WA Booner Buck with a bow - 148" net green score

[shanevg]

WA Booner Buck with a bow - 148" gross green score

I have been looking forward to hunt since we first got trail cam photos of him this summer. There were several bucks in the area, but for about every 50 pictures we'd get of other bucks, we'd finally get one photo of the big guy. By the time August rolled around, we only got a single image of him the entire month. With that in mind, I wasn't optimistic I'd be seeing the deer much during season, but I still planned to give it everything!

Due to time constraints this year, I knew I didn't have a lot of time in October to chase this buck with my rifle, but I did have some flexibility during archery season. I decided to take the entire first week of September off work and see if I could find the buck while he was still spending (hopefully) more time in the open. As the week loomed closer, the weather forecast really got my excited as after a VERY dry summer, it looked like we were going to have cooler temperatures and a lot of precipitation. Rain and fog can make hunting in the alpine difficult, but it can also make the deer A LOT more visible!

My buddy Jon opted to help me pack in my camp the first day. Weather was cool but luckily, not a lot of precipitation on the hike in. After nearly 5 hours, we finally made camp. On the way up, we pass through some great old growth timber and plenty of buck rubs!

I decided to pack a tarp along to help keep things dry from the impending rain (and it turns out snow!)

 

[shanevg]

We went out the first afternoon to check our trail cameras and see if we could find any deer. One of our cameras showed a nice velvet buck had passed through only 13 minutes before us! Shortly thereafter, we spotted a doe feeding through a meadow. The rain and fog was coming and going about every 5 minutes at this point. We were checking our third camera when Jon told me to freeze. The doe we had seen earlier was bedded in the open and right next to her was the big 4 point were hoping to find! They were only 200 yards away! After analyzing their location and the wind, we decided we'd have to wait for him to get up and start feeding to make a play on him. About an hour later, their meadow was covered by fog for about 2 minutes. After it burned off, both deer were gone! We started working our way down three different ravines that seemed to be likely feeding routes (up and down, up and down, up and down) but couldn't find him. We then climbed about another 500 feet up the hill and over another major ridge to see if they were feeding up the back side of that ridge but couldn't find them there either. We did walk right up on 2 VERY NICE billy mountain goats bedded at 40 yards. Eventually, we really got fogged in and decided we better head back to camp. On the way to camp, we found another billy and were able to sneak in to 7 yards of him and get some great video footage!

Jon headed down that night, his GPS said he had hiked more than 15 miles and more than 6000 feet of climbing! Thanks for helping Jon!!!

That night it got much colder than expected. I was glad I packed down booties for my feet and an extra down jacket that I could wear while in the sleeping bag as my bag was only rated to 32 degrees (it was colder than that every night!)

The next morning I headed back to the meadow we had spotted the deer in but he was not in the same location as the night before. It had snowed a bit at camp the night before and started snowing steady by about 9 am.

I started working my way through the meadow and after about an hour of slowly moving and glassing, I spotted a 2 point and 3 point feeding at the bottom of the meadow. I watched them for a couple minutes than saw another deer at the edge of the timber, I could just make him out through the branches of some trees. After a few more minutes of watching I saw a flash of antler and new it was the buck I was chasing! I quickly backtracked and worked my way down a paralleling avalanche chute so I could get down to their elevation. I VERY slowly and quietly worked my way through a line of timber and was just catching glimpses of their antlers through the trees. They had decided to bed in the bottom of the meadow right on the edge of the timber. My buck was with them and he looked huge! I ranged them at 86 yards and was working my way out of the timber when all 3 bucks jumped up out of their beds and looked straight up hill (not at me.) I couldn't figure out what was going on, the wind was perfect and I was being quiet, how did I spook them? I could hear a strange sound coming from up hill (kind of like a dog barking mixed with a grouse.) My suspicions as to what was making the sound were confirmed when a black bear comes busting out of the timber 45 yards away from me and tries to chase the deer down in the middle of the meadow! I can only assume he was trying to get a meal since blueberries are all but done in the alpine! I couldn't believe it, I had the perfect set up only to be ruined by a black bear! :bash:

The deer ran back up the hill (where I'd just come from) and after about 300 yards just stopped and looked back at the bear who just walked back into the trees away from them. I retreated back the way I came and climbed back up the hill. When I got to the top of the avalanche chute I decided to stick to the edge of the timber to see if I could find the deer back. Sure enough, they were feeding up hill about 120 yards away from me. It was wide open between me and them so I hunkered down and hoped they'd feed my direction. At this point the snow REALLY picked up and it was getting hard to even see the deer through the snow. (I have a ton of really cool video footage of this that you'll see when I make the hunt video!) I finally hunkered down under a tree to wait out the snow storm.

