My 07 British Columbia Monster


Guest MassNTrash

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Guest MassNTrash

This year, after having the time of my life hunting every weekend for 2 months straight with my 11 year old son, and watching him tag out on 3 deer, it was my turn to hunt for myself. Conditions were brutal. No snow, crunchy timber, and most rutting action was nocturnal. Deer sightings were really low, with some days of zero deer. I pounded back the miles on the ol' Sheep Hunters and really felt like I was beating my head against a brick wall. On day 7, I had wet conditions to soften up the noise. I was still-hunting my way up a nice ridge when I encountered my buck. He was 40 yards from me and had no idea I was there. When I saw him, I instantly recognized him as a buck I've watched and filmed for 2 out of the last 3 winters. I knew he was a great character buck and having the personal history with him, I slipped the saftey off and dropped him. I am stoked to have been able to kill 2 bucks back to back that I have had a lot of personal history with.

I first saw this buck in the winter of 04/05. I had nicknamed him Deep Forks that winter. He was really narrow, but the forks were really nice.

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The winter of 05/06 he came in a little different. He had a big inline on his one side which was just his G3 coming off the main instead of the G2. He had dropped his G4 and he grew a huge G1. He was still really narrow but I wasn't sure he was the same buck. That year I nicknamed him the Eyeguard Buck.

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My buddy, Matt, was the one to put 2 and 2 together and figured the buck was one and the same. I never saw hide nor hair of the buck the winter of 06/07. I assumed he was catscat. But when I saw him this fall, I instantly knew Matt was right, Deep Forks and the Eyeguard buck were the same deer.

This muley has some awesome character. He is 24 inches tall with only an 18 1/2 inch outside spread. Just a tall timber buck. He grosses 199 6/8 as a 7x7. I think he's close enough to 200 inches that that is what I'll call him. His stong side has a 91 inch frame. Those G3's are flippin amazing. The big eyeguard is pretty cool as well.

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Guest MassNTrash

For those of you that may have missed seeing my 06 buck, here it is. I had been chasing this buck for over 5 years. He was definately a passion of mine. I was fortunate to watch and film him for 5 out of 6 years. I was also fortunate to find several sets of his sheds. I nicknamed him MassNTrash.

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Guest MassNTrash

Thanks for the welcome back guys.

The story on MassNTrash is one crazy story. I hunted hard for that buck for years but never seen hide nor hair of him until post season. Then last year during our annual Muley Camp, he appeared. After one failed stalk, and several major mishaps like me burning down the wall tent and getting 2nd degree burns on my hands, I encountered him one day in a thick patch of timber. He was chasing a doe 40 yards in front of me. I found a tight shooting lane, watched the doe pass through and when he stepped in, I pulled the trigger and he vanished. I had good blood right off the bat, but as I tracked him for 3 hours, the blood pretty much dried up. My 2 buddies hooked up with me on the trail, both working 50-75 yards either side of me as I stayed on the track. At one point we jumped MassNTrash and my buddy had a clear shot present itself, yet his saftey seized on. It was a new Remington Model 700. After trying to get it unseized, the saftey actually broke.:eek: We kept on tracking and there was one point right before last light I had the buck 50 yards in front of me but I couldn't get a shot due to the thickness of the timber. I had a very restless sleep that night when we finally gave up the track. The next morning I cut his track a couple of kms away from where I had given up the night before. There was still the odd speck of blood and the place was ripped to shreads and stunk like a barnyard. It was obvious he has spent the entire night breeding and fighting. I then knew he couldn't have been hurt too bad. The next day I had to end my holidays and go back to work. I was then a weekend warrior for the rest of the season. For the next 3 weekends, we hunted that area hard and MassNTrash definately was making fools of us. Finally on the last day of season, 3 1/2 weeks after wounding him, we located him again. Just as I was about to put the stalk on him, I realized I had made the biggest mistake of my hunting career, I left my rifle at home. I had been so physically and mentally exhausted, I walked out of the house that morning without my rifle! I was just sick to my stomach. Luckily, I have a great friend, and even though we had a monster buck spotted and he had a tag in his pocket, he lent me his rifle.

The stalk was the most insane stalk of my life. 6 hours later, I was able to end the saga and MassNTrash was finally mine. He was old and regressed. He grossed 202 inches. Even though his tine length was less than what he was in his prime (his best year he grossed 225), his Mass is amazing. I've never worked so hard to kill an animal in my life. It definately will be one of my most treasured hunts ever.

It was neat to be able to harvest the Deep Forks/Eyeguard buck this year. I had watched him several times hanging out with MassNTrash on the winter range.

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That's a great story. It sounds like you really earned that monster. He's going to look great on the wall.

"Forgot your gun"...LMBO...sorry, just had too. :D:D

I was just telling my buddy a few weeks ago, that a couple of times, I have gotten deer, after forgetting my knife. I told him it must be good luck or something ...but your gun ? :D

I'm cruel, I know, but hey, you got a monster....way to go.:cool::cool:

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