BrianID
Active member
I shot this buck Saturday in Southern NM.
I moved to El Paso, TX last year. Because of my career choice I have not had much time to hunt since moving away from Idaho 8 years ago. I haven't shot a deer since 2009 when I had a chance to do a short hunt with an old friend in Wyoming. All my hard work the last few years is starting to pay off and I should have plenty of time and money to hunt in the future. I was able to pick up this tag as a 3rd choice in the NM draw. This was going to be a solo hunt because I didn't encourage any of my friends or brother to apply with me. My 3rd choice unit wasn't an area that would be worth an out of state hunt for most people. Next year I'm sure there will be some people that want to apply with me. I spent some time scouting the area but didn't find this buck before the season opened.
Opening morning I made a long hike in the dark to get on my glassing point I had found on google earth. After about 30 minutes of glassing 1st light I spotted this buck about 1/2 mile away. To get closer I could make a quick 10 minute hike along the ridge line I was on. This would put me 500-600 yards from the buck. I've put about 300 shots through my 300 Win Mag with hand loads this last year and have been able to shoot 4" groups at 500 yards. However, I don't ever take a long shot when I can get closer. I decided to drop 700 feet of elevation off of the ridge line I was on and climb 600 feet of the opposite ridge line to get above the buck. Here is a picture of the ridge line I had to climb down.
This is steep country and it took me almost an hour to safely cover a half a mile and I still fell down more than once.
This was my view when I peaked over the ridge looking for the buck. I last saw him where the red circle was. The red arrow shows the direction he had been slowly traveling. The red circle is about 300 yards away.
I could see almost the entire bowel he should have been in and couldn't find him anywhere. I felt fairly confident he was bedded down somewhere close so I started to glass for a tip of an antler or small patch of fur. It is fairly open country and I thought there was a good chance of spotting him bedded in the shade of some of the larger brush or I would spot him when he gets up to stretch. Two hours later I couldn't spot him after scanning everywhere that was 100 to 500 yards away with my binoculars and 90mm spotting scope. I was starting to think I should have gone for the 500 yard shot or waited until after he bedded down to make my stalk.
I was still disappointed at myself for not taking a shot at a large buck last year. Last year had a clear neck shot at 75 yards with my 300 win mag. I had this big muley's neck in my cross hairs for 30 second and was less than 100 yards from him for over 10 minutes and never took a shot because I thought I would get a better shot. I was thinking I made a similar mistake again that would haunt me.
At 11am I decided to make my way slowly down the hill toward the area I had last seen him to see if I could get a different view. After working my way down hill about 100 yards in the direction I thought he was bedded I picked up my binoculars again to scan the area even though I was starting to loose hope of finding him. I had a quick adrenaline rush when I spotted him bedded in the shade of one of the larger pieces of brush. I could see his entire body. He was in the shade of the brush of the blue circle in the above picture. He had been less than 250 yards away from me for over two hours before I found him. I'm guessing I must have had a tree branch from the hillside I was on that prevented me from glassing him from my vantage point 100 yards higher on the hill.
He looked relaxed and it didn't look like he knew I was there. I gave myself a couple minutes to set up my shooting sticks and calm the shakes from the buck fever that had set in. I ranged him at 141 yards and took the shot. He was hit hard but was still able to get to his feet so I took a second shot about 5 seconds later. He was on his back before I could chamber a third round.
I'm going to be sore for a few days from the pack out. My packed weighed 125 lbs coming out. There was 65lbs of meat, 20lbs of cape and antlers, and 40lbs of gun and other gear.
I still have my daughters youth hunt in a couple week as well as aoudad and javelina to look forward to in February.
This unit will still be my third choice draw next year but I won't be all that disappointed if I don't draw on my first or second choice. Even though I have passed on bucks that score higher than this one, I won't ever pass on shooting a 30"+ buck on an easy to draw tag. Feel free to guess the score if you want to practice your internet scoring. I'll post the B&C score in a few days.
