Cold Case: Muzzleloader Buck Hunt Recap

[RaggedHunter]

I wanted to do a recap of my 2024 Muzzleloader buck. I learned a ton hunting this buck and figured some of you big buck guys might enjoy this story.

Cold Case:
I'm not normally one to name the animals I'm hunting. That seems like more of a whitetail thing to me, but the name just seemed fitting for this deer given how it all came together.

In 2018 a good friend of mine who did not grow up hunting was wanting to get into it. I helped him setup a bow and we shot in the evenings after work. He picked up a cow elk tag. I went out with him the first few weekends of the hunt, had some encounters but ultimately hadn't got anything.

One weekend I was not able to go hunting with him. He went on his own. He picked a spot in a new area. This was an area I was somewhat familiar with, but not the main spot we had been hunting. After the weekend I asked him how it went. He informed me that he did not get an elk, but he did tell me about a big buck he jumped out of his bed, he said it was a big wide buck with a big cheater. He sent me a point to show me where it was at. I thought this would be a great spot to check if I end up with either a muzzleloader or archery tag for the unit in the coming years.

Fast forward to 2024, I have not had a tag for this unit in the 6 years since my buddy jumped the big deer. In August I was able to pick up a leftover muzzleloader tag for the unit. I decided what the hell, that spot is probably worth a look, it obviously had all the right ingredients to grow a big deer.

The problem was, those special ingredients critical to growing a big deer made this country not at all condusive to locating deer. It was a huge flat with thick scrub oak covering the majority of it. Walking around the country blindly would have been futile. There were no real good vantage points to glass all the country from if I went into the area from the way I would have to access it to hunt it.

After looking over the maps and google earth, I decided that my best bet was to go in from a completely different area, and long range glass the entire area from 2+ miles away. This would at least give me an idea on if there was anything I wanted to chase in the area and where I needed to focus in on. So I set out for my first morning of scouting.

 

[RaggedHunter]

One Saturday morning in mid August, I set out to scout the area. I hiked into the vantage point I wanted to be at well before light.

I sat up my tripod and 15's and as light began to break I was busy scanning all the country I could see. I located a couple of does, and a good number of elk. I even saw a really nice (Especially for this OTC unit) ~315 class bull that already had ~40 cows and was bugling his brains out. I had been glassing for about an hour and had only seen a couple of does.

I glassed into an opening I had looked at several times already. and this time I saw a small group of cow and calf elk entering from the far side. I noticed a couple of the elk started running around, kicking and playing... I then saw a small group of deer move across the opening away from the elk. I could tell it was a bachelor group of bucks, but from 2+ miles away I couldn't tell what any of them were with my 15's. As I watched I noticed 1 of the deer, the one with the biggest body did not like all this commotion, he peeled off from the group and bee-lined it for the nearest patch of thick oaks. My big buck radar went off. While the rest of the group fed off about 75 yards from the elk and continued feeding, this one had put his head down and headed straight for the thick oaks. As soon as he got into the thick oaks he bedded down and watched his back trail.

I got my spotting scope setup to try and see exactly what he was. It was hard to tell exactly what he was from that distance with the mirage and all the other factors that come with long range glassing. But I could tell he had a big frame and a cheater off his left side. I got a couple crappy videos of him through my spotter, and after slowing the videos down I figure he had close to a 30" frame and had to be pushing 190". He was the best deer I had seen in this area in a number of years, and I decided that I was going to spend as much time as I possibly could going after him. I was either going to hang my hag on him, or eat it.

This is the part that still blows my mind and where I came up with the name Cold Case.

I marked the bucks location on OnX and headed home. When I got home, I started wondering where this bed was in proximity to where my buddy had jumped the big buck in 2018. I was using a different app back in 2018, so after a while of digging around old apps I found the old point, I transferred it into OnX, and I'll be damned if the 2 points weren't within 50 yards of each other...

 

[RaggedHunter]

I made a couple more scouting trips between mid August and the start of season. But I did not lay eyes on him again. I did not see any of his buddies in this location again either. Cattle had moved into the area, I figured this my have stirred things up a bit.

One morning glassing I spotted a bachelor group of small bucks about a mile from where I saw Cold Case. I began wondering if this was the group he had been running with, I hadn't spend enough time looking at these deer the first day to be able to identify any of them. Was this the same group? Had they just relocated? Was he still with the group? I didnt get the feeling he was really hanging with this group of bucks, as much as I think they just happened to be feeding in the same area, but I just I wasn't sure. I knew he had to still be in there somewhere.

