Free: Contests & Raffles.
That's a great buck, be proud. Most years, conditions are like this year, fog, no snow cover and deer are scattered - and only a small percentage of the late Chelan County rifle tag holders kill jaw dropper bucks. Other years, there's too much snow and the only ones who get in have snow machines, and only a small percentage kill jaw dropper bucks. Maybe once in a decade, by mid November we get 20"+ snow above 4,000', and 10" or less below 2,500', followed by blue sky sunny days, and guys with 4wd and chains can both drive to nearly all the winter range areas with deer, the bucks are running around on snow because so many does are ready to breed, and at least half of the hunters can see half of the deer, and a bunch of great bucks hit the snow.Even then, I remember one such magical day with another member on here, it was around 9am, we were in a burned area and had seen around 35 bucks so far. We ran into another vehicle on the same road in the same area, they had yet to see a deer, much less a buck. The interwebs definitely create an unrealistic expectation that the hardest part of killing a giant buck during a November rifle permit hunt is the drive to the GMU, but the fact is they are rarely standing patiently in the borrow ditch waiting for permittees to drive up and decide if they are worthy of the tag. Killing a buck is easy, killing a dominant mature buck requires research, effort and luck.
Had this tag this year as well! Really fun hunt, we were originally going to be over there for a full week but I had to cut my trip short due to a work trip, but got this guy on the second day! Not the monster I was looking for and was hoping for some colder weather too, but nonetheless always grateful to be out hunting and to harvest an animal!
Congrats on that nice buck. Are we going to get to watch the video?
