Stone Sheep Steve;
Good morning to you sir, I hope all is well with you and yours this frigid and breezy Sunday. Must be some sort of rule about Sundays being cold and windy in February, eh?
Way back in the day, for a couple years I measured at the Oliver Sportsmen's Club for their trophy night. While I don't recall a 200" whitetail back then, there were a couple - maybe 3 actually - that grossed right around 185".
One was a nice young lady who had just taken up hunting and I want to say it was her first buck or close to that. There was a bit of a fuss over it, maybe even Big Buck magazine did a piece on her? Anyway I heard the upshot was she quit hunting as it wasn't why she'd started. Too bad that, or so I thought.
Even though I've lived here in the south for 34 years now, I've never killed a 200" whitetail and don't believe I've laid eyes on one either. If you make it over here to hang a carcass, have a coffee or what have you, I can show you a couple drop off sets in our garage which we found on our land in Saskatchewan. They're mid 150's - guessing the spread of course since they're not attached.
Back in '87 this old warrior died somewhere up on Baldy. Both ears were tattered, one front tooth was broken out along with a split lower lip and his face was all scars. He liked to brawl Steve!
His rack was on the downhill side for sure and if memory serves the Provincial bio said he was 7½ - back when we could get "A tooth for the truth" badges.
This one died in '93 or '94, young buck coming up I'd say. It was the last weekend of season, I was slithering along in the old growth and saw a tail flag maybe 80yds in front of me. I called it to a stop and through the tangle saw what I thought was a spike - ended up it was a brow tine. Anyway I knew it was a whitetail buck so I carefully inserted a 180gr Hornady Spire into the base of its right ear with the beat up BBR '06 that I carried in my youth. This is what I found when I walked up to it - nice surprise for sure.
In 2012 I'd been playing tag with a first rack basket rack and another second rack buck that had a rack about the same size, just a tad larger. On the second last weekend of season I missed the first rack buck at maybe 75yds. It was a gimme shot and to this day I'm not clear how I hit the rest of the world instead of that little fellow, but I suppose the rest of the world IS bigger so that's where the bullet went. Funny I was so sure I'd hit him I watched him trot away instead of shooting - just waiting for him to keel over. There was snow and subsequent tracking showed the error of my misplaced surety......
I will note that testing showed my rifle had gone a wee bit stinko on me, not enough to miss the buck but enough to make me park it in the safe for the remainder of the season and enough that I strapped it in the barrel vice and unmade it from a .270..... but that's another story for another day perhaps Steve...
The last weekend of season then, this time with an ancient and somewhat "lucky" Ruger 77 in .308 Norma, I'd just finished my second string of calling when I spotted the tips of a rack weaving in through the regrowth Doug Firs, so I thought to myself - ah it's the second rack one this weekend. I mentally noted where he'd be in the clear between two trees and shot him in the neck as he cleared the branches.
This is what I found that time instead of the basket rack.
Now the really interesting thing is this guy died less than half a mile from the '93 buck and the similarities in the racks are really visible when you see them in person. As well, the '93 buck went 138lb carcass weight and the '12 buck was 124lb carcass, skinny as a rail really and in very poor condition.
I've killed a few older mulie bucks in that body condition and although it's a guess, I don't believe he'd have made the winter or not easily anyway. Teeth were about gone too, which is surprising considering he could still grow a rack, you know?
Anyway sir, thanks for letting a semi-old guy reminisce this morning. I hope you all stay well as we head into spring.
Dwayne
Woods to water
HuntingBC Champ
Originally Posted by BC30cal
Stone Sheep Steve;
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