I cant begin to explain how happy with this buck I am.
I didnt hunt in my area opening day, I told a good friend if he drew we would hunt his unit until it closes or he tagged out. Unfortunately we hunted it until the season closed the same day my area opened. The next day I was sitting on a ridge about 3 miles off the fields glassing as the sun came up. There where people every where! not just a few guys Im thinking 300 of the 750 non resident tags where between me and the fields. As the morning sun got brighter the firing squads began and I left my glassing point around noon thinking what a waste of time.
The next few days went by pretty much the same way. By the 4th day of the season all the 2 and 3 pts where dead almost all the non residents had tagged out and went home, but most importantly the skies where feeling with big nasty looking clouds and weather was rolling in. There where a few die hards left out there when the first few sheets of rain hit, but shortly after all I saw were taillights headed out of the hills. I stayed put glassing soaked, freezing, and thinking about giving up but that's when I noticed the movement in the ceder trees and rim rocks at the bottom of my spotter. There he is that smart old buck has been laying in those rocks this entire time. Knowing there was no way I could close the distance before shooting light I just made a mental note of where I wanted to be in the morning and headed home on cloud 9 knowing he was still alive. I left the house around 5:00 that should have gave me plenty of time to be ahead of him as he leaves the fields obviously before sunlight.
The Big mistake, I didn't leave early enough and I bumped him in the dark his tracks were heading right up the muddy road. After waiting for daylight I jumped on his tracks they were easy to follow in the wet sand. He must have known I was onto his plan because 6 miles later he was onto another chunk of private with no signs of slowing down.
A buddy of mine and I had planned on teaming up the next day and when another buddy wanted to tag along we decided to head into the high country and try and find him his first deer. It was a great day we got on several deer but with swirling winds and thick timber we never did get a shot. It was the right decision it gave the buck I was chasing a chance to calm down and go back to his pattern.
Second to last day. My buddy had the day off work and had a cow tag in his pocket so what the heck if nothing else we will surely find a cow on the ranch he has permission to hunt. We were pulling out of the driveway and my dad called "hey , you left yet? I got the day off can you wait 10 minutes" That was a good call because when my dad tags along its like having the lucky rabbits foot on my pack for some reason. We left late and it was just getting light enough to glass when we got to the glassing spot. I set my spotter up and pointed it in the general direction of the field and guess who was in it! I couldn't believe it I had barely looked through my spotter as this buck jumped the fence headed our way. Sneaky is an understatement head down in the bottom of the draws heading for the rocks. Only one problem I'm above him and hes about 5 minutes from being in range.
Good plan bad timing, I bailed off after him and we barely missed running face on into each other. When I stopped where I thought I would be 200 yards above him he was already 200 past me and we saw each other at the same time. dad called out the range but he was already gone at a dead run I got down on my bipod and he came out at 375 for a quick second and I sent a 180 right through his rib cage. he jumped and kicked and took off he made it down and across one more draw and dad called out 534 he was probably going to lay down right there but I wasn't chancing it. 2 MOA for wind as he was standing straight away and on an up hill grade the second 180 hit perfect right behind the shoulder blades and busted his spine. He was out like a light.
