Good Memory Bucks

[bigmacc]

I may have told this one before in another thread, its not my story but one that was told to me by an old friend, it was not of a buck he killed but was of multiple bucks AND does who were killed by mother nature, who can be very cruel when she wants to be, I will tell it the best that I can and as close as I can as it was told to me, I seen a few pictures of this that were unbelievable AND incredible to say the least.   The friend who witnessed this and told me this story, unfortunately is now in a home. We will call him Woody(not his real name) in this story, I may have called him another name in the other thread.

Woody and his wife were taking some fisherman up into the Pasayten, I'm thinking 1960,s maybe early 70,s . It was springtime, and they were many miles in when Woody told his wife he knew a shortcut into some lakes that they were taking these folks to. It would cut miles off the trip and Woody figured it would be passable. It involved going through a canyon I remember. Woody, his wife and the fisherman made the decision to take the shortcut. They made it about half way I believe when Woody decided it was time to make camp and go in the rest of the way in the morning.

They got up, tore down camp, saddled up and made there way to the lakes. Once they started into the canyon Woody said he "started feeling weird, like something wasn't right", his words, by this time with him telling me the story sitting around a campfire, I was also starting to feel "weird" and a little spooked . Woody said they got about half way in when he started noticing skeletons up on the hill sides on both sides of them. Bone piles up under trees, bleached and some not, some still with hair, some not, no rhyme, no reason, no consistency, just bones, carcasses and horns. If you knew Woody, he never let an "incident" get in the way of entertainment, he went to work . He told his wife and clients that they had stumbled onto the very turf that hundred of men over many years have been trying to find and at "no extra charge" they were all experiencing it, the place old mule deer go to die, the mule deers graveyard . Woody said that there were maybe 100 or more carcasses, some piled up 2 or 3 deep, mostly under trees, some had huge racks, some bleached out, some still brown, he figured the ordeal happened that previous winter, what he figured was a migration was in full tilt, a storm hit, deer couldn't get out of that canyon and died, most were piled under trees indicating they were trying to get out of weather, snow and wind and that was the end for them. Woody never touched anything, he took a few pictures, I seen them, it was eerie to say the least, some huge bucks died in that ordeal, they never touched them or disturbed them, I still get goosebumps thinking of this, even now.

[bigmacc]

Another story of a great buck that was told to me by "Woody", it also happened sometime back in the 60,s or 70,s, he told me the story in the early 70,s so it was a few years prior to that that this happened I believe. Once again, I may have told this story or partially told it before, ill try to go into a bit more detail this time, at least as much as I can remember.

Woody, his wife and another hand were rounding up some strays that they never got out of the upper elevations that were part of their summer range lease, it was either during the high hunt or during the general season, I don't remember. He said they were on top of a ridge glassing a big basin where they figured the strays might be, I remember Woody saying it was cold and spitting snow off and on. Woody said They glassed up the basin but no cows, only a huge lone buck and a hunter who was on horse back. They all had tags but just watched, not wanting to cork the other hunter. Woody said they looked closer at the buck who was by himself walking towards a thicket, head down, on a mission. The rider was coming into the thicket from the top, moving downhill, the buck was coming in from the side moving left to right. Both were spaced to about hit the thicket at about the same time Woody said. They couldn't believe the rider was not seeing the deer and vis versa, until further inspection of the rider, he was asleep . Both hands on the horn, head down, hunched a bit, Woody said he was either asleep or dead . They all sat there watching this as buck and rider were about to enter the thicket, Woody said "keep your eyes open, theres gonna be a hell of a wreck happinen" . Woody said they both entered, buck, head down, not a care in the world, rack swaying side to side, rider, head down, hands on the horn, he too swaying back and forth. They both disappeared into the brush and trees, Woody, his wife and hand waited for the wreck. After a minute or so the monster buck came out the other side, head down, swaying side to side and disappeared into a big rock canyon, shortly after the rider popped out the bottom looking the same as he went in and disappeared down the trail. They took out after the buck but never did find him, Woody said he was well over 30" and they did not know how many points, it had a lot is what he said.

