FINALLY!!! BBBD.....

[elkoholic1]

FINALLY!!!  (first off let me start off by saying I'm not a trophy hunter and I know you cant eat the horns) I moved to Concrete 2 seasons ago and told myself I'm never going to harvest myself a good big old trophy mature black tail if I keep shooting the first deer I see, so I told myself no more itchy trigger finger I'm gonna hold out for a mature buck or eat tag, and that's what I've done the past 2 seasons passing on at least 12 in range and legal black tail deer,  that's with the multi season tag and counting all 3 seasons , I've been very blessed to be able to fill my elk tag 4 out of last 5 seasons so plenty of meat in the freezer and the wife really doesn't like deer meat unless in a jerky or salami, after 2 seasons of learning the area scouting hard burring both fuel and boot leather and the good and bad places to hunt I was very hopeful this year might be the year I lay eyes on a worthy black tail. season started off slow for deer as early season didn't produce anything worth chasing down and most of sept was spent getting ready and hunting elk, work limited my time in woods for muzzy general and figured my time best spent in woods would be late archery when weather and rut would be at it best to get and old buck to slip up, finally late archery arrived and me and my 2 step sons (only 1 hunts the other just loves getting out in the woods) with wife in tow headed out with hopes and dreams of finding that elusive old black tail buck, we found ourselves driving up to a old clear cut about half hour after daylight and the wife shouts there's some deer after getting directions finally found she's looking on top the ridge 500 yards away grab binos and inspect and found doe doe holly sh&t big buck, the does already had us pegged and where well aware of us below them however the buck didn't seem to care one cent about us just one of the does he was with. grabbed my bow and told the step son come on lets go, wife says where you going I said up that ridge after that buck and maybe even one of the does as my step son has only harvested 1 deer in his life so he's ready to shoot anything that steps out in range in front of him. so off we go hugging the rocks and using the rolling terrain to out advantage to try and stay out of the deer's sight
we worked up the slippery snowy slopes tripping and sliding along the way, we closed the gap and we popped up thinking wed be close just to find out the does have started milling away from there last location and the buck was slowly following them we tracked them for about a good 3/4-1 mile and I finally told the kid we are never gonna get close enough just following there tracks hoping they will just bed up or something, so made the decision that were going straight up this mountain to the top ridge line and gonna try and circle them and come in on top of them (hopefully)  we finally made it to the top of the ridge where we where very happy to find an old road which made our trip around them not any shorter but much more maneuverable and quicker, after about a good hour we came to a spot where we hoped we would come to find them settle back down, looking to our left sneaking along when a quick glance to our right found them in another pocket that we didn't know was there, quick change of direction and got us with in shooting distance by this time one doe caught our movement so it was now or never ranged the buck and set the sight only shot was hard quartering away laid pin right on front edge of rear hip and squeezed the release trigger the buck jumped and humped hard took about 15 steps and sat there all hunched up re-ranged the distance figured get another arrow in him if possible reload and reset sight just settling pin and squeezing the release as he started to walk to late arrow off, hit him again but back,  this time he took off like a rocket up over the hill and out of sight with all the does in tow, we made our way over to where first impact was made,  had gobs of hair but no blood, made way up to second impact location found arrow complete pass through but smelled and looked like guts and maybe liver... follow tracks up hill about 15 yards blood, blood everywhere spraying out like good lung hit, we sat down regrouped and gave him a good hour before continuing on blood trail followed tracks and blood to top of rock cliff outcrop and his tracks just stopped at top and disappear no tracks to left or right just stop at edge of 25 foot rock cliff and then was a steep almost vertical shoot of heavy brush and thicket for next 40 yards, scratched head for awhile and then had son head around to side of shoot and I grabbed all the trees and limbs and brush I could gather and traversed my way down shoot after this old guy, made it down first almost vertical part and got to brushy shoot where I slipped and ended up riding down 30 yard shoot on ars hoping I would no break any body parts, lucky finally came to stop and was still in one piece, found few drops of blood and crawled my way through the thickest nasty stuff id seen in a while to come out to and open area where low and behold the beast lay still and silent.. celebration commenced with step son and high 5's where flying after further inspection found first arrow clipped front of rear hip and went up inside taking out some guts and 1 lung, second arrow took out liver, well know we where a good 3/4 mile from the closet road and we had no knife with us as we left jeep in a hurry and didn't think about grabbing a pack, lucky for us the drag was almost all down hill and had snow to make the drag easier but also made it much more treacherous navigating all the sticks and holes we couldn't see that where covered up by the snow, got down to an old logging road got wife navigated over close to use with jeep and she brought pack with knife down water bared road to where we where and we where finally able to lighten the drag by gutting him out and gained another fresh pair of legs to finish the drag out to the jeep, definitely one of my most memorable hunts and a real trophy of a buck in my opinion for a black tail with a bow.... 