I planned on taking the whole season off. My plan was to sit on that glassing knob ever day until I re-located him.

The week prior to season that plan went in the dumpster. A big project of mine at work got pushed right into the week of muzzleloader. I had guys coming in from other countries, they were not able to re arrange their schedules. So now I was down to only having the 2 weekends to hunt. I was a bit upset, of course the year I finally find a big buck worthy of putting all my effort into, and I have timing commitment issues. But I got over my pity party and decided, I'm just going to spend every minute I do have looking for this deer.

I took the Friday before season opener off and went to my glassing knob. I did not turn him up that day either.

 

[RaggedHunter]

Opening morning.

I enlisted the help of my sister and her boyfriend to help me spot. I figured I could use all the sets of eyes possible to help locate him. And I knew if I had to move on him that I would want someone to be able to stay behind and keep tabs on the deer.

We saw a handful of deer and elk that morning, but had not turned up cold case. At one point pretty early in the morning, my sisters boyfriend told me that he saw a deer butt got through a small patch of quakies just below the oak bowl where I had seen cold case bed earlier in August. This was the only glimpse any of us had got, we were not able to confirm what this deer was.

About an hour into light we watched two hunters walk right up to the edge of the little oak bowl that the big buck had bedded in the first day, they were glassing right into where I saw him bed in August. My heart sank. I figured these guys must know about this buck too. But they glassed into that area for about 15 minutes, then kept working right on by.

By about 10 am everything was bedded and it was starting to get warm. We had seen several deer and had confirmed each one was not him.. Except the one deer but that was going out of the quakies going toward his bedding area. I was pretty certain this spot was the bucks home, he had to be in there somewhere. What if that was his butt Joe saw early this morning.

I took my 15s off my tripod and put my spotter on. I zoomed in to the point where I could fit this entire oak bowl in my field of view, I locked my tripod head in place and began attempting to burn a hole through all the thick oak brush. I did not touch my spotting scope for the next 20 minutes, just kept staring into this thick bowl of oaks.

Suddenly, I saw the tops of an oak start shaking side to side. The shaking continued, and got more violent. but the brush was too thick, I could not see what what doing the shaking. I figured either a bear had moved in and was getting after some acorns, or this was the buck. We all locked on and watched this spot for the next half hour, the mirage was getting bad, and it was making it hard to see detail. Finally it stepped out of the oaks into a small opening, it was a deer. I got a glimpse of his antlers, and I was about 90% sure it was cold case. I never saw his left side to verify he had the cheater, but it looked like a big bodied, big frame deer. He had rubbed his velvet now, so it was hard to tell for certain without seeing the cheater. But I didn't figure there was another mature buck living in this small of an area. He was the only mature deer I had seen in this entire area scouting, I thought it had to be him. We watched him go into a thick shady clump of oaks and did not see him come back out.

I decided I had better make a move and get into position for when he got out of his bed. I left my sister and her boyfriend on the glassing knob locked onto his location. I began the trek around to get into position. It took me about 3 hours to get into position. The country was extremely thick, I was wondering how I was ever going to get a shot through this stuff. I finally found a small area with a couple of shooting lanes about 130 yards from the clump of oaks where we watched the buck bed. I set up and got comfortable, it was about 1:30 and I knew I may possibly be sitting here until dark. I reached in my pack to grab a drink of water, and realized my water bottle had fallen out somewhere along my journey to get here... This was going to make for a long sit.

My thirst and cotton mouth was giving me PTSD flashbacks to my High School wrestling days when I would cut weight. I sat there until dark, never saw a thing. My sister and her boyfriend never saw a thing either.. that buck either stayed bedded until after dark, or he had slipped out of that clump of oaks and we all just missed him.

I stopped by another hunters camp on my way out that evening and they were kind enough to share a couple bottles of water. Did not catch their names, but if by some chance you guys see this, thank you. I owe you gentlemen a beer.

 

[RaggedHunter]

Day 2:

Watched a herd of elk walk straight through the bucks little hidey hole. Saw several deer this morning, overall animal activity was really good because there was a storm moving in. But never saw cold case.

Glassed until about 10am, then the rain set in, it fogged in and rained the rest of the day. It was back to work now for me.

Day 3 of hunting: Day 7 of season.

