Good Memory Bucks

[blindluck]

Snot on the back of the neck, I love it.

[bigmacc]

One more, a buddy asked me to tell this one since he is the star in this story . This is just not a "good memory buck" but its really good memory BUCKS.

I may have told this story before or maybe parts of it and names and places will be different of coarse to protect the innocent

The north cascades pass had just opened a year or two prior and it was our first trip over it to get to hunting camp that year. We had gotten over the pass and we were somewhere between Klipchuck and Early winters, one of my partners had to use some toilet paper so we pulled way back into a trailhead area and he dropped over the side. Not more than 30 seconds later he was flying back up the bank and said to grab a rifle there was a huge buck down in that hole. There were 3 of us in this old ford pick up, wall tents, wood stoves, supply boxes etc stacked cab high in the back, everything was buried except my rifle that was in the gun rack. We had left home at about 3 A.M and now it was smack dab in the golden hour. I went to hand him my rifle and he said no, you go ahead I got to s#$t , I ran down the hill about 50-60 yards or so into pretty thick stuff and kept going towards the bottom where I had a clear view of the side of the hill where my buddy said they were going when he jumped them. I no sooner got to the bottom when I seen a bunch of deer standing about 50 yards or so away in a huge open area with tall grass and brush, 6 does and 2 bucks, one was a real dandy 3 by 3, tall and heavy. Just about the time I got down on my knee to shoot, they exploded out and were running directly away from me, the bucks head going up and down in the brush, then he for some reason took a sharp right and was broadside now but the grass and brush was so tall I could only see his head popping up then disappearing. I put the crosshairs on his head and on one of his upstrokes I squeezed the trigger. This all happened so dang fast it was crazy, I hit him right in the back of the head actually, shattered his skull, killed him deader than dead. We figured we would get to town and my buddy wanted to take a few shots at the rifle range and I would finish gutting and cleaning him up there (still had to get the lungs, etc out) while he took a few shots. Well, we ended up pulling into the rifle range around 9AM or so, on opening morning, it was packed. My buddys found a spot on the far left and grabbed the spots and waited for a cease fire, I proceeded to finish up my buck, oh ya, did I mention he fell off the tailgate right in front of where the old John Wayne building used to be? He did. When we dragged him back to the truck there was nowhere to put him so we dropped the tailgate and tied him on using some twine, bootlaces etc, anything we could find behind the seat to lash him down with, everything else was buried in the back of that truck, he stayed there until I made the turn in front of the building and started up the hill, off he went right in the street Those that remember old Winthrop know the spot I'm talking of. Well a few guys came over to look at the buck(26" wide and 27" tall if I remember right, big heavy 3 by 3) while I was finishing him up , I told them we just stopped by to let my parter take a few shots then we were going to head to our area about another hour or so away. I was sitting there talking and working on this buck while shots were going off, guys were yelling "range is hot", "range is cold" etc etc etc, maybe 20 or so minutes had went by, more folks pulling in to the point it was a zoo. My other buddy walks over to me as I'm just finishing up my buck, he says come and look at this but act like nothing is going on, I walk over to their spot down at the end and my buddy hands me his binos, says look under that lone pine tree about 200 yards out on the side of the hill, I do, there lays a beautiful 4 by 4, just laying there by himself chewing his cud, half asleep, about 150 yards or so to the left of the range . Everyone is shooting so my buddy puts in a couple rounds, turns slightly to his left, we have our binos on the "target" and he fires, deer slumps, drops his head, lights out, no commotion what so ever. We wait about 10 or so minutes and some one called for a cease fire, we walked down range to check "our target" but veared a little to the left, we looked back and there were a few guys watching us go up the hill, we got to the buck, grabbed his antlers and started dragging him down the hill, we got about half way and about 50 people had their binos on us . We got him down there and no one could believe it, we gutted him, thew him on the tailgate with the other one( a guy there gave us a bunch of rope ) and off we went, we got to our camp spot about an hour or so later, you should have seen the look on the faces as we pulled into our camp, we just backed up to the meat pole and had 2 big bucks hanging before we even had our tent up. My other buddy killed his buck the next day, we did a lot of fishing that year . If I remember right we had a total of 19 deer hanging in the little Bellingham camp that year, I think 2 folks didn't connect.

