Well if your looking for pics of a high country monster this is not the thread for you! Even though he may be the smallest legal buck ever taken he is my first and I worked my butt off to bring him home. 
Opening weekend I spent four days up in X12 and although I saw 100+ does (and a bunch of spikes plus a sow and two cubs) I only saw one shooter buck near dark on day 3. The deer population up there is good but I was pretty embarrassed to say I only saw one legal buck. After coming home and moping around the house for a couple days my wife told me I should go back up and try one final weekend.
Saturday was the same old story for deer but I was able to watch a monster Antelope buck (14-15" and heavy) along with 3 other smaller bucks chase around what I can only imagine was a hot doe. This was at 11k feet. I had no idea antelope were up that high.
Sunday started like all the rest. Around 1 pm I drove to my last location to see if I could make a last minute push to bring home some meat. It took me about an hour and a half to get to the spot I wanted to glass. I have good optics and I sat for almost two hours glassing the hills I wanted to hunt. Nothing. On google earth I saw what appeared to be a game trail about a half mile up the draw I was hunting so I decided to pack it up and check it out. As soon as I stood up I saw a spike and two does about two hundred yards below me. Luckily they didn't see me so now it was time to make a decision. I could go down the draw and see if there were more deer that I was not able to see or follow my original plan and go up hill. Even though there were deer below me I had the overwhelming urge to check out that trail. So I set off. Every three of four minute's I stopped to glass as the draw was pretty steep. I was about 25 yards from the trail when the little buck pictured above busted me. I still am shocked how deep into cover he was. There was no way I would have ever spotted him with my optics. Luckily where he busted me there was a bush directly behind me. He was not able to make out exactly what I was and the wind was in my favor. He had two options as far as escape routes. He could either go around a big set of bushes and that would have put him about 35 yards or he could come back at me at he would be around 20yards. He chose the latter. He must have stared me down for 10 min which was perfect because I was not sure if he was even legal and I needed time to make a decision. As he turned to walk away I was able to make a perfect shot and the Montec did its damage. He didn't even make it 10 yards. 4:50pm on my last day of the hunt. Success.
Another buck that jumped up about 15 yards away after my buck expired.
Cool shot of another area I hunted.
I also wanted to give a special thank you to HALETY (Tyler) for helping me out mentally and giving me pointers and tips along the way.
Opening weekend I spent four days up in X12 and although I saw 100+ does (and a bunch of spikes plus a sow and two cubs) I only saw one shooter buck near dark on day 3. The deer population up there is good but I was pretty embarrassed to say I only saw one legal buck. After coming home and moping around the house for a couple days my wife told me I should go back up and try one final weekend.
Saturday was the same old story for deer but I was able to watch a monster Antelope buck (14-15" and heavy) along with 3 other smaller bucks chase around what I can only imagine was a hot doe. This was at 11k feet. I had no idea antelope were up that high.
Sunday started like all the rest. Around 1 pm I drove to my last location to see if I could make a last minute push to bring home some meat. It took me about an hour and a half to get to the spot I wanted to glass. I have good optics and I sat for almost two hours glassing the hills I wanted to hunt. Nothing. On google earth I saw what appeared to be a game trail about a half mile up the draw I was hunting so I decided to pack it up and check it out. As soon as I stood up I saw a spike and two does about two hundred yards below me. Luckily they didn't see me so now it was time to make a decision. I could go down the draw and see if there were more deer that I was not able to see or follow my original plan and go up hill. Even though there were deer below me I had the overwhelming urge to check out that trail. So I set off. Every three of four minute's I stopped to glass as the draw was pretty steep. I was about 25 yards from the trail when the little buck pictured above busted me. I still am shocked how deep into cover he was. There was no way I would have ever spotted him with my optics. Luckily where he busted me there was a bush directly behind me. He was not able to make out exactly what I was and the wind was in my favor. He had two options as far as escape routes. He could either go around a big set of bushes and that would have put him about 35 yards or he could come back at me at he would be around 20yards. He chose the latter. He must have stared me down for 10 min which was perfect because I was not sure if he was even legal and I needed time to make a decision. As he turned to walk away I was able to make a perfect shot and the Montec did its damage. He didn't even make it 10 yards. 4:50pm on my last day of the hunt. Success.
Another buck that jumped up about 15 yards away after my buck expired.
Cool shot of another area I hunted.
I also wanted to give a special thank you to HALETY (Tyler) for helping me out mentally and giving me pointers and tips along the way.
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