Well I'm finally getting around to posting about my Wyoming deer hunt. We went 6 for 6 on the trip. Here is a little summary of my hunt for my buck.
It was sunday so we decided to sleep in a little. When I mean sleep in, I mean get to our spot a little after day light. We had been getting up to our spot at least an hour and half before light (to get our parking spot and for the hike up the hill). We get there after daylight, and there aren't too many other people there, and no one up where I wanted to go. So, me and my buddy, who had already gotten his buck, headed up the draw to the spot where I had shot my buck last year. The wind was howling, it was snowing and pretty cold. We were seeing a lot of deer, mostly hunkered down in the draws and timber staying out of the wind. There were a few smaller bucks, but no shooters. This spot we hunt is a good spot all day long. There is a pass/saddle, where the deer migrate through most of the day towards the end of the season. The snow was really blowing down the draw and it was hard to even look up the hill. We get up to where neither of us had been that far before, and decide to keep going. This draw looked really "bucky". I just knew there was going to be a buck in there somewhere. All the deer we saw earlier were does and small bucks, and I just knew that there was a good buck hanging up in this draw waiting for dark to come down. Some of the bucks were rutting a little, but not too many. My buck actually was swollen up a bit and stunk, but he was alone. We get to a spot and were able to glass a little. Nothing. The draw is narrowing down quite a bit now, and we cant see down in the creek bottom off to our left. Knowing that most of the deer we had seen had been hunkered down out of the wind, I tossed a couple of softball sized rocks down as far as I could. Nothing. Well, I take maybe five steps and look up ahead across the draw, and see this guy trying to sneak up over the hill. I see he's good and I want to kill him. Find a rest, he stops and looks back down at us. First shot right behind the shoulder, a bit high. I think lungs. He takes a couple of steps and gets into some dead/burnt brushy crap. I find him in my scope again, see his neck and pop off another. This time he drops like a ton of bricks, and does the snowplow down the hill about 50yds. piling up into a tree. My buddy yells "you dumped him!". I saw him drop, but it was sure sweet to hear those words! We get over to him and he's pretty much what I had thought. Good buck. Pretty damn excited. Take a few pics, slide him down the hill a ways to get to a little bench to work him up. When we get to this little bench, I look over and see his tracks where he had come up the hill. I take a couple more steps, and see his bed. He was lying on this little knob, right behind this dead, twisted burnt pine. He had a perfect view of the entire draw. He probably had been watching us come up the draw for at least 45 minutes. I had glassed right where he was bedded, but never did turn him up. The snow and ice pellets pelting me in my face could have had a little to do with that. It is pretty hard to glass effectively when the conditions are like that. Well, thats about it. We work him up, load up and head out. An hour and a half later, we're at the truck. All down hill! Perfect! I had over eighty pounds of meat in my game bag when I got down. Here he is, what do you think? Any guesses on score?
