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Author Topic: 5x5 high buck  (Read 7708 times)

Offline Jokerjess333

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5x5 high buck
« on: September 24, 2008, 03:55:53 PM »
Been hunting my entire life, and I’ve killed three deer all with a bow. In 1995 I killed my first deer, a real nice buck we named “Stinky”. A North Olympic Peninsula 3 point with a tall rack. He was the first and only buck I ever killed. I am a meat hunter. I collected Doe’s the next two seasons and haven’t had much time to hunt since because of coaching my children in sports.

In 2008 my, 11 year old son graduated hunter safety and was itching to get into the woods. Because of his age, I decided we should go modern firearm. I wasn’t comfortable with his strength to pull an appropriate bow weight.

In August we started scouting for the “High Buck” hunt here in Washington State; modern firearm. I’ve never participated in a Wilderness area High-Buck hunt, but began to explore my options. I decided that I wanted to get away from areas where we would see hikers. So after some scouting and map searching, I found an area that appeared to be very steep, and away from most national forest trails.

My son, Thomas and I scouted a low-land 7 mile access trail, but I didn’t like the timber we were in and how we would have to climb up to the high country every morning. So we scouted the back-side of a few mountains and found a boot trail that was extremely steep. I took the opportunity on a scouting trip to show my son how hard you could work to just get into an area. After hearing a lot of complaining, and talking about personal motivation, we stumbled across a 5x5 black tail buck that laid there long enough for us to take several digital pictures at 20 yards. Mind you, this was in the middle of nowhere and he was frozen like a statue.

We decided that the difficult hiking was worth it to have an opportunity to get a deer that size. To date, that was the largest rack I had seen in the woods in a hunting area, ever. I am 37 years old.

After scouting the area and deciding on a spot at about 5200 feet in elevation to camp, we headed out for the “high buck” hunt on September 17th. We parked our truck at about 3000 feet and started up with heavy packs of tents, food, water, stoves, fuel, clothing, rifles, knives and other essentials. Half way up the hill I started to question my sanity and whether or not my boy could make it to the campsite. My friend Gordon had done some high-country hiking and I was glad to have him along for the trip. We left the truck at 1 P.M. and arrived at the camp site at 7 P.M. It took us about twenty minutes to find the best spot and then we set up our tents as it got dark.

The first day we hiked up to 6300 feet and took in the scenery. In and near our camp we found lot’s of deer and bear sign, but we saw no animals the first day. The views were breathtaking and the heat was discouraging. The second day, while we were eating a breakfast of instant oatmeal and the best coffee on the planet, I spotted a few deer feeding on a rock hillside. We decided to hike up there and check out the area. We spent the day hiking across rock slides, through small timber areas and on the edge of some steep rock outcroppings. We saw several deer and were getting encouraged. Gordon separated from Thomas and I and he also saw several deer where he was.

The first two days were warm and I wore shorts. The third day we woke to rain. We were between the clouds and a huge fog bank that was down in the lowlands. As the morning went on, the surrounding mountains seemed to breathe the fog up to and around us, and then suck it back down to the lowlands where it looked like an ocean of clouds. The weather was intermittent rain and then socked in fog. We returned to the area where we saw deer the day before, and started pushing some but couldn’t tell where they were. We slowed way down and moved a few steps at a time, glassing the hills above and below for deer. Finally, I decided to move up to the rocks and try and push animals across in front of my son and friend. I began to double-back and go up when I spotted a reddish doe on a rock. She stood like a goat staring at me. I took pictures of her and watched to see if she had any company for quite a while. She finally moved after ten minutes of posing like a statue. She went up. So, I continued on my back-track slow ascension to try and get behind her and any of her friends to push them over toward my boy and Gordon.

As I was doubling back, I heard noises but couldn’t place the movement. I finally decided to just go straight up around a rock when I spotted him. A buck had me dead to rights at about 200 yards. He was quartered away from me and he was paused on a ridge. I put the scope of my 7mm on him and counted. At least two points and legal eye guards met the 3 point minimum requirement and I decided to shoot. I tried to time the movement of my off-hand hold to hit him on the left side around the ribs as he presented that angle to me. When I fired, I saw him respond in a defensive response as if he’d been hit, and watched him dive down the other side of the ridge he was on. Suddenly several other deer came out of nowhere following him over the ridge.

I moved to the area where he had been standing and searched for signs of where he had been. I communicated with Gordon and my son and they began moving my way. I could find that he and the other deer had moved across to another ridge and they went off what appeared to be a cliff.

I retraced their steps and found where he had tumbled, but it took me at least a half hour to find blood. When I did, I found dark red meat in the blood. We began a track. I spotted another doe and fawn down below us and watched them for a bit to see if they had the buck with them. They did not.

We all switched off finding blood as we went down the cliff. It was amazing. I never would have thought we could have gone down the face of that cliff, but we followed the deer trails and were able to slide down. We removed our ammunition from under our firing pins for added safety and flagged the trail as we went. We followed the deer about 400 yards right through our campsite. He was pumping blood heavy, and we found bone fragment and heavy tissue in the trail as well.


