Part 3: The Finale

B Wilde and Stan each had limited amounts of time they could hunt and were able to get it done.  I on the other hand had the week off with plans of hunting until Wednesday and then heading north to meet Jay for the start of his archery bull tag.  And I've got to say, this happened to be one of the most rewarding hunts that I've been on in a long time. I hunted as hard as I could each day, saw a good amount of deer, and had an opportunity at a great buck that I missed on Monday morning.

I was able to glass him up from a long ways out and make a good stalk to where he and a smaller buck had been feeding.  When I reached my planned location that brought me back in to view it turned out that I was within 125yards of where he had been feeding.  The buck wasn't there but I was pretty sure I knew which tree he had gone to bed under.  After 20-30 minutes of trying to pick him out I tried relocating to my right, which was the move that caused him to come firing out of the tree like a bottle rocket.  I quickly ranged the ridge he would be coming up and got a bead on him hoping he would stop.  And when he did stop I didn't think too much about it and shot....and missed.  He did  stop one more time and I might have missed again before he was gone for good.  All i know is that the ground he covered in 20 seconds took me over an hour to cover to confirm that I indeed missed.  But I know where he lives and will be back next year to find him again.

After the miss on Monday I got a text from B Wilde giving me grief for missing a buck since he is shooting 100% right now (he's 1 for 1) and that all I needed to do to shoot as well as him was to "Close my eyes and let it ride..." Sounded like sound advice at the time.

Wednesday morning was my last day to hunt and it was time to bring home some meat.  Fortunately I was able to glass up a buck in one of our favorite spots and he was in a stalkable location.  After a quick relocation on a ridge above where he was feeding I was able to close my eyes and let it ride from 260yards, which dropped him in his tracks. (He's lying just above the two bushed at the bottom center of the pic)


Seeing this guy up close made me realize just how big the buck was that I missed but I was extremely happy to take him home with me.  


A full pack is a great way to end a week of hunting!


This hunt got my fire going again for chasing these little coues deer and I can't wait to get after them again next year.  In the mean time, I will see if I can scratch this hunting itch with chasing bulls this weekend.  Hopefully there will be some more pics to share next week!

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