Buxndiverdux
Old Mossy Horns
The Blast....
I was fortunate enough to draw a unit 57 tag after 10 years of trying. My guide (Eli) and I decided to split up and scout the unit the day before the season to cover as much of the unit as possible. He had some truck issues on a previous hunt and had to extend that hunt and it crept into his scouting time in my unit. I logged about 190 miles in the unit the day before the opener and saw tons of bucks. I was able to log those miles with the help of my rental Toyota Corolla, with the Z71 package I installed. Thank goodness it was dry. I looked over at least 50+ bucks, and I had 2 bucks that seemed to be better than the rest. Eli agreed my found bucks were nice, but he insisted his 2 were better. We made a plan to go after the best of the 2 first thing the next morning. He said the hunt could be over pretty quick if the buck was still in the area. I hate shooting on the first day.
The next morning, We were glassing the area, still in the "gray light". I noticed a dust cloud off in the distance, several miles (in 15x binoculars) and figured a truck was on the way. Before I could figure out what the dust cloud was, I spotted a bull elk. That was cool, but no tag. Back to the dust cloud... I switched out to the spotter and "it" ended up coming over a rise in the desert and it was a herd of wild horses running their rear ends off at high speed. It was cool to watch for a minute or so. Don't see that everyday. A few minutes later, I spotted what had to be the Buck from the day before as he came out of a depression with a Doe. Definitely the biggest buck I'd laid eyes on. He was closer than the day before and he was indeed a keeper. No other hunters in sight, so we worked to the east towards the sunrise, to get the wind in our favor and the stalk was on. Covered about a 1,000 yards using the undulations of the terrain and some sage for the final crawl up. Ranged at 379 yards and let it fly. Jumped up, mule kicked and I shot again as he was trotting and missed. Then he stopped and I shot again and he piled up DRT. The 25 Creedmoor and the Berger 135 LRHT did the job. The walk up is always like being a kid at Christmas. The anticipation to see what you've got. The walk up didn't disappoint. He was much bigger than my 70" archery antelope from 2011. Definitely worth the 10 year wait to draw.
I was fortunate enough to draw a unit 57 tag after 10 years of trying. My guide (Eli) and I decided to split up and scout the unit the day before the season to cover as much of the unit as possible. He had some truck issues on a previous hunt and had to extend that hunt and it crept into his scouting time in my unit. I logged about 190 miles in the unit the day before the opener and saw tons of bucks. I was able to log those miles with the help of my rental Toyota Corolla, with the Z71 package I installed. Thank goodness it was dry. I looked over at least 50+ bucks, and I had 2 bucks that seemed to be better than the rest. Eli agreed my found bucks were nice, but he insisted his 2 were better. We made a plan to go after the best of the 2 first thing the next morning. He said the hunt could be over pretty quick if the buck was still in the area. I hate shooting on the first day.
The next morning, We were glassing the area, still in the "gray light". I noticed a dust cloud off in the distance, several miles (in 15x binoculars) and figured a truck was on the way. Before I could figure out what the dust cloud was, I spotted a bull elk. That was cool, but no tag. Back to the dust cloud... I switched out to the spotter and "it" ended up coming over a rise in the desert and it was a herd of wild horses running their rear ends off at high speed. It was cool to watch for a minute or so. Don't see that everyday. A few minutes later, I spotted what had to be the Buck from the day before as he came out of a depression with a Doe. Definitely the biggest buck I'd laid eyes on. He was closer than the day before and he was indeed a keeper. No other hunters in sight, so we worked to the east towards the sunrise, to get the wind in our favor and the stalk was on. Covered about a 1,000 yards using the undulations of the terrain and some sage for the final crawl up. Ranged at 379 yards and let it fly. Jumped up, mule kicked and I shot again as he was trotting and missed. Then he stopped and I shot again and he piled up DRT. The 25 Creedmoor and the Berger 135 LRHT did the job. The walk up is always like being a kid at Christmas. The anticipation to see what you've got. The walk up didn't disappoint. He was much bigger than my 70" archery antelope from 2011. Definitely worth the 10 year wait to draw.