dustinwise Posted February 11, 2012 Report Share Posted February 11, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbarcheryhunter Posted February 11, 2012 Report Share Posted February 11, 2012 wow nice buck !!!! congrats !!! what does he score Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustinwise Posted February 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2012 He scored 195 gross. I am still waiting to let him dry for the official B & C score. He had a bunch of deductions for broken points. He could easily be missing an additional 20 inches from busted points; but that is just speculation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted February 11, 2012 Report Share Posted February 11, 2012 You better be smiling holy moly!! NICE is an under statement Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deer slayer Posted February 12, 2012 Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 WOW:jaw: He's a beauty, he has lots of mass. Congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted February 12, 2012 Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 Wow. Congratulations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruttinbuc Posted February 12, 2012 Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 Dang! Do you have a story to go with that brute? Heckofa 1st buck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustinwise Posted February 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 I shot this deer the last day of the late season, December 14. A friend of mine called the night before saying we should go this last day and give it another try. We had previously hunted the first day of the late season, walking what felt like about 30 miles in blowing snow and wind chills around zero degrees in some hilly canyon type ground. Do to prior engagements (a wife, 3 year old, and 6 month old) I didn't get another chance to go until this last day. On the morning of the 14th we headed out early to do some scouting. We headed down a two trail road not traveled that often and saw two bucks and some does run over a small ridge in some tall CRP grass. This grass is 3-5 ft tall in spots so it makes great cover when they bed down. We stayed put and let them bound off without spooking them too much. We drove around to the south side of this field, over a mile away to try and sneak in on foot from that side. My friend's wife had a doe license so we thought that she may have an opportunity for a doe as well. We started into the field slowly glassing along the way when a third buck showed up from behind a small rise walking north into the tall CRP grass like he owned the place. He was the biggest of the three. We stood motionless and watched him until we lost him in the tall grass which was over a quarter of a mile away. After that we snuck in further and started walking in on our hands and knees until we thought we were within range of the first two bucks. When we started looking around we realized that we were within 30 yards of a bedded doe. We were downwind of her as the wind was blowing out of the northwest. We contemplated on what we should do because she had spotted us and knew that once we moved she would bust out of the CRP field possibly taking one of the first two bucks we had seen or maybe both of them. Luck was on our side and she jumped up and ran east by herself. Now we questioned where the other 3 bucks were, the two we had saw earlier and the third one which I ended up shooting later. We slowly made our way to the rise where we had saw the 2 bucks run over earlier that morning. When we crested the rise there stood 2 does looking straight at us about 150 yards out. Great, we just knew we were busted. We stood there for about 5 minutes and the does started feeding again but on occasion would look up at us. We made the decision to wait on my friend's wife to catch up with us so she could take a shot at one of the does and in turn may scare up a buck or at least get one of them to stand up so we could locate him. We stood on the rise for another 45 minutes like fence posts until my friend's wife showed up ready to fill her doe tag. She crept in another 50 yards to get set up for her shot, keep in mind this grass is 3-5ft tall so the deer did not see or hear her crawl in further. She shot at one, missed, and then dropped the same doe on the second shot. No bucks, what the heck we thought, where could they have went? We started to spread out and fan the area like pheasant hunters to see if we could get at least one of the bucks to reveal his location. After about 30 minutes of this we were about ready to give up when I saw the third buck stand up and lay right back down out of the corner of my eye. This buck was 150 yards south of where my friend's wife had shot her doe and he did not budge an inch after the two shots she had made, something short of a miracle. We made the choice to try and get closer to him so I could get a clear shot. We could not see him after he laid back down but had pin pointed his location. My damn shooting sticks would only allow me to take a kneeling shot since they were not long enough for me to take a standing shot. I was not going to take a shot at him without them as bad as I was shaking. I did not in any way want to wound this magnificent animal. We crawled within 40 yards of him and saw his antlers. He was laying with his head flat on the ground and I did not want to shoot him laying on the ground because of the chance of wounding him and my own ethics. My friend was behind me and proceeded to yell and clap his hands to get him to stand up. He stood up and I pulled the trigger sending a 150 grain 300 WSM bullet into his heart. We had no idea that he was that big until we came upon him. We were ecstatic and I am still on cloud nine. What this buck had done when we first saw him disappear was he just simply laid right down and hadn't moved an inch. What is even crazier is we snuck by him on the way into those does. The disheartening fact about this hunt is all the pickup tracks through the CRP. Like my friend said, "these deer are not used to seeing people on foot," and I totally agree with him. Road hunters would have missed him by 3/4 of a mile and that sure seems to be the case in this area. He thought he was hid and lady luck was on our side that morning, definitely a morning I will never forget. To top this story off I drew this license as a second choice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruttinbuc Posted February 13, 2012 Report Share Posted February 13, 2012 Great story! Congrats to all for their success. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheProvider Posted February 13, 2012 Report Share Posted February 13, 2012 great buck, love the palmation and heavey mass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger-Hunter Posted February 16, 2012 Report Share Posted February 16, 2012 Holy Mackeral. Unbelievable, really! Thick and massive. Way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbHunterNY Posted February 16, 2012 Report Share Posted February 16, 2012 nice story and incredible buck! tall heavy rack with a ton of character. hunting the right area i'd say. Many of us will hunt our whole lives and even see a deer that big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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