November 4th hunt

[singleshot]

At first light my good friend Brian and I were about 45 minutes from the Ranger and getting close to where I wanted to be. We eased up through a low saddle, split up by about 60 yards, broke out the tripods and started to glass. I had been in this exact spot a few times before in years past, missed a good buck, and was present while another good friend and my wife took some nice deer. It's a place that deer get pushed into by other hunters and not many expend the extra effort to get there.

The tenth buck that we had glassed up was a hard one to pass. He was probably 17 - 18 inches wide, 3 point but fairly thin antlered with a young face. I feel he would have went into the low 90's. It was "pets on parade". A front was pushing through and we saw a bunch of deer. Four hunters appeared in a saddle about 3/4 mile away and began milling around. We had watched three, three point bucks move through the same saddle earlier and had heard a shot. These guys acted like they were looking for a downed deer so we would swing our glasses over once in a while to check them out. I had moved over to Brian and we talked about the wide three point who was now moving directly towards the other hunters. Eventually he was almost on top of them and I lamented passing him only so he could commit suicide. The dust flew all around him as they slung lead at him from about 100 to 200 yards. Brian and I did the "chest bump" and "fist pound" as he finally kicked it into gear and got out.

I picked up two deer way off and through the Swaro 15's we could barely see rack on one of them. We decided to make a move on them and an hour and a half later we were at 430 yards. The deer had bedded again and we were unable to pick them up. We picked up a few more deer here and there and about two hours later one of the bucks stood up. The wind had really began to howl and we studied him as he moved a few feet and nibbled at this and that. I knew it would be pretty hard to top this buck so I decided to take him. Again, the cross wind was really bad and I struggled to figure out how far to hold off him. He bedded again facing me head on so I decided to try and move a little closer. 364 yards that was it. This was as close as I could get and still see him. I lowered one leg of my bipod all the way out to compensate for the steep hill, clawed out a few rocks, bear hugged my daypack with my buttstock rested on it, and was rock solid. I held even with his eyes and figured 18 inches off him into the wind and touched one off. 140 grains of Nosler ballistic tip out of my Ruger #1 7MM Remington Mag. SINGLESHOT (just had to throw that in) ruined his day.

It was now 4:00 in the afternoon, we had spotted this buck at 10:30 that morning, we got back to the Ranger about 7:00, tired.

He tapes out at 109+ great buck.

 

[200"mulie]

Congrats on a nice buck.

[mcelkhunter]

Very nice buck. Congrats.

[Scooter]

I also use a SINGLESHOT, but not as horty-torty as a Ruger #1... Nice buck and great story!!! I love the part about the lead and dust around the "suicide" buck.

[WadeNAZ]

Outstanding! Great write up too Thanks for sharing

[DillertheKiller]

That's a really nice buck. Congrats

[firstcoueswas80]

That is an awesome buck! I LOVE those main beams!

[loco4coues]

what a great buck! thanks for sharing.

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations on a great buck! Super job on the write up, sounds like you guys put in the work and effort to get him. Always nice to have a good guy keeping you company out there, tell Brian I said Hi.

[Coues79]

Nice buck Bruce... glad to see a biggin for you again! congrats!

[Coach]

That is a fantastic buck! And to take him in an area with so much pressure from other hunters shows you have some fine-honed coues hunting skills. Congrats on a great buck, and a great hunt. Thanks for sharing it.

[SunDevil]

great buck for sure. cool curve to his left mainbeam. congrats and thanks for sharing!

[Pine Donkey]

Great buck, love the character!