Buckslayer307
FNG
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2017
After a 9 day backpack hunt I was able to get it done on this awesome buckk. 6 days solo then my good buddy ended up coming in and helping me the last 3 days and we backpacked into a different spot. There was a lot of ups and downs. The first hardship was when I first got to the trailhead and was making sure I had all my equipment together I noticed I could not find my backpacking stove and I wasn't about to drive an hour and a half to go get another one so I started taking tally of granola bars and beef sticks. Which I had 42 granola bars and 40 beef sticks I figured if I rationed everything I could eat four granola bars a day and three beef sticks a day n that would keep me at about a thousand calories a day and as long as I stayed on the ridge where my vantage point and my camp was at I can make that work for 7 days.I had a particular buck that I was after never did turn him up and was socked in with fog and rain the first couple days. I did turn up a good Buck day three and try to get on him ended up missing a long shot and then had some technical difficulties with my rifle my firing pin was stuck and had to pull my bolt apart and had to watch the buck that I had missed for 10 minutes while I sat there and cleaned my bolt. Then someone else fired from up on the ridge and missed him twice then that buck ran away and I never saw him again. Then as I sat there still messing with my bolt and making sure that the firing pan was working about 15 yards in front of me a buck came walking right in front of me with his tongue hanging out to the side like he just got done around in a marathon. Of course me messing with my gun I didn't have a round in the chamber and had my rifle in across my lap trying to decide whether I should try and shoot him or let him walk. I thought screw it I'm going to go for it so I went to chamber a round and as I did he took off running I jumped up and ran after him and took a quick shot which I knew I probably wasn't going to make. I knew it was a clean mess but I still followed him up and checked for blood there was no blood there I also went and checked were at the buck that I take the long shot at and followed his tracks and seen where I shot At him and it was a clean mess as well.It was a long hunt after that as I didn't see hardly any mature mule deer bucks. I met up with my buddy day 6 and we hiked further back in there. The morning of day 9 we glassed a few basins didn't see any big bucks then I went over the ridge to Glass another basin. Then 450 yards away was this mature 3-point buck that I had seen the day before the season and I decided to take him. He's not the one I was after but I'm extremely happy with him as he's a mature buck and the biggest three-point I've ever seen. I scored him and he scored a little over 170. He's 29 and 1/2 in wide and heavy. A close examination of his teeth which were extremely worn down you could tell he was an old deer.
