Lowedog,
I wish I could say it was a Washington buck but I shot him in Sonora, Mexico. My Dad goes every year and one of his Friends had to cancel so I went as his replacement. It was a ten day hunt and they paired me with a Mexican tracker/guide that liked to hike. We really covered the ground as I didn't want to road hunt. He was always looking at the ground and tracking and it was my job to spot the buck before he saw us. We saw some great deer and on day eight we tracked and I had a chance at a monster buck that was over 36 inches wide and tall with lots of extras.
I don't even dream of bucks this big. If I had to guess I would say he was over 230. He came out of a little draw and jumped a fence and was slowly walking up the hill at about 150 yards. I could have shot him off hand but I wanted to make sure I didn't screw it up so I dropped to the ground for a better rest. About that time the guide started hitting me in the shoulder and saying NO SHOOT!! NO SHOOT!! PAPAGO INDIO!! NO SHOOT!! It was then that I realized that he had jumped onto the Papago Indian Reservation. We had just been told that morning to stay off the reservation. So I watched him trot over the hill and out of my life. I wanted to cry.
We hunted the boundary for the next two days and on the last evening I had pretty much concluded that I was going home empty handed. I had had a great time but there was an empty feeling in my gut. With about two hours of daylight left we spotted the buck on the wall with two does and the hunt was on! We quickly closed the distance. We thought the bigger buck might be with him so I actually passed on him as he walked through an opening at about 50 yards. It was just him and the two does and then they were into the brush. We stood there for ten minutes and I was really starting to feel like a horses ass.
Then I spotted one of the does at about 125 yards and I put my arm through my sling and got ready for a off hand shot. He stepped into the opening and I let him have it. The 300 did its thing and he dropped in his track. I went from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs! I don't think my feet touched the ground until I was standing by him. He does have a double eye guard on the one side and he is just about 1/4 inch under 32 inches outside.