2024 Colombian Blacktail Buck

[00BUCK]

Rifle season for the area I live in opens super early in August, when its peak summer. I was fortunate to have a break in the hot weather early in the season. I knew this would be a good time to focus on.

The morning started out slow. I didn't see any dear on the hike into my spot. I moved around a little trying to get a glassing view of the whole area I was focusing on. I started seeing more deer as the morning crept on. I eventually spotted a small buck in the distance. Sometime around 9:30 this guy popped out at 215 yrds. I just caught a glimpse before he fed under an oak tree. I got steady and waited for an opportunity. I was so anxious to see him again. Super curious to see what he was as I had seen some nice deer the prior year. After maybe 15 min of waiting I thought he may have slipped out the back where I wouldn't be able to see him. Then he walked out, continuing in the same direction that he came from. These deer move so slow and are super cautious, seldom do they expose themselves.

As soon as I steadied myself I fired my 127 grain copper-bullet. It smashed him with a complete pass through. He dropped and did not move. I had my 2024 buck!

The hike down to my buck and the two mile pack out was pure fun.

 

[AllenG]

Congratulations!

 

[Big Slick]

Congratulations! Great pictures. I miss hunting those deer, I don’t miss hunting in the heat though.

 

[deer_shooter]

That’s a great one. I hope to them sometime soon

 

[typhoon916]

Nice deer

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Congratulations, that Southern Oregon / Northern California Blacktail terrain is like hunting a different planet from the NW Blacktails I used to hunt , almost like 2 different species even though there not, southern Blacktail have always looked like a muley hybrid to me

 

[cahunter805]

Congrats that’s a great buck. Public land?

 

[Peachykuehn44]

Right on, congrats! This year was ridiculously slow for us in B zones. Lots of hot, dry weather with a lot of lions and bears. Our group saw hardly any deer all season. However, I got super lucky and tagged out during bow season on a couple tanks and my daughter got lucky to get her first buck ever during rifle which was also a dandy!