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gunchamp;
Good afternoon your time sir, I hope that the day before American Thanksgiving is being kind to you and yours.

Thanks for the thread and of course thanks so much for those who've shared such wonderful animals and memories with us, I appreciate and enjoy threads such as these immensely.

Whenever this topic has come up over the years I've had the same response, so I'll apologize to those who've known me here for years and might have seen it a time or three.

Anyways, this was opening day of the BC Youth firearms season, a season which I'd help fight to get established long before our girls were born, but indeed that made it the foundation for a special day.

They shot these two bucks when five of them fed up a draw to within maybe 30yds of us. I'd told each of them to pick an easy one that they knew they could make a good shot on - neither one of them chose the 4 point because it wasn't a shot they wanted.



In a lifetime of hunting, I've never before or since had 5 bucks feed up to us while we were sitting out in the open on a hillside, but honestly folks that's exactly what happened.

They'd decided between them who got first shot and it was more or less bang, then a count to perhaps three, another bang and two bucks piled up within maybe 15 yards of each other.

Funny too I absolutely knew at that time I was both blessed to experience it and that it was going to be unique and likely unsurpassable for the rest of my hunting life.

That moment on that morning beat my best mulie buck, best whitetail, the California bighorn, moose or any bear I've personally shot. It even beat the first time I had a bull elk come in to a call with our youngest beside me as her eyes got wider and wider. That bull never showed itself by the way, but we both still talk about it as another high point in a life spent up in the mountains behind the house.

Thanks again to you and one and all who've participated already and to those who will after this.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all on your side of the medicine line.

Dwayne

Northern MI in the Huron National Forest.

2015 Archery season, 170". He's what I call my "miracle buck". I hunted 5 mornings and 4 evenings the week of the rut and passed up probably 70-80 shots at does and smaller bucks, having set a personal minimum of a 140" buck that season. I was finally rewarded Saturday morning around 8am when this guy came in "on a string" after hitting my rattlin' bag and then the grunt call. All things considered, it was an indescribable experience.

Thank you very much for taking the time to share that story. This is what hunting is all about. The memories ive made with my father and brothers and now my daughter have made me a very happy man. Seems the same for many of you.

Beautiful pics guys. Happy thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving all. What a good day for this thread. Some of these photos really conjure up images of the hunt and how the buck got outsmarted.


My "best" aren't always the biggest, but the ones that took the most effort to outsmart really get me horned up. For mule deer archery, the best ones are some of the ones I didn't get. I've had some amazing hunts that in the end left me holding an unpunched tag. I cherish those hunts as much or even more than any I've been successful at. My biggest killed mule deer with a bow is this deer flanked by two blacktail my grandfather killed in 1924. Coming up on 100 years ago on the blacktail.

Walter, the big sunuvabitch deer! (Think Norman, On Golden Pond.)






Walter was a big boy, scored #7 biggest mule deer killed with a bow in Oregon at the time, but my best blacktail outweighed him. I rattled this blacktail in to 20 yards where he busted me and took off like a shot. I rolled him as he reached the trees 75 yards away and I'll always remember him rolling into the hemlocks as he reached the edge of the timber going mach 2. He wasn't dead when I got there and I put two more 7mm-08 in his chest at point blank range and just waited for what seemed like an eternity for him to die.





When I reached the road with the first load of meat and horns I ran into a father and son hunting. I'll never forget the father looking at the deer, then looking at his son and saying, "That's what we're looking for". I asked the boy how long he'd been hunting and if he had gotten a deer yet. He said it was his first year and he hadn't seen one yet. I asked him and his dad if they wanted to see where I got it and they both said "Yes!".

I took them both down there and relived the entire rattling sequence and showed them where I had been sitting and where he had come from and how it all happened. The boys eyes were huge as he imagined it all happening in real time, but with him instead of me I'm sure! LOL They thanked me and the dad was especially thankful that a stranger would take the time to do this for his boy. They offered to help me pack the rest of the meat out and I accepted. The deer is awesome and this mount represents just one of so many incredible hunting memories I have hunting blacktails. Getting to impact that young man at such an impressionable time was super, super special for me.

All of you know what I mean, hunting is so much more than the mount on the wall. I feel sorry for the haters that don't understand what hunting is about. Honestly, even some hunters don't understand what hunting is about. For me it's the memories.

Reminds me of the day, Deb got twin bucks & I lost my buck tag for that year !!

Heard the shot from the house, get text, shot a buck, I head outside to get the quad going, get another text - There is another buck coming, can you get here quickly & quietly - No chance !!!

What do I do ?

Me: Shoot it !

But, I'll have to use your buck tag !

Shoot it !

Bang



She was a happy Lady !

While, always blessed by the family, getting it done, & as purely meat hunters, I have still been able to get a couple of notable Ungulates !

Best racked deer to date;



Biggest bodied buck to date;



& 2 hard earned two & a half year old bull moose;





Happy Thanksgiving to our southern neighbours !

My nicest muley…

Nice deer Doc!

Sitka

Best buck with a bow.

Two of my best. One on the left was shot with a bow. The one on the right with a CVA Optima .50 cal.

Hey Shrapnel, I understand that man in the center is your father. I swear he looks very familiar to me. Did he by any chance hunt sheep in AK around 1980? Looks like he’s got a Browning 1886 in his paws. I had one of those in 25-06 but had to sell it while in college to pay for some books and a meal ticket. What a shame, I loved it and have always wanted to replace it.

2008 public land whitetail I found while riding a horse looking for cows.

That is a Browning 1878 25-06. No he never hunted Alaska…

Oh yea, a 1878, my bad. Wrong guy, but he looks just like somebody I remember in camp.

Top 3 mule deer(public land hunt) and yes, that is a slight long arm hold.....lol