Quest for the big one .... continued

Well as dawn breaks onto a new hunting season, so does my quest for the ones that got away last year.
http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo189/ackc10_album/sunrise.jpg" alt="" />

I was able to secure a Central Region Dedicated Hunter Tag again this year and although I don't know what is in store for next year when I will need to try and pick a smaller unit. I am going to make the best out of this years hunt. It has been killing me trying to wait for all the snow to come of those upper ridge and basins.
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http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo189/ackc10_album/deercountry.jpg" alt="" />

June 4th
I just couldn't stand it anymore and came in from the backside up a very long draw. My daughter and I hiked up near where Idhunter and my cousin shot their bucks last year and placed a trail camera up. You can see my camera chained to the tree on the right with a well used trail on the left.

http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo189/ackc10_album/Trailcam1.jpg" alt="" />

On our way out, we found this small 6 point elk shed (really a 5 point) near the bottom of the canyon. We walked about 50' to the side of it going up.

http://i374.photobucket.com/albums/oo189/ackc10_album/Elkshed.jpg" alt="" />

It's been a week now and I am already really wanting to check on the camera. I hope to get back up there soon.
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MuleyMadness
Looking forward to more, and yep it's your turn on one of those nice Central bucks Ridge. :thumb
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dahlmer
I enjoyed your story last year Ridge. Looking forward to following your season again this year.
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ridgetop
Here's a quick recap of the last month. I went back up to check on my trail cam on June 14th and only had about 10 white out pictures. ](*,) I am hoping to get up there today to check it out.

June 22nd
Idhunter took some water up to our remote camp. While up there he saw a couple promising bucks out to their ears in width and just starting to fork into a 4 point. He said there was still 2 to 3' of snow in some places. Crazy.

It has seemed like the last few weeks I have lost the desire to hunt anymore. (???) I don't know if it's because my knees have been giving me trouble or I'm just so out of shape right now. I ended up going down South last week and saw some great bucks and bulls, which really cheered me up. I have some video of the elk in the Elk section. Here's video of the bucks we were chasing last year and after watching it again the other day. I'm comitted to getting back into shape and chasing those bucks again.
Here's the video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfj7kMTFEDA
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ridgetop
July 10th

I went out for a short hike this morning and the brush has grown over two feet since last month. I think I found a good spot for my friends dad to hunt that's not too tough of a hike. I glassed up a pretty nice three point up in the direction of out spike camp. Could it actually have been the big three point from last year( "Lucky")? only time will tell. I also saw a couple small 4 points and about 5 or 6 does. I could hear rocks rolling across the canyon but could never see what was making the noise. ](*,) Don't you guys hate that? I still haven't been able to check out my trail cam. It either rains (real hard!) or I have to work late when it doesn't. :>/
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TheGreatwhitehunter
cool pics
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Default Avatar
I know exactly where your standing in the second picture.
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one hunting fool
Ridge. i have been dying to get out but the new job keeps me pretty busy these days. i have he southern dedicated this year. and after having my trail camera stolen last year i am down on the whole leaving a camera in the woods thing. We had a family reunion at fishlake but i could not get up because of the new job. trying to see if i can get out next week after the 24th and the crowd is gone. I have about 1,000 areas i am hoping to look at and limited time. but my Dad and i are sure we will find what we are looking for. I wish you luck my friend and looking forward to reading your updates
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ridgetop
"one hunting fool" wrote:Ridge. i have been dying to get out but the new job keeps me pretty busy these days. i have he southern dedicated this year. and after having my trail camera stolen last year i am down on the whole leaving a camera in the woods thing. We had a family reunion at fishlake but i could not get up because of the new job. trying to see if i can get out next week after the 24th and the crowd is gone. I have about 1,000 areas i am hoping to look at and limited time. but my Dad and i are sure we will find what we are looking for. I wish you luck my friend and looking forward to reading your updates
 That's a bummer about your trail cam. Even though mine is in a canyon I know nobody is dumb enough to hike in to. (but me), you can see I have that sucker chained to the tree.

