On the first day of the hunt, P.T. glassed up a buck a
couple miles off as he fed along a fairly open hillside. He packed up his gear and headed out to try
and get a shot while Bryant stayed behind to watch through his binoculars. The hike took P.T. over some rough country and
took a little longer than planned.
Bryant caught site of P.T. as he was going over a ridge that looked like
it should put him close to the buck.
Bryant watched with anticipation as the buck fed down the hillside and
eventually disappeared behind a ridge between him and the deer.
P.T. located the buck and quickly set up on a half dead
cedar tree that would serve as a good rest.
His first shot sent the buck rolling down the hill! The buck ended up being a very nice 3X3, and
due to the unfamiliarity of the new country, it took Bryant quite a while to
figure out how to drive to a location to shorten up the pack out!
That afternoon and the next morning didn’t show much. A few small bucks that Bryant wasn’t
interested in, and a handful of does and fawns.
Finally, with only about 40 minutes of day left, Bryant glassed up a
group of 3 bucks in the canyon below.
The scramble was on! Trying to
make time, and do so quietly, he finally moved to within about 350 yards of the
bucks. The hillside was steep, and
trying to get set up for a shot was tough, but Bryant finally used a small juniper
tree for a rest and settled in on the buck he wanted as he fed out of a clump
of brush. At the crack of the rifle, the
buck jumped and started to run. The two
bucks that were with him threw up their tails and began to head out making it
tough for Bryant to figure out which buck he had shot at, but one buck gave out
and rolled down the hill. This didn’t
look like it was going to be any easier a pack out than P.T.’s buck, but at
least P.T was able to do so in the daylight, it was well after dark by the time
they got the deer packed out to the road.
Bryant’s buck had 3, almost 4 points on one side with 5 on the other!
