buckhunterhart
Member
My cousin was able to fill his daughters tag on the opening weekend of the Utah general season hunt, so he asked me if I would be willing to go along with him for the last weekend. My tag was filled with an early season hunt on a general unit, so I was feeling really weird sitting at home this time of year and agreed to tag along.
He has a CWMU cow elk tag which opens two weeks from today, and with his daughters buck in the freezer he decided he would hold out for a big one this year as he didn't need any more meat. We met up late Friday afternoon and hit the road to pass through a few spots that we might see some deer en-route to our destination. Hot day for this time of year, and we only saw a few and arrived at the cabin just over the border in Idaho for a short night of sleep.
Got up at the crack of dawn and headed south 30 minutes to hit an area that we have harvested bucks consistently the last few years. Saw the usual small bucks and does, but nothing he wanted to hang his tag on.
Drove around a bit and found an area that we thought might hold some deer, as there were only a few quakie groves among the sage hills. Quickly spotted a group of about 10 deer and one small 3 point in the group. Upon closer inspection of this buck we saw that his left antler dropped straight down in front of his face, with one of the points rubbing up against his jaw. It also appeared that the eye on that side may have been blinded by the way he was looking around.
Two things occurred to me at that point, 1. this is no way a buck big enough to fulfill my cousins wants and 2. there is no way this buck is going to make it through the winter. Fortunately my cousin was right on my wave length and decided to do the ethical thing and put him down. It took one well placed shot from his 300 Win mag to drop the buck at 356 yards.
Upon examining the buck on the ground it was very evident that the buck was never going to make it through the winter like we suspected. The point under his jaw only allowed his mouth to open about 3/4", his eye was definitely injured, and he was very thin. After getting him home and skinning him out there was not any fat reserves on the buck at all.
Not really a trophy story to get all excited about, but sometimes hunting comes down to doing the ethical thing to take care of the herd, even if it means passing up the opportunity to keep hunting and find a trophy. I couldn't feel better about the decision my cousin made in this situation.
A pic of the skinned deer
We also got in a little fishing time, and were able to connect on some nice cutts and this big cuttbow.
I also brought my shotgun along in case we saw any blue grouse, which we did, and I was able to harvest one and put Randy's gutless method to the test. Worked like a charm. If you haven't seen that video and hunt grouse I highly suggest it.
Hopefully will be back in a couple weeks with a cow elk post.
He has a CWMU cow elk tag which opens two weeks from today, and with his daughters buck in the freezer he decided he would hold out for a big one this year as he didn't need any more meat. We met up late Friday afternoon and hit the road to pass through a few spots that we might see some deer en-route to our destination. Hot day for this time of year, and we only saw a few and arrived at the cabin just over the border in Idaho for a short night of sleep.
Got up at the crack of dawn and headed south 30 minutes to hit an area that we have harvested bucks consistently the last few years. Saw the usual small bucks and does, but nothing he wanted to hang his tag on.
Drove around a bit and found an area that we thought might hold some deer, as there were only a few quakie groves among the sage hills. Quickly spotted a group of about 10 deer and one small 3 point in the group. Upon closer inspection of this buck we saw that his left antler dropped straight down in front of his face, with one of the points rubbing up against his jaw. It also appeared that the eye on that side may have been blinded by the way he was looking around.
Two things occurred to me at that point, 1. this is no way a buck big enough to fulfill my cousins wants and 2. there is no way this buck is going to make it through the winter. Fortunately my cousin was right on my wave length and decided to do the ethical thing and put him down. It took one well placed shot from his 300 Win mag to drop the buck at 356 yards.
Upon examining the buck on the ground it was very evident that the buck was never going to make it through the winter like we suspected. The point under his jaw only allowed his mouth to open about 3/4", his eye was definitely injured, and he was very thin. After getting him home and skinning him out there was not any fat reserves on the buck at all.
Not really a trophy story to get all excited about, but sometimes hunting comes down to doing the ethical thing to take care of the herd, even if it means passing up the opportunity to keep hunting and find a trophy. I couldn't feel better about the decision my cousin made in this situation.
A pic of the skinned deer
We also got in a little fishing time, and were able to connect on some nice cutts and this big cuttbow.
I also brought my shotgun along in case we saw any blue grouse, which we did, and I was able to harvest one and put Randy's gutless method to the test. Worked like a charm. If you haven't seen that video and hunt grouse I highly suggest it.
Hopefully will be back in a couple weeks with a cow elk post.
