Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting UT general muzzle loader success! ***PICS UP***

Tag punched and couldn't be happier!

This year I drew a general season muzzle loader tag for deer in Utah. I hunted the same unit on the same tag last year and came home with a decent four point. Like most years, this year I wanted to up the anty and come home with my best buck to date.

I never really used/played with trail cameras much until this year. I can now see why they can be addicting. I placed 2 cameras around June and checked them about every month. As you can see, I was having plenty of success finding other predators than myself. However, I did get some deer and elk as well.





This was the best buck that had shown up on camera.



Utah had changed their laws this year in which it allowed muzzle loaders to be topped with a multi power scope. No more open sights for me. I put on a NF scope I had laying around and was shooting 250 gr Barnes TMZ bullets with a volume of 100 gr of 209 powder consistently at 200 yards.

At last the day was approaching and I was so ready to ditch work and head to the cabin for a few days. The hunt started on a Wednesday and I was going to be hunting by myself until my wife, who also had a tag, was going to come up Saturday evening.

The hunting had been kind of slow the first two days. Thursday night I located a good buck. I did not think he was any bigger than my last two bucks I harvested. I told my wife he was probably a shooter, but didn't think I would go back in their as I didn't have confidence I could locate him again. Her response was classic, "I don't understand, if you found a possible shooter why wouldn't you go back?" I dwelled on her comment through the night and come morning I was heading back for the same spot.

I began glassing in the area I saw him well before it was light.
As I went along the tree line I stopped at a white patch that I thought could be a face. Buck fever was kicking in as my heart began pounding and all I could do was sit and stare waiting for the sun to come up or movement to confirm my hopes. As it got lighter I then could see what I thought for sure was an antler.

Now what to do? He was 210 yards away and starring right at me in his bed. I came up with a plan to cut the distance and try to stay out of his sight. Now I was at 180 yards and he was still bedded. At this point I realized he had 3 other friends with him. The wind was bad enough that I told myself to wait for a better opportunity. I reached 160 yards when all 4 got up and walked away out of sight. I tried and tried to locate them again, but to no avail. Even though I felt good about not taking the shot all I could think of was the saying, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

In my efforts to locate them again, I saw 2 bucks off in the far distance. The country was vast and open and I had nothing else to go on so I decided I would give these 2 a shot.

As I crested one of the ridges I thought they may be headed to bed in I indeed saw 2 bucks. I got down and dropped my pack. I was looking at a decent 4 point when I lifted my head and saw that there were 4 bucks not 2. In it was the same buck I had stalked 2 hours earlier and 1 mile away.

I was once again within 200 yards, but they weren't going anywhere and I wanted to better my chances. I crawled and slid through sage brush and oak to stay out of sight while closing the distance. The wind was perfect and I was gaining ground. I was now at 160 yards when they all laid down. I kept inching closer and now reached 136 yards when I ran into a stumbling block. I didn't have a clear opening in the brush to get any closer yet there were still enough branches in my path to hinder the shot. I decided to force myself between the sage and oak and found myself at 130 yards and the opening I needed. Now I just needed him to stand.

You can see him and 2 of his buddies in this pic. The other buck is bedded on the opposite side of the oak brush.



As I was waiting I took the above pic. He literally stood during my attempt. I dropped my phone and took the slightly quartering shot.

I knew he was hit! He hobbled up the ridge and his side was stained with blood, still him and the other bucks disappeared out of site.

Did I mention I felt this place was difficult to hunt? All I could think about was not being able to find him as he laid mortally wounded.

I found him track along with some blood and began following. Only 20 yards in and the blood was harder to find except if he had brushed his side on a bush.



Luckily his tracks weren't too hard to follow. I was looking off in the distance hoping to see him when he stood up not 20 yards in front of me. I touched one more shot off and he was done!

This buck was bigger than I thought and he had an extra point that I hadn't really noticed. I marked the site on my gps got a few pics and then the work began.