When we entered camp, I took Gordon and Thomas’ packs and guns and put them in the tents to lighten up the load and I followed them into the timber. They jumped the deer and I took a shot…”Click” no bullet under the firing pin. He bounced away, but appeared to be moving slowly. Gordon was amazed at the size of the deer as he bounded through the timber. He exclaimed that the deer’s rear-end looked like that of a Muley.

After about 45 minutes, Gordon found the blood trail and we continued on. We found the buck again about 100 yards away, and Gordon and I split up. He moved right and cut off an escape route by making noise with rocks and the deer moved toward me in some timber. This time I shot him through the neck. Down he went. I moved in and admired the big buck. He was a 4x4 with nice eye guards. A 5x5 in my book. I found that my first shot had almost severed his left front leg above the knee joint. It was amazing with the blood loss and trauma that he traveled so far. After the second shot, he still appeared to be trying to get up and would rest breathing deeply for moments and then attempt to stand again. I prodded him a few times to make sure he wouldn’t get up, and then finished him off with a single plunge of my old timer knife to his heart. He expired immediately with that fatal blow.

I let out a loud non-descript shout of joy and we took pictures. We admired the size and beauty of this great Blacktail and I reflected on many years of rifle hunting as a boy and young man, always dreaming of bagging a buck. My first with a bow was a beautiful 3x3, and now I finally got one with a rifle. I felt all of those moments of anticipation throughout the years come flowing back.

I skinned and quartered this deer that my son named “Chase” and we packed him back to camp. The next day, our 2 mile hike out turned into six because we had to split our packs due to weight. This tripled every leg of the hike.

This was the most physically demanding hunt of my life, and I have done some doozies hunting elk. The greatest part was seeing the joy on my son’s face and knowing that a new young hunter was hooked for life after this amazing experience with his Dad.

Not the perfect shot, not the perfect track, but still a harvest that we were all proud of and will be one of the high points of my life as a hunter and father. The good lord truly blessed us on this trip with the conditions, strength and skill we needed to get a true “Pacific ghost” trophy. And he looks like he’s gonna taste really good too! 

Lastly, I just went to the taxidermist and showed him the picture of the buck we saw when scouting. He believes it’s the same buck. I shot him about a mile away from where we saw him the first time.

Offline Jokerjess333

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #1 on: September 24, 2008, 03:58:07 PM »
some other picts

Offline Jokerjess333

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #2 on: September 24, 2008, 03:59:33 PM »
A few more

Offline jstamp

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #3 on: September 24, 2008, 04:10:12 PM »
great job congrats :brew:

Offline GoldTip

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #4 on: September 24, 2008, 04:49:20 PM »
Sounds like you and your son and friend had a hunt to remember.
I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
If I ageed with you, then we'd both be wrong.
You are never to old to learn something stupid.

Offline bowsandhose

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #5 on: September 24, 2008, 04:59:52 PM »
sweet, congrats
Any animal with a bow is a trophy.               IAFF
Save a 1000 elk kill a wolf.

Offline X-Force

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #6 on: September 24, 2008, 05:08:02 PM »
Way to keep with it. Great Trophy
People get offended at nothing at all. So, speak your mind and be unapologetic.

Offline JBar

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #7 on: September 24, 2008, 05:45:14 PM »
Nice buck, way to go!
Shut up and Hunt!

Offline spin05

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #8 on: September 24, 2008, 06:16:07 PM »
My god You cut the cape?????I would have had that mounted.You dont see many Blacktails like that.

Online finnman

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #9 on: September 24, 2008, 08:03:55 PM »
You have joined in an awesome fashion!!!!!! Welcome aboard, and might I say you bagged yourself probably the toughest trophy in all of the NW!!!! :twocents:
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
There is no way to top that, your son by your side, a good friend, physically demanding, and your finest buck!
Just awesome!

Offline Trophy Hunter

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #10 on: September 25, 2008, 05:45:53 AM »
Awesome Buck.
The high hunt is the only way to go. It makes a person appreciate there work.

Offline NW-Eric

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #11 on: September 25, 2008, 07:50:08 AM »
thats a nice buck and a great story
GUNS KILL PEOPLE... YAH AND A SPOON MADE ROSIE ODONELL FAT

Offline Muleyslyr

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #12 on: September 25, 2008, 01:07:31 PM »
Wow....welcome to the site!  Great first post!  Awesome write up as well.  Congrats on your first and best High Hunt rifle buck....tough one to beat.

Anybody know how to resize the pics by chance??

Offline D-man

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #13 on: September 25, 2008, 01:20:55 PM »
Wow... what more can be said.  You make me envious, and nice job.

Offline Jokerjess333

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #14 on: September 25, 2008, 03:37:41 PM »
pre-season scouting pict

Offline fishseeker

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #15 on: September 25, 2008, 07:11:37 PM »
Same buck, extra kicker at the base it proof. Congrts on a great hunt with your son. Niether of you will ever forget it. Thats what hunt is about. :)
Take a kid hunting or fishing, Pass it on, it's not yours to keep!

Offline zackmioli

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Re: 5x5 high buck
« Reply #16 on: September 26, 2008, 08:37:39 AM »
Great story! Congrats on that buck! you sure put in the work!

 


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