Well, I drew a great deer tag for Wyoming. I had 4 days under my belt of scouting and had found an area with exceptional deer numbers, and more importantly buck numbers. I was going to focus my efforts there as I just knew it held "the one" besides the fact I hadn't seen anything I would call BIG yet. Biggest buck I had found was a 3x4 that wasn't that wide but had more horn growth then any other buck I had seen, and since it was early July I was going to keep tabs on him to see how much he had grown.
This past weekend I went up for a camping trip but would wake up early every morning and scout. On Monday I went back into town for a shower and to watch the home run derby. I hit the road to my camping spot right at dusk and spotted a good buck silhouetted against the sunset (wish I had a good camera). I knew he was bigger then anything else I had seen but couldn't be sure as I had left my binoculars and spotting scope with my dad that evening so he could use them.
Plans the next morning were to head back in the canyon I was hoping they went into and find that buck. Took me until about 8:00 but I finally found him and his buddies. I was marveling over finally seeing something with some defined forks instead of just seeing bucks where their forks were just starting to form. I actually spotted him about 150 yards away but he took his buddies to the top of a ridge where I got some pictures. They settled down and started feeding again allowing me to watch them for a long time.
I had thoughts of turning around and leaving these bucks alone as I didn't want to spook the big guy. I thought it over for a while and then said, "screw it they already know I'm here and I might as well see what else this canyon has to offer". I drove about 200 more yards when I saw more deer. I thought "wow this little spot holds a lot of deer." I put up the binoculars just long enough to see two of the biggest bucks I had ever seen staring at me, and then take off straight away which sent me into convulsions. Just like the other deer, they stopped at the top of the canyon and looked down at me. Two of the three are absolute studs. The wide buck never gave me a look at his forks but it almost looks like he's got something funny going on, on his right side. And the other buck has awesome front forks already with sub par backs but he's still really tall and fairly wide. With it only being July 10th I can't wait to see what these bucks turn into!
This past weekend I went up for a camping trip but would wake up early every morning and scout. On Monday I went back into town for a shower and to watch the home run derby. I hit the road to my camping spot right at dusk and spotted a good buck silhouetted against the sunset (wish I had a good camera). I knew he was bigger then anything else I had seen but couldn't be sure as I had left my binoculars and spotting scope with my dad that evening so he could use them.
Plans the next morning were to head back in the canyon I was hoping they went into and find that buck. Took me until about 8:00 but I finally found him and his buddies. I was marveling over finally seeing something with some defined forks instead of just seeing bucks where their forks were just starting to form. I actually spotted him about 150 yards away but he took his buddies to the top of a ridge where I got some pictures. They settled down and started feeding again allowing me to watch them for a long time.
I had thoughts of turning around and leaving these bucks alone as I didn't want to spook the big guy. I thought it over for a while and then said, "screw it they already know I'm here and I might as well see what else this canyon has to offer". I drove about 200 more yards when I saw more deer. I thought "wow this little spot holds a lot of deer." I put up the binoculars just long enough to see two of the biggest bucks I had ever seen staring at me, and then take off straight away which sent me into convulsions. Just like the other deer, they stopped at the top of the canyon and looked down at me. Two of the three are absolute studs. The wide buck never gave me a look at his forks but it almost looks like he's got something funny going on, on his right side. And the other buck has awesome front forks already with sub par backs but he's still really tall and fairly wide. With it only being July 10th I can't wait to see what these bucks turn into!