Now, they recognized the "rider" by what he was wearing and the horse he was on, he was a local and they ran into him a few days later. Woody asked him if he was out hunting in this particular area on this day, he said, sure was. Woody asked him if he ever seen anything, the fella replied, a few does. Woody said he didn't have the heart to tell the young man what they had witnessed, to this day I don't know if they ever did tell him. Woody said, hell who knows, maybe the buck was asleep too

As I said, Woody is now in an assisted living home, doesn't know folks anymore, I sure do miss him. 

[hunthard]

Bigmac,
love the old hunting stories you share, just curious though, what were the popular hunting calibers back then?

[bigmacc]

Bigmac,
love the old hunting stories you share, just curious though, what were the popular hunting calibers back then?

Well back when I was young(50,s and 60,s) I remember a lot of 06, 270 and 30-30,s. I remember my dad talking about Springfields, Remingtons and of course Winchesters going back into the 1930,s and before. Not sure what the popular calibers were but I’m sure 30-06 and 30-30,s were in camp. I remember in the 70,s people going to magnum rounds but most stuck with the 06 and 270 etc, I still shoot a pre 64 270 to this day, it belonged to my great grandpa, thing is still a tack driver, couldn’t even tell you how many bucks that rifle has killed. Thinking of retiring it this year and get another 270.

[HntnFsh]

Don't jinx yourself!

[bigmacc]

Don't jinx yourself!

Good point

[bigmacc]

About 30 years ago or so my pardner killed one of the prettiest bucks I have ever seen, bar none. Its a buck that he had mounted, the only buck he has ever had mounted and he's killed some real dandys over his years.

My pard and I went into an area we figured may be "the spot" during a season that had been on the slow side up until this particular day. The weather had been a mixed bag up high for a couple weeks but the last 4-5 days had been what migrations were made out of. It dumped snow heavy for about 24 hours straight or so at elevations above 6000 feet in fact at about that level we had snow that we were pushing with the bumper of a 72 ford bronco. Then the temps dropped and the wind started blowing, oh the wind, right out of the north, perfect recipe to start some deer moving. We had a spot that we figured would be perfect but it was about an hour or so drive from camp then about 4 miles or so on foot but we figured it may show some life. It was the spot that I've told stories of before, the family found it, studied it and learned it back in the early 1900,s, actually it was about 1918 when my great grandma and grandpa stumbled onto it during one of their "hunting hikes" . I remember sitting in this spot back in the 1960,s and when everything aligned for a migration to be triggered it was nothing to see 3-400 deer move through before 10 o'clock. My dad remembers when he was a boy seeing a thousand move through during a day of sitting by a stump with grandpa. My pardner and I agreed, lets get there.

