Author Topic: Couldnt Have Asked For a Better "Quality" Experience (Read 5221 times)

mburrows · « **on:** November 28, 2018, 07:22:36 PM »

This past May I moved to MT so this would be my last year applying for WA special permits and as luck would have it, I drew my dream permit, a late season archery mule deer tag in a unit that is near and dear to my heart. I was shocked that I drew as I only had 7 points and being that I'd just moved, my vacation time was going to be stretched pretty thin but there was no way I wasnt going to spend every second of the season hunting. I reached out to a few members and in particular Jbar and Jstone were awesome to talk with and exchange info with. I ended up spending 2 rough days hiking and side hilling some rough country with Jstone, he got to watch all the action and helped me pack out as well. I cant thank him enough for his time, knowledge and energy.

The trip started out great and on the morning of day one I saw saw a great buck already heading out in the back of somebody's rig. It was a beautiful buck and it definitely made me even more excited to start hunting. I saw a number of deer throughout the day, made a stock that didnt pan out but it proved to be good practice moving in close.

The second and third day were fairly light hunting days with Thursday being Thanksgiving, I spent the majority day of with the family which was great in its own right but still made time to do some glassing and turned up a few bucks and a pile of does. Friday, the third day, was more or less a wash with thick fog just about everywhere in the unit so I opted to spend a lot of time in the truck which made for a boring day overall. I met Jstone and his hunting buddy that day for the first time and we planned to meet up a couple days later.

The 4th day my one of my best friends (bigdog253) drove over to hunt with me for a couple of days. We immediately turned up a nice 4x4 down in the saddle of a steep narrow ridge. It was an ideal spot for a stalk, wind in my face, him facing down hill and he was all alone. I got to within 120 yards but the snow was loud against my boots and my pants were so loud against the tall grass so I dropped to my long johns and ditched my boots for an extra pair of socks. I made my way around behind the buck and got to 50 yards. I ranged him several times collected my thoughts and then he noticed the "clink" of my release against my range finder but I was ready. I went to pull my bow back as he stood and in that action I hit my release mid-draw and the arrow sailed harmlessly about 10 yards infront of me and thats all this big buck needed to see to get of out of there. I was pretty upset with that stupid mistake.

The following day we caught a glimpse of a number of deer and a couple of exceptional bucks, saw some awesome rutting action with all the sights and sounds that come with that including a couple giants bucks fighting, one of which I'd eventually put my tag on.

The next day Jstone and I met up as my buddy had to get to work. It was a LONG day with a ton of hiking through some nasty, slick and steep draws. We saw some more great bucks including an awesome 3 point with eye guards. About 2pm we were following one deer when we looked up and saw a tank of a buck, one I took pictures of through my Maven's the day before. One of his eyes was sealed shut and looked swollen. The buck was rutting hard, he wouldnt leave his does even after he saw us and he let us walk towards him from 120 yards to 45 yards at which point I had a clean shot on him. It wasnt ideal but given the situation our only play was to go straight at them as they got comfortable with our presence they almost just wrote us off. At 45 yards I hit him in the front shoulder, obviously not ideal. I put another one in him at 75 yards and it completely destroyed his shoulder. He bedded up within 100 yards, we had eyes on him but it was getting dark so we backed up for fear of pushing him.

The next morning Jstone and I located him and its hard to describe how excited I am to have filled this tag with this deer. I could not have asked for any better of a hunt or for better company. Having one of these tags, I felt some pressure but I just felt lucky to be hunting this time of year in that part of the state. It was a "Quality" experience to say the least and I still cant believe it went down the way it did.

full choke · « **Reply #1 on:** November 28, 2018, 07:24:31 PM »

Beautiful buck!

Congratulations on the tag, and thanks for sharing the story!

huntnfmly · « **Reply #2 on:** November 28, 2018, 07:26:49 PM »

Great googly moogly.
Nice buck I love those dark antlers thanks for sharing and good story

Watimberghost · « **Reply #3 on:** November 28, 2018, 07:50:38 PM »

Thats a great buck! Quality expirience for sure

redi · « **Reply #4 on:** November 28, 2018, 07:52:24 PM »

Great buck.

blackveltbowhunter · « **Reply #5 on:** November 28, 2018, 07:53:19 PM »

Awesome story and buck!

SuperDave · « **Reply #6 on:** November 28, 2018, 08:05:27 PM »

Awesome buck, thanks for sharing

Pathfinder101 · « **Reply #7 on:** November 28, 2018, 08:09:51 PM »

great buck, great story.

jackelope · « **Reply #8 on:** November 28, 2018, 08:14:53 PM »

Awesome Buck. Awesome story. Congrats and thanks for sharing.

denali · « **Reply #9 on:** November 28, 2018, 08:17:53 PM »

Well done !! I think we briefly chated on the road couple of days ago, I was in a red Ram 3500

boneaddict · « **Reply #10 on:** November 28, 2018, 08:21:13 PM »

Neat hunt. I’m glad it worked out for you.

