Thanks for the congrats. Yes it is a cascade , up the mckenzie river. I was hunting some private timberland property open to the public. It was a cold, rainy, foggy day as they often are this time of year. First thing in the morning I was hunting in a different area nearby. I was sidehilling along a clearcut looking into the bottom and the other side when all of a sudden about 100 yards in front of me up pops a nice forked horn buck. In years past I would of shot this buck, no questions asked, but this year I decided I was going to hold out awhile for at least a 3 point. Soon after I saw this buck the fog rolled in and I couldn't see anything past about 30 yards in front of me. Its pretty tough to glass when this happens so I decided to wait it out. After about an hour I gave up and headed back to the truck. After looking at my map I decided to try a new spot. The new area was a bit higher in elevation and had about 2 inches of snow on the ground. I came to a steep clearcut so I got out to glass. I have found that a lot of people only glass from their truck or walk to the edge of the landing and look over. I have had good success, albeit small bucks, by walking down and looking over the benches in clearcuts to look into areas that can't be seen from the road. Well this clear cut had 3 of those benches. The last one was quite a ways down from the road and this being my first time here and not knowing if there was a road in the bottom as their often is I got lazy and headed back to the truck without making it down to the last break. I drove down the road farther and came to the end in another older small clearcut. I started heading through it working my way in the general direction of the clearcut I had just come from. I came to steep drop off, that just happened to be a great place to glass into the very bottom of the clearcut I was just in. Almost immediately I spotted 3 deer slowly feeding their way up the clearcut heading towards the last bench I didn't walk down to. There was a doe, forked horn, and a big buck. I hustled back to the truck drove back around to the first clearcut. My plan was to get down a little ways into the clearcut and sit and wait for the deer to come to me. Well I was about 3 steps away from setting up when the doe who had just crested the break busted me. I slowly sat down and tried to become a stump. We stared at each other for 45 minutes and she would not budge. I was getting bored and my foot was asleep so I stood up and started walking away from her, but angling towards the last break so I could try and catch a glimpse of the buck I assumed was heading for the timber. As soon as I got to the break I saw 2 deer standing in the bottom corner of the clearcut near the timber. After one more step i saw a much bigger bodied deer bedded down looking at me. I could see it was a big buck without binoculars, but i needed to crawl about another 10 yards to get a shot. As i set my shooting sticks up the buck stood up. He was about 160 yards away. I had a bad case of buck fever and just plain missed the first shot. The buck started walking away. My next shot dropped him and he started rolling down the hill. After the shot their were deer running everywhere. Probably 15 other deer including a forked horn and another buck at least a 3 point. When I walked up to the buck I couldn't believe it. This was the first animal i had shot while hunting solo. It was also the first deer I have shot with my brothers 30/06. He passed away almost 4 years ago, but i know he had a part in this. I had phone service and was able to call my hunting partner to help me come pack it out. By the time he got there I had it quartered, bagged and ready to go. I thought I was in pretty good shape, but the pack out kicked my butt. It was only about a quarter mile to the truck, but it was straight uphill. The snow covering the sticks and logs didn't help much either. We got to the truck right at dark. I'm sure you guys will agree, there aren't a lot of better feelings than when you set the pack on the tailgate and you feel like your floating. I should of taken a little more time with the pictures, I was having trouble taking the pics by myself. By the time i would wipe the blood foam off its nose to take a picture, it would start oozing again. My hunting partner thought it would score about 118, but i have no idea. It was 18 inches wide.