After the snow storm passed there were about 3 inches on the ground. I worked my way out into the meadow to try to dry out in the sun and I couldn't' find the deer anywhere. After about 2 hours of sunning, I glanced up and there was my 4-point again bedded back in the same spot he was the afternoon before! I was able to snap some photos through my spotting scope and some video too!

 

[shanevg]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlYYkctGK1g

Again, there was no way to get to him in his bed, so I waited for him to get up and start feeding. After about an hour, he got up and started feeding up hill, directly into one of the ravines I had worked down the evening before. I made a break to get up above him and after about 30 minutes I was hiding behind a rock with him at 87 yards. Unfortunately, just before I'd got to that rock, I flushed a flock of grouse directly towards him and he knew something was up. He stood in one spot looking my direction for over 20 minutes without moving a muscle. Finally, he turned around and fed back down the ravine and bedded down again. I knew he was a bit spooked and the wind was really swirling, so I decided to back out and try again the next day.

That night, my buddy Ryan volunteered to make the hike in and spend the morning with me. He made it in right at dark and it snowed nearly 4 inches overnight. We got up early the next morning and hunted hard but saw nothing moving except for a single doe.

 

[shanevg]

Ryan had to leave that afternoon and the snow had finally let up. I had some lunch back at camp and filled up my water bottles and then made my way back to the meadow where the big buck was living. It was way easier walking without all the snow on the ground. It's crazy how defined some of the game trails were in the area!

After about an hour of glassing in the fog (about 2 minutes of glassing, 15 minutes of fog, etc.) all of a sudden the buck was back and feeding in the same meadow he had been bedded in the 2 days before. After seeing him for about 30 seconds, the fog moved back in so I started moving his direction. I got back to the same exact rock I had hidden behind the day before but I could not see the buck anywhere! I glassed for a couple minutes and then saw a doe come running out of the trees and straight into a ravine below the meadow I had last seen the buck in. When she ran by a tree, I was able to catch a glimpse of his antlers between some branches on the tree down in the ravine.

I couldn't decide which way the buck was going - was he feeding horizontally or would he feed up the bottom of the ravine he was in (the wind was blowing up the ravine)? I literally stood on the rock for 5 minutes trying to decide. The safe call would be to wait for him at the top of the ravine knowing that he would either walk by me or wouldn't. But my gut told me he was feeding horizontally, the problem was that if I was wrong and he fed up hill, he would catch my scent and most likely bust out of there. Finally I decided to play my gut and work my way down hill to a little pocket meadow below me. I methodically and quietly worked my way down hill. One step, then slowly look around and see if I could find him.

After about 20 minutes I came around a tree and stopped to look when I saw his rack come up out of the trees and he stepped all the way into the meadow directly below me on a 40 degree slope. As soon as he came into the meadow, he looked right at me, trying to figure out what I was. Luckily, I wasn't moving when he came out, the wind was blowing up hill, and I had my face covered in camo. He couldn't figure out what I was. After about a stare down that seemed to last an eternity (probably about 90 seconds) he turned to scratch his back (to get off his summer coat). I wanted to be confident of distance so I took the opportunity to range him. My rangefinder read 35 yards so I decided to hold for 30 due to the steep angle of the slope. As soon as I dropped my rangefinder, he turned back to look at me. and another stare down ensued. I was concerned that he wouldn't keep staring at me forever so made the decision to VERY SLOWLY reach for an arrow and nock the arrow. About this point, the doe stepped out into the meadow and started staring at me as well. I VERY SLOWLY pulled back and came to full draw and then settled my bow right over his kill zone. As soon as I settled I released the arrow and watched it sail right through the boiler room!!!! The buck kicked his back legs straight upon the air and ran about 12 yards (the whole time I could see blood pumping out of both sides of his body! He stopped behind a bush and stared back at me so I started nocking another arrow but before I could draw back he tipped over backwards and rolled into a creek. CRASH!!! BOOM!!! BANG!!! Then everything was silent. It sounded like he had fallen a long ways!

