The ones I missed

[boneaddict]

JJ asked me for pictures of my biggest bucks.  Well, unfortunately I don't think even the top ten even made it on film.   
The stories…….  I’ll search my memory bank and see if I can come up with the top 10 biggest bucks that either didn’t end up in the freezer or on film.
#1 It would be more exciting to count backwards, but I'm not sure if I could sort these deer out that way.  It was January 15th and I was snowshoeing with the Mrs.  It was her first time on snowshoes.  I was carrying a pack with a spotter and my canon A2E with a 400mm 5.6 sigma lens.  We climbed up this mountain, and once on top would be able to cover a lot of country with the spotter on the other side.  I was hoping to locate a couple bucks that might be shedding or have shed, so I could scoop up their antlers in the spring.   It was foggy and the ceiling was low.  We were going to end up being right at the bottom of it.  We crested the ridge and I started glassing.  There weren’t very many deer present, but I soon spotted a 4 point bedded down in the snow, “hunkered” I guess from the weather.  He wasn’t very big.  I got out the camera and set it up on the tripod we were sharing with the spotter.   I snapped a couple documentation pictures, (35mmfilm).   In those days it was less art for me.  My main object was to get them on film so that I could take them back home and share with my Dad and brothers.   I’ve posted that picture on here somewhere.   I then set the spotter back up for Roseann and I continued glassing with my binos.   Rose said she spotted a big one.  I found the deer in  my binos and said no, I think its just the tree.   “he” would disappear in and out of the fog.   She got really excited, so I obliged her and looked through the scope.   I said that’s just a big pine limb coming off the tree, there is no way that can be a set of horns……about that time he turned his head and my heart stopped.   Tree limb my arse, that was THE most massive, Widest, most monsterous of monster bucks I have ever seen.   I sat there for a second and as I was watching him, the fog bank rolled in, and he was never to be seen again.  I thought about pushing him, but all I could think of were those sheds I’d find underneath that tree.  A huge set of sheds would be way better than a picture in the fog, that I may not even get. We gathered our gear and slipped off the hill.  That deer is nothing but a memory now.  No photos.   I can promise you I shed hunted that hill over and over again. FOR TWO years, looking for those sheds.  I  Found lots of other nice bones, but not his.  To this date, I haven't even seen a photo of a deer with as much mass as that big Typical.   FROM ANY state.    I have one that is similiar if I can find it, but still, not the spread of this guy.

[boneaddict]

Number two is kind of anti climatic.  I was scouting for elk.  There was no season, not sure I even had a camera with me.  Hard to believe I know, but I didn’t always pack one.  I was driving down the road, that’s really the anti climatic part.   I spotted this elk coming down a far ridge. I could tell he had horns….  Wait, its kind of the wrong color, though this animal was more blonde than the average deer.  I threw up the binos, and here was one of those elusive Kettle Crest monster muleys still in velvet.  Another anti-climatic moment as I am not into velvet at all.  He was definitely one of those super auction tag bucks folks are used to seeing from Utah and from Arizona.   He was probably about 38 inches wide and very tall with very long points.  How many?  Don’t know for sure.   He never stopped trotting.  All the way down the cut mountain, down the bottom, disappearing into some thick stuff.  The amazing thing is I was so far away, I am really surprised my truck spooked him.  I guess that’s how he got so big.  He was in the same area that the state record shed came from (#2 in the world).  I spent tons of time looking for him later in the rut, but I never saw him again. 

[boneaddict]