[hunt4life]

What does it take to see some of these awesome bucks you have killed? Would love to see a few old time pictures!!!

[bigmacc]

This isn't a buck of mine or our camps but it is a buck that carries a lot of memories and a story that is pretty wild to go along with it. I may have told a short version of this story before.

I think it was back in the late 70,s or early 80,s, the weather was warm and the first part of the season was nothing but local deer to be seen. We had around 12 or 13 hanging I believe and a few were decent bucks. One day the game fella we knew came into camp and told us there was reports of people going into camps at night and stealing deer off of game poles, just cutting them down and taking off. There had been a half dozen or so reported if I remember right. Well that particular year Boeing was on strike, more people were finding out about the valley because of the opening of the pass a handful of years earlier, it was the perfect storm for a lot of people, about a day or two into the season there was more hunters than I have ever seen in that valley, it was plain nuts, many of them it was their first time in the valley, heck, for many it was their first time hunting. Like I said by mid season, it was a total zoo! People were camped in turnoffs in the roads, anyplace they could pitch a tent or park a car, it was crazy. Well, two fellas put up a tent on a knob up above us, about 50 yards away, they eventually came down and introduced themselves, yep, they were on strike and heard about hunting the Methow from a coworker and yes, for both it was their first time hunting, thought they'd give it a try They basically asked us where they should go since we had deer hanging, they actually wanted us to draw them maps . Back then even without a migration happening there was still a very healthy local population of deer at all elevations, it was still nothing to see 100 deer a day along with 10 or so bucks a day if you knew were to go. These guys seemed like good people so we sent them to an area that was no secret, easy to get to and easy to get a buck out of if they did get one, there was another road at the bottom they could basically role him down to, only thing was they may run into a bunch of people with the amount of hunters that were in the valley. We were up at about 2 A.M to get into our area, about an hours drive then about a 4-5 mile hike in, those guys were still out at their fire sipping hooch when we left camp. We got back around 8 o'clock that evening, only to pull into camp and our headlights hitting a huge buck hanging on the ridgepole in the "2 fellas" camp. They were sitting at their fire, shirts and pants all bloody drinking beer, they proceeded to tell the story.

Apparently they were up late the night before so they didn't get up till about 9 A.M then drove to the spot we told them of, by the time they got there there was no one around they said. They made it out around the hill and the sun was beating down on them, it was about 11 o'clock, they spread out and sat down on the hillside, took off their coats, boots etc and fell asleep. They said they woke up a couple hours later, one of the guys sat up and stretched, as he did he looked down hill, there about 50 yards down was a huge buck, laying there looking away from him, he slowly grabbed his 30-30 and started shooting, that woke up the other fella. Now they were both blazing away while in their stocking feet, they figured about 15 or so shots were fired and the buck had been hit multiple times, finally they said it dropped. They rolled and drug it down the hill to that other road we told them of where eventually they hitched a ride back to their rig, drove to camp and hung the deer. I don't remember exactly how big this buck was, it was a heavy non-typical that was real wide I remember(maybe 27-28), just a beautiful buck. We never would have guessed they would have killed a deer, but they did and it was a dandy, now we had to tell them the story the game fella told us since they were camped right next to the road. We told them to keep an eye open because someone was swiping deer off of game poles, especially camps next to roads. Well, we went to bed only to get up at around 2 again to see one of the guys sitting by the fire with his 30-30, standing guard . We got back around 8 again that evening to see they had went to town to pick up "some" chain and paddle locks, that buck must have had 30 feet of different sized chain and about 6 paddle locks holding him to the tree , nobody was getting THAT buck, nobody . That was a weird year for sure, don't remember if they ever did catch the deer thieves. Those guys only got that one deer that year but it was a dandy, they came down to thank us before they left, we never did see them again.

[Skyvalhunter]

Thats a funny story. Did you see them back there the next year?

[trophyhunt]

great stories, but books with pictures are sooo much better!   

[bigmacc]

Thats a funny story. Did you see them back there the next year?