[img]http://i1240.photobucket.com/a...MG_20161003_205424_zps8w6mgasj.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i1240.photobucket.com/a...ds/20160930_125354_zpscrnzqu3s.jpg[/img]

I make mention of the gps marking because my first load was the meat. When I came back for the head I could not find it and had to go back for my gps. Who knows how long it would have taken without it.

Since I had harvested my buck I headed home for the night so I could take care of it and then come back later with my wife.

[img]http://i1240.photobucket.com/a...ds/20161001_120550_zps6q1bukzr.jpg[/img]

When we got back to the cabin we found this mess.

[img]http://i1240.photobucket.com/a...ds/20161001_201955_zpsm4q4uevy.jpg[/img]

He really liked those frosted flakes, but the doritos not so much. It took a couple days due to faulty traps but after some oil we caught the thief!

[img]http://i1240.photobucket.com/a...ds/20161003_055111_zps1k1qlgrb.jpg[/img]

It was now my wife's turn. She wanted to harvest a buck but only if it was nice.

[img]http://i1240.photobucket.com/a...ds/20161002_154831_zpsalyynzes.jpg[/img]

The first morning we were following a trail when we were in an area that I thought could be a betting spot. I got distracted trying to look while I was walking and slipped on a rock which proceeded to tumble down the hill. A few seconds later a nice 4 point bolted.

She was a trooper. Being 12 weeks pregnant she decided to hike and spend the whole day on that mountain trying to locate him again. We were unsuccessful in doing so. The day pretty much wore her out. We only had one more morning left to hunt and she didn't feel like she wanted to make the hike again. I certainly wasn't going to force the issue. We changed plans and the last morning passed on a young 4x3 and 3x3.

The hunt was over, but the memories will always remain.

Nice story. Hopefully you can fix the pix...........

Pics not working.......C'MON MAN!!

I can't figure out what is going on with that. I've re-uploaded the pics, but still to no avail.

Any suggestions, or a better site to use than photobucket?

Your URL's are screwed up. It's not a matter of the pics not being available on photobucket. Hover your mouse over the link and you can see it's truncating the URLs for the photos.

As an example here's one of your photo links:

http://i1240.photobucket.com/albums...mgasj.jpg

Notice the "..." in the middle. That's not the full URL of the photo.

Hmmm, I'm just not sure what's going on. I copied the links just like the other pics. Been looking at the URL's of the pics that did compared to didn't work and they all look similar to have the same set-up.

I don't know why they won't show in original post, but they are at least showing in this reply.

Nice buck, congrats!

Glad you got the pics fixed....great buck Gled. Congrats.

Dandy buck, sounds like great times! Thanks for the post and pics, good on you.

That's a good looking buck there! Always nice when they are better than you thought.

Nice buck! Great job!

Next time, I'd wait a bit longer if he stood up right away while you were trailing him though, just IMHO.

If they are dead already they aren't going anywhere and if they aren't, a bit of extra time never hurts....

Sweet! Fishlake?

BTW, I still haven't even shot that 7-08 Montana you sold me almost 3 years ago!

GTC

fantastic mulie!

Thanks. Almost the size of your TX mulies. I'm still not sure what the issue was with the pics.



Agreed. I spend most of my outdoors time on this mountain and honestly don't see big mulies that often so I'll give myself a pass for not knowing what I was staring at lol.



Thanks.

Yeah, I did let some time pass (15-20 minutes) before actually following his trail, but more time certainly wouldn't have hurt. Just glad it worked out.



Correct on unit. One of the better years I've seen. It's been 13 years since I've had an opportunity at a buck like this one on the mountain.

You know I don't think I ever shot that rifle either. I bought it off here then had a change of heart.

Time for some range/hunting action

Congrats on a nice muley!

Great job and thanks for posting!

Nice buck. Congrats on the deer and the upcoming baby.

Thanks. Wife said we needed an even number. I hope I'm done at four!