Quest for the bigger one....
Re: Quest for the bigger one....
Aug. 4th,
Today my cousin John and I took some supplies up to where we will have a base camp for the archery hunt in two week. I took another trail camera up with me to set up in a different canyon. My pack was loaded to about 45 lbs. Which was a little too much and I really felt burned out the next day. The last time John was up to this spot two weeks earlier, he checked on the condition of my trail camera but did not open it up. He found a dead half eaten fawn about 10 feet away from my camera. So we were wanting to see what had been there. This is what was on my camera.
Also, from the day the cat showed up on my camera and killed the fawn, I never recieved another big buck picture for the two weeks afterwards until I checked the camera. The bigger bucks completly left the area. Luckly, we did find them about a 1/2 mile to a mile away.
While hiking in, we saw several small bucks and the best one being a 155-160" buck with a button cheater on his left side.After we dropped off our stuff at our camp location, we headed for another canyon to set up another camera. In one spot, we had just walked past a group of trees and I turned around to see a nice buck "back dooring" us and it was just going over the ridge. I grabbed my camera and ran back up towards the trees and was hoping to catch a better look at the buck. Then I see another buck still in the trees about 50-60 yards away. By time I could get my camera started and focused, the buck was then on the move. Here's the video of the buck I've named "forky" because his main beam forks on his left side. He has two cheater on his right side. This buck will be on our hit list. John thinks the other buck that went over the ridge was "lookout", the 7x6 buck I had on my trail cam from early July.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gichX6xcLHs
Today my cousin John and I took some supplies up to where we will have a base camp for the archery hunt in two week. I took another trail camera up with me to set up in a different canyon. My pack was loaded to about 45 lbs. Which was a little too much and I really felt burned out the next day. The last time John was up to this spot two weeks earlier, he checked on the condition of my trail camera but did not open it up. He found a dead half eaten fawn about 10 feet away from my camera. So we were wanting to see what had been there. This is what was on my camera.
Also, from the day the cat showed up on my camera and killed the fawn, I never recieved another big buck picture for the two weeks afterwards until I checked the camera. The bigger bucks completly left the area. Luckly, we did find them about a 1/2 mile to a mile away.
While hiking in, we saw several small bucks and the best one being a 155-160" buck with a button cheater on his left side.After we dropped off our stuff at our camp location, we headed for another canyon to set up another camera. In one spot, we had just walked past a group of trees and I turned around to see a nice buck "back dooring" us and it was just going over the ridge. I grabbed my camera and ran back up towards the trees and was hoping to catch a better look at the buck. Then I see another buck still in the trees about 50-60 yards away. By time I could get my camera started and focused, the buck was then on the move. Here's the video of the buck I've named "forky" because his main beam forks on his left side. He has two cheater on his right side. This buck will be on our hit list. John thinks the other buck that went over the ridge was "lookout", the 7x6 buck I had on my trail cam from early July.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gichX6xcLHs
There's always next year
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MuleyMadness
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9997
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- Location: St. George, UT
- Contact:
Re: Quest for the bigger one....
Looks like we need a 50.00 bounty on bobcats also. ha ha
Cool stuff Ridge, hope you guys get a crack at those nice bucks you've found. Forky looks cool.
Cool stuff Ridge, hope you guys get a crack at those nice bucks you've found. Forky looks cool.
Re: Quest for the bigger one....
Aug. 11th
I was planning on doing an overnight packpack trip with a friend into the area I had seen the droptine buck in early July. I was hoping to see how he turned out after growing a few more weeks. My friend cancelled at the last minute but I was already packed , so off I went alone. The road was washed out along the way and it was a little scary getting though it but finally after six years of never using my winch. I put it to work and it towed me right up out off that steep wash bank.
I spent the long rainy, windy night right at the base of the mountain, it rained on and off most the night. I started hiking about 45 minutes before light and was about a mile up the steep ridge at first light. I ended up seeing about 25 bucks in the one canyon but no sign of the droptine buck. I did manage to glass up a couple nice typical bucks in the 25-27" wide range and somewhere in the 160-170" class. I think I'm going to try and help my cousin get his wife in on one of these bucks during the rifle hunt. That is, If she's up to the hike.
Here's the video of the best two bucks I saw today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUgKNluyFbk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3dwGV12MGM
I was planning on doing an overnight packpack trip with a friend into the area I had seen the droptine buck in early July. I was hoping to see how he turned out after growing a few more weeks. My friend cancelled at the last minute but I was already packed , so off I went alone. The road was washed out along the way and it was a little scary getting though it but finally after six years of never using my winch. I put it to work and it towed me right up out off that steep wash bank.
