Blacktails are starting to rut pretty good!

[bucklucky]

I killed a dandy buck yesterday morning at 8:17 am rutting hard. He had piss running down his legs and his tarsal glands were fired up! Nice big swelled neck, and his nose up a does .... uh....tail. Anyway here is the story. Had a bad morning starting out, ended up not getting to my gate I walk into till 6:55. Anyway I started up the hill to where I start my hunting 2 miles in. Well about 1 mile up the road my phone vibrates, I got service and have a message,. A customer of mine called the day before and was going to bring a whitetail in at 10:00. I dont get cell service at my house and he didnt leave a message on the home number so I'm just now getting it. Its now 7:20 , my hunt just got cut short , thats fine I need the buisness. I decided to look over a clearecut about a mile and a half in instead of hunting the timber roads. I didnt see a deer in the clearcut untill I got to the end where I spotted a doe and a yearling. I scanned around looking for a buck but didnt see a thing. There is a little sliver of cut above and to the left of me that you can see but only peices because there is a thin line of timber you have to look through to see it. I saw a doe moving up out of a small drainage, then I saw a real light brown deer behind her kind of poofed up. I thought it was another doe or yearling because of the coloring. Well once it came out into the opening I saw it had a big main beam on the left horn. Here I am, wasnt going to hunt  the clearcut because I just dont like to and have better luck hunting the roads in the timber and reprod patches for nice bucks. I usualy kill a nice buck within about 35 yards or less. I should probably just use my bow like Bone. Anyway I didnt have my shootin sticks so I had to find a rest . Theres one in the middle of a bunch of dead sticks pilled up off the end of the landing. I get to it and rest my gun on the "rest" and its rotten and breaks. I made it work anyway. Oh man, I didnt have my range finder either. Oh well I figured it was about 400 yards so I held just over his back calmed my breathing and heartrate down for a minute and squeezed the trigger . BOOM! Hes still standing there looking over his back. BOOM! Hes still looking over his back. Hey dumby , I think to myself , its not that far what are you thinking! So I put it on his shoulder and squeeze , BOOM, SMACK! I watched the doe walk around for a bit looking up the hill so I sat and watched her till she disapeared after about 10 minutes. I made my way over to find him pilled up where he stood. I dont get rattled with nice bucks but for some reason I did a little this time. Good thing he was stupid and in love or I wouldnt have conected on this old buck. I watched this buck two years ago but never seen him again till now. At least I think its the same buck. I' put in alot of miles on my legs , and it finally paid off. about 43 miles this buck season (4 days). I ended up boning him out and making one pack out of the hole. OH MY! after getting up out of the hole and going about 3/4 of a mile down the road I couldnt go no further. This was a big bodied blacktail. I had to dump half the meat off and come back for it. I weighed my whole pack I was packing. It weighed 140 lbs. I was packing a little less than my bodie weight out. No wonder I couldnt hack it. Ive always packed my bucks boned out alll the way back to the truck. I think coming up out of a crap hole of a clearcut took alot out of me to start. Anyway thats the storie. Ill post som pics in a while.

[bucklucky]

Here are the pictures.

[BlackTail]

Wow! That is a dandy blacktail!!

[callthewild]

great blackie. nice job

[Ray]

Nice lookin' blackie !

[boneaddict]

Great mass!   Congratualtions on nailing an older age class buck.  Thats a great story.  NExt year, got witht he bow.

[Antlershed]

Nice buck! I'm headed up to Capital Forest right now. 

[jackelope]

great looking buck. definitely a mature buck.
congrats. i gotta get me one of them one of these days.

[Michelle_Nelson]

Hey thats a nice buck.  Congrats!  

[cipryan]

Good mass.  I am impressed with the pack load also.

[GoldTip]

Congrats on a great looking blacktail.

[nwhoundhunter]

Nice Buck you lucky dog.  (Actually, he ain't that lucky, he puts in his time)

I was waiting to see a nice buck and your ugly mug in a pic! 

[billythekidrock]

Congrats..nice buck.

[bucklucky]

Thanks for all the compliments!
 
 I actually left out part of the story, I have to tell because people need to lern from my mistakes. When hunting in a walk in unit, always come prepared for whatever may happen. That means dont do like I did and leave my pack at home because my back hurt. I had to hike all the way out after I got down to my buck and gutted him. Thats about 300 yards up out of a brush hole of a clearcut and 2 1/2 miles back to the truck to get what I usualy always have in the first place. And then 2 1/2 miles back up hill and  back down to the buck. Thats a lot of wasted energy , and I knew better.

[PolarBear]

Great buck!  I think that I have his mirror image twin that I shot just on the other side of Miller hill from you. Only it was about 12 years ago.  Congrats!