I've been targeting this buck for 3 years. First discovered an area a giant buck was hanging out in, in 2017, where I came across big buck tracks and some of the largest piles of buck scat I'd ever seen. So I set up a camera and a blind about 100 yards away from it, on the edge of an opening in the timber where there were good trails throughout. Lots of blowdown everywhere so sitting still in a blind was my best shot. Wasn't quite sure what I was looking for until I did get him on camera a few times that year:
https://youtu.be/_ReuaGWZG5w
A week later:
https://youtu.be/uMdsUN83iIU
And another week later:
https://youtu.be/CLQpoHlaa0I
From that fall on I would have dreams of this buck frequently, and was constantly thinking of if I was setup in the right spot to get a shot at him. Praying for him to show up in daylight in 2018. I went hard for him, spending as many days as I could in the blind, but no dice. I did get him on camera again, almost on the exact same day and time as the year before, and I also got him another camera in another spot I hunt a couple km's away as the crow flies:
https://youtu.be/nPFA4wrQO4o
So last fall I dedicated a good chunk of my entire hunting season to sitting for this stud of a buck. In the off season I brought in my chainsaw and cleared the game trails that had tons of blow down, cleared a bunch of limbs for more shooting lanes, a few more cameras - just trying to figure out where the f_ck he was hanging out in daylight hours. And I once again I found his scat and tracks nearby my blind, but another season went by without seeing him in daylight.
Last weekend while bear hunting, I decided I would swing by my spot and check the cameras (hadn't checked them since last October) and was planning on moving my blind to a different elevation spot where I was hoping he was hanging out in daylight hours. I was delighted to see him on camera for a 3rd fall in a row and he was as healthy as ever and sporting his biggest rack yet:
https://youtu.be/_swS0S7H5KI
And about a week later:
https://youtu.be/etTMdSTqHBM
So after I checked the cameras I made my way to my blind to take it down and figure out this summer where to re-locate it. I get about 20 yards within my blind, walking along the treeline of this small opening where I'm setup, and I come across a giant pile of deer hair that was the outline of a carcass and if you wouldn't believe it, his rack is sitting right on the edge of the pile of hair! It was gnawed on a bit and still had a bit of flesh/tissue inside the skull and was in excellent shape. It looked like the hair had been plucked out and there were ZERO other bones or remnants of the his carcus anywhere except maybe a small part of the pelvis. Everything was eaten and which makes me thing a big cougar somehow must have managed to take this big guy down (this masher buck seemed to be in prime shape of his life too). About 200 yards from the kill site down a narrow deactivated grown over quad trail I found the biggest cougar scat i'd ever seen and it was just tightly twisted up hair (exact same colour as the buck), like the diameter of the lower half of a beer bottle - frigging huge shit!
Anyway, it was pretty cool to chase this guy for 3 years, never see him in daylight, but still get to see how and where it ended for him - 20 yards from where the blind was setup. I was so close. Will post close up pics of his rack in the next post
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