Got the job done on day 3 of season this year. Hunted hard Sat, Sun, and then Monday and was lucky enough to put some meat in the freezer. Was hunting this same buck Sunday and after missing my first shot I had another opportunity about an hour later. Thankfully the bucks minds are thinking about doe bootyand not the guy that just missed a shot. That was until some yahoos shot a deer where they shouldn’t have, made a terrible shot and hit it in the back leg, and then tried to run up on it to see what they got. Of course the buck gets up and runs away. They come crashing through the hillside trying to chase it and follow blood and spooked my buck. I sat there and watched em for a good hour and a half spreading there sent all over the entire hillside and not even in the right area to find the buck they probably never found. Needless to say that was a frustrating morning. So I packed everything up and headed to the range to figure out why I was missing. Found that the rifle was shooting 2 inches high at 100 yards. Not really sure why cause I thought I had it dialed before season. Now that I was confident with the rifle again I headed out Monday Morning early and started glassing from my favorite boulder that gives me a killer vantage point. Morning started off slow. I eventually spotted a lone doe. And then minutes later I spotted 2 deer about 1800 yards away on the very farthest hill top I can see from my vantage point. So I throw my Vortex Razor spotter on the tripod and immediately see the grizzled white face that usually means BUCK. At the distance it was tough to make out a rack but I was confident it was a shooter buck. So at the point I knew I had to make a move quick so my partner and I packed our gear and made the long over a mile hike to get into range. Stopping every so often to keep eyes on the buck. Once we got within about 1000 yards we had lost him. So we get to the top of the far mountain as quick as possible and start to make the downhill trek to come down on top of him. As I get closer to where he was I start to fear he dropped off into the canyon to the east of where he was so I begin to move faster. Then out of nowhere he appears at 123 yards. Still completely clueless I’m there. I immediately dropped to my stomach and belly crawl up to a clear angle to shoot. Unfortunately I didn’t quite crawl far enough because when I pull the trigger the buck doesn’t move and I knicked the very edge of the rock that was just 10 feet in front of me. I adjust slightly forward and to my left, rack another round and send it straight through the boiler room. If it weren’t for gravity I don’t think he would have taken another step but it was a steep downhill so he made it about 4 steps. Craziest thing happened right after. I wave my partner down giving him the the thumbs up to head towards me, when all the sudden 6 doe and another buck come walking over the hillside and stand 10 feet from where my buck laid. I frantically waved my partner down to get a shot. He gets next to me and has the exact same 123 yard shot I took. Then all we hear is a click. Gun didn’t go off, no marks on the primer or anything. So that buck when on its merry way to live another day. However the hike out was pretty brutal and carrying out 1 was more than enough. First picture is from the day before when I glassed him up at first light 500 yards from my glassing spot. He’s sitting there with a bird landed on his back.
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