The Rokslide/First Lite Buck Hunt - Ryan Avery/ Kenton Carruth

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He just gave me the tip
 
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robby denning

robby denning

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all right, we're back at deer camp and just hung one of the sweetest bucks we've taken up here. Great story, too.

Glassed in wind-chills of 15 degrees this morning. Found a few does but no good bucks courting them. Back here by 11:30 and just put the coffee on when the ranch hand texts and says he saw a good buck. We put our boots back on, skipped lunch and headed out. Long story short on that one, turned out to be about a 25" buck and Kenton and I put the moves on him, but the does saw us closing in and took him with them. We tracked him for an hour and figured he was holed up in some really thick quakies and wouldn't move till dark. Grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed right back out. Kenton set up an ambush about 300 yards from the last known location of that buck.

Ryan and I pulled back and hiked about a half mile south. The snow was really starting to come in and was blowing horizontally knocking visibility down to less than 200 yards. We fought the brush so we could keep the wind in our favor to arrive at a brushy hillside undetected just before dark so we could watch it. Ryan had asked me on the hike in if I'd ever heard a mule deer grunt. I said I had but it's more of a "roar" sound when I have heard it. We only had about 20 minutes of shooting light left so we sat down under a big service berry bush to get out of the wind.

We whispered some small talk when all of the sudden Ryan's face lights up and he said, "I just heard a deer grunt!" I honestly thought he was messing with me based on our earlier conversation. Ryan saw him first and said "big buck right there". Not a 100 yards out I finally saw a big body obscured in the brush. I threw the glasses up and instantly could tell it was the buck I'd scouted this summer and is in the photo in the beginning of this thread. Ryan's still teasing me as I hissed a few choice words followed by "shoot that buck!!!!"

Keep in mind, we're in waist-high brush, sitting down, with no way to get a decent rest AND Ryan's shooting a long range rifle not really made for shooting off hand. When I saw the giant muzzle break of his Christensen Arms TFM 338 Lapua level off 12" from my ear, I mashed my glove into my ear and leaned close to the ground. SERIOUSLY LOUD KABOOOOOOOOM!

The buck took off seemingly unscathed and got out of sight of both of us. We jumped up and sprinted 20 yards to where we could see the buck quickly making his escape into a thick quakie pocket. I turned around to make sure Ryan could see him who touched off an off-hand shot just as the buck hit the afterburners WAAAHOP!, He bucked and spun down hill disappearing in some chest-high sage. We got right on his tracks as it's almost too dark to shoot. We found him piled up with two bullet holes! Ryan had hit him both shots (300 grain Berger OTMs at 2735 fps) under very tough shooting conditions.

We were jumping up and down like a couple of 10 year-olds! Kenton actually heard us from a half-mile away.

The buck is 29.5" wide with 8 on the right and 5 on the left, with plenty of mass. Really, one of the best bucks we've killed up here since 2008. Awesome experience as Ryan and I have been trying to pull a hunt together since Rokslide started!!! and I got to see him take this buck at close range.

I have some photos to come and probably some video... Headed to bed as we need to get Kenton one too.
 
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