The Year was 2004........

[HuntingFanatic]

memories............ the second pic is eerily familiar I just wanna be sitting there on a cold, early november morning with a gun in my hand. 

[boneaddict]

  looks like HOME to me.

[huntnphool]

Thought you might like those. Both taken from the same spot, one over the right shoulder, the other down to the left.

 Sorry Bone, didn't mean to take a pic from your childhood backyard

[Cougeyes]

In 2004 we were hunting the Teanaway, but not where I got this buck.  If I remember right opening weekend was miserable, rainy with some snow mixed in.  I think i saw 3 deer all weekend when normally we would have seen a lot more in the area.  Being in college I only had the weekend to hunt so went back to school empty handed.  My dad and other hunting friend both got their bucks once the storm let up later in the week. 

I came back home for the last weekend hoping to shoot the first legal buck I saw.  We hiked up  into another drainage in the Teanaway in the dark where my dad used to hunt.  We got across the creek in the dark and up onto the first big bench of a steep hillside.  My dad told me to go ahead of him and continue up the ridge.  There was a skif of snow on the ground which made any deer stand out a lot better.  I crested the first little ridge and came up onto a large rock.  I looked about 100 yards up the ridge and spotted a buck, but was unsure how big it was because its head was down.  Once it picked its head up I counted 3 points.  I got a solid rest on a rock and hit the buck, but didn't drop it.  So i had shoot him once more to finish the job. 

Walking up to him with my dad was a funny story.  He didn't know how many points it had so when we got to the deer it was laying on its side with the 3 point and only the large spike side was available to see.  He's like.....you shot a spike oh my..... and I reassured him it was legal so we rolled it over and it had 3 points. 

Fast forward to this last season and I shot another weird deer as you can see from the picture.  Who knows if there is some weird gene out there that is creating these bucks or if its something happening when they're in velvet....I seem to always find them though (the weird ones that is, I once shot a forked horn and the one antler was growing out of the bucks temple).

First pick is the 2004 buck second one is the 2007 buck.

[Ridgerunner]

At least you are taking htem out of the gene pool.  Good job on doing that.     That is wierd to kill two wierdo bucks like that so close together.

[Cougeyes]

That's what I was thinking when I shot him....I told the guy that was with me this is how we manage our hunting area, it was my time again to shoot a werid one and get him out of the gene pool, he ate good.

[saylean]

I like wierd looking bucks better than symetrical ones, ...just different. Cool stories all.

[boneaddict]

You guys have seen them all but....

[huntnphool]

04 was very good for you Bone, going to be hard to beat that.

[boneaddict]

It was a GOOD year.  First out of state hunt to Idaho, with a moose and deer, and then to top it all off with Roseann and her elk.  That was the BEST.

[E-Town Hunter]

Man thhat second deer rack has to be some of the darkest I've ever seen.

[huntnphool]

Ya E-Town, almost all of my Methow Valley bucks have racks that dark as well, including the one I just posted from my 04 hunt.

[coonhound]

2004 was a special year for me also.

I had been trying for a few years to harvest a mature muley with my bow.  I had been hunting the Okanogan area for 4 years trying to put a successful stalk on a mature buck.  Every year I would blow several stalks, I was having a ton of fun trying but was beginning to think I was just a smuck.  On my drive over to the East side in 04 I was giving myself the usual pep talk and reviewing the prior years mistakes.  In previous years I had been trying my stalks in the wide open ground, this year I decided I would focus on areas that had some decent cover, meaning rugged topography and/or timber.

On the opening day of the Late hunt near Omak I hit the trail in the dark and hunted my butt off, probably put on a good 8 - 10 miles.  I seen at least 50 deer but only a few small bucks.  I was was really getting disappointed in the lack of mature bucks.  I only had a couple hours of daylight left so I decided I would head down through a timbered hillside that I had seen bucks in during all the previous years.  When I hit that patch of timber I really felt like I was in the zone. As I was slowly slipping along I saw a buck get up out of his bed, he took a few steps forward and stuck his head in the brush.  I knew he was a good buck but I didn't think I could sneak an arrow through the thick brush.  Finally I found a small hole, estimated the yardage at 40 yds and let it fly.  I heard my arrow rattle through the brush behind the buck.  I thought "OH NO" how could I have missed, a few seconds later I hear the buck wheez and "Crash" he was down.  It had been a clean pass through right in the sweet spot.  I looked across the hill just in time to see him cart wheeling down the mountain, he rolled at least 3 hundred yards down the mountain, I was amazed he still had a rack. 

After some pictures I got to the task of caping and boning.  It was pitch dark before I got the task done.  After a 2 mile hike in the dark I ran into a camp on the opposite side of the mountain from my truck.  Luckily they were also bow hunters and were willing to give me a ride back to my truck. 

Coon

[archery288]

congrats coon!! thats a great buck!!! 

[Cougeyes]

Very nice buck.  Gotta love it though, when you hunt steep country they may fall where they stand but the roll a long ways down.  I've had that happen to two of my last 3 bucks.