My 2007 late buck hunt.

[autodink13]

My 2007 Late Buck Hunt
Sorry for the length of this story I just wrote it in detail so I would remember it in 20 years.  Hopefully you guys enjoy.

Background Info.-  My name is Brent and at the time of this hunt I was 20 years old.  I had been hunting deer for about 8 years or so with the family before I drew this late buck hunt.  Ok you will need to know a couple of things before getting into this hunt.  This was the first time I had ever hunted and camped alone!  Next, I swapped my mazda protégé for my brothers little ford ranger for this hunt.  The last thing you’ll need to know before reading the story is that I took off fall quarter of college for this hunt so I had the entire 18 or 19 days to hunt.  I was holding out  180+ buck.

DAY 1.  I headed into my unit on the opening day of late buck.  I left my place in Ephrata early enough so when I reached my unit the sun was just coming up.  I had scouted the unit a few times in the summer to get a lay of the land and a feel for the roads but for some reason I decided to take a new road into the unit.  This was the first big event of my hunt.  I found myself in 10 inch deep ruts covered in water and mud.  Not a good way to start the hunt!  The first 30 minutes of the first day and I was stuck.  No cell service and no one in sight.  Somehow, and I don’t know how, I managed to get myself out of the mud and water and again was on my way.  I drove around for the majority of the first morning until I found the perfect place I wanted to camp. 
   I set up camp at the end of a road way up high so I could spot right out of camp.  My camp consisted of a wall tent with a stove, a couple of cots, some lawn chairs, coolers full of food, it was the most luxurious camp I have ever had.  Day 1 rounded out with me spotting from camp.  I got spoiled on that first night because just before dark I spotted a real tall 4x4 chasing a doe just under a mile from camp.  I figured the buck to gross 160 but I wanted to take a closer look in the morning.

DAY 2.  I had myself in a good position by sunup on day 2 ready to take a closer look at the buck from the night before.  I couldn’t find him on this morning.  I saw a few does and then headed back to camp.  For the rest of the day I explored new areas in my unit by truck.  I didn’t see anything worth mentioning.

DAY 3.  Day 3 was a Saturday.  The morning hunt was uneventful, nothing to speek of.  My dad and brother were coming up to check out my camp and see how I was doing.  Pretty much I think they wanted to make sure I was still alive and was going to stay that way.  They got up to my camp about noon and we decided to take a drive to see more country.  We covered a lot of ground but only saw a couple of does.  We got back to my camp with about 20 minutes of light left.  They headed back for home and I jumped in my truck to check out a spot before dark.  About a half mile out of camp, I looked down and noticed a deer.  I set up the spotting scope and realized he was the tall buck from day 1.  I ranged him at 344 yards and then grabbed the spotting scope again.  I looked and looked but decided to pass on the shot this early in the hunt.  I let him walk and returned to camp. 
   This is where things started to get a little dicy.  At camp, the wind really started picking up.  I was comfortable in the wall tent and ready for a good night of sleep.  I went to sleep with a nice warm tent.  I woke up in the middle of the night to something hitting my head.  I was rather flustered because I was sleeping pretty good!  When I realized what was happening I woke up real fast.  The wind was blowing like crazy and it was literally moving my whole wall tent.  The wall tent was pushed up tight to my cot and it was the tent that was hitting my in the face.  I quickly ran outside, jumped in the truck and moved it right up along side of the tent to try and block the wind.  I got myself so close to the tent I wasn’t able to get out of my drivers side door.  I scooted across to the passengers door and got out.  Just when I closed the door, I got drilled on the top of my head.  MY THOUGHTS I was seriously so mad at this point it didn’t faze me too much being drilled on the head.  But what in the world hit me?  The tent, full metal frame and canvas, had flipped over the truck and landed on my head!  (When I set up the tent I staked along the bottom.  On wall tents, they have ropes that come off about four feet high on the tent.  I had each of those ropes tied to big rocks.)  After being hit on the head, and realizing it was the tent, the first thing that came to mind was where were the rocks that were supposed to be holding down the tent.  I got out from under the tent and I couldn’t believe it!  The rocks were still tied to the ropes and had flew over the truck with the tent!  The next thing that I thought of was, did any of the rocks hit my brothers truck?  I took a look at the truck and realized it had not been damaged.  I scrambled and found my headlamp.  I found out it was just after 1 oclock in the morning.  I ended up throwing the tent in the back of the truck and then packing all of my other gear on top of the tent.  I had my whole camp packed on the truck by 2 that morning. 
I was so mad at this hunt I decided to wait in the truck until light and try and find the buck I saw on the 1st and 3rd day.  If I saw him I was going to shoot him and call it a hunt.  I sat in the cab of the truck and just waited for light.

DAY 4.  When the light came up on day 4 I had one thing on my mind.  Find the buck I had seen two times previously, shoot him and go home!  I couldn’t find that buck so I headed back to Ephrata anyways.  I figured I needed a good relaxing day after the rough night I just experienced.  I laid around all day, watched the Seahawks and built up my motivation to get back out in the field.

