Well I gotta admit after seeing all the GREAT bucks getting posted on here. It was hard to decide if my "decent" buck would measure up
. But WTH one more pic cant hurt right. The story is long so I will focus on the highlights.....
After spending several days in the wilderness backcountry with lotsa heat and seeing some good elk. Deer sightings were at an all time low. Not buck sightings but any deer. I was hitting the areas in prime glassing hours, glassing all day, miles from trails. I felt I shoulda been covered up in deer and but was not seeing ANY. With time starting to wind down I decided to pack out and relocate to an area I had good success in down in "sage" country.
After several hours of glassing and seeing ALOT of deer. I located a batchelor group of bucks making their way toward some AG land right at dusk. They were about 2 hundred yards away in some high sage, and I could see their antlers sticking up as they moved to their night time feeding area. I knew I had a decision to make..... The bucks were moving through and into a good position for ambushing them if I moved quick. Or I could back out and wait till the morning, try to relocate them and put them to bed. Obviously both plans had pros and cons as any hunter knows. I quickly decided to make a move. I could tell with the exception of 2 small deer, the other 3 were shooters. I ran around the backside of the ridge and over to where I figured the bucks would be heading. On my way bumping 3 does which luckily ran the other way. Now, crawling due to the short cover, I see the bucks making their way toward me, and in range. I see the biggest buck a 4 point following a small 1x2. The other 2 bigger bucks are trailing him a bit and look like twins, followed by another yearling. Obviously drawing undetected is gonna be a bit of a challenge with the 1x2 in the lead. My hearts pounding as I get to full draw undetected but have no angle on the big boy. Now with 1x2 less than 10 yards away he spots me kneeling and bolts taking the 4 with him. He is still well within range and im trying to manufacture a shot, but hes moving, now hes stopped quartering to, now hes quartered away stiff legged, now I need my rangefinder. It all happens so fast im still at full draw and I decide to pass and turn my attention to the other two bucks. Ones slightly quartered to me a 3 point that looks just like my first ever muley. The other is quartered away hard and looks like a twin but I knew from looking him over earlier in the binos he was a Fork on his right side. Not sure on the left. I knew I wanted this buck, and aimed for the offside shoulder. THWUMP, I saw my arrow drive through him right where i had been aiming and all the bucks bound into the sage and out of sight. Whew... what a rush.
I waited a bit for everything to settle down then marked where I was and went and marked where the buck had been standing. There was still a little daylight left so I searched for my arrow till dark with no luck, ( no I wasnt wishing for illuminock
). I knew the buck was hit hard. But decided that I would give the buck a some time in case the buck wasnt quartered as hard as I thought and I didnt get into the diaphram/lung area. I walked the mile back to the truck quietly, cooked some dinner gathered up stuff to take care of the buck and made my way back into the area about 2.5 hrs later. In the glow of the headlamp off the sage I went in the direction I had last seen the buck and began searching for blood, tracking was difficult due to the hard ground and multiple different sets of tracks. About 30 minutes of slowww going I found first blood a splash on some sage, while digging into my pack for ribbon my headlamp bounced off something white about 25 yards to my right..... his belly! I had him! I was pleased to find he was a nice Fork. After some pics and getting back to the truck I began the journey home. Ok... I suck at short stories.... here he is