I wrapped up my work project by mid day Friday and decided the hurry and get an evening hunt in. I enlisted the help of my neighbor and good buddy for the evening. With how long it took me to get from the glassing knob to the deer, I figured there was no play on the deer on an evening hunt unless I was already in striking distance. I sent him up to the glassing knob, and I went in the bottom. I worked my way around this country looking for some sort of a vantage point within about a thousand yards that would allow me to look into the deer's hidey hole. But this country was just too thick and flat. I could not find a spot that let me see what I really needed to without being up on the glassing knob. My buddy glassed the whole area until dark, saw a few does and 1 small forky, but no sign of the big buck.

Looking ahead, there was another big storm moving in. I knew I would have Saturday morning to hunt but that Saturday evening and Sunday morning were probably going to be less than ideal with the weather. Saturday morning was going to be my last good chance to make something happen.

 

[RaggedHunter]

Day 4 hunting: Day 8 of season.

With the impending weather, I knew this morning may be my last good chance to get this buck killed. I knew I needed to get more aggressive and try to make something happen. I had another good buddy from work helping me this morning. I sent him up to the glassing knob, my plan was to wait until the sun came up, then still hunt my way up through the quakie finger in which we had seen him feed out of on his way to his hidey hole on opening morning. If I didn't see him on my way in, I would set up close to where he fed through and wait for him to either feed back through, or until my spotter located him, this way I was atleast in striking distance.

I had barely eased into the aspens when I spotted deer. It was a couple small forkies and a doe, they spotted me at the same time and took off in the direction I was going. "Damn" I thought, I wish I had bumped them a different direction. We were still several hundred yards from the bucks hidey hole, so I continued easing my way through the aspens. I had just got to the spot where I wanted to sit, it gave me a few nice shooting lanes at the area the buck had fed through the quakies on opening morning. I was just getting set up when my phone buzzed with a text message. I opened it up and it read "couple small bucks and a doe bumped out ahead of you, they bumped the big buck. He ran out of the quakies and straight to the oakbrush, he bedded down as soon as he got into the oaks, can't see him now that he bedded." Holy crap, he is really still in here. I thought about it for a second, I thought to myself I bet that buck went and bedded in the same spot as when the elk buggered him clear back in August.. If this was in fact where he was, this was my chance to kill him.

Without another thought, I took off running. I ran a big circle all the way around the bucks hidey hole. I knew there was a spot that I could peek down into this oak bowl. It was actually the same exact spot as where I watched the 2 hunters glass into the bowl from on opening morning. When I got around and was close to where I wanted to peek over, I slid my pack off, grabbed my tripod and extended it out to standing height, I slid my little gun cradle with and arca swiss plate onto my tripod head, then eased my way up to the edge. As I peeked over the edge I sat my gun in the cradle, and put my chest binos over the top of my gun so I could scan the oaks below.

I scanned for several minutes, and was just about to take a couple more steps forward when I caught movement in the oaks. I locked onto the spot, sure enough the leaves moved again. Then I saw it, a deer antler poking out of the oaks. I could make out a big back fork with a cheater off the G3. "holy crap, it's him! My heart nearly jumped out of my chest. I quickly ranged the brush around him 120 yards, "bingo" I thought to myself this gun was zeroed at 150 and hit an inch and a half high at 125.

I slid my rangefinder back into my harness and went back to my binos. He was up and feeding now, Even through the binos, all I could see were the tops of his antlers. I could not even see hair through the thick oak leaves with my binos. "How the hell am I going to get a shot through this crap" I thought to myself.

I kept watching him, trying to anticipate an opening he might step into. But there was nothing. He was feeding towards some taller thicker oaks, I knew if he got into those my chances of getting a shot went to zero. As I watched him he finally fed into a small window where I could see his entire head, antlers, and a portion of his neck. "do I take a shot at his neck?" I thought, that might be all he gives me.. I looked through the binos again, There was just no clearing that was going to expose his chest.

I looked down the sights and I could make out his neck, and I could hold steady on where I wanted to hit.. I was contemplating whether to take the shot or wait. I decided to look through the binos one last time and make sure there weren't any branches covering his neck. As I raised my binos and looked at the deer, the movement of grabbing my binos had given me away. I was skylined on the ridge and the big buck did not let this mistake slide, he caught my hand going to my binos, he was frozen, staring a hole through me, I confirmed there were no branches in the way. I holstered my binos and thought "it's now or never, this is why you practice shooting". I settled the fine crosshairs of the Williams globe sight on the neck of the buck and began applying pressure to the trigger.

