My Trip Home

Well I just got back to work today after being home for two week. I started my vacation off hunting spike elk for the last 4 days of the hunt. I got into them pretty thick but could never get a clear shot at any spike do to thick timber and them being surrounded by cows. I still had a great time though. I took a two day break between the elk and deer hunt then headed back up to camp. Opening morning was about like a circus on public land. I was on the skyline at daylight and could see and hear trucks and 4-wheelers driving all day. Well I hunted hard and ened up chasing a group of 4 big bucks right past a group of california hunters. It sounded like the firing line on the Marine Corps rifle range... Turns out only one of them hit that smallest buck that turned out to be a 28 in 3 point. He shot him right in the butt and the bullet went into his guts and must have hit the vitals. Anyways I walked up to look at it and the guy didn't even know what to do, he was calling his group of 8 buddies on his radio to come help him drag it. After meeting all of them I had to explain to them that they needed to bleed it out and gut it. It was absolutley ridiculous that these "men" would even be aloud to pack a rifle anywhere. Anywho I hunted the next few days and passed up some smaller bucks unable to find the group I had been hunting again. Finally on the last day I found them and ended up shooting over the back of the beautiful 4 point in the group and succesfully scoping myself above my right eye! lol I met my dad in the meadow we had agreed on meeting in and he was nice enought to clean me up and glue my wound back together... Anyway later that day I took a small 3 point to get some meat in the freezer and ended my hunt.
My Dad found the big 4 point again but never could get a good shot so he is still roaming. Anywho I had a great time at home but was somewhat discouraged by all the out of state hunters in our area. Opening morning I counted 7 out of state plates within a 2 mile stretch of road!!! :>/ Anywho I had a good break and have some great meat in the freezer so I am content! Plus I still have 6 deer tags here for North Carolina to fill so hopefully I can make it out some here.
Opening Morning Sunrise
Dad Patchin Me Up
Unlucky 3 point
1,571
MuleyMadness
Nicely done, sounds and looks like fun. Except for the scope 'shot', I've done that 1 time and hope it never happens again. :)
2
79Ford
Nice buck, I'd have loved to have seen anything even remotely that big on my hunt. I passed 13 smaller bucks last year and didn't see one buck on hoof this year....... I'm not sure if there was just too much hunting pressure or if the winter-kill hit them that hard in the area, but opening morning usually sounds like WW3 and this year it was quiet, too quiet. We found several deer carcasses ad one elk carcass while walking the lower elevations, so i'd have to say the winter did take quite a toll on last years fawns. The area is closed off i the winter so the deer can winter without the stress of snowmobiles and such. This past winter the snow was right up to a full grown deers belly, making it hard enough to get around, let alone find food.
On the hunting pressure side of it... I dont know if they just sold more tags for the northeastern area this year or what, but I too always had either another hunter (usually 2 or 3) within line of sight or could hear a vehicle on the road. I was ready to go back to Salt Lake to get away from the crowds.......

Congrats again on a successful hunt and taking a nice buck.
2
bigbuck92
Yeah 79 that was a horrible winter we had last year. Going out on a late summer shed hunting trip you should of seen all the winter kill that was around and i hardly seen any deer at all this hunt.
2
waynedevore
Nice photos and congrats on a good buck in tough conditions.
2