[huntnphool]

 Great blackie, congrats!

[redi]

Nice buck congrats

[bowhunterforever]

Great buck

[Fl0und3rz]

Love it.  Congratulations.

[TVHunts]

Congrats !  He is one healthy buck!

[go4steelhd]

 

[JakeLand]

Nice blacktail!!! Congrats 

[oldschool]

 stud buck

[blindluck]

Cool buck and heavy, shoulder mount, European?

[Pete112288]

Awesome buck. When you are used to giving in to the quick trigger finger on legal animals it can be hard to start passing on them when you want a nice one. Esp blacktail in my opinion. Way to stick with it. And awesome to have the whole family involved.

[Skyvalhunter]

That's awesome congrats

[Falcon]

Great buck.    Love the mass

[Widgeondeke]

Great mass, love those dark antlers.

Congrats   

[Lapua338]

nice buck for sure! especially with an arrow

[starbailey]

Cool buck! Congrats

[SpurInSpokane]

That's a beautiful buck, and great story. Great how everyone got to be part of it!

[WapitiTalk1]

Outstanding BT buck, congrats!

[elkrack]

Nice BT!

[jackelope]

Congrats, Kris. Stud buck.

[highside74]

That is a stud Blacktail for sure.

[boneaddict]

Awesome Blackie

[DOUBLELUNG]

gorgeous!

[teanawayslayer]

That things a tank! Congrats!

[2MANY]

Damn trophy hunter.

CONGRATS!

[Watimberghost]

That's a great buck! Mature old boy! Those are hard to come by, congrats

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

  Dandy buck!

[elkoholic1]

Cool buck and heavy, shoulder mount, European?
[/quote

At taxidermy getting full shoulder mount 

[elkoholic1]

thanks everyone for the kind words on this buck, this hunt definitely carries a lot of special memory's being able to have family along and  involved in this hunt... 

#BUILDINGLASTINGMEMORIES####

[coonhound]

Super Blacktail, nice work and great story

[blackveltbowhunter]

WTG great buck

[actionshooter]

Nice!

[fishnfur]

Way to go man!   That's a great buck!  Thanks for taking the time to write the story for us.

[Harbor_hunter]

That's a really cool buck, nice job!

[jmscon]

That’s a heavy horned beast! Congrats and thanks for sharing!

[Turner89]

Awesome blacktail
When I was younger it was all about filling my tag. The sooner the better. Now for me it's about getting a mature buck. The longer that takes the better. In 2011 I decided i was only shooting big/mature bucks for the same reasons you did.  Since then I get one about every other year. Last year I had my favorite hunting season yet, and didn't fill my tag. Had plenty of opportunities,  but nothing I wanted to end my season on.
  Great write up also.

[elkoholic1]

Awesome blacktail
When I was younger it was all about filling my tag. The sooner the better. Now for me it's about getting a mature buck. The longer that takes the better. In 2011 I decided i was only shooting big/mature bucks for the same reasons you did.  Since then I get one about every other year. Last year I had my favorite hunting season yet, and didn't fill my tag. Had plenty of opportunities,  but nothing I wanted to end my season on.
  Great write up also.

  definitely agree its not just about filling a tag anymore for me its all about the hunt and the adventure and the cat and mouse games one plays with a wise old buck, the ones you usually comes out on the short end of the stick more times than not.... lol

[Skyvalhunter]

Its about time you finally got some meat in the freezer I thought you would be getting tired of tag soup by now.