutes and we run into about 8 does. This many does, I figured there had to be a nice buck running with them. We came around the corner and there he was. I through up my binos and waited just a bit for the head turn and I saw it (5x4)! Seconds later I had my gun on him, then he decided to move! But it’s ok he just wanted to be closer to his does, which was closer to me. Waited for him to stop for a second and BOOM! He jumped and ran 30 feet, then stopped, stood there for a second and tumbled down the hill. I was happy, that he wanted to make my packing him out that much easier although the hill was so steep I was worried that his fall might mess up his horns or fur. He rolled about 30 yards down the hill and finally stopped. When I got up to him I found that he did break one of the back horns off, but we were able to find it, so I think the taxidermist will be able to mend it.

I admit, the final hunt was not that glorious. But I really could care less… all the time I put in and what I had seen, I was satisfied. I had stalked him two other times so on that level it did not matter. In the end I shot him at about 110 yards in the heart, so I’m happy that his suffering was minimal.

From the beginning, like most I was going for something freakish. I just hadn’t seen anything close to freakish and the biggest and best in my eyes that I had seen was the 5x4 so I feel extremely lucky that he wasn’t shot before I finally decided to, since I had seen him so many times.

Also, I am a sucker for horns with an extra kicker or so, just enough to give them some unique character, that and the size did it for me (finally) with the 5x4.

I didn’t see the freak deer, but I saw more than enough very nice deer to have an amazing time that I not soon forget and from here on out, you just might see me up there without the tag, just glassing, photographing and enjoying nature.