eLightfoot
WKR
New to the forum here and thought I'd break in with a story about my Bzone opener this year. Well my two friends and I went backpacking deep into the the high country of Bzone. About 8 miles in camp was set and we planned to stay put as it was friday before season and we wanted the land untouched. As we pitched our tents around 4:00pm the clouds were getting really thick and the sky getting dark. Knowing the rain was coming we prepared our gear for the next day and kept it in the tents. the wind started to blow harder and things looked like they were gona get nasty quick!Just as we finish setting camp, my buddy, with an excited voice rouses us from from our rest. He says "OMG.... guys get up and look at this BUCK"! We rolled out of our tents and 50 yards away a buck, behind a doe goes trotting by. It was a nice heavy fork, looked to be around 20". We all commented how we would have no hesitation about taking that buck if we saw it the next day. After that we were so beat be got in our tents and went to bed (about 6:00).
I remember waking up friday night to absolute pounding rain and wind. Thank god I have a good MSR tent that took the abuse and I stayed dry. It rained all night and into the morning. When we woke up, hunting was not really an immediate option. The rain was still coming down hard and it was COLD! We had to build a fire to stay warm. It took about an hour to get a fire going. Everything was wet. I had to use rocks to bust apart rotted timber and pull the dry splinters out with my freezing hands. Once the fire got up to speed we warmed our selves in the smokey bliss and hoped the weather would let up a bit. We aren't the type to let a bit of weather get us down either, we are pretty tough dudes, but up at 6500ft it was pretty crazy.
After warming by the fire two of us went off into the wilderness for a hunt, one man stayed behind to watch the fire. After a few hours of wandering around in the storm I was back at camp to take my fire watch. My buddy who was now warm and dry by the fire now went off on a hunt. About a half hour after he left, all hell broke loose. The other guy in my party came back to join me and then the snow started blowing in. in minutes it would go from rain, to hail, to sleet, to snow, and back and forth. The winds changed and blew all that wet crap straight on at us. Our tarp we set up was of no use. So we stood there for probably four hours with no shelter in the snow/rain. When my other friend returned we shared stories of what we saw and he told us he had to crawl under a rock for a bit when it was really bad lol.
later that afternoon we all were back out there in the weather hunting. only seeing a very wet doe and fawn. That night the rain stopped, things were looking good again. The night was really cold but it wasn't so bad in the tent, stayed pretty comfy.
The mourning was beautiful, the sky was pinkish and bluey with mixed in clouds. Our hopes were high for some good hunting. hoping to catch cold, wet deer out in the sun. However as the morning progressed more clouds filled the sky and it was gloomy and cold the rest of the day. Not seeing much game, I had to assume all the animals had moved off the top and got down in the canyons for protection so my hunt was planned accordingly. I moved down a finger very slowly stopping frequently to glass everything. I was really hoping to catch a buck on the move. No such luck. By the time it was 3:30, I was about 2 miles down from camp and I was walking a small ridge that was concealed in the large timber. Kind of like a remote Island, this ridge was in the middle of nowhere. I slowly walked along its flat spine, wind in my favor and the ground was soft and quiet. I gave up on glassing and had my rifle in hand. at this point all I wanted was to jump something. I had seen no game all day, NOTHING! Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw something. ANTLERS.......... Big antlers, lots of points antlers, too close antlers. 10 yards away the biggest buck I have ever seen was bedded just off the side of the ridge. All I could see were the horns sticking up from behind the crest of the ridge. My heart sank and my butt puckered. the only chance I had was to shoot him right in the skull plate (which I really did not want to do). I decided I would lean forward just enough to get a shot right in his snout, knowing the bullet would exit out the back of his neck. I should have known better because as soon as I leaned forward and I saw the bucks eyes, he turned and bolted down the back side of the ridge, which of course was wicked, nasty steep. I went strait into combat mode and ran across the top of the ridge and down hill after the buck. I saw his big gray body and big fat white belly running down hill through the half bunt timber. I locked up the breaks, drew my rifle, found him in the crosshairs and before I knew what happened my rifle barked and sent a 100grn .25 cal barnes ttsx his way. When I looked up the buck was gone and I continued to run full speed down the hill hoping for another shot. After getting about 75yrds down I stopped and listened for crashing brush. Silence was all I heard and my heart stopped beating and for a second I thought I blew it. I looked all around me and then BOOM, there he was! Dead piled up against a fallen log. That was the best feeling I ever had. I did it, and I knew it was a big buck. I ran over and collapsed next to the buck. In shock I counted the Points. 5x4 with eye guards. I knew right away it was a mounter buck. I sent out a call on the radio and got one response from my friend Ian who was back at camp about 2 miles up hill. Told him I got a big buck and needed help. As he gathered gear and packs I tried to drag the buck back to the top of the ridge where I originally saw him. Nope, not gona happen WAY too heavy. In a panic I gut the deer to lighten the load and try to drag him again. NOPE still way to F*ing heavy. Finally got both buddies on the radio and had to shoot my rifle again so they could find me. with the help of my friends and three frame packs we split the deer in half. I carried the head/torso and Ian packed the hams, Gabe packed all of our gear out. got back to camp just as it was dark and started to rain again. Gabe is a professional butcher so he caped the buck and then we boned him out that nite.
After drinking our whiskey and boning out the deer we went to bed around 1:30 and it rained again all nite. Woke up to a wet morning but it burned off as we packed out. sun was out and should have been excellent hunting but we had to go. The pack out was tough. 8 miles, gabe and I carried around 85lbs of gear/meat each. It was so heavy the shoulder strap on my badlands 4500 ripped off. Had to jimmy rig it with some cord to hold it together.
All in all it was a trip of a lifetime. Only my second blacktail an he is going on the wall. I know he may not be as big as some of the bucks you guys get, but for me he is a true trophy.