Never did see them again, one and done I guess, I sure wish I would have taken a picture of that buck with the two of them standing next to it with all the chain and locks, that would have been a heck of a picture for the album, it would have went great with the big buck my great grandma and her sister "lassoed"

[bigmacc]

Sitting around thinking of an old cowboy friend of mine who is now in a home, this is his story of a "good memory buck", he told this story many times around the fire, he said, that to date, it was the biggest buck he had ever seen and he had dreams of this event that played over and over in his head.

It was towards the tail end of the Methow hay-days(late 70,s/early 80,s), Walt(not his real name) and his wife were up in the high country rounding up a few strays, Walt was sitting on a hillside glassing the bottom of a big canyon from about 300 yards or so away looking for the strays. Walt and his wife had already filled their deer tags a few days prior before heading up to do the roundup. Walt said the weather was blue skies but bitter cold at about 7,000 feet or so, no storms had come through yet and no snow on the ground. After a few minutes Walt noticed a lone rider coming from the right moving to the left, he and his horse had heads down just walking, the cowboy had his collar up around his neck and hands crossed holding onto the saddle horn, Walt and his wife watched him for a bit when Walts wife tapped him on the shoulder and pointed downhill, Walt looked and there going slightly up hill away from them was a HUGE buck, by itself. Walt could not count all the points, he said later that his wife said there were at least 10 on one side and 8 or 9 on the other, it was thick and wide, he said it was the biggest buck he had ever personally seen, and he lived and worked in the valley his whole life. Well, Walt said there was a pretty good sized aspen thicket in the bottom of the canyon and there was a trail that went right through the middle of it, Walt had rode it many, many times. The thicket was about 50 yards or so by about 70 yards, almost "squarish" in looks, the rider was about 75 or so yards from entering it on the trail. Now, the buck was also heading for the same thicket, from the bottom, it to was 75 yards or so away. Walt said the rider had a rifle in a scabbard along with an orange vest over his coat so he figured he was hunting, he told his wife, "were about to witness a hell of a wreck" . He said the rider was still in the same position, head down, hands crossed on the horn, Walt told his wife "I think he's asleep!", his horse just staying on the trail, also head down, still on the trail, heading for the thicket. Walt shifted his binos to the huge buck coming up from the bottom, head down, swaying side to side, Walt said it looked like he could barely support his horns by the way he was walking. He told his wife, "get ready, this is gonna be a commotion!" The rider entered the thicket and disappeared, a minute or so went by and the buck entered the thicket and disappeared, Walt said he and his wife waited for all hell to break loose, nothing, not a peep or even a branch breaking. Soon the rider and his horse exited out the other side of the thicket, both with their heads down, everything in the same position as when they entered. A few seconds later Walt moved his binos to the thicket again to see the monster buck come out the top, head down, swaying side to side, walking at the same pace he was when he entered the bottom, heading up the hill as the rider was heading the other way, no wreck, no commotion, no nothing, both were oblivious to each other, life just went on and Walt said if he and his wife wouldn't have witnessed it, would it really have happened, kind of like a tree falling in the forest type deal .

Walt said it was the only time in his life he had wished he had a fancy camera and lens to snap a picture, thats how big that buck was. He said "I've seen plenty of big bucks in my lifetime, dead and alive but nothing ever like that one". Those on here that know "Walt" know that he has seen and killed some real dandys, some have been with him(myself included) when he has taken us out to show us some monstrous bucks, he knew where they hid. He took me into a "pocket" one year to show me where a bunch of bucks were holed up after the rut was over, I remember it was just before Christmas, we were over visiting him and his wife, we got up one morning, he threw me on a horse and off we went, we got into an area I knew about and we got into a little pass and went around the side of a hill where it opened up a bit but was surrounded by nothing but rocks and big benches. There scattered through the benches was nothing but bucks, just laying around, probably 10-12 that we could see, ALL big fellas, All rutted out, just resting. A couple were real nice bucks, easily in the 30 inch category, it seemed every time you'd move your binos you'd pick up another buck back in the rocks laying under a tree, very cool. The way Walt talked about the buck he and his wife seen walking into that thicket must have been big, knowing Walt and all the bucks he's seen along with not being a bragger, it was probably, actually bigger.

