I planned on drawing this tag last year, but with the later season dates my unit took a slight point jump and pushed me over to this year. It ended up being a blessing with the incredibly warm weather during 3rd season last year. I opted to skip out on opening weekend and be ready to hit it hard for the last 7 days of the season. My thinking was the opening weekend crowd would be done and out of the area and the rut action should just be getting better every day as the hunt goes on.
I rolled into town Sunday evening just before sunset. I had one spot I could get to before dark and spent about 20 minutes of last light glassing. I saw a couple of deer and headed off to the hotel to unload the truck and get settled in. My first day hunting started with glassing up a few doe groups and one nice framed buck with decent back forks, but no front fork on one side and a tiny fork on the front right. I was happy to find a respectable buck on my first morning in a new unit. I set off for lunch and to meet up with a couple of guys also hunting the area. That evening I passed on a big 3x3 buck, which I ended up regretting for a few days afterwards.
The next few days I spent bouncing back and forth between two main areas and seeing new bucks in each area every day. I saw several nice bucks, but ended up passing. The idea of the rut and seeing new bucks every day was just to intriguing for me to pull the trigger just yet. Every night when I talked my wife on the phone, she would ask me why I was being so picky when I am usually not overly picky. I was just having such a good time I wasn't quite ready for the hunt to be over with. Here is one of the better bucks I passed.
My buddy from home also had a tag, but had a lot of work stuff had come up that didn't allow him to drive up with me on Sunday. He ended up having to fly in late Thursday night. He has already filled tags on an archery bull, mz coues buck, and an antelope in the TX panhandle this year. He made it very clear that he was coming to help me and he wouldn't even think about shooting a buck until my tag was filled. Friday morning we headed into the area I had been seeing the most bucks in and got to glassing at first light. This morning was a little slower than previous days had been, but we were still seeing plenty of doe groups, just not many bucks in with them.
About mid morning my buddy let me know that he had a good buck way off on the horizon headed our way. I got my spotter spun around and found the buck he was looking at, and we agreed he was a definite shooter. The buck continued to head our way for a while and disappeared behind a ridge across the basin from us and never re appeared. I pulled out the gps and found a nice little tucked away bowl back there. We decided that was probably where the buck had ended up and we needed to move around to get a good look in there. We spent the rest of the day moving around that way and stopping on several glassing knobs, working out way in. We finally got to knob that looked directly down into the bowl. We immediately located a group of does we hadn't seen from any other knob's that upped our excitement level. A few minutes later I moved my bino's to a new spot and the buck was standing in the middle of my fov. We were already in range. I slipped into a prone position and my buddy gave me a range. A couple shots and hits later and we had harvested this beautiful buck.
My buddy stayed behind while I initially walked up to the buck. I knew he was a good buck when I shot, but he even grew on me a bit. My mind was blown as I sat next to this beautiful animal. I started thinking about how lucky I was to harvest such an animal on public land. I also thought about my 36 week pregnant wife at home taking care of my nearly 2 year old son and how lucky I am to have a spouse that supports me in going on adventures like this. Especially after being gone most of the month of October guiding in Wyoming... Then something got in my eye, maybe it was allergies, but there was a little bit of a breakdown there on the side of the mountain. My buddy made it up to me shortly after and there were plenty of high fives and hugs. We took some great pictures and then got the buck broken down and ready for the pack out. We got the packs loaded and took off for the truck. About and hour later, my hunt was over and I couldn't have dreamed of a better trip. We hunted the next two days and my buddy passed several bucks with them not quite being what he was looking for. We ended the last few minutes of our hunt reflecting on the last few days and how great they were.
As he laid...
A couple of nice photos taken by my buddy...
I rolled into town Sunday evening just before sunset. I had one spot I could get to before dark and spent about 20 minutes of last light glassing. I saw a couple of deer and headed off to the hotel to unload the truck and get settled in. My first day hunting started with glassing up a few doe groups and one nice framed buck with decent back forks, but no front fork on one side and a tiny fork on the front right. I was happy to find a respectable buck on my first morning in a new unit. I set off for lunch and to meet up with a couple of guys also hunting the area. That evening I passed on a big 3x3 buck, which I ended up regretting for a few days afterwards.
The next few days I spent bouncing back and forth between two main areas and seeing new bucks in each area every day. I saw several nice bucks, but ended up passing. The idea of the rut and seeing new bucks every day was just to intriguing for me to pull the trigger just yet. Every night when I talked my wife on the phone, she would ask me why I was being so picky when I am usually not overly picky. I was just having such a good time I wasn't quite ready for the hunt to be over with. Here is one of the better bucks I passed.
My buddy from home also had a tag, but had a lot of work stuff had come up that didn't allow him to drive up with me on Sunday. He ended up having to fly in late Thursday night. He has already filled tags on an archery bull, mz coues buck, and an antelope in the TX panhandle this year. He made it very clear that he was coming to help me and he wouldn't even think about shooting a buck until my tag was filled. Friday morning we headed into the area I had been seeing the most bucks in and got to glassing at first light. This morning was a little slower than previous days had been, but we were still seeing plenty of doe groups, just not many bucks in with them.
About mid morning my buddy let me know that he had a good buck way off on the horizon headed our way. I got my spotter spun around and found the buck he was looking at, and we agreed he was a definite shooter. The buck continued to head our way for a while and disappeared behind a ridge across the basin from us and never re appeared. I pulled out the gps and found a nice little tucked away bowl back there. We decided that was probably where the buck had ended up and we needed to move around to get a good look in there. We spent the rest of the day moving around that way and stopping on several glassing knobs, working out way in. We finally got to knob that looked directly down into the bowl. We immediately located a group of does we hadn't seen from any other knob's that upped our excitement level. A few minutes later I moved my bino's to a new spot and the buck was standing in the middle of my fov. We were already in range. I slipped into a prone position and my buddy gave me a range. A couple shots and hits later and we had harvested this beautiful buck.
My buddy stayed behind while I initially walked up to the buck. I knew he was a good buck when I shot, but he even grew on me a bit. My mind was blown as I sat next to this beautiful animal. I started thinking about how lucky I was to harvest such an animal on public land. I also thought about my 36 week pregnant wife at home taking care of my nearly 2 year old son and how lucky I am to have a spouse that supports me in going on adventures like this. Especially after being gone most of the month of October guiding in Wyoming... Then something got in my eye, maybe it was allergies, but there was a little bit of a breakdown there on the side of the mountain. My buddy made it up to me shortly after and there were plenty of high fives and hugs. We took some great pictures and then got the buck broken down and ready for the pack out. We got the packs loaded and took off for the truck. About and hour later, my hunt was over and I couldn't have dreamed of a better trip. We hunted the next two days and my buddy passed several bucks with them not quite being what he was looking for. We ended the last few minutes of our hunt reflecting on the last few days and how great they were.
As he laid...
A couple of nice photos taken by my buddy...
