My Latest 'One That Got Away'
09-11-2006, 11:54 AM
#1
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 590
My Latest 'One That Got Away'
I backpacked a bunch of gear in Saturday to set up my base camp for my big two-week hunt starting 16 Sep. Got absolutely drenched in a real gully-washer hiking in. That's a bad feeling with everything you own stuffed into a pack that looks like it just floated over Niagara Falls. I spent more time setting up camp and drying out gear than hunting, but I'm ready to hit the ground running next Saturday.
Anyhow, I was fooling around camp midmorning on Sunday, waiting for the sun to come out good so I could get some gear drying, when I heard crashing and antler whacking down in the creek bottom right next to camp. I grabbed my bow and eased over to the creek's edge.
Big bull. Big bull. Big bull.
He's standing there 30 yards away, looking in my direction, but with a big alder blocking our respective views. I can just see his antlers, and he can probably see the top of my pointy head. I come to full draw, sensing he's going to take a step forward. Instead, he angles away at 45 degrees, and stomps across the creek. Poor shot, too far, bad angle, and he's walking, so I run up alongside him and get on my hoochie mama. That brings him around like magic, and I set up and he walks back in broadside. He doesn't have me pinpointed, how I don't know, but he steps intoa "shooting lane"inside 30 yardsas I come to full draw again.
I say "shooting lane" because I thought it was a shooting lane until he stepped into it and came to a halt with a little Christmas tree blocking his chest cavity. I knelt there hoping he'd continue forward into the next opening, just three more steps! Instead, the wind got me, as he had cut into my downwind side, and away he crashed.
He would net in the 290-to-300 range, a really nice 6 pointer, better than the one I almost had last weekend. What a blast! Someday, if I live to be 150, I'm going to actually get one of these big ones.
I did get a set of eye teeth this weekend. Found a bull, probably cougar-killed, that bit it back in May. I'd never actually laid hand of antlers in that stage of development.It'sweird, kind of porous, almost like cardboard or styrofoam, not quite that soft really, but similar.
Five work days, then ... oh baby I'm so ready!
Anyhow, I was fooling around camp midmorning on Sunday, waiting for the sun to come out good so I could get some gear drying, when I heard crashing and antler whacking down in the creek bottom right next to camp. I grabbed my bow and eased over to the creek's edge.
Big bull. Big bull. Big bull.
He's standing there 30 yards away, looking in my direction, but with a big alder blocking our respective views. I can just see his antlers, and he can probably see the top of my pointy head. I come to full draw, sensing he's going to take a step forward. Instead, he angles away at 45 degrees, and stomps across the creek. Poor shot, too far, bad angle, and he's walking, so I run up alongside him and get on my hoochie mama. That brings him around like magic, and I set up and he walks back in broadside. He doesn't have me pinpointed, how I don't know, but he steps intoa "shooting lane"inside 30 yardsas I come to full draw again.
I say "shooting lane" because I thought it was a shooting lane until he stepped into it and came to a halt with a little Christmas tree blocking his chest cavity. I knelt there hoping he'd continue forward into the next opening, just three more steps! Instead, the wind got me, as he had cut into my downwind side, and away he crashed.
He would net in the 290-to-300 range, a really nice 6 pointer, better than the one I almost had last weekend. What a blast! Someday, if I live to be 150, I'm going to actually get one of these big ones.
I did get a set of eye teeth this weekend. Found a bull, probably cougar-killed, that bit it back in May. I'd never actually laid hand of antlers in that stage of development.It'sweird, kind of porous, almost like cardboard or styrofoam, not quite that soft really, but similar.
Five work days, then ... oh baby I'm so ready!
