First Muley Buck-story to follow.

[Lozzie]

I'll put the pic up before the story so you know I'm not lying. I'll write up the story when I get back home.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=5560&stc=1

[4 point]

Nice one. Looking forward to story.

[kennyj]

Nice buck!
kenny

[epicZERO74]

Very cool buck! Congrats! Excited for the story! :D

[hunter1947]

That's a decent mule deer buck for your first mule deer,,congrats..

[M.Dean]

Right on Lozzie! Nice "First Buck"! Congrats!

[Lozzie]

So finally made it back to the Island last night so here comes there story and I'll try to put up a few pics of the antlers as the quality of the pictures above aren't that great. I've been to the mainland numerous times trying to find a nice buck but I've only managed to fill my doe draws. This hunt came about as the original plan was for me to go on a moose hunt in late October with the Ol'boys of our network of hunting friends.( 1 guy is 74 and the other 62, I'm 35) but due to some anniversary related spousal tension I had to gracefully bow out of that trip.(I had missed our last three anniversaries due to hunting) Let me just say this If I would have known I was to become a serious hunter I probably wouldn't have gotten married in October.

So as a consolation to my old buddies I said I would come on their Muley trip in November (one of them had a doe draw the only LEH success out of 16 guys). Fast track to a week before we are scheduled to leave, Guns are ready, Truck is ready, Gear is all ready, wake up with a tickle in my throat, SOB!!!! Instantly I'm up chewing on raw garlic cloves, drinking apple cider vinegar, Buckley's, fishermans friends, Neo Citron, Oil of Oregon, Eccanaecia( not sure how to spell that one) but you get the point. So I managed to keep this cold from developing into sinus cold and was left with just a cough.

Friday morning at 4:30 I pick up the boys and we are on our way. We made it to our home away from home around 6pm that night, a dirty little motel with two beds and a futon and a kitchenette. The next morning a friend from the area comes to point us in the right direction as none of us had hunted this area before. We spend the day driving around we see lots of tracks but no deer until the drive home where we an absolute slob of a buck and about 20 lesser deer 300 yards off the main road in a field posted no trespassing/ hunting. I should say while we were cruising around we say tonnes of wolf and coyote tracks and at one point when I crested a hill on the main FSR I saw what at first I thought was a bear. But binos up, "holy s**t" that's a huge wolf. We bail out of the truck, put my range finder on him "nothing, he's over 1000 yards away" thought about taking a shot about 10' above him but he took off into the timber.

That night my cough kicked into gear in the dry climate, I was hacking like a 50 year old beer league hockey player with a cage. The only thing that seemed to work was the old towel over the head steam treatment. I wake up in the morning to find out I wasn't the only one who had a rough night. One of my hunting partners had been up all night yakking his brains out. There was much speculation as to the cause of this mysterious symptom but in his mind it was bad Clamato so that new bottle was dumped out. Personally I think it was just one those 24 hour bugs, anyhow we are off and hunting the fellas see a few does we have a while driving situation with a big bodied deer but we can't make out points as he darts through the timber. We hike in after but with all the fresh tracks he pulls off a houdini act and we are left where we started.

The next morning we hear that a young 4pointer was taken in one of the areas we had been hunting and the Immortal words of Walker(Bandit) start ringing in my head. "Pick and Stay, Stick and make it Pay." Should mention that I probably got it wrong and most likely will be corrected but the just of it is. If you know where they are keep pounding the same spot until it produces. We talked about and all agreed this was the area where we would make it happen.
The next day all us picked a section of the area and spent the day timber cruising, but unfortunately for me that morning I was the one who woke up with indigestion and nausea. Let me tell you how fun it is to trail deer through alpine timber with a cough, nausea and intermittent diarrhea. Let's just say I'm a big fan of having a small bag of baby wipes in the pack. We some does but no bucks yet, as we all made it back to the truck wiped out from the days events we decided to come right back in the morning but check out one more area with the remaining light we had left. We drive into the area and all of a sudden "there's a doe!" I look over and I see there's 4 deer and one is a buck, he is a young thin but tall 3x4, the deer are 15 yards off the main FSR behind a ranch fence 2' away from an unlocked gate. We all looked at each other and asked the question "do we shoot them?" I'm sure there are going to be some comments about this but it's what happened, the friend that had shown us the area said he would'nt hunt inside the ranch gates, but they weren't posted? My thoughts were, I didn't come all this way to shoot a young deer that's standing statue at 15 yards. I wanted the thrill of the hunt, the satisfaction of being challenged by a situation and overcoming it to become successful. Whether or not you agree with these ethics or ideologies that I seem to have adopted the truth is that's how I felt about it at the time and I still do. My partner's however could not figure out why they didn't want let the lead fly.

