Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Another Awesome Year in the High Country with My Friends

I'll try to get a story up in the next week or so. We had a great time again this year packing into the high country (how can you not have a good time?). Couldn't get back into the same area as the previous year, so we tried some new territory this year and had a little luck. The deer gods were good to me this year.....I'll get some more pics up when I get a chance. Thought I'd share a pic of my buck from this year. DIY Public.

Looks like a pretty buck; gotta love that kicker. Nice job.

KOOLbuck!

Really nice!

Hopefully we'll get a story.

Holly [bleep]!!

What Shag said!! Is That a Wa buck?

Double Wow!

Very nice exceptional muley! Congrats!

MtnHtr

Heck of a buck! Congrats. I look forward to the story as well.

wow.

That is just an awsome photo. Congrats.

Wow, WA State?

Congrats, buck of a lifetime.

That's a dandy! for sure

Awesome

Brett (Mac)

That's a great buck! I love the cheater sticking out. If that's from WA State it is even more impressive. Way to go!

Ats a goodun. His neck looks as big as your body. Congrats


nut

Hey guys, thanks. I took this guy in Idaho. I would definitely like to find some good areas in WA with possibilities like this guy, but we've been doing idaho for about 12 years now and we're so drawn to the beauty and opportunity that we keep coming back...deer or no deer. We've been collecting preference points for Wyoming and Colorado for the last couple/few years, so will be hitting those states when the time is right.

As far as this guy, I'll try to do a story of our whole trip soon, but man, this deer had the biggest body I had ever seen on a deer. He was a moose. Took the three of us to move him for pictures and none of the pictures I have do his body size justice. I'm no expert and could be over estimating, but I swear this guy had to be 350+ (I took that first pic by myself before my buddies got up to me). I'm 6'1 220 as a reference.

Looks more like an elk, congratulations!!!

I believe you about the weight.. I've never seen deer as large as a high mtn mulie! They can get massive!

North Idaho? That is such a tremendous buck! Again congrats.

Bucks like that are the ultimate North American trophy IMO..

Very fine animal, congratulations. Did you measure the heart girth ? Looking forward to the story. E

No doubt about it. NICE BUCK!

Thanks again.... Southwest Idaho. Didn't ever think of measuring heart girth, but my buddies first comment when he saw the heart was holy chit...huge. I had blown the upper portion off the heart off with my second shot. The whole hunting trip was awesome, and I'll try to get the story here when I get some more pics uploaded. The quick skinny on this guy.

3rd day after opening day I broke off from my buddies who took the lower route up this drainage. I got up on the ridgetop and walked out this old grown over quad trail. I spotted him with my naked eye at about 385 yrds after coming around a corner and following a finger ridge that was out in front of me with my eyes. He was bedded down facing away from me and all I could see after bringin my bino's up was the front forks on one side and his ass. I was not sure at first that he was a shooter for me, but spent some time looking at him with my doubler on my binos. My heart was beating up a tad as I knew he was decent. Not comfortable with the shot at 370, I contemplated a couple routes to get closer. He was higher than I was and it was hard to tell whether he would be in view or not from the spots I was thinking of getting too. It was either brake off and dump behind the ridge I was walking on, in which the deer would be out of sight until I could come back over on top of him (still don't know if I would be able to see him from that point). So I took the route that was more direct, aiming for a smaller finger ridge that was currently between me and the deer. This route required me to be in view if he happened to look back while I was approaching, directly in the sunlight 15 yards below the ridgetop. So needless to say I took my sweet time sneeking over unnoticed. I got to the ridge which was within 250 yards (ranged) and I lay down over my pack with my body behind a tree that was down the hill in front of me. I was laying in the snow and had my binos and gun steady on top of my pack....I watched him for a good 10 minutes, waiting for a glimpse of his spread and the rest of his rack, but all he gave me was a peek at the back forks on one side, which didn't look huge to me at that distance (the way they grew straight up and didn't really "hook", but they ended up being decent). So he had big front forks and i decided that he was a shooter, so I setup over my pack with my rifle (Rifle's Inc. Titanium Strata in .270 Wby). All I had of this deer was his ass, his neck, and pretty much half of his antlers in view. So as I'm laying there with him in my scope (set on the max 12 power), I start kicking the ground with one of my boots, to try to get him to turn his head so I can see his spread....he never turned. So I actually stayed pretty calm and collected relative to some of my past experiences (probably due to the fact I didn't realize he was quite as big as he was). The next few moments kind of blurr together in my mind.

I held on him somewhat angled high on the back. I didn't want to hit him in the ass for obvious reasons, and I didn't want to hit him in the neck because I figured he would be going on the wall and I didn't want to ruin the cape (doesn't take much to get on my wall). So anyhow, I squeezed one off and quickly got back on him through the scope.....I knew I hit him when I saw his head yaw back and around in a slowish circle. He got up and attempted to move out, but I figured at that point he was going down. Just in case.....and I didn't want to sit there and watch him die a slow death....and I really don't like walking up on my deer and seeing them still alive, so I quickly cycled in another round and put it through his front shoulder, through the heart, and out the lungs to drop him (it all took about 5-10 seconds). Upon getting up to him, it was a pleasant surprise, he was quite a bit bigger than I had expected and had that great kicker that gives him a couple more inches on outside spread (a tad over 31.5 inches). So that's it......I'll try to get the entire story up, as both my buddies got 4 points as well (smaller, but exciting to that everyone got one and some great hunts). We had some good times the whole week and lots to tell. Tried some new gear to talk about too (kifaru lh g2 and hanwag alaska gtx). We planned on hunting up top out of the kifaru 8 man, but no deer after a day up there (6 degrees at night and 2 ft of snow).... and blah blah blah. A great time. More pics to come soon, hopefully before the weekend is over.

Friggin' awesome!


Travis