 

[RaggedHunter]

Ka-Boom! Thwack! The blackhorn 209 smoke filled the air.

As soon as the smoke cleared the air, I put my binos up and began scanning the oaks for any sign of the buck. Nothing.

It sounded like the bullet connected, didn't it? But with how thick it was, I wasn't sure if the buck had ran off, or whether I dropped him. Maybe I hit a branch.. My mind was starting to play tricks on me, now I was second guessing whether I really heard the bullet hit.

I called my buddy on the glassing knob. He had lost sight of the buck just before I shot, the buck had got behind the taller oaks and was blocked from his view. He said he was actually surprised when I shot, because he did not know I had taken off running and gotten around the deer. He thought I was still in the aspens. He was trying to keep tabs on where the buck went so he could let me know. After I shot, he said he panned his spotter over and could see me on the hillside. He had not seen anything come out of the oaks. I told him to keep scanning the area in case the buck slipped out.

I reloaded my muzzleloader. And forced myself to eat a granola bar to give the deer some time. While I chewed on the granola bar I scanned the oaks again looking for hide, an antler tip, anything. But I could see nothing but a wall of oakbrush.

after about 15-20 minutes I checked in with my buddy. He had still not seen anything. I told him to keep eyes on the spot while I worked down in there in case I jumped him.

I picked a landmark, a small patch of oaks with red leaves that was directly behind where the deer had been standing and started easing my way down. I was about 10 yards from the patch of red oaks, when I looked over and saw a leg laying out of a patch of snowberry bushes. My buddy on the glassing knob said he watched me working down through the oaks, then he saw my hands go up in the sky. We both celebrated from a couple of miles apart.

I took a second to compose myself and said a quick thank you to the big man upstairs before walking over and laying my hands on the buck. I have experienced ground shrinkage my fair share of times. I still did not know exactly what this deer was. I knew he had a big frame and a cheater of his left G3, but I had never gotten a great look at him to really size him up. Every time I had seen him it was quick glimpses from a long distance with mirage and all that good stuff. But when I lifted his head out of the brush, there was no ground shrinkage. He was perfect, he was my dream buck with a big frame, great eye guard's and sure enough a big cheater of his back end. It was all a big dream come true.

I sat there a while and soaked in the feeling. I snapped a few photos of the deer. Talked with my buddy and made a plan for him to come meet me to get pictures and help pack the deer out. I called my wife, and told her I got him. She was driving, and had me on the cars bluetooth. When I told her I got him, I heard my 3.5 year old in the back seat start cheering "Yay! my dad got the big buck!" She told me later that as soon as they got home he ran to his room and put on his camo so he could get his picture with the buck when I got home.

The whole experience chasing this deer was surreal. I gutted the buck and pulled him into the shade, then hiked to meet my buddy so we could pack him out. When I dropped a pin on the bucks location, I couldn't believe it, my pin was 5 yards from the location where I saw the buck bed in August, and less than 50 yards from where my friend had jumped a big deer 6 years prior. This deer taught me more about big buck behavior than any other deer I have ever chased. I am extremely grateful for the experience.

Not that score matters, because I wouldn't trade the story and experience for a deer that scored significantly more. But I mentioned that the first time I saw the deer I estimated that he was pushing 30 winches wide and 190". I can proudly say that he is 31.5" wide and came in just shy of the 190" mark.

 

[Sierra Hunter]

Well done for putting it all together, and all came from a good deed helping a buddy. Thanks for the great story, had me glued!

 

[Jmoore]

Great write up man. Been locked in waiting for updates. Congrats

 

[RaggedHunter]

Thank you guys. I'm glad you enjoyed the write up.

As a foot note: I am currently having the teeth lab aged, the age of the deer could be the final piece of the puzzle as to whether this is the same deer my buddy jumped 6 years ago (if he happens to be 10+ years old), or whether it is a younger deer that just got old using the same bed. I will post back with updates once I have the results.

I also forgot to mention a big thank you to all the friends that helped me take this buck. There is no way it would have all came together without great help from great friends. I'm grateful and indebted to each of you.

 

[Plainsman79]

Great story and congratulations on a great buck. The little dudes posture in your family photo is classic, that’s a happy young man right there!

 

[CMF]

Awesome buck and story!