DAY 5.  I found myself once again driving toward my unit well before light.  The objective for this day was to find a great camp setup that would be protected from the wind.  I was able to find the perfect spot, it was nestled in the trees.  The only downfall for this camp was that I couldn’t spot right out of camp.  I set up camp, staked and tied down the tent with new, heavy duty stakes.

DAY 6-15.  These days in the middle of my hunt are all jumbled.  I can’t remember which event happened on which day but it doesn’t really matter.  During this time, I saw lots of small bucks, a few nice 4x4’s, one real nice 4x3, but no shooters.  I did actually try to put a stalk on the 4x3 just because it would’ve been a great stalk.  I spotted him from just over a mile away bedded up underneath some sage.  I watched him through the spotting scope and figured him to be about a 140 buck.  I don’t know why I decided to go after him but I did.  I hiked down one canyon up the other side of the canyon and came around from behind him.  When I got into what I thought was perfect position he was gone.  At this point I looked across the canyon and realized I was a long way from camp.  I figured I better start hoofing it back so I started down.  On my way down the canyon, I looked up and across and noticed some deer coming out.  I got out the spotting scope and started watching.  I think I saw about 50 deer from that spot but they were all does or really small bucks.  I was watching the deer pretty closely and I forgot about daylight.  It was almost dark and I still had to travel down one side of the canyon and up the other side.  It got dark when I was in the bottom of the canyon.  I believe it was just under 3000 vertical feet a traveled in the dark that night to get back to camp. 
   The freakiest event of my entire hunt happened somewhere around day 9 and 11.  It was the middle of the day so I decided to take a walk right out of camp to see some new country.  There was an old logging type road that was real beet up so I followed it.  About a quarter mile from my camp, I noticed a bunch of animal fir.  I was clueless on what it was from until I saw the drag marks and then the deer.  It was a cougar kill!  I’m pretty sure my finger didn’t come off of my trigger until back at camp.  A couple of days went by I got to thinking man it could be cool to shoot that cougar.  I’ve always wanted to get a cougar and this could be a good opportunity.  So I grabbed my gun and took off walking towards the kill.  When I reached the site, I decided to take a good look around.  This time the deer had been moved even more and was tore up pretty good.  I remember thinking when I was looking at the deer, where are two legs at.  They were there just a couple of days ago.  I didn’t really think anything of it I just thought it was interesting.  I wasn’t too spooked anymore about this cougar kill but more curious than anything.  After a while of checking out the kill site I headed back for camp. 
   I got back to camp and realized it was time to use the restroom.  I put my gun down and was walking by the back of my tent when I stepped on it!  I have never had a weirder feeling than this.  It was one of the legs from that deer just three feet away from my tent.  I am pretty sure every hair on my entire body stood up and I was on full alert.  During this hunt I was carrying around a .40 caliber pistol.  That pistol came out so fast when I saw the deer leg right by the tent.  I was really spooked because my camp was in the timber now and all I could think about was a cougar jumping at me from one of the trees.  I think I walked around camp with the pistol in hand for the remainder of the day.  I never did see the cougar nor did I want to after seeing that deer leg.
   
Day 16
   This was Friday and the last weekend of the hunt.  My brother Brad was coming with me for the rest of the hunt.  On our drive to the hunting area we talked a lot about what type of buck I was holding out for now.  I was frustrated and tired so I ready to shoot my buck.  I told Brad I would shoot the first nice 4x4 we saw.  Just after we got into my unit I was telling Brad how this particular area looked promising but I hadn’t seen any deer there.  Literally, just after I told Brad that he yells deer, Buck!  In the middle of the road running straight away from us was the biggest deer I have ever seen during an open hunting season.  My buck, along with two does, ran on the road and then crossed up and over the embankment to our right.  As I was jumping out of the truck Brad said he’s a shooter.  I wanted to be sarcastic but I didn’t have time.  I ran down the road and held up my arms signaling that I knew this was a big deer.  I got to the point where the deer ran up the embankment and tried to follow.  I kept falling because the snow and the steepness of the hill.  I remember feeling so mad and disappointed because I could not get up the hill to follow the deer.  After about my third time of falling I heard Brad from behind me yelling he’s up ahead.  I started moving up the road again looking for the deer.  I was looking about a half mile ahead and scanning like a hawk when I caught movement just to my right.  All I saw was a huge rack skylined!  I could just see his neck and his antlers and he was only 50 yards away.  I backed up as much as I could to try and get a better shot on his body but the most I could see was the top of his back.  That was good enough so I put my gun up and took the shot.  Somehow I hit the top of the hill that was covering up the bucks vitals.  I don’t know how I did it but I shot low.  He took off with his does down the back side of the hill we were on.  I took off up the embankment and fell again.  This time my gun barrel went in the snow a little.  I got up and in one motion I was checking my gun barrel to make sure it wasn’t clogged and I was running to get to my next shot position.  The second shot was rushed and more of a clean the barrel shot in preparation for the third shot.  The third shot looked like a hit, he hopped like he got hit but he didn’t slow down at all.  He kept following his does.  Finally, I got smart and got a rock solid rest and just before he got into the trees I dropped him with a forth shot. 
   I rushed down to my buck while Brad went to get the truck and get our packs, knives and cameras.  The first word that came to my mind when I got up to him was “pig”.  His mass blew my mind.  I remember yelling to Brad, “he’s a freaking pig!”  I had no idea how many points this deer had before I got down to him but was glad that he was a 4x4 with eyeguards.  We took about 30 pictures and then got to work.  We quartered and caped him out and then headed up the hill.  We had about 300 yards of straight uphill and then just a few yards downhill to get to the truck.  We drove to camp, packed up and headed for home.  We got to Ephrata about midnight but we still drove all over to show my brothers and friends the deer. 