[bigmacc]

Another involving my old cowboy friend, I was actually with him when this "good memory buck" happened. Sorry, like I said I have a few that pop into my head from time to time, could be a picture I see, a story I hear or like today, watching a neighbors kid throw a lasso around a dummy steer made of a small log with a cut up broomstick for horns

I may have told this story on here before so ill keep it short. I was visiting "Walt" and his wife one year, we were taking a ride checking out deer after the season had ended, we went to a particular pond that was in the process of drying up over the past few years, the shore area around the pond was pretty muddy/sticky and had the consistency of molasses basically. Walt knew of a big buck that was hanging in the vicinity past the pond and wanted to show it to me, we had to pass the pond to get to the area the buck was in about another hours ride or so away. When we got by the pond we seen a nice big buck who was stuck in the shore mud of the pond, beautiful rack and in his prime. The buck was stuck about belly deep in the muck and looked like he had been there awhile by the looks of the surrounding area and him being covered in mud. We sat there awhile pondering how to get this buck out when Walt grabbed his rope and proceeded to try roping the buck, if I remember right it took a few attempts and the buck was so tired it just stood there basically. Walt ended up getting the rope on him, it basically got tangled in his antlers, Walt tightened up the rope, wrapped his saddle horn, put his horse in reverse and pulled the buck out of the muck, the buck didn't come out easy, he caught his second wind and fought Walt. The rope got more tangled in the bucks horns but eventually was on dry ground. The buck would thrash a little then stand still then repeat, Walt ended up just cutting the rope to let the buck loose, It had a birds nest of rope in its horns and a tail of rope dragging on the ground as it hopped off. Walt and I looked at each other as the buck went up the hill joking about the reaction someone might have if they found those sheds Long story short, we knew where the deer in this particular area wintered, I,ll be darned if Walt didn't find those sheds the following spring about 3-4 miles away, those sheds with all that rope sat in a pile by his wood stove. I don't remember what ever happened to them, I would have loved to have gotten them down the road.

[bigmacc]

One more and I'm done for awhile, I tell my kids to take pictures of these stories because eventually I,ll be gone, won't remember them or Ill just mix em all together to the point they won't make sense

I believe it was back in the 80,s or possibly late 70,s(some on here may have heard about this and know exact dates ). My dad and I were over doing some post season scouting, I'm thinking 3rd week of November. I remember it being cold and about a foot of snow on the valley floor and bumper depth around 3500feet. We drove the old Bronco till we were pushing snow then we,d park and hoof it into certain spots, trying to stay under the tree canopy since we didn't have snow shoes, it was a pain in the azzz to say the least. The first day of hitting a couple different spots I remember we seen around 300-350 total in those two areas, a few nice bucks but nothing great. Dad was wondering out loud "where all the big fellas were". We were beat the first day and went back to camp, on the way back, on the hill about 250 yards off the dang pavement was a HUGE buck, we stopped and put the glasses on him, he was curled up, by himself just lounging. We figured him at about 30-32 inches across, perfect 4 point if I remember right(could have had a fifth on one side don't recall), long heavy tines, just a real specimen. We were over for 4 days I remember, we would come out of the hills, wet, cold and tired and drive by that same spot, pull over and look at this buck, over and over again, it was just a magnificent buck. He would be laying in the same spot, out in the open on state land, all by himself, we never seen any other deer around him. Well, we stopped by Walts place(he had been out of town)after he and his wife returned. We told him of the buck and where he was, Walt said he already knew of it, hell half the valley knew of it, it had been hanging around that area for a couple weeks. Dad and I were over there another couple days, ended up seeing over a thousand or so deer(yep, good ole days ) and on our last day we drove to get another look at the "big fella", we pulled over in the same spot we had the last  dozen times we stopped to look at him. Well, this time we put our glasses up where he was only to see all kinds of blood in the snow, looked like a dang murder scene with the headless body laying there, dad and I were gut sick, just emotion after emotion running through both of us from sadness to being pissed to sadness again that such a beautiful animal went out that way, just sickening. There were no "quality tags" back then, the season had been down for a couple weeks, humanity at its finest (pissed off sarcasm). We went down to report it, someone already had. I remember they couldn't find any human tracks in the snow around the kill, many rumors of a helicopter being involved etc. ......It was a beautiful buck, almost pretty looking it was so perfect, just a shame........A good memory buck that could be also a "bad memory buck" 

