Scouting pics
GPWDeer
8/18/07 10:42pm
Well I finally did some real scouting today. Out the door at 5:00 am and sitting on the top of a ridge glassing at 7:00 (somewhere in there I stopped and picked up my hunting buddy and got some Jack in the Box).
We started seeing deer as soon as we left pavement.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h244/gpwd17/hunting/CIMG0220.jpg " alt="" />
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h244/gpwd17/hunting/CIMG0219.jpg " alt="" />
We set up my buddy's spotter to glass a brush covered hill side and immediately found two big bucks. One should go 30", the other will be closer to 27" but he also has two cheaters. We ranged them with my buddy's Swarovski range finder at 1269 yards. So the pictures through the spotting scope didn't turn out great, but I will throw a couple up here.
[We watched these two brutes for a about 20 minutes and then moved up the draw to see what else was around. We soon spotted three other groups of bucks. Most were 4 points or better and almost all were at least 25". We did see two young bucks running with a group of does that were smaller (forky & 3 pt). All still in full velvet, but the big boyz were starting to rub the brush with their antlers. We didn't get pictures of all the deer, but here is one of the bigger ones from the second group. We saw about 35 deer total, of which about 15 were bucks.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h244/gpwd17/hunting/CIMG0231.jpg " alt="" />
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h244/gpwd17/hunting/CIMG0228.jpg " alt="" />
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h244/gpwd17/hunting/CIMG0229.jpg " alt="" />
In addition we also saw the following small/upland/non-game animals: badger, 5 coyotes, 2 sage hens, and I hit a quail with the truck.
I also have a couple of short videos I shot through the spotting scope as well. They are very shaky so I won't post them unless you guys all want to get sea-sick watching these toads! oh okay...here is a short one.
http://s66.photobucket.com/albums/h244/gpwd17/hunting/?action=view¤t=CIMG0232-1.flv
Home by 11:00 am. Best scouting trip I have been on in years. :))
We started seeing deer as soon as we left pavement.
We set up my buddy's spotter to glass a brush covered hill side and immediately found two big bucks. One should go 30", the other will be closer to 27" but he also has two cheaters. We ranged them with my buddy's Swarovski range finder at 1269 yards. So the pictures through the spotting scope didn't turn out great, but I will throw a couple up here.
[We watched these two brutes for a about 20 minutes and then moved up the draw to see what else was around. We soon spotted three other groups of bucks. Most were 4 points or better and almost all were at least 25". We did see two young bucks running with a group of does that were smaller (forky & 3 pt). All still in full velvet, but the big boyz were starting to rub the brush with their antlers. We didn't get pictures of all the deer, but here is one of the bigger ones from the second group. We saw about 35 deer total, of which about 15 were bucks.
In addition we also saw the following small/upland/non-game animals: badger, 5 coyotes, 2 sage hens, and I hit a quail with the truck.
I also have a couple of short videos I shot through the spotting scope as well. They are very shaky so I won't post them unless you guys all want to get sea-sick watching these toads! oh okay...here is a short one.
Home by 11:00 am. Best scouting trip I have been on in years. :))
3,326
THANKS! :thumb
We didn't get pictures of on of the REALLY good bucks we saw which had some trash on at least one side becuase we only located him about 10 yards before he headed into the thick cover to bed down.
I am going to try and get back up there soon and get closer to these guys and get some real footage.
I am no pro when it comes to field judging deer, especially in velvet, but the larger deer in the pictures above would go at least 185 (I think). The other one that we didn't get very good pictures of would be in the 190's.
I can't tell you all how exciting it was for me to have these deer appear yesterday in my bino's...
The sickness grows.....