On day 2 hiking in I found a buck I was really happy with. Found him and the does at 350, got setup and patiently waited for a good shot. He pushed a doe to the left and bedded. After an hour and a half he popped up out of his bed and cruised further left and out of view. I packed up my gear got back on the ridge and slowly worked that way.
After getting on a little flat above where I believed he would be I start picking apart the area around me. Caught a doe at 120 yards to my left. I kept low slowly slid off the pack and waited. She calmed down and kept feeding. Ended up picking up 11 does and a small buck in the drainage. Big boy was no where to be found.
I was too close to deer to comfortably put on a puffy so it was a day of embracing the cold. Glassing through the shivering he popped up on time at 220 yards. I reached to grab my pad as a brace against the rocks and the doe who checked me out initially had me pinned again. 15-20 min later she lets up and I go back to glassing. I couldn’t find him anywhere. It was getting late in the day does were feeding everywhere and I was about to give up hope.
The last photo was the buck.
