The one that got away...... but then didn't ;)

[Elkwhisper]

When the office told me I had some vacation days I needed to use up by the end of the year, I decided to take the second half of this week off to chase muleys. With the temps 40-50 degrees warmer than they were last weekend, deer movement was slowed way down and most of the buck I saw were not nearly as fired up in the rut as just a few days ago. That said I did manage to locate quite a few, but no monsters.

I did manage to find a pretty cool buck on Wednesday and after 3 missed shots, well inside my effective range, I knew something was fishy. A trip to the range that night confirmed that my rifle was hitting significantly high and right, which was frustrating, considering the work that went into setting it up and the fact that it was banging the 600 yard gong no problem last week. Needless to say my confidence in the rifle wavered. With that in mind I borrowed my buddy's custom 6.5x47 Lapua.... I KNOW that gun shoots.

Well yesterday I hunted dawn to dark without spotting a single shooter..... I did pass on a couple pretty bucks, just not what I was looking for......

 

[Art Vandeley]

This is going to be good

 

[Elkwhisper]

This morning found me back at it....and to be honest as warm as it was when I left the house I wasn't that excited about what I might find. I walked into a hidden bowl on some Block Management land at first light and quickly found 2 younger bucks with a bunch of does. Neither one was very big, but I did chamber a round in the Lapua just in case. Once I was satisfied that mister big wasn't in the area, I went to remove the round from the chamber, and an empty brass case popped out.... Man was I confused. A quick look at the case revealed a pristine new primer.... Oh crap, I have a bullet lodged into the barrel.

It was only probably a half our after shooting light and I was out of commission. Luckily I have a buddy that lives 20 minutes from where I was, and I started heading that direction to borrow a cleaning rod to tap out the bullet, hopefully in time to save the rest of my morning hunt.

Well I didn't make it far down the road when I spotted the freaky buck I missed Wednesday, all by himself. I didn't need to look twice.... I knew what this buck had going on and had to make it happen. I watched him drop into a deep washout and it didn't seem like he was in a hurry, so I thought what the heck, grabbed my bow and made a run at him.

As I peaked over the edge of the washout, I saw him slowly walking up the other side.... check of the range showed 47 yards... a quick grunt to stop him and the arrow was on it's way.

I know he isn't a giant, but he makes up for it in spades with character. 2 main beams on the passengers side with a giant gnarly base, and 9 scorable points. The drivers side is just a nice tall typical 4x with a brow.

I am pretty happy with how things turned out and I still have a few days off next week to try and put a cow elk in the freezer and help some other friends and family punch some tags.

 

[Elkwhisper]

The "Freak"

 

[JCS]

Cool looking buck.

 

[belly-deep]

Crazy lookin buck! Nice!

 

[Art Vandeley]

That's awesome, congrats!

 

[gwhunter]

Nice buck!

 

[worm]

Congrats on the cool buck

 

[Z Barebow]

Great story and buck! Usually it is the other way around in picking up the gun last!

 

[fishing4sanity]

Good thing you were packing that bow as a backup. Very cool looking buck!

 

[MKotur325]

Nicely Done! Nice to tag an unique deer like that!

 

[Big Fin]

Deer don't get much cooler looking than that. Congrats on the buck, especially with archery gear.

 

[1_pointer]

Way cool looking buck! Congrats on getting it done. Wonder what caused the bullet to stick or if your friend normally loads that hard to the lands?

 

[MThuntr]

so dang ugly it's beautiful!

 

[JohnCushman]

Congrats!

 

[Digger88]

Fantastic Buck, Congrats.
I would be happy as could be bringing home this one.
This is whats great with hunting, even when you get down in the dumps things turn around.

 

[noharleyyet]

Freaky cool...

 

[stillkickin]

Nicely done, the more character the better!

 

[jbm]

what a very cool buck . just love the racks like this A+++++++++