Well - we had ourselves a time. The weather was very good, a bit warmer than usual. The fellowship was even better. My goal was to get my nephew on a good buck. We spent the time spotting and stalking across some pretty difficult terrain that requires a certain skill set to get to the deer. The nephew did a wonderful job, and we made the sneak six times in five days. The area we hunt is 4-pt or better, not in the regulations, but the landowner asked us too. The opportunity came on day 3, but a little buck fever set in on him, and he could not seal the deal. I did not help having his excitable Uncle (yours truly) in his ear the whole time
. The buck was a beautiful 4-pt, probably 19 wide and that same tall. Not wide, but tall. We had made the sneak into the wind, where we had seen two does. The buck surpirsed us both by bouncing right over the ridge into our lap at about 25 yards
! He had three opportunities to get the shot, but he said his mind said shoot, his finger did not react. Honestly, he was crushed and we shed some tears together. We busted our butts to get him into position, as the group did not clear out completely. He took a shot at about 225 yards, but cleanly missed. That's when the tears really started to flow as you will see in the pictures. It was a wonderful trip!
Tough luck all around. The trip was not without success. My buddies boy shot his first big guy, I think you will like this big fella. Sorry about the picture, it was dark and cold when we hooked up.
Another shot..
A photo of the area he was taken.
A pic of one of our sneaks. A real dandy 20" 3-point was in this group.
And a sunrise of our area. Truly a pioneers treat.