[gee_unit360]

Well I have a few, the one that stands out the most is probably the big one my dad killed back in the 60,s that a bunch of game guys got wind of and came to our camp to weigh him and look him over. I remember sitting there with my dad freezing with hours to go before shooting time, fog rolling in and out, about 6-8" of frozen, crusty snow on the ground and somewhere in the single digits, miserable. We were in a spot that my dad loved to sit when migrations were in full tilt. He would sit there and see nothing but does and small bucks come through by the hundreds in a 2 day spread, he would then let it rest for a couple days and get right back in there and here would come the big boys, like clock work. Well that particular year was no different, we had seen plenty of does moving through a few days prior, we layed off and on the third day dad said lets get in there. Its a couple hour hike getting to the spot, all up hill, we left camp at about 1:30/2 o'clock in the A.M, got there and sat for what seemed like forever. I remember a bunch of does and small bucks moving through the draw at a 150 yards or so away, in and out of the trees. My dad said to sit tight, more were coming, out of the trees came a group of some real nice bucks and more does, I couldn't figure out why dad wasn't shooting, a couple of the bucks were dandys. I can't remember actually how many deer moved through there over about a 10 minute period but it was a lot, probably 10-15 bucks of all shapes and sizes, then it piddled out, they all eventually worked their way through a saddle and disappeared. I whispered, why didn't you shoot, Dad said there was more coming, he "had a feeling" he said, those on here that knew my dad know exactly what I'm talking about. Maybe 10 or so minutes had passed, fog rolling in and out when at the bottom of the draw we could see deer in the fog, moving up towards the saddle, in and out of the trees and fog, we could see horns on a few but could not make out the size. My dad still whispered, don't move. After a dozen or so more deer (along with a couple more dandys) had moved out of the fog and were headed towards the saddle another lone deer was coming out of the trees, we could only see a shape and movement with another fog patch moving through. The buck got to where he was almost straight across from us when he came out of the fog, it looked like an elk. It was huge, looked twice as big as the other deer who had moved through that exact spot earlier, its head was down, swaying side to side as it walked, very slowly, all I could see as far as horns was a huge birds nest of antlers, too many points to count before he eventually would disappeared into the saddle. Dad raised his rifle and put a round right behind the shoulder, the buck didn't even flinch, just dropped, a kill shot we all hope to make every time out, the buck never knew what hit him. The buck had over 20 countable points and bases that a grown man couldnt get his hand around, ill never forget that hunt or that buck, some on here know what the Game department weighed him in at, I will decline to comment, it was big to say the least.


And yes, I did post a picture of him on here with my great grandma standing next to it, its the only set of antlers my dad ever saved. He always said, "hell, ill shoot another one" . I think he knew he could never top that fella so he kept those

Post the pic again!! I’m 40 and missed the elite hay days… do me a solid!! Great stories by the way.

[jackelope]

I’ve got a couple.  First and foremost the first special permit I ever drew here in Washington. 2010 and WDFW put out late mule deer permits for the Blue Mountains. My wife’s family is from there and we’ve spent a bunch of time down there recreating over the years. I was super excited for this trip. The hunt was less than amazing but I had a crazy stroke of luck and managed to kill a cool old buck with some good buddies. Shot the buck along the road while we were road hunting a whiteout blizzard. Even had my buddys dog magnum in the truck with us. Mag passed away this past week which makes the trip and that day a little more significant  memory at this point.




The other one that stands out in my hunting memories was the first time my daughter was along and we got to tag a nice whitetail together.  This was also down in the Blues after we had to make a quick trip back to her grandmas house for some hot chocolate and popcorn. She was 8 years old at the time. In the top pic you can see the dead buck lying at the skyline behind her.



Her and “our” buck.



She got a good pic of me and our buck too.