Third  fourth and fifth are a toss up.  I’d be hard pressed to tell you which one was the biggest.   I guess I’ll start with this one since it really is one of the most haunting.  It had dumped a whole bunch of fresh snow and I was hunting.  I guess I had just turned 13 and I hadn’t gotten my first buck yet.  This was the first year of me carrying my 25-06.  It was a gun that was custom fit for my mother and I had graduated to it from the ole’ Winchester 30-30.   Keeping it short, I was hunting around the hill and my father was above me.  I came across a set of tracks that was bigger than anything I’d imagined walked around out there, so I commenced to following.  Soon the deer picked up a doe, then chased off another buck, mated the doe and moved off and bedded.   This was all by tracks.  As you can imagine I was pretty intense.   I was slipping down a gut when I slipped and went ker thump.  I heard him stand up and move off.  Sure enough, there was his bed and tracks.   Back at it again, this time in the dog hair lodgepole.   I finally got into the bigger growth and I spotted some deer bedded down.   I came up to a rest and there he was bedded, facing diagonally away from me.    My breathing was heavy but controlled.  Idabooner always told me not to look at the horns but I had to take a peek.  6x6 heavy and wide.   I put the rifle up and if any of you are familiar with the Remington 700 and the safety, I put my thumb on it and CLICKED the safety off.  The buck launched from his bed.  I’d swear he never touched the ground but he had to of…..off about a 30 foot ledge.  Deer were running every direction.  BUCKS everywhere.  I stood there in dismay.   When it all quieted down, I went to try to track my buck.  There were so many tracks there was no way.  I climbed back up the ridge and who did I run into…Idabooner.  He had also cut the track higher on the hill and he had also started following it, then he cut my tracks.  It had crossed the road and that was where he waited for me.   Lessons learned about unnatural sound…clicking your safety off, being familiar with your weapon.    That would have been my first deer, and I would have spent the rest of my life trying to top it.   DANG!    I shot a spike the next day, the last day of the season.   It was my first deer.   

[couesbitten]

Keep'em coming bone, I love reading a good story, and I don't think you've ever told a bad one.

[Buschingc]

Great reading... I bet there are alot of people on this site that have similar stories of the "ones" that got away, I know i do.. Thanks for sharing and keep them coming.

[boneaddict]

This buck was probably bigger than the last, but had less impact on me.  This critter was amazing.  I had the opportunity to see him several times, yet for some reason don’t have him on film.  The first time was in hunting season.  It had snowed a foot of fresh snow and the rut had begun.  I can’t remember how many orange vests I’d seen that day, or how many deer.  I was creeping along and spotted this monarch with about 8 or 9 does.  He was at 800+ yards.  I remember getting a tinge of buck fever, which is unusual for me, and I settled in for a rest to shoot the buck.  My brain kicked in and I realized it was too far.  It was pretty open country so I began belly crawling towards them.  That’s fun with a foot of fresh snow.   I had closed the gap to 500 yards and was laying there when all of a sudden he spooked.  Some *censored*, completely unaware of the giant, came across my belly crawl marks and was curious and decided to take a gander.  He walked right up behind me and asked me what I was doing.   H e had a fluorescent green ball cap on.  If you are on here, I hope you realize how mad I was at you.
Fast forward a couple months.  I was snowmobiling and looking for bucks.  I came up over this little hump and he was down in a hole at less than 50 yards.  I spooked him but got a good look at him.  Idabooner wasn’t with me as he was at home with pneumonia and a 102 fever.  I immediately turned the sled around and went back to his house.  Of course he resisted when I asked him to come along.  One of the few times I ignored him and told him “I don’t care if you die today, you are going to die seeing the biggest buck of a lifetime”.  I got him on the sled and off we went.  I knew the country and knew about where he would go.  He was with another decent 4 point, which if by himself was a respectable buck.   We pulled up in the sled and started glassing.  Of course Idabooner was sick and not really in the mood, probably in convulsions with fever.   Then I spotted tines sticking out of the brush.  It  was the four point, but no sign of big daddy.   Then I spotted him as if he knew I was closing in, he started trotting off. He was uncomfortable with our presence but felt at a safe distance I guess.   The scopes were set up and we just sat there in the poor evening light until we couldn’t see him anymore admiring a true giant.   I pegged him at 35 inches mainframe wide PLUS a matching  5 inch kicker on each side.  Out of all the deer I have seen, this is probably the one I will regret the most.   I came back about 3 weeks later and he was still in the hood.    I searched a long time for this bucks sheds as well.  I even recruited 3 friends to help me look just so I could see his bones, but NOTHING.  At least I had a witness on this deer so Dad didn’t think I conjured the whole story up.