 

[shanevg]

This is my reaction immediately after watching him roll down the hill:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L-rdROs0RE

I worked my way down the hill where the buck had rolled. About every 6 feet there would be a puddle of blood about 24 inches in diameter. Unfortunately, the creek bottom was STEEP and BRUSHY! At one point I took a steep and sank down under a tree literally up to my neck, just barely caching myself on some branches. I was finally able to get a visual on my buck through multiple trees at the bottom of about a 16 foot waterfall. I had to drop my pack and bow and literally lay on my stomach and lower myself down branch by branch in order to get down to the deer. When I finally got to him, I couldn't believe it!

I immediately called Jon (to let him know exactly where I was) and my wife and my dad. They were psyched! It was now 7:15, foggy, and starting to snow again, and I was standing with my deer on a narrow ledge with a 16 foot waterfall above me and about a 12 foot waterfall below me. I decided I was not doing anything with him that night and asked Jon for backup. He said he'd be there in the morning. I did pull him out of the creek and snap a few pictures with my phone before climbing out of the hole, grabbing my stuff, and making my way quickly back to camp!

Here is where I found the deer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeUb8JCy1f4

And the photos I snapped with my phone:

After I got to camp, I texted photos to my hunting buddies and family, scarfed down some dinner, and crashed in my sleeping bag, I was completely spent! I slept about 3 hours and then woke up to a tent frozen as stiff as a popsicle and freezing! I was so cold and excited I never did fall back asleep! The next morning, Jon made it up to camp around 8:30 and we headed out to find my deer. We found a better way to access him from the other side of the creek bed but still had to cape and butcher him on that narrow ledge. We literally had to hold the body up with our legs so he wouldn't roll down the next waterfall! It took about 4 hours to get the meat and cape/head out to the main meadow where we could load them up on our packs.

 

[shanevg]

We went back to camp, gathered up our stuff and made the very long, very slow hike back out to the truck. We were loaded down and exhausted! Of course there was no trail back to the truck, it was backcountry travel the whole way! Climbing over logs was the worst as it was so hard to balance on one leg with that amount of weight on your back. We both got new Kifaru packs this year and I can tell you they made a WORLD of difference. I don't know that we could have got everything in one trip without a Kifaru pack on our back!

I've said it already but there is no way this hunt would have been a success without the the helping hand of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Not only was he watching over my safety in some pretty nasty conditions and nasty country, but he guided my mind and hand in some great stalks (without spooking the buck) and finally a successful stalk with a perfect, ethical, one shot kill! Now we have a freezer full of the best organic meat money can buy!

Score is not at all the most important thing to me, but this buck green scores 148" gross and 144" net. I couldn't be happier!

 

[eLightfoot]

way to go man! Thats a hog of a buck! Really enjoyed your story and pictures, awesome!

 

[Broomd]

Outstanding hunt in every way...congrats on a tremendous trophy and fine table fare...you earned that one!

 

[chiefhoyt]

That is a heck of a buck!

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

That's awesome! Great buck congratulations

 

[Trial153]

Great write up and Buck, congrats !

 

[Nick Muche]

EXCELLENT! Awesome buck and nice work getting him!

 

[RamDreamer]

Very nice buck!

 

[realunlucky]

Excellent writeup and what a great buck congratulations

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

Beautiful buck Shane! Congrats!

 

[E Wa Hunter]

Congrats on a great buck and wonderful write up

 

[dangerousD]

What a great story and great buck! Kept me enticed every second of reading that. Congrats!

 

[Shrek]

Congratulations ! Great buck ! Thanks for the story and pictures , great job all the way around.

 

[Warren1726]

What a fantastic hunt and deer! So much different than hunting whitetails here in KY.

 

[bowuntr]

Outstanding story, photos and buck. Congratulations. What a pig... Ed F