I spent the long rainy, windy night right at the base of the mountain, it rained on and off most the night. I started hiking about 45 minutes before light and was about a mile up the steep ridge at first light. I ended up seeing about 25 bucks in the one canyon but no sign of the droptine buck. I did manage to glass up a couple nice typical bucks in the 25-27" wide range and somewhere in the 160-170" class. I think I'm going to try and help my cousin get his wife in on one of these bucks during the rifle hunt. That is, If she's up to the hike.
Here's the video of the best two bucks I saw today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUgKNluyFbk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3dwGV12MGM
There's always next year
-
one hunting fool
- Monster
- Posts: 843
- Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2007 7:18 am
- Location: home
Re: Quest for the bigger one....
sweet bucks ridge! good luck this weekend!
Genesis 27:3
Now take your hunting equipment, your quiver and bow, and go out into the open country and hunt some wild game for me.
Now take your hunting equipment, your quiver and bow, and go out into the open country and hunt some wild game for me.
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derekp1999
- 4 point
- Posts: 646
- Joined: Fri Oct 08, 2010 2:09 pm
- Location: Clinton, UT
- Contact:
Re: Quest for the bigger one....
It's been fun following your scouting, you've discovered some fantastic bucks. Good luck this weekend.
“The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed.”
-Albus Dumbledore
-Albus Dumbledore
Re: Quest for the bigger one....
Aug. 17th
Corby and myself headed up to camp at about 6:00 pm and by the time we arrived at camp it was just about dark but we could see about 6 or 7 small bucks feeding within a hundred yards of our campsite, which was pretty cool to see. Tom and Paul came in about 2:00 am because of family stuff going on.
Aug. 18th
Our alarms went off at about 5:30 am and we quickly made plans. Paul and I went one way and Corby and Tom went another. My hopes was that Paul could sneak around a group of trees that I usually see deer feeding in quite often and maybe he could get a shot but if the deer tried to sneak out over the top, I would be ready for an ambush. Only a couple of does came out of the trees. Some deer came from the other direction and before they could see me, I dropped to the ground and curled up in a ball to look more like the large rocks around me. I covered my face with my hands and peeked through my fingers. about six does and a 20" wide 2x3 came by about 60 yards and had no idea I was there. After the dropped into the trees, I hiked over to a deep canyon to look for deer feeding on a bench they like to use. Just as the bench came into view about 60-80 yards away, I spotted antlers moving. I dropped to the ground and got out my camera. I knew they were out of my range but if they did spook, I hoped they would head towards Paul in the next canyon. Here's a few pictures of the feeding bucks.
After about ten minutes of watching the bucks, the wind shifted and a group of about 10 bucks were running in all directions.
Five of the bucks went down the bottom and up the other side of the canyon. In which one of them I've named "lookout". At that point is when I decided that it would be "lookout" or bust for me this year. After about 30 minutes the bucks worked their way to a small group of trees across the canyon and bedded. After watching them for about 3 hours, in which the got up and would feed for a few minutes then bed back down. Finally lookout bedded about 20 yards from the ridgetop. It was time to make my move. I pack up my gear and headed for the backside of the ridge the bucks were on. But then all of a sudden something spooked the deer and they were gone in a flash. We never could find them again. After that, I went and checked my trail cam and it had a real nice picture of "lookout" on it. Now it's the quest for lookout.
After checking this camera, I went to check my other one about a mile away . When I got to it, there was not many pictures at all, only a few does and a small four point. I then headed down a deep nasty canyon looking for a spring or seep that the deer were getting their water but no luck finding one. At that point it was almost dark and I started heading towards camp several miles away.
What a long but exciting day, just a little too hot for hunting IMHO. It must have been in the 80s.
Corby and myself headed up to camp at about 6:00 pm and by the time we arrived at camp it was just about dark but we could see about 6 or 7 small bucks feeding within a hundred yards of our campsite, which was pretty cool to see. Tom and Paul came in about 2:00 am because of family stuff going on.
