Thanks for the comments guys. I will try answer some of your questions.
Not that I really care about scores, or know much about scores, but he should score just under 80". I am not sure of his body weight, not having a scale to verify, but it wouldn't surprise me if dressed weight was over 100 pounds. Yup, he was that big.
I was assisted by some hunting friends. Thought I would post a picture of three of us. The guy on the left is Ryan Trenka, a videographer extrordinaire, who came along to video the hunt. The middle guy is Vaughn Everly, the walkin'est dude I have ever hunted with. Tom Sather was with me also, but somehow managed to avoid being in any pictures.
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A few story details:
We scouted for five days prior to season opening. We covered most every general area in the unit during that scouting. Lots of antelope were down in the sage flats, but the bigger bucks were high, either alone or with one other nice buck.
We found three bucks we thought would be in that 80" range. This guy had the most character, so he was born with a bummer of a birth mark. "If you can't shoot a big one, shoot an ugly one." - Well, in my book, he is both.
The biologist warned me it was an unbelievably dry year and that horn growth was affected. If this is a down year, I would love to be there on a wet year.
Camp was fun. Weather was hot and dry. Bring lots of extra water and gas. When we ran out of gas, we made a gas run to the nearest station - 45 miles away and paid $160 for 35 gallons of gas. That is $4.59 per gallon. Ouch, but well worth it.
I really hope all of you get a chance to go on a hunt like this where there are few tags, great bucks, and all public land. The time spent scouting and learning new places was great. Camping and hunting with friends is what makes a hunting trip full of memories. Thanks guys.
Now if Moosie would get it where we could post video here at a high resolution, I have some world class footage I could share.
Happy Hunting!