[hunter399]

I can share one from last year........
My son and I up at first light,driven down the road aways.
He wanted to go to unit 124 where he could shoot a Doe.
So on the way I kinda know of a few different spot that may hold a small buck or something.
I turned off and said hey let's go up here instead for the day.
This is an area that has many walk in oppertunitty.
So the first gate at first light ,walking in we catch a few deer standing in the road right in front of us. But they jump the road and head into the creek bottom. Before we could get a good look at them. So we continue a mile or so in till we get to a few clear cuts .Sat and watch that area most of the mourning ,kinda hoping that maybe them deer at first light would show up . Well no such luck.
So it's about midday not seeing anything since first light,hiked back out to the truck. Headed down to the next gate. Nobody parked here ,so let's walk in here.
So we start walking in ..........
I can see drag marks and deer hair in the road ,I'm thinking great somebody has already got a deer out of here.
But at the same time I'm seeing few sets of a pretty nice buck tracks. I'm thinking man somebody got a decent deer out of here already. So I'm like screw it ,we are already here afternoon daylight is burning ,might as well walk around a bit. So we walk back a mile or more ,again watching clear cuts ,after sitting for awhile .I tell the boy ,hey we are gonna get off the road and kinda cross country are way back to the truck ,down this ridge that leads back that way . So it had snowed a few days earlier, and still some patches of snow with some bare spots. So I tell him stay very close to me ,we are gonna go real slow and steady ,mainly cause I didn't want him to slip on the snow with his rifle.
We are walking along slow and steady.We come to a deer trail ,and are starting to see more and more tracks in the pockets of snow. We finally make over to this ridge that will take us slowly downhill and back to gate where the truck is at. The back side of this ridge is like all reprod trees with cat roads going down the ridge every 50 feet or so. And the wind picked up blowing pretty strong as well. We are walking along and I'm just kinda checking each cat trail as we are slowly headed to the truck. I see this buck down one of the trails just standing in the cat road ,it looks up at me and goes right back to eating. I did check him out with my own rifle real quick to make sure what I'm seeing is real.I had already punched my tag a week back .Diffirent story there.
I get the boy over there ,I point down there tell him there's a buck right there. He gets his rifle up and starts looking through his scope ,and I will never forget this part.
He tells me he can't see it in his scope,my jaw and balls and poop in my pants hit the ground. At this point the buck has stoped eating but still just standing there very still.
So he is still looking through his scope ,I very slowly grab the end of his rifle ,he didn't even have it close to where the buck was at. And get him pointed in the right direction. I ask him can you see it now .He says ya I see him. I tell him take your time ,he isn't going anywhere,squeeze a shot off.
So he shoots!!!!!!!!
Deer takes off ,and with all this stuff going on before the shot I couldn't tell if he hit him or not.
The backside of this ridge was very steep ,so I make him unload his rifle,but I kept mime loaded.
We walk down the ridge ,down the cat road and get to where the buck was standing. So I just start tracking in the patches of snow .He was kinda tripping up but didn't really look to be slowing down.We are going super slow I even lose the tracks a few times cause of the patches of snow . Then the boy says hey dad isn't that blood right there. Holy crap I thought for sure he missed it ,such a nice buck and all. So I just keep tracking real slow and all ,seeing a few drops of blood here and there in the tracks ,I still thank God for the patches of snow. All of a sudden this basterd jumps up about ten feet from us from behind a down tree. I'm like ooh @$!#  we are gonna be tracking this buck for the next 20 miles now.
Not a very good blood trail and not knowing where my son hit him.
We see him go down again maybe 40 yards away and he is still kicking but not on his feet. I get my son into position and we just sit and wait very quiet and I tell him if it stands up put another round in him.
We wait about 30 mins I would say and didn't see anymore movement ,so he finally expired.
We walk up on this buck ,and I'm like you did it pal.
You got a giant ,some high five,some pics,I get in a hurry gutting him and poked one of my fingers with my knife.
Got in a hurry cause I had to go to work that night,and had a ways to drag before dark.
Anyway I ended up calling in sick to work and got him out before dark.
My son was 14 at the time and his first nice buck,he has only shot one other small buck.
But all the target practice,all time,and to have everything come together was and still is one of my proudest moments.
His buck ended bigger than mine and I'm happy it turned out that way.

[jstone]

Nice whitetails. I think that’s what I am going after this year in Montana. One animal I don’t have on the wall

[bigmacc]

Great stories and great bucks hunter399 and jackelope