11-01-2005, 10:30 PM
Last friday I headed out looking for a buck. I was limited on where I could hunt because my knee was still so sore. Plus we wanted to get away from the jackasses that were hunting up the mountain. So I hunted about 15 miles south of where I hunted the opener, and got to work. There are a lot of little patches of trees in little ravines in this area, and the deer are kind of hard to see. I was walking in with my dad, uncle and brother right early in the morning when a buck jumped out about 50 yards in front of us. When he finally came out I couldn't believe it. He was around 35" wide, with a whole lot of trash hanging off all over the place. After a few botched shots(what can I say. Buck fever set in on me and my bro big time) he got away and started up a canyon. We started up after him, going unusually slow(I take the blame). Finally we hit the patch of trees towards the top, and a big buck stepped out. I made the mistake of cracking him strait off rather that waiting to see if it was the big buck from earlier. My trusty .243 dropped him like nothing. It wasn't him, though. We walked up on a really good buck, but he wasn't no 35"er. He wound up being 28" wide, 26" tall and really deep forked. Green score of 196" B&C.
We got him cleaned up and packed out, and by that time it was dark. So the next morning we set out again looking for that buck, this time for my brother. Hiked all day, and jumped a bunch of does and smaller 18-26" class bucks, but not Mr. Big. So it came down to the last day. We hiked up the canyon again(thank the big man upstairs for loritab!) and started pushing patches for my brother. At noon we made our way up to a canyon we call the Big Black Hole. It's big, it's thick, and it's full of cliffs. Low and behold there was a big buck a ways down it, but not Mr. Big. My brother elected to take this buck instead. We stalked to about 250 yards, and my brother put his rifle across my spoting scope and cracked him. First shot just over his back. Normally that's all you'd get with these deer is one shot. But this boy was more interested in some nice doe rear end, which is unusual for it only being the end of october. So he tried again, this time nailing his buck right in the spine and dropping him. My dad took his gun and finished the buck off quickly. That deer wound up being 31" wide, with 6.5" bases and was a big old 3X3.
Not too shabby for just a normal, every day general Utah deer hunt if I can say so myself. The rain the desert recieved helped greatly. It put those deer into rut-like conditions, and the bucks were a whole lot stupider. Plus it got colder, which makes hiking a whole lot easier. I didn't get pictures with my digital camera. It was in Mrs. Jones's desk at school because we've been using it for Journalism. But I did get them on my mom's normal camera. So once I get the pictures developed I'll post them onto here.
We got him cleaned up and packed out, and by that time it was dark. So the next morning we set out again looking for that buck, this time for my brother. Hiked all day, and jumped a bunch of does and smaller 18-26" class bucks, but not Mr. Big. So it came down to the last day. We hiked up the canyon again(thank the big man upstairs for loritab!) and started pushing patches for my brother. At noon we made our way up to a canyon we call the Big Black Hole. It's big, it's thick, and it's full of cliffs. Low and behold there was a big buck a ways down it, but not Mr. Big. My brother elected to take this buck instead. We stalked to about 250 yards, and my brother put his rifle across my spoting scope and cracked him. First shot just over his back. Normally that's all you'd get with these deer is one shot. But this boy was more interested in some nice doe rear end, which is unusual for it only being the end of october. So he tried again, this time nailing his buck right in the spine and dropping him. My dad took his gun and finished the buck off quickly. That deer wound up being 31" wide, with 6.5" bases and was a big old 3X3.
Not too shabby for just a normal, every day general Utah deer hunt if I can say so myself. The rain the desert recieved helped greatly. It put those deer into rut-like conditions, and the bucks were a whole lot stupider. Plus it got colder, which makes hiking a whole lot easier. I didn't get pictures with my digital camera. It was in Mrs. Jones's desk at school because we've been using it for Journalism. But I did get them on my mom's normal camera. So once I get the pictures developed I'll post them onto here.