Aug. 18th
Our alarms went off at about 5:30 am and we quickly made plans. Paul and I went one way and Corby and Tom went another. My hopes was that Paul could sneak around a group of trees that I usually see deer feeding in quite often and maybe he could get a shot but if the deer tried to sneak out over the top, I would be ready for an ambush. Only a couple of does came out of the trees. Some deer came from the other direction and before they could see me, I dropped to the ground and curled up in a ball to look more like the large rocks around me. I covered my face with my hands and peeked through my fingers. about six does and a 20" wide 2x3 came by about 60 yards and had no idea I was there. After the dropped into the trees, I hiked over to a deep canyon to look for deer feeding on a bench they like to use. Just as the bench came into view about 60-80 yards away, I spotted antlers moving. I dropped to the ground and got out my camera. I knew they were out of my range but if they did spook, I hoped they would head towards Paul in the next canyon. Here's a few pictures of the feeding bucks.
After about ten minutes of watching the bucks, the wind shifted and a group of about 10 bucks were running in all directions.
Five of the bucks went down the bottom and up the other side of the canyon. In which one of them I've named "lookout". At that point is when I decided that it would be "lookout" or bust for me this year. After about 30 minutes the bucks worked their way to a small group of trees across the canyon and bedded. After watching them for about 3 hours, in which the got up and would feed for a few minutes then bed back down. Finally lookout bedded about 20 yards from the ridgetop. It was time to make my move. I pack up my gear and headed for the backside of the ridge the bucks were on. But then all of a sudden something spooked the deer and they were gone in a flash. We never could find them again. After that, I went and checked my trail cam and it had a real nice picture of "lookout" on it. Now it's the quest for lookout.
After checking this camera, I went to check my other one about a mile away . When I got to it, there was not many pictures at all, only a few does and a small four point. I then headed down a deep nasty canyon looking for a spring or seep that the deer were getting their water but no luck finding one. At that point it was almost dark and I started heading towards camp several miles away.
What a long but exciting day, just a little too hot for hunting IMHO. It must have been in the 80s.
There's always next year
Re: Quest for the bigger one....
Aug. 19th
This morning I went out and glassed a familar canyon but saw very little in way of bucks. I then went for a hike down into a deep canyon looking for new trails, hopefully water or a nice buck. I only found a few good well used trails. A few hours later I met up with Tom, which was watching a patch of brush the guys had seen a really nice buck go into earlier. Corby was on his way over there to try and locate the buck. While I was messing around trying to find/ make some shade(because it was so freaking hot) Tom says, there's the buck. I only had enough time to look up and see a nice buck come up out of the patch of brush, stop for a few seconds and was off and running again. That was one nice buck that I would like to get a closer look at. After that, we went back to camp and packed up for the long hike back out.
End of opening weekend.
This morning I went out and glassed a familar canyon but saw very little in way of bucks. I then went for a hike down into a deep canyon looking for new trails, hopefully water or a nice buck. I only found a few good well used trails. A few hours later I met up with Tom, which was watching a patch of brush the guys had seen a really nice buck go into earlier. Corby was on his way over there to try and locate the buck. While I was messing around trying to find/ make some shade(because it was so freaking hot) Tom says, there's the buck. I only had enough time to look up and see a nice buck come up out of the patch of brush, stop for a few seconds and was off and running again. That was one nice buck that I would like to get a closer look at. After that, we went back to camp and packed up for the long hike back out.
End of opening weekend.
There's always next year
Re: Quest for the bigger one....
Aug. 24th
My oldest daughter joined me for an overnight backpack trip into an area where three of my friend were already hunting. As we topped out onto a ridgeline about a mile or so from our camp spot. I recieved a text from my friend Paul, saying he just arrowed a P&Y buck. What I didn't know was only a few hundred yards away, my other friend Tom was waiting to ambush a possible 160" class buck. He also recieved the text from Paul and Tom said out loud "yes". Right then he looked up and there was the 160" buck only 30 yards away staring right at him. Busted!
to be continued.......
My oldest daughter joined me for an overnight backpack trip into an area where three of my friend were already hunting. As we topped out onto a ridgeline about a mile or so from our camp spot. I recieved a text from my friend Paul, saying he just arrowed a P&Y buck. What I didn't know was only a few hundred yards away, my other friend Tom was waiting to ambush a possible 160" class buck. He also recieved the text from Paul and Tom said out loud "yes". Right then he looked up and there was the 160" buck only 30 yards away staring right at him. Busted!
to be continued.......
There's always next year
Re: Quest for the bigger one....
Keep the saga going. Very interesting. Good Luck.
Re: Quest for the bigger one....
To be continued when?? Loving the thred can't wait until your next post