On this page and the next are 5 of the biggest bucks I have shot. My
sister in law, bless her heart, mounted all but the one to the left.
Each buck has a story and if you want to read on I will tell it.
I spotted this buck a half mile away on the top of a ridge with a small
harem of does. He was pretty busy but the does spotted me and
took off with him in hot pursuit. I was able to get a little closer to
them by circling around to where I thought they would go and sure
enough I ran into them again. The buck had his head down chasing
one of the does. I waited till he stopped and took a shot. Dead deer
right and photo time, wrong. I was standing under a small pine tree
and their was a heavy snow fall at the time . When I shot there was
nothing but white. White in my scope, white in my neck and white
about a foot deep all over me. The recoil from the shot vibrated the
tree enough to shake all the snow off. Once I got the snow from
between my eyes and glasses there was no deer to be seen. I went
to the place I had shot and no blood. There were lots of tracks so I
headed for the nearest timber, with my nose into a breeze. I had
gone into the timber only a few steps and the buck jumped to his
feet. This time I didn't take a rest and just drooped my sight behind
his front shoulder and squeezed. Dead deer and photo time right?
Right. Well almost, I didn't have a camera
He is what I call a 5 x 5. I don't count the eye gourds when I count
my antlers. They are 4 x 4s or 3 x 3s "with". The "with" stands for
eye guard. He is heavy and has an inside spread of 24 inches. The
length of his tines makes him look wider.
Mounts
This buck is a 5 X 5 with over 2" long eye guards. Each side almost
matches up perfectly. His configuration is almost square.
I was hunting in a late season that was open for deer and elk. My
main goal was elk and I went up into the area the day before . I was
heading up a rough road in some heavy snow when I hit a rock
under the jeep. When I got out, I saw oil running out of middle of the
front axle. I quickly turned around and headed out to the nearest
ranch. I called my dad and told him I needed a new seal. He drove
the 70 miles to bring it to me. We got it fixed and new oil added,
about 10:00 that night. The part I forgot to mention is that on the
ranchers gate was a thermometer and it was 25 below zero. Dad
headed home and I drove up to the mouth of the canyon in the
dark. I slept in the back of the truck that night. I planned on driving
on up in the morning but when I woke up there we outfits already
headed up. I decided to just head up the nearest ridge from the
parking lot. I had only gone a short ways up this very steep ridge
when two bucks cut across in front of me. One was this buck. I
could look down into the parking lot and see the game wardens
truck and I looked at my watch and it was 10 minutes till shooting
light. I let him go and started up the ridge. Ten minutes later here
came the same two bucks again just a little above me. Some one
had spooked them back. I could still see the game wardens truck
but I opened the days hunting at 20 seconds after shooting time.