Dan-o · « **Reply #11 on:** November 28, 2018, 08:36:06 PM »

Great write up and great buck.

Karl Blanchard · « **Reply #12 on:** November 28, 2018, 08:57:32 PM »

Congrats man! You done good!

X-Force · « **Reply #13 on:** November 28, 2018, 09:00:01 PM »

Beautiful buck

WAcoueshunter · « **Reply #14 on:** November 28, 2018, 09:05:14 PM »

Great buck! Well done, love those dark horns. Thank you for sharing!

oldschool · « **Reply #15 on:** November 28, 2018, 09:08:37 PM »

Great buck, The people on here are very helpful.

kellama2001 · « **Reply #16 on:** November 28, 2018, 09:11:40 PM »

Nice job!

sounds like an awesome hunt, with a great ending. One you'll remember for sure! Congrats and thanks for sharing!

jstone · « **Reply #17 on:** November 28, 2018, 09:12:31 PM »

Great Job on your buck. It was Very nice to meet you. I had a fantastic time tagging along for those two days.!!
Great hunt, Glad you made it home safe
Jeff

Widgeondeke · « **Reply #18 on:** November 28, 2018, 10:10:37 PM »

That's a well deserved buck. Congrats!

Duckslayer89 · « **Reply #19 on:** November 28, 2018, 11:29:10 PM »

Awesome deer! Good work sounds like a fun hunt

huntnphool · « **Reply #20 on:** November 29, 2018, 12:10:16 AM »

bowhunterforever · « **Reply #21 on:** November 29, 2018, 12:30:40 AM »

Great buck and story

mburrows · « **Reply #22 on:** November 29, 2018, 05:20:16 AM »

Quote from: denali on November 28, 2018, 08:17:53 PM

Well done !! I think we briefly chated on the road couple of days ago, I was in a red Ram 3500

Yup that was me. Was nice chatting with you!

JBar · « **Reply #23 on:** November 29, 2018, 05:30:33 AM »

Nice buck Matt, congrats!!!

SilkOnTheDrySide · « **Reply #24 on:** November 29, 2018, 05:38:27 AM »

Archery hunting mule deer is a feat! Nice job man!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

CaNINE · « **Reply #25 on:** November 29, 2018, 05:44:43 AM »

great hunt, great deer

Enjoy Montana - I'm jealous

mburrows · « **Reply #26 on:** November 29, 2018, 06:22:12 AM »

Quote from: jstone on November 28, 2018, 09:12:31 PM

Great Job on your buck. It was Very nice to meet you. I had a fantastic time tagging along for those two days.!!
Great hunt, Glad you made it home safe
Jeff

Thanks for all the kind words and thanks again Jeff!

Schmalzfam · « **Reply #27 on:** November 29, 2018, 06:34:37 AM »

Congratulations in an awesome draw and amazing Buck! His antlers are incredible 😊 I'm glad you got the opportunity and it sounds like you had tons of help. Thanks for sharing! Enjoy Montana. I'm sure your stories from there will be awesome too.

elkrack · « **Reply #28 on:** November 29, 2018, 08:38:48 AM »

That’s a great buck congrats on the success

. Did you open up his eye? I’d be willing to bet he took a tine to the eye in a fight

throttlejocky20 · « **Reply #29 on:** November 29, 2018, 09:57:09 AM »

Awesome glad you got some weather

mburrows · « **Reply #30 on:** November 29, 2018, 10:28:59 AM »

Quote from: elkrack on November 29, 2018, 08:38:48 AM

That’s a great buck congrats on the success . Did you open up his eye? I’d be willing to bet he took a tine to the eye in a fight

Yeah. His eye was kind of foggy looking but I couldnt tell if there was damage to actual eye. He has a pretty good sized gash under it though and I guessing the swelling from that is why he couldnt open it.

elkrack · « **Reply #31 on:** November 29, 2018, 10:37:17 AM »

DOUBLELUNG · « **Reply #32 on:** November 29, 2018, 03:16:46 PM »

Nice!

Birdguy · « **Reply #33 on:** November 29, 2018, 05:51:21 PM »

Nice job! Not many Montana residents comes to Washington for a quality hunt

. I think it is awesome that you drew the last year you were a resident. Congrats on a great buck

pianoman9701 · « **Reply #34 on:** November 30, 2018, 09:59:22 AM »

Good story and great buck, for sure.

SpurInSpokane · « **Reply #35 on:** November 30, 2018, 11:03:56 AM »

Really nice buck, and a great write up of the experience!

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Author Topic: Couldnt Have Asked For a Better "Quality" Experience (Read 5221 times)

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