krshunter
Member
Alright, finally finding some time to sit down and do this. As you all can see from the picture I posted, he is absolutely thrilled. He's been just like that at work all week so far. Can't get the grin off his face.
He had been hunting this area for about 6 days already and had set up camp in the area. Not much luck. He had seen some "smaller" bucks 150's to 170's but nothing he wanted to hang this tag on and not many of them. I tol him I could be up later in the week and could help because the terrain and cover was very similar to the area I grew up hunting and had success in. Fortunately it turned out I was right.
Left early Thursday morning in the middle of a winter storm warning down the road I needed to travel and the only road open out of town. An hour long trip was about an hour and a half and 12 inces of snow had not been plowed yet. Better than packed snow and ice though. Got to camp and we were about to take off when another good friend of his showed up somewhat unexpected ready to go find the big ones.
He showed us the roads he had been driving and some of the ridges he had been hunting and it was a great location but they hadn't been doing much walking or enough glassing to that point. We got the truck to the end of a two track where he had stopped and glassed days previous and I said I wanted to walk and glass the south faces of the next three drainages as the wind was blowing terrible from the north. We did so and glassed close to 150 deer and he passed on probably 5 - 175" to 185" bucks. Kept saying, I can't believe we're passing on these size deer. We watched them feed and chase north and down the drainages and we decided to walk one of the ridges out one drainage short. They had all fed that direction and I thought that's where we wanted to be when the sun went down. It was the biggest of the three and had a very large brushy bowl that protected from the north and west winds.
We glassed a little more on the ride out when we spotted a monster buck aoubt 350 yds from the two track we were on and about 500 yds from the main road. He was with a couple of does and bedded under a cedar tree. The other guy in the back seat that had spotted him seemed like he was having an asthma attack or something. All he could say was, "Big buck, big buck, big buck." It was several hundred yards to the side of where we had been glassing and we didn't see him so we thought he was kidding. Again he said, "Big buck, big buck". The shooter say, sure there is to which he replied, "get the f*^k out of the truck, it's huge." When he calmed down enough to explain where it was we were shocked to see about a 215" main fram 4x4 standing looking right at us.
After about 4 minutes passed the buck turned broadside. We ranged him at 338yds which should have been no problem for the custom .300 WSM zero'd at 200yds. We told him to breath and squeeze the trigger and it wouldn't be a problem. Well, good old buck fever set in and I though he was going to pull the trigger right through the trigger guard. Bullet probably hit the moon as hard and high as he pulled. Got a second opportunity but with only second to settle in and he just missed him. Last we saw that buck was a mile and half away and still running. He was so disappointed the rest of the day and content with shooting the next deer he saw and going home. We worked hard to keep his spirits up and get him in front of more good deer and also convince him that we'd see other shooters if we were patient.
Anyway, through my persistence I convinced them that we needed to be back around that final drainage and bowl at the end of the day and that is exactly where we ended up. We kicked up a couple of the same deer we had glassed earlier in the day and they were feeding right in to the bowl. We continued to see smaller bucks and does and knew there should be more deer in the area. We got another 50' or so closer to the edge of the ridge when the buck in the photo started coming up out of the bottom of the drainage. We told him to find the deer and stay on him and if he was a shooter we'd let him know. He followed the deer and when we got the right look at him we told him he was well within range of the rifle and to hold dead on. He put the crosshair right behind the shoulder and let copper fly. Before we heard the thud the buck was down on the ground for good. One shot, about 190 yards, dropped him in his tracks. I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone yell so loudly. I bet he scare deer out of all three drainages.
Here's a couple more pictures from the field. More than anything this was a great day of hunting and I was so happy to be one of the guys that was with him when he put a good deer down. What an experience.
He had been hunting this area for about 6 days already and had set up camp in the area. Not much luck. He had seen some "smaller" bucks 150's to 170's but nothing he wanted to hang this tag on and not many of them. I tol him I could be up later in the week and could help because the terrain and cover was very similar to the area I grew up hunting and had success in. Fortunately it turned out I was right.
Left early Thursday morning in the middle of a winter storm warning down the road I needed to travel and the only road open out of town. An hour long trip was about an hour and a half and 12 inces of snow had not been plowed yet. Better than packed snow and ice though. Got to camp and we were about to take off when another good friend of his showed up somewhat unexpected ready to go find the big ones.
He showed us the roads he had been driving and some of the ridges he had been hunting and it was a great location but they hadn't been doing much walking or enough glassing to that point. We got the truck to the end of a two track where he had stopped and glassed days previous and I said I wanted to walk and glass the south faces of the next three drainages as the wind was blowing terrible from the north. We did so and glassed close to 150 deer and he passed on probably 5 - 175" to 185" bucks. Kept saying, I can't believe we're passing on these size deer. We watched them feed and chase north and down the drainages and we decided to walk one of the ridges out one drainage short. They had all fed that direction and I thought that's where we wanted to be when the sun went down. It was the biggest of the three and had a very large brushy bowl that protected from the north and west winds.
We glassed a little more on the ride out when we spotted a monster buck aoubt 350 yds from the two track we were on and about 500 yds from the main road. He was with a couple of does and bedded under a cedar tree. The other guy in the back seat that had spotted him seemed like he was having an asthma attack or something. All he could say was, "Big buck, big buck, big buck." It was several hundred yards to the side of where we had been glassing and we didn't see him so we thought he was kidding. Again he said, "Big buck, big buck". The shooter say, sure there is to which he replied, "get the f*^k out of the truck, it's huge." When he calmed down enough to explain where it was we were shocked to see about a 215" main fram 4x4 standing looking right at us.
After about 4 minutes passed the buck turned broadside. We ranged him at 338yds which should have been no problem for the custom .300 WSM zero'd at 200yds. We told him to breath and squeeze the trigger and it wouldn't be a problem. Well, good old buck fever set in and I though he was going to pull the trigger right through the trigger guard. Bullet probably hit the moon as hard and high as he pulled. Got a second opportunity but with only second to settle in and he just missed him. Last we saw that buck was a mile and half away and still running. He was so disappointed the rest of the day and content with shooting the next deer he saw and going home. We worked hard to keep his spirits up and get him in front of more good deer and also convince him that we'd see other shooters if we were patient.
Anyway, through my persistence I convinced them that we needed to be back around that final drainage and bowl at the end of the day and that is exactly where we ended up. We kicked up a couple of the same deer we had glassed earlier in the day and they were feeding right in to the bowl. We continued to see smaller bucks and does and knew there should be more deer in the area. We got another 50' or so closer to the edge of the ridge when the buck in the photo started coming up out of the bottom of the drainage. We told him to find the deer and stay on him and if he was a shooter we'd let him know. He followed the deer and when we got the right look at him we told him he was well within range of the rifle and to hold dead on. He put the crosshair right behind the shoulder and let copper fly. Before we heard the thud the buck was down on the ground for good. One shot, about 190 yards, dropped him in his tracks. I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone yell so loudly. I bet he scare deer out of all three drainages.
Here's a couple more pictures from the field. More than anything this was a great day of hunting and I was so happy to be one of the guys that was with him when he put a good deer down. What an experience.
