Thumper Montana Whitetail
spike
11/12/10 5:18pm
Gang,
Sorry to be MIA for so long from this great site. Just returned from a good trip to the last best place on earth - Bozeman Montana. Took my best Whitey ever and thought you guys might like a peek. 7 X 6 non typical, eyeguards 9 1/2" X 9", heavily palmated on both sides. My buddy who owns the ranch said it is the greatest non typ he's seen on that ranch in 30 yrs. He saw this Buck in full velvet and said it was absolutely awe inspiring. All you gents that hunt Canada, Iowa, Kansas, etc. i know, I know, He isn't a monster, but this old hunter is glad to have him.
As far as score.....I have no idea, didn't measure him, dont plan on it, doesn't matter. Take a guess.
Good Hunting,
Spike
Sorry to be MIA for so long from this great site. Just returned from a good trip to the last best place on earth - Bozeman Montana. Took my best Whitey ever and thought you guys might like a peek. 7 X 6 non typical, eyeguards 9 1/2" X 9", heavily palmated on both sides. My buddy who owns the ranch said it is the greatest non typ he's seen on that ranch in 30 yrs. He saw this Buck in full velvet and said it was absolutely awe inspiring. All you gents that hunt Canada, Iowa, Kansas, etc. i know, I know, He isn't a monster, but this old hunter is glad to have him.
As far as score.....I have no idea, didn't measure him, dont plan on it, doesn't matter. Take a guess.
Good Hunting,
Spike
29,761
Cool looking buck with lots of character for sure. CONGRATS!
Mark
And now.... The rest of the story.
I shot this buck across a wide deep ravine (174 yds ranged). This particular hell hole was filled with a type of thornbush that I am not familiar with. The thorns are 3 - 4 inches long, it's over my head in spots, and so thick you can't drag a rope through it. After getting a good line ( I thought) I tried to go directly toward the spot I saw him fold. No luck. After climbing and crawling around for 10 minutes I didn't know if I was even close to where I wanted to be so I climbed out and back up to where I had taken the shot. The really brutal part of all this was I had to take my rifle and pack with me because I figured if I left them in that mess I might never find them again. Long story sort of short, after three round trips, my orange vest ripped off and missing, a thorn through the bottom of my palm exiting the other side of my hand at the base of my little finger, me, my rifle, and my pack are about as wrapped up and bumfuzzled as humanly possible. I looked around at ground level and saw just a bit of white about 8 -10 ft away that turned out to be the underside of this buck's tail.
Sorry to be so long-winded but the best is yet to come. I got my wyoming saw out and cleared enough of the thornbush to clean up this buck and hung a couple of pieces of papertowel on the thorn above him so I could eliminate another round of hide and seek when we came back for the retrieval. After gathering up my gear I crossed back over the ravine to where I had taken the shot and stopped for a blow. Thought I'd glass back over to check the visibility of my papertowels. As I'm looking at them I see movement in the ravine about 30 - 40 yds from my buck. A buck stands up that I would bet my life scores 160 - 170. Monster 10 pt, high,WIDE, and long. I am shaking so bad I can't keep him in the 10X's so I lay down and steady my binos on my pack. As I'm getting a good look at him his twin brother stands up right next to him . CONTINUED
This second buck is not as wide but even taller than the first. They ran on a string directly to the thornbush that had my markers on it, stopped and sniffed the towels ( or their buddy laying 2 ft away ) and ran back to a small spur ravine that ran off of the main. They calmed down, milled around a little bit, and looked as though they were going to bed back down. I hot footed it back about 1/2 mile to the truck, grabbed my 2 hunting partners, and off we went. I put them on each side and went through the bottom all the way until it petered out at the Oat field. Nothing. Gone
Moral of the story - These 2 old trophy Whiteys had held tight for over 1 1/2 hrs while I shot, traveled, crawled, broke brush, cussed, and sweated buckets. They were less than 50 yds away from me and never gave themselves up unil they thought (?) I was gone. Had I not looked back toward the markers for my buck I would never have even suspected that they were there
Magical Times in The Mountains
Good Hunting
Spike
Good job on your buck, good looking deer.