2014- Recap

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killerbee
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Re: 2014- Recap

Post by killerbee » Sat Nov 29, 2014 7:03 pm

Very cool. You sure put in the effort in finding big bucks!

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ridgetop
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Re: 2014- Recap

Post by ridgetop » Sun Nov 30, 2014 9:29 pm

Aug. 30th
This was probably the most fun I had all year.
It started out with me hiking in about 3 miles by myself to get the last of our trail cams. I had great hopes of finding some really good pictures of some really great bucks but for some reason, the trail cam took over 3,000 false triggered pictures in a 24 hour time period and filled up the card.
We had really bad luck with several different cameras doing that same thing this year.
As I reached the canyon the camera was in right around sun up, I spotted three nice bucks about 500 yards down slope of my location. I watched them feed out of sight into the bottom of the canyon, so I hike up and around the top of the canyon and down into where the camera was. After that I hiked into the next canyon and glassed for about an hour with no mature bucks seen.
I decided to go look for the dagger buck again now that I was on the other side of the canyon. As I dropped over the ridgeline to look, knowing the wind was at my back. I still figured the dagger buck would by far enough down canyon, it wouldn't smell me.
But because I was a little careless in this approach, I bumped 4 does. After watching the does run into the next canyon, I moved down slope another 20 feet and bumped a really nice buck, now I was really kicking myself for not just sitting down when the does first took off running.
Here's the buck that I bumped, I figured him to score in the mid-170s.
After I got home and viewed the video on my computer, I realized it was the buck I named "lefty".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g9c1tY ... Fd-3OQ8tOg
This would be the last time I would see the "lefty" buck.
He was shot with an arrow two days later and not recovered. We spent several days and weeks in this canyon looking but to no avail. We can only hope he moved out of the area.
to be cont....
There's always next year

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ridgetop
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Re: 2014- Recap

Post by ridgetop » Sun Nov 30, 2014 9:37 pm

Since I kind off ended the story about "lefty".
Here's video of the first day I saw him on July 26th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMbZYIxbDvs
There's always next year

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Re: 2014- Recap

Post by MuleyMadness » Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:32 pm

One of the biggest bucks I've ever seen alive I named 'lefty'. He still haunts my dreams to this day. :)
I like yours to, he is a cool buck. Bummer he was never recovered.

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ridgetop
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Re: 2014- Recap

Post by ridgetop » Sun Dec 21, 2014 12:05 pm

Cont....
After watching the "lefty" buck go over the ridge, I looked down canyon to see if I could locate the 4 other bucks including the "dagger" buck. Sure enough, they were all staring up in my direction.

I stayed still for several minutes and the bucks finally went back to feeding. Then a bird landed in a tree next to me and started cawing at me. It was one of those "camp robber" jays.

Sure enough, the bucks were all looking up in my direction again. I could tell they knew something was not right and they all started walking further down canyon.

They went out of sight around the ridgeline, so I called my two friends that were hunting a different area a few miles away. They had been hunting a neat 6x5 27" buck(which was killed by someone else on the muzzy hunt) and a 22" wide, very tall long tined buck(which was killed by another hunter on the rifle hunt).
As I worked my way back the way I had come, it started to rain pretty hard.
So I found a flat spot at the base of a small cliff and waited out the passing storm.
It took a couple hours to travel about 3 miles to good glassing spot overlooking the far side of the canyon the bucks had disappeared into.
I got a call from my friends about an hour after I had settled down in my new spot, telling my they had located the dagger buck.
After trying a stalk that lasted a couple hours, my friend Paul was within 60 yards but missed the buck.
After the bucks blew out of the canyon, the three bucks ran up canyon and took the same route they had traveled earlier in the day.
The bigger "dagger" buck headed over the ridge into some very nasty cliffs. He would look around for 5 minutes, then walk/trot up canyon and back into the cliffs, wait about 5 minutes watching/listening, then do the same thing again. He did this several times until he finally went through the same saddle as the other bucks had but he then went up into a small group of tall brush mixed in with a couple pine trees.
He had stayed put in this spot for about 20 minutes, then I called Tom and told him where the buck was hiding and there was a small band of cliffs just above the brush the buck was hiding in.
About a 1/2 hour later, Tom was 30 yards above the buck but had a hard time seeing it. He finally did see it and just as he drew back, the buck saw his movement and blew out of there as fast as a deer could run.
It was really fun to watch my friends try a couple different stalks from a distance. They were so close.
That would be the last time I would see the dagger buck alive.
I had heard rumors that it was killed during the rifle hunt but just a couple weeks ago, while surfing the net on taxidermy and outfitter sights.
I found a picture of the dagger buck. It was true, he had been harvested.
Here's the picture I found of him and video of the bucks when I first saw them earlier in the day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtbOPW3 ... Fd-3OQ8tOg
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Last edited by ridgetop on Sun Dec 21, 2014 10:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
There's always next year

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MuleyMadness
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Re: 2014- Recap

Post by MuleyMadness » Sun Dec 21, 2014 5:48 pm

Nice Ridge, says video doesn't exist. Cool buck

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ridgetop
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Re: 2014- Recap

Post by ridgetop » Sun Dec 21, 2014 10:57 pm

Thanks Brett. Should be fixed now.
There's always next year

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Re: 2014- Recap

Post by 9er » Tue Dec 23, 2014 10:54 pm

Thanks for the update ridgetop. Dont leave us hanging over the christmas weekend, we need another update
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Re: 2014- Recap

Post by ColoradoV » Sat Dec 27, 2014 8:29 am

Cool thread thx.

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ridgetop
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Re: 2014- Recap

Post by ridgetop » Sat Dec 27, 2014 11:14 am

Time to talk about some elk. Here's a scouting trip I went on in late June to one of my honey holes. It was cool to see the bucks and bulls getting along side by side.
It was good to see there were plenty of elk and deer around for the upcoming general season hunts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep_c5zV ... Fd-3OQ8tOg
There's always next year

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