So after getting drawn for a multi permit, I was also blessed with drawing a quality rifle permit. As to be expected, I was super excited, I get to hunt pretty much straight thru from Sept. 1 to Nov. 20 The wife on the other hand was not nearly as excited,
JK kinda (lots of chores were put on hold this year)
Nov. 1 rolls around and Mrs Nock and I decide to camp at a higher elevation in the unit. That was a mess, very cold, killed 2 trailer batteries, and drained the truck battery, also ran out of fuel in trailer generator the first night so no heat.
For the first 2 days we spent all day glassing canyons in the timber with only does and small bucks sighted. We were driving the SxS to a different glassing point and about got run over by a doe with a 2x hot on her tail. That poor doe had her mouth open, tongue hanging out, and was most definitely tired of that little guy chasing her all over heck and back.
The 3rd day we went low to hike & glass some sage land, very few deer spotted.
For the next week I bounced around between high and low ground, both private and public, trying to figure out where the majority of the does were. They seemed to be all spread out, some areas that should have been holding good numbers were pretty barren of deer and any sign of them being there in numbers.
On the 10th I located what I believed to be a shooter for me, but he was a mile off and located very happily 200 yards on the wrong side of a line.
The next day glassing I watched a group of 5 does come over a ridge. I watched them for a bit and was satisfied no bucks were trailing so went back to my glassing grid search. 10 minutes later a did a quick look back at the 5...…wait ….now there is 6. The new one was indeed a good buck. I watched him for a while as he fed along behind the does, not really interested in them. (this is the one I posted "shooter? quality buck) He was the kind of buck I was looking for, a classic 4x4, but could never get a straight on frontal view so i decided to let him walk, knowing that i could find him again later if need be.
