09-26-2008, 04:21 PM
It's over for me. I ended it last night with a nice meat buck.
I hunted with Flycasting and Hookjaw on the opener and saw 2 nice bucks but true to their character, a doe busted us and foiled our plans of taking a nice buck or 2. Tons of bull moose in the area but very few deer. I had a place in the valley a friend showed me that held 3 really nice shooter bucks but i never got a chance to see the bigger ones. I hooked up with my friend and his nephew last night to see if we could get him a 2-point. He is 16 and is no stranger to big game hunting. He has killed 7 deer and 2 elk with a muzzy.
We got to the spot about 6 pm and i set up 100 yards from the tree line in a patch of oak and they set up in the truck where they could see the other half of the property. Only 20 minutes after i got settled in hoards of does started coming out of the woodwork. I had at 1 point, 30 does and fawns within 40 yards feeding completely unaware of my presence. I kept glassing the trees waiting for a buck to show himself. After an hour 3 small bucks(1 spike and 2, 2-points)came out of the trees and started feeding my way. I had no intent of shooting any of the three bucks in view. All of a sudden Austins .54 cal burped a 325 gr bullet toward the tree line just up from me. I saw the bigger 2-point jump and start running for the trees. I figure he was hit and feared it was not a good hit so i fired and missed. The buck changed direction and headed straight for me. I quickly loaded and fired again dropping the buck at 96 yards with a devistating heart shot. I packed up my gear and headed over to meet chris and austin. We started walking up the hill and they kept going to the south and i asked where they were going. They said they were going to austins buck and i asked where it was. It was a hundred yards from where the buck i shot was. At that point i knew i had shot a different buck. We went to his first, a small forker and then went over to mine. A 2 yo 2-point. His had been shot in the neck and dropped where it stood and i never even knew it was there. A quick drawing session and we drug them back to the trucks. Some quick photos and headed home. I skinned and quartered mine last night and removed the loins due to the heat. He is being processed as we speak. My wife is running the grinder and i am trimming it up. Not the big buck i wanted but i didn't want a wounded(or so i thought) buck running off into the trees. There is always next year for a decent buck. I still have a total of 2 elk tags and 3 deer tags to fill(1 doe for my wife) before all is said and done. Hopefully some others have had a good hunt. Tyler and Matt are still looking for mr. big. I hope they get some nice ones.[cool]
I shot my buck with an Omega loaded with 250 gr. Shockwaves propelled by 100 gr of 777 pellets. The bullet left a huge 3" diameter hole(without exploding) clear through the deer completely taking out the heart. He never knew what hit him.
There is a couple pics of my new ride also. It was a miserable process getting it but it worked out pretty good.[
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[inline "new truck.jpg"]
[inline "08 muzzy3.jpg"][inline "08 muzzy2.jpg"][inline "08 muzzy1.jpg"]
[inline "08 muzzy.jpg"]
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I hunted with Flycasting and Hookjaw on the opener and saw 2 nice bucks but true to their character, a doe busted us and foiled our plans of taking a nice buck or 2. Tons of bull moose in the area but very few deer. I had a place in the valley a friend showed me that held 3 really nice shooter bucks but i never got a chance to see the bigger ones. I hooked up with my friend and his nephew last night to see if we could get him a 2-point. He is 16 and is no stranger to big game hunting. He has killed 7 deer and 2 elk with a muzzy.
We got to the spot about 6 pm and i set up 100 yards from the tree line in a patch of oak and they set up in the truck where they could see the other half of the property. Only 20 minutes after i got settled in hoards of does started coming out of the woodwork. I had at 1 point, 30 does and fawns within 40 yards feeding completely unaware of my presence. I kept glassing the trees waiting for a buck to show himself. After an hour 3 small bucks(1 spike and 2, 2-points)came out of the trees and started feeding my way. I had no intent of shooting any of the three bucks in view. All of a sudden Austins .54 cal burped a 325 gr bullet toward the tree line just up from me. I saw the bigger 2-point jump and start running for the trees. I figure he was hit and feared it was not a good hit so i fired and missed. The buck changed direction and headed straight for me. I quickly loaded and fired again dropping the buck at 96 yards with a devistating heart shot. I packed up my gear and headed over to meet chris and austin. We started walking up the hill and they kept going to the south and i asked where they were going. They said they were going to austins buck and i asked where it was. It was a hundred yards from where the buck i shot was. At that point i knew i had shot a different buck. We went to his first, a small forker and then went over to mine. A 2 yo 2-point. His had been shot in the neck and dropped where it stood and i never even knew it was there. A quick drawing session and we drug them back to the trucks. Some quick photos and headed home. I skinned and quartered mine last night and removed the loins due to the heat. He is being processed as we speak. My wife is running the grinder and i am trimming it up. Not the big buck i wanted but i didn't want a wounded(or so i thought) buck running off into the trees. There is always next year for a decent buck. I still have a total of 2 elk tags and 3 deer tags to fill(1 doe for my wife) before all is said and done. Hopefully some others have had a good hunt. Tyler and Matt are still looking for mr. big. I hope they get some nice ones.[cool]
I shot my buck with an Omega loaded with 250 gr. Shockwaves propelled by 100 gr of 777 pellets. The bullet left a huge 3" diameter hole(without exploding) clear through the deer completely taking out the heart. He never knew what hit him.
There is a couple pics of my new ride also. It was a miserable process getting it but it worked out pretty good.[
][inline "new truck.jpg"]
[inline "08 muzzy3.jpg"][inline "08 muzzy2.jpg"][inline "08 muzzy1.jpg"]
[inline "08 muzzy.jpg"]
[signature]
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