We got to the spot a couple hours before sunup, then we waited. It is a series of benches maybe 400 yards across that looks down into one of the 5 best migration corridors around in my opinion. At least it used to be. By about 9 or 10 o'clock  we had seen 2 big groups move though about 300 yards below us consisting of around 80 deer total. Then by noon we had seen another 50 or so in one big bunch, only about 5 or 6 bucks total if I remember right and those were all spikes and 2 points. This didn't really surprise us because of the timing. This is the place I may have told a story of where I seen 800 or so move through over a couple day period and never saw a horn, all does, fawns and yearlings, the bucks showed up a few days later. Anyways, I decided to walk over to my pardner (I was about 300 yards away) and discuss maybe giving it a few more days. I got there, we were standing on the bench, looking down the hill, BS,n and coming up with a plan to use in a few days, we were standing there talking for about 15 minutes. We turned around to head for the trail when my buddy put his hand up, I knew to stop, don't move and to keep my mouth shut . I seen the direction my buddy was looking, I slowly looked in that direction, in about a 10 foot by 10 foot opening about 70 yards uphill was a buck and just that fast he was dead. We walked up on him and we both were amazed at his coloring, his hair was almost a light brown/tan like an antelope, he had two throat patches and his antlers were almost a antique white/light tan color. He had a classic mule deer head and face along with one of the best roman noses I have ever seen. If some of you seen the roman on that buck I killed a couple years ago before I pulled the picture, it was classic, this nose made him look like a greenhorn . We gutted him, propped him open put him under a tree and went back to get help. We came in the next day and cut him up, took out 4 pieces plus the head and cape. We got back to camp and weighed all the pieces, 211 lbs, we figured if we put him back together with his guts and all the garbage we left on the hill he would have easily went over 320. A game fella took a look at him and figured him about 7-9 years old, right in his prime, just a pretty buck. My buddy and I and other family members will still go into this spot from time to time, we don't see nearly the amount of deer because of the way the seasons are set and the fact that there just isn't that many deer left over there, just a fraction of a shadow but we still go in there because oh my god there are some memories of some big bucks there, this was and is one of them. When we do go in there we always look behind us in that little open patch, haven't seen a deer there since

Forgot,......... 6 on one side, 7 on the other, 29" wide and the back tines were 23 1/2" tall, just a specimen of a mule deer.

[O. Nerka]

Thanks for another good story bigmacc!  With all of the fires in the Methow recently have you noticed a difference in deer behavior regarding their migration paths?  Do they show a bias to avoid recently burned stuff or use it more?

[MtnMuley]

30 1/2" back tines?

[bigmacc]

Thanks for another good story bigmacc!  With all of the fires in the Methow recently have you noticed a difference in deer behavior regarding their migration paths?  Do they show a bias to avoid recently burned stuff or use it more?

Its hard to tell, there just aint that many deer left there to really get it figured out. I guess thats why they put collars and electronics on them, back in the day they used to just sit around in a vehicle, with a clicker/counter and counted how many deer crossed a piece of pavement in a 5 day period, sometimes 2-3000would cross a particular road north of town, then you had a report that another 2000 had crossed a particular road 20 miles to the south.. Or they would post up some college kids in different spots(migration corridors), pack them a lunch and give them a clicker/counter and you had your counts. All of it a lot more accurate than the way its done nowdays, just my opinion. As far as fires, they been going on since the beginning of time, the only thing thats changed is how the fires are fought and how the forests are managed (My Opinion). Wildlife AND deer are, oh well, I won't go on.

[bigmacc]

30 1/2" back tines?

Yes sir.

[bigmacc]

Sorry, 23 1/2,  Sorry. .....Just verified on the back of the photo. And just changed it in the story

[MtnMuley]

Just checking

[bigmacc]

Just checking

Thank you .......Yep, id like to see that guy myself

[baldopepper]

Thanks for another good story bigmacc!  With all of the fires in the Methow recently have you noticed a difference in deer behavior regarding their migration paths?  Do they show a bias to avoid recently burned stuff or use it more?

Its hard to tell, there just aint that many deer left there to really get it figured out. I guess thats why they put collars and electronics on them, back in the day they used to just sit around in a vehicle, with a clicker/counter and counted how many deer crossed a piece of pavement in a 5 day period, sometimes 2-3000would cross a particular road north of town, then you had a report that another 2000 had crossed a particular road 20 miles to the south.. Or they would post up some college kids in different spots(migration corridors), pack them a lunch and give them a clicker/counter and you had your counts. All of it a lot more accurate than the way its done nowdays, just my opinion. As far as fires, they been going on since the beginning of time, the only thing thats changed is how the fires are fought and how the forests are managed (My Opinion). Wildlife AND deer are, oh well, I won't go on.

deer counts used be the usual way of determining how the herds were doing, then it seemed to change to buck/doe ratio. Some units dropped numbers dramatically but were said to be ok because the buck/doe ratio was good.  Wish they'd go back to the actual count system, but I suspect the numbers might be scary.