I moved to El Paso, TX last year. Because of my career choice I have not had much time to hunt since moving away from Idaho 8 years ago. I haven't shot a deer since 2009 when I had a chance to do a short hunt with an old friend in Wyoming. All my hard work the last few years is starting to pay off and I should have plenty of time and money to hunt in the future. I was able to pick up this tag as a 3rd choice in the NM draw. This was going to be a solo hunt because I didn't encourage any of my friends or brother to apply with me. My 3rd choice unit wasn't an area that would be worth an out of state hunt for most people. Next year I'm sure there will be some people that want to apply with me. I spent some time scouting the area but didn't find this buck before the season opened.
Opening morning I made a long hike in the dark to get on my glassing point I had found on google earth. After about 30 minutes of glassing 1st light I spotted this buck about 1/2 mile away. To get closer I could make a quick 10 minute hike along the ridge line I was on. This would put me 500-600 yards from the buck. I've put about 300 shots through my 300 Win Mag with hand loads this last year and have been able to shoot 4" groups at 500 yards. However, I don't ever take a long shot when I can get closer. I decided to drop 700 feet of elevation off of the ridge line I was on and climb 600 feet of the opposite ridge line to get above the buck. Here is a picture of the ridge line I had to climb down.
This is steep country and it took me almost an hour to safely cover a half a mile and I still fell down more than once.
This was my view when I peaked over the ridge looking for the buck. I last saw him where the red circle was. The red arrow shows the direction he had been slowly traveling. The red circle is about 300 yards away.
I could see almost the entire bowel he should have been in and couldn't find him anywhere. I felt fairly confident he was bedded down somewhere close so I started to glass for a tip of an antler or small patch of fur. It is fairly open country and I thought there was a good chance of spotting him bedded in the shade of some of the larger brush or I would spot him when he gets up to stretch. Two hours later I couldn't spot him after scanning everywhere that was 100 to 500 yards away with my binoculars and 90mm spotting scope. I was starting to think I should have gone for the 500 yard shot or waited until after he bedded down to make my stalk.
I was still disappointed at myself for not taking a shot at a large buck last year. Last year had a clear neck shot at 75 yards with my 300 win mag. I had this big muley's neck in my cross hairs for 30 second and was less than 100 yards from him for over 10 minutes and never took a shot because I thought I would get a better shot. I was thinking I made a similar mistake again that would haunt me.
At 11am I decided to make my way slowly down the hill toward the area I had last seen him to see if I could get a different view. After working my way down hill about 100 yards in the direction I thought he was bedded I picked up my binoculars again to scan the area even though I was starting to loose hope of finding him. I had a quick adrenaline rush when I spotted him bedded in the shade of one of the larger pieces of brush. I could see his entire body. He was in the shade of the brush of the blue circle in the above picture. He had been less than 250 yards away from me for over two hours before I found him. I'm guessing I must have had a tree branch from the hillside I was on that prevented me from glassing him from my vantage point 100 yards higher on the hill.
He looked relaxed and it didn't look like he knew I was there. I gave myself a couple minutes to set up my shooting sticks and calm the shakes from the buck fever that had set in. I ranged him at 141 yards and took the shot. He was hit hard but was still able to get to his feet so I took a second shot about 5 seconds later. He was on his back before I could chamber a third round.
I'm going to be sore for a few days from the pack out. My packed weighed 125 lbs coming out. There was 65lbs of meat, 20lbs of cape and antlers, and 40lbs of gun and other gear.
I still have my daughters youth hunt in a couple week as well as aoudad and javelina to look forward to in February.
This unit will still be my third choice draw next year but I won't be all that disappointed if I don't draw on my first or second choice. Even though I have passed on bucks that score higher than this one, I won't ever pass on shooting a 30"+ buck on an easy to draw tag. Feel free to guess the score if you want to practice your internet scoring. I'll post the B&C score in a few days.