July 16th
I made it up to our backcountry base camp today and took a few supplies with me to stash up there. I also took another trail cam and put it in an area where I was seeing bucks regularly last year. Today was not very productive at all for seeing deer. I only saw 2 does and one 2 or 3 year old buck. The buck was bedded over a mile away but didn't look too impresive. The wind was blowing 20 -30 MPH up there, so I hope the deer were being held up in the timber and not moved out of the area..
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ridgetop
July 23rd
It's amazing what difference a week can make. Today I saw several bucks in the same areas there was nothing last week. Although most of them were young bucks. It gives me hope in finding a few good ones before the hunt starts. I also saw two coyotes chasing a young buck. :>/ Luckly they could not keep up with it.
On a side note, there's a couple of guys I know that have a Vernon tag. I had to make a trip Southern Utah on the 24th, so on my way back up that evening I stayed over night on the Vernon Unit. Only I had forgot to pack my optics! #-o ](*,)
I was still able to catch a couple nice bucks off the road. The 2nd buck is one of the tallest bucks I have ever seen. He must be over 25" tall.
Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRVu9gRQM6M
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dahlmer
So are either of those bucks shooters for your friend. That 2nd buck is really unique. I'd have a hard time letting him go.
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ridgetop
"dahlmer" wrote:So are either of those bucks shooters for your friend. That 2nd buck is really unique. I'd have a hard time letting him go.
 Ya, I think he would be happy with either. Both are great bucks.
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MuleyMadness
Nice bucks Ridge, second boy is TALL and cool looking for sure. :thumb
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mapleton archer
That is for sure the tallest buck i have ever seen. Really cool buck.
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one hunting fool
hey ridge those are great deer. how is your trail camera doing? getting any hits??? I broke down and bought me a new trail camera. this time i am going to follow your lead and bring in a heavy chain.
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ridgetop
"one hunting fool" wrote:hey ridge those are great deer. how is your trail camera doing? getting any hits??? I broke down and bought me a new trail camera. this time i am going to follow your lead and bring in a heavy chain.
 I ended up pulling that camera I have a picture of. It was only taking pictures of a doe. I will be checking on my new cameras location this coming weekend. I tried a trick of facing it down slope, so it is only about 2' off the ground but it's target area 10 feet away is about 4 1/2 feet high. With the camera so low to the ground, you can't even see it from 30 feet away because of the waist high brush.
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ridgetop
I am really having a bad week. First I forget my optics on Monday when I do the overnighter out on the Vernon Unit. Then Today, my cousin and I took some more water up to our backcountry camp and to check my trail camera that I set up on Saturday. Well to keep some of the weight down, I decided to leave my camera home today. Then realized that I had no way to look at my trail cam pictures once I got up there and my extra SD cards are in my camera case. ](*,) I did check on the camera and it had 42 new pictures taken. So I'll go back up there next weekend and check it again. Today we only saw about 10 does and one very small yearling buck. The deer are hard to figure out this year.
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MuleyMadness
The deer are hard to figure out this year.
 Agreed!
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ridgetop
I went back up there last weekend and checked the trail cam. Only a few small bucks on it. I did go check out a different area I've hunted in the past and found one pretty good buck. I just might need to keep it in mind for a back up. We still have not found any of the bucks we saw last year. Maybe they never made through the winter or have moved to another canyon. We'll see how the opening of the archery goes.
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Default Avatar
Sounds awesome. I'm anxious to hear how it plays out for you. Good luck!
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ridgetop
So far, this year has been kind of a bust for me. I have only been able to find a couple decent bucks. The best buck I've seen is in a completely different area than where we are planning on hunting. It's been kind of hard thinking about not going after him. My cousin did see the non-typical cactus buck (I was after last year) just a couple of weeks ago, so we're going to try and find him again. The deer just are not in the same areas at all this year or maybe between the lions and winter kill, they are just not alive anymore. Well, only three more days until we're back up on the mountain of 7 days. I think we'll be checking out some new areas.
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Default Avatar
I hope you find a place that will work out. Good luck
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one hunting fool
ridge,
I wish you luck!!! i have not even been able to get out exept one day this year for archery. managed to stalk within 60 yards of a nice 4 point 28" but did not feel confortable with the shot and he walked off. i will not make it out for muzzy at all do to the project running longer than expected. Good and bad i guess leave it to the rifle hunt or extended archery, and have a few more weeks before seasonal layoffs.
good luck again looking forward to hearing about your story...
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MuleyMadness
Been a bit of a crazy year for sure, hope there not all dead Ridge. Best of luck.
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ridgetop
This has been a really tough year. Fun but tough. The biggest buck I've seen this year was several miles away from were we hunted last year and where I had done most of my scouting this year. He's a solid 170" class buck. I heard that some archery hunters were after him and they thought he was a mid 180". I know he got lots of pressure on the muzzy hunt too but don't know if he survived. I decided to go after the cactus buck again and we found him at first light opening day. We had him at 260 yards and he was feeding down a small draw. So we snuck down to the bottom of the draw, where it leeds out to a flat. A few other deer came out but not him. My friend IDhunter pushed down through the draw and we had his brother watching the top end but the cactus buck just disappeared, AGAIN! I think we're going to start calling him the ghost buck. My friends got shots at a few other bucks and blew a stalk in which they got within 40 yards of a nice 4x4. It's really weird how even with the hot weather (just like last year) the bucks did not bed in the same areas. So we ended up moving to different areas to find the deer. Now I have to decide on what to do for the rifle hunt. I have some video and pictures to share when I have more time to post them.
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ridgetop
On the opener of the rifle hunt I decided to go back into the area I saw the 170" 5x4 this summer. The day before I saw a real nice looking 4x4 about 100 yards from where I saw the 5x4 this summer. I never saw a single buck in that area opening day but did see about 20 hunters. The next two days we moved locations and went looking for the big three point from last year "Lucky" and the cactus buck. We had no luck on the cactus buck but "Lucky" was not so lucky this year. :thumb
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