I got him yesterday morning and I am still pumped!!!!!!!!!!hump That big ol' grin from the pictures has been on my face all day today!
I was bow hunting solo during the ND deer gun season this last weekend. I had passed on some nice mulie bucks on Friday and Saturday and kept telling myself I can't kill a big one if I shoot nice ones. I also had a few close calls with some other big bucks, but various things went wrong as they usually do.
I found this buck early Sunday morning looking over a group of does. I watched him for about twenty minutes skylined on the top of a butte with the morning sun coming up behind him as he kept an eye on the ladies. It was an absolutely beautiful sight. He finally started picking his way down the butte to sniff around the does, giving me the opportunity to move in on him. Because of the terrain, I had to make an extremely large loop around him to get the wind in my favor. About 50 minutes into the stalk I made it to within 100 yards of where I thought the buck should be. I took off my pack and moved up until I saw a deer about 30 yards away. The deer was a big mature doe and I figured the buck had to be somewhere relatively close. I froze where I was and the doe fed to within 10 yards of me. I was PO'ed!!:BLEEP: It looked like this was going to be another blown stalk thanks to a doe!
Well the doe figured out something wasn't right and bailed over the edge of the butte towards the buck. It was do or die time. I made a decision to go for it, as I really had nothing to lose at this point in the game. I quickly moved up to the edge of the butte and looked down. The doe was standing downhill looking up at me. Out of the brush right below the doe, the buck pushed another doe up to the first and all three stopped broadside looking at me. They were at the edge of my max effective range with a bow, but I have have spent the money to buy quality equipment and practice with it (A LOT!!) I didn't have time to range the buck, I made a quick estimate of the yardage and sent an arrow as soon as the pin settled on his chest. Within seconds I heard a distinctive crunch as the arrow made contact. As the buck started barreling down the butte, I could see my arrow buried to the fletching tight behind his front shoulder. I was pretty calm up to this point, even though this was the biggest buck I had ever had an opportunity at, but now I let myself get excited. The buck ran hard for about a 125 yards downhill and got his antlers hung up in a barbwire fence where he collapsed. He has a 26 inch outside spread and I scored him at 166" gross and 163" net.
After putting in many hours, days, and weeks of hard work scouting and learning this area on public land over the last six years, this was a sweet victory. Taking him with a bow during gun season was icing on the cake.
After I took pictures and got the buck taken care of I filled a rifle doe tag that afternoon. I threw in a picture of her as well. I can't wait until next year!
I was bow hunting solo during the ND deer gun season this last weekend. I had passed on some nice mulie bucks on Friday and Saturday and kept telling myself I can't kill a big one if I shoot nice ones. I also had a few close calls with some other big bucks, but various things went wrong as they usually do.
I found this buck early Sunday morning looking over a group of does. I watched him for about twenty minutes skylined on the top of a butte with the morning sun coming up behind him as he kept an eye on the ladies. It was an absolutely beautiful sight. He finally started picking his way down the butte to sniff around the does, giving me the opportunity to move in on him. Because of the terrain, I had to make an extremely large loop around him to get the wind in my favor. About 50 minutes into the stalk I made it to within 100 yards of where I thought the buck should be. I took off my pack and moved up until I saw a deer about 30 yards away. The deer was a big mature doe and I figured the buck had to be somewhere relatively close. I froze where I was and the doe fed to within 10 yards of me. I was PO'ed!!:BLEEP: It looked like this was going to be another blown stalk thanks to a doe!
Well the doe figured out something wasn't right and bailed over the edge of the butte towards the buck. It was do or die time. I made a decision to go for it, as I really had nothing to lose at this point in the game. I quickly moved up to the edge of the butte and looked down. The doe was standing downhill looking up at me. Out of the brush right below the doe, the buck pushed another doe up to the first and all three stopped broadside looking at me. They were at the edge of my max effective range with a bow, but I have have spent the money to buy quality equipment and practice with it (A LOT!!) I didn't have time to range the buck, I made a quick estimate of the yardage and sent an arrow as soon as the pin settled on his chest. Within seconds I heard a distinctive crunch as the arrow made contact. As the buck started barreling down the butte, I could see my arrow buried to the fletching tight behind his front shoulder. I was pretty calm up to this point, even though this was the biggest buck I had ever had an opportunity at, but now I let myself get excited. The buck ran hard for about a 125 yards downhill and got his antlers hung up in a barbwire fence where he collapsed. He has a 26 inch outside spread and I scored him at 166" gross and 163" net.
After putting in many hours, days, and weeks of hard work scouting and learning this area on public land over the last six years, this was a sweet victory. Taking him with a bow during gun season was icing on the cake.
After I took pictures and got the buck taken care of I filled a rifle doe tag that afternoon. I threw in a picture of her as well. I can't wait until next year!
