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Books Cliffs muzz hunt

T

T Bone

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 8, 2001
Messages
5,486
Location
Eastern Idaho
The Book Cliffs hunt has ruined me forever. Looking at 20-30 bucks per day is the norm, I kid you not.

Don't have time to give the full report now, but here are a couple teasers. Sorry about the poor quality, as it's from a video.

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Haven't heard a report like that since the good old days before the mule deer decline. Have fun.
 
Hope to see you grinning over that buck! 'Cmon, don't leave use hanging like Oscar does... ;)
 
Yet another gent acting like some girls I've known. ;)

Come on T-bone, show us the goods!
 
I am glad that you decided to go for it! There are good deer in there!
 
I sure wish I had more time to prepare for this hunt.

UT DOW called me 6 days prior to season starting to let me know someone turned in their tag and my name came up on the list. I was literally heading out the door for a couple days of elk hunting followed by 4 days of work. Looking back on it now, I probably should have not gone elk hunting and prepped for the deer hunt. Anyhow, here's the abbreviated story.

Wednesday September 28th, (Opening Day) At morning's first light, I'm near home in Montrose, CO to shoot my muzzleloaders for the first time in 3 years. I have a TC Renegade and an NEF Sidekick. I shoot 3 shots each and find both are dead on at 100 yards. I hurry home, clean them, pile all the gear in the 4runner and head toward the Book Cliffs. After 3 hours drive I arrive and make base camp.
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By 3 in the afternoon, camp is set. And I determine my evening plan of hunt. The Book Cliffs is a heavily roaded plateau with easy rolling hills on top and rugged drops and cliffs on the south side of the plateau. I decide to hunt the more edge of the plateau as it breaks into the cliffs and set out for the evening hunt.

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Immediately I start glassing and deer are popping out all over. A LOT of deer, about 1/3 being bucks. I've never seen deer numbers like this. The spotter comes out and I start inspecting bucks. Lot's of nice respectable bucks. I remind myself that this is the first premium deer tag I've ever held and I need to be picky.

The sun dips down and I continue enjoying the Mule Deer petting zoo. Then at last light I see a bright white antler flash in some deep oak brush. The spotter comes out and zowee, a big buck. The pic was taken in very low light and doesn't show much but maybe you can see what I saw.
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He was tall, wide and heavy. But his back forks were almost non-existant. His back beams were heavily bladed and his drivers side had some trash.

I hike back to camp highly encouraged with the big buck on my mind. I'm not much of a judge on inches of mule deer as I've always killed average 4x4's and been happy with them. I saw a dozen of those 4x4's today and frankly the big buck dwarfed them. I called a friend who is a good judge of deer on the hoof. He emphasized that without good forks, he wouldn't score well. So I went to bed dismissing the buck as "don't shoot".
 
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Ok, you have one little black dress spagetti strap dangling...let's see some more skin:)
 
Bambistew said:
I like your camp chair. Must not have been able to find it in pink?
Click to expand...


Betty Crocker red and white plaid is always fashionable.


Thursday - Day Two

With my buddies advice heavy on my mind I went out with high hopes with the sky just starting to turn grey.

The map showed my area as a non-motorized area only, but sometime in the last year or two ATV's had blazed a trail on the ridge top. The trail made easy walking for the 2 mile hike, but I feared an ATV would come rolling in and ruin it any minute.

No ATV came, and again I found myself inspecting antlers of a couple dozen bucks. There were a lot of nice 3 and 4 points in the 20-22 inch range. There was one very heavy, tall, even 4x4 that maybe stretched 24", but he was nice with the deep forks. He'd maybe go 170"?

Then I picked up the big guy flashy white antlers again from the night prior. He must have just shed velvet, because he was glow in the dark white. He absolutely dwarfed the heavy 4x4. In good light I made a close up inspection of him from 1/4 mile away with my spotter. Front forks were heavy, deep and tall. Confirming the low-light sighting, the backs were thick as my wrists and crab clawed at both ends. Drivers side back did indeed have some massive trash growing on it. Passenger side had one sticker. What would it score? After watching it for 30 minutes I decided WHO CARES about inches when you have this pig of a deer in front of me. He was by far the biggest buck I'd ever seen on the hoof. Big in body and rack. Obviously an old buck.

He was smart. He never shared company with other deer. He spent most of his time in the heavy cover. He was very cautious. He bedded about 8 am on a little knob that left no option for a stalk. He had all routes covered. I watched for a couple hours and then the wind started shifting to the bad, so I got myself out of there. I went back to camp for lunch with the decision that I was going to kill this buck.

Camped by the road, many hunters stopped by and shared stories and I even looked at a few dead deer. Many were reported to by 180 deer by the happy hunters, but they must have been in metric mode, not inches. All hunters I encountered were very friendly.

I've got to go to bed. Night shift in 4 hours guys.
 
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