My favorite picture because I was in aahh.

[cascademountainhunter]

nice buck and good story!

[Ray]

Very NICE buck and story. You could get a photo caption contest for that first photo. "What's he thinking"?

[7mag.]

Thanks for the great detailed story. Real nice buck too, "Pig" is right.

[MichaelJ]

Nice!  Looks a little like the Swakane unit?

Michael

[bowhunterforever]

Awsome story and buck, congrats. Did you score him?

[PacificNWhunter]

Great story! Glad you hung in there and tagged a great buck.

[bucklucky]

Awesome buck man!

[whacker1]

Awesome Buck - did you score him?

[300UltraMagShooter]

 

[Gobble]

What a hog, great Buck!

[wamuledeer]

Great story, congrats. Way to stick it out for the entire hunt.

[Brushbuster]

Great Buck!! I loved reading your story of the hunt. Sometimes when I hunt alone I also keep a journal of my hunt & when I read it years later it's amazing all the details I remember.

[stickhunter]

That is nice buck , good story and good job  on the hunt.

[huntnphool]

Nice buck and great write up.

[beave]

great buck and story.

[fishunt247]

Glad to hear the story, I remember the photo from somewhere, hunting & fishing news or something. Damn thats ballsey to take a quarter off of college. My parents would shoot me if I did that... but I like your style. Do you go to college now, just curious?

[autodink13]

Hi guys thanks for the nice comments. 

I had a couple of friends score him and they both came up with 177 and some change(gross).  I don't know if you can tell from the picture but his right side scores about 11 inches bigger than his left.   

I am finishing up my last quarter of college right now fishhunt247.  My parents weren't happy that I took the quarter off but I went to college the next summer to catch up.  Yes, this buck was in fishing and hunting news.

Yes Michael its a swakane buck.


This picture shows off his good side.

[fishunt247]

Great buck. Where are you going to school at?

[HuntingFanatic]

Great buck, story and picture!

[Redmist]

You earned a very good trophy.  I especially like that you were independant and hunted alone. You seem to have found unique ways to motivate yourself to get back into the hunt.  This is most clearly manifested on day #4 when you utilize the viewing of the SeaHawks game to drive yourself back into the woods.  Now you can concentrate on school, since you have proof of your hunting ability.  Job well done.

[Pathfinder101]

Great buck, great story   way to stick with it!!

[autodink13]

Thanks guys.

I go to Eastern fishhunt.

[fishunt247]

Right on. By the time I draw a tag, I'll be out of college, and I don't think I can take a whole trimester off work when the time rolls around. Damn. But taking a quarter off college makes a hell of a story.

[fc2038]

great story and nice buck. Congrats

[MichaelJ]

Hi guys thanks for the nice comments. 

I had a couple of friends score him and they both came up with 177 and some change(gross).  I don't know if you can tell from the picture but his right side scores about 11 inches bigger than his left.  

I am finishing up my last quarter of college right now fishhunt247.  My parents weren't happy that I took the quarter off but I went to college the next summer to catch up.  Yes, this buck was in fishing and hunting news.

Yes Michael its a swakane buck.


This picture shows off his good side.

Yeah I've seen this picture before.  I forget who sent it to me shortly after your hunt but it was in a personal message on here.... Great buck again!  I'm not too terribly far from you down here in Moscow at U of I!  If I drew a tag like that I'd take off a QUARTER too, but here at U of I we have SEMESTERS....  don't think I could make myself take one of those off....   

Michael

[rosscrazyelk]

Great buck, I would never be able to pass that up.

[WAmuleyHunter]

nice buck and great hunt.  I loved it when i had my swakane tag, hunted my butt off and it payed off, i still remember every moment of it.  congrats and way to keep after it.  Its that plateau  you get to when you doubts start to creep in that true hunters have to learn and like to push through, to come to that final outcome.  That is an accomplishment in itself.  Congrats and good luck in the future.   Now i want a swakane tag again!!! i feel the itch again lol

Garrett

[autodink13]

Thanks Garrett.  You killed the nontypical that is in the game regs right?  That is sure a pretty buck.  How many days did you spend in the field when you killed that buck?  And yes I can't wait to get my hands on another late muley tag because it is fun!

[WAmuleyHunter]

yup i did. Love looking at him on the wall.  and in the regs.   and i hunted ten days straight, got him on Nov. 10th.

[boneaddict]

They have had him in there for three years now.  Must be a testament of what kind of a trophy it was!