Tuesday morning, I woke up with a plan. I had spent the last couple days leaving boot tracks and digestively induced presents throughout the timber. I had great confidence on where I needed to hunt. I made it to a spot where the tracks became real fresh and where the timber met a wide open field, I paused about 30 yards inside the timber line. Binos up I see a doe, then another, then another, then a coyote, then another coyote. Then one of the coyotes runs up to the timber line I'm in stops 15 yards away from me unknowing I'm there and turns and books it back across the field. As I watch the coyotes leave I notice another doe about 150 yards away and think to myself where is the buck? Just the about 60 yards behind me I catch a glimpse of a deer making his way into the timber from the field, I quietly and slowly turn not making a sound. Bios up it's a buck, he's got back forks, I quietly wait as he makes his way across the timber. As he starts quartering away from me I slowly bring up the rifle, I take a knee, put the crosshairs on the boiler room and gently touch off on the trigger. Boom, when the dust settles he's down, a few flails of the antlers and the deed is done. As I walk up to him I am not disappointed, cool he's a thick 4 point, I pick up his other antler out of the snow. Whoa, this side has 5 points and he's got brows, so I guess he's a 4x5 or 5x6 if you count the brows. Next thought, how to get him back to the truck. Hmm....I text the buddy with the cell phone and let him know I got a buck and try to explain where I am in relation to the truck. I quickly realize this is going to be some work. I gutted him out real quick strapped my rifle to my pack, grabbed an antler and started dragging him down the ridgeline, man I was glad he didn't flop down into that ravine, that would have sucked. Thank God there was snow on the ground and the truck was downhill. About 45 min later I get a text from the boys, they think they are close. They honk the horn an I can hear them, I think they are only about 500 yards away so I keep dragging him on the flat now an old skidder road. Finally my arms are like we need a break, I drop the deer, walk out another 100 yards and I can see them coming up the hill with priceless grins. We walk back to the deer and everybody is fired up, my 74 year friend seemed as happy for me as he would have shot it himself. They hooked up a drag strap and pulled it most of the couple hundred more yards to the truck. We got him skinned out and took him to the butcher shop for hanging, then went right back to the area. We hunted the next couple days but were unable to find another shooter buck or a large enough doe to pull the trigger. With my 74 year old hunting partner being completely worn out from the weeks worth of bushwacking we decided to stick a fork in this hunt.

To celebrate the end of the hunt we went for chinese food, around 10pm I celebrated the chinese food with projectile vomitting. Awesome.....We got up at 4:45am and headed back to the island.

Thanks for reading, I'll try to put up a few better pics soon.

Cheers,
Lozzie

[Knute]

Stick and make it pay, well done.

I hate Clamato so I would place the blame there also. Hope you and your elders are feeling better.

A successful hunt for your group, congrats.

[Lozzie]

http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/p704/aclozzie/IMG_0275_zpsavctmrk4.jpg

http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/p704/aclozzie/IMG_0274_zpsjmrqsxbl.jpg

http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/p704/aclozzie/IMG_0273_zpspgiwcch3.jpg

http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/p704/aclozzie/IMG_0286_zpsmre6zsgn.jpg

http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/p704/aclozzie/IMG_0287_zpswspmdeix.jpg

http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/p704/aclozzie/IMG_0288_zpsphcb3n5q.jpg

http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/p704/aclozzie/IMG_0289_zpsjwnfil4f.jpg

2015 Bucks side by side

http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/p704/aclozzie/IMG_0283_zpsqsibzcqn.jpg

http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/p704/aclozzie/IMG_0285_zpszlyzcig4.jpg

[sapper]

Great description of all the drama, Lozzie. Very punny"...wiped out from the days events"

[Lozzie]

Lol, Sapper. PS I did get the joke about the brown streak behind me in your text. It just took awhile for me to digest it.

[Cyrus]

congrats...ya I have been there before with the Chinese food...

[wideopenthrottle]

pics to follow...not of the projectile vomit I hope...heheheh

[Lozzie]

Oddly enough after the projectile vomit I felt top notch. If only all sickness could be purged so quickly. lol

[rifleman]

nice and heavy... great buck for your 1st one... thanks for the pics and story... good read...

[Lozzie]

PS If any one has a guess about score let me know, I don't really care but my cousin in Sask is interested. Thanks.

[sapper]

Lol, Sapper. PS I did get the joke about the brown streak behind me in your text. It just took awhile for me to digest it.
:wink:
Your signature line is starting to read like a hunter's bucket list, or maybe just this hunter's bucket list.
PS: good call on choosing celebrating the anniversary together.

[Lozzie]

:wink:
Your signature line is starting to read like a hunter's bucket list, or maybe just this hunter's bucket list.
PS: good call on choosing celebrating the anniversary together.

Elk hunting in September, Muley's/ Whitetails in November hopefully leaves a happy wife in October, or at least that's what I'm hoping for. lol

[Nimrod]

I had missed our last three anniversaries due to hunting
classic line
Congrats on the Buck, you earned it

[john-brennan]

nice buck Adam.

[coach]

Great buck! Congratulations, Adam.


hint - if you copy and paste the IMG code your pics will show up directly in the thread..

http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/p704/aclozzie/IMG_0275_zpsavctmrk4.jpg (http://s1347.photobucket.com/user/aclozzie/media/IMG_0275_zpsavctmrk4.jpg.html)

[Lozzie]

Thanks Coach, I think I did it before but it escaped me how today.

[sapper]

nice buck Adam.
Doh! John totally outed you. So much for anonymity. ;)

[Lozzie]

Must be friend of yours.lol

[hunter1947]

Thanks for sharing your story was a nice read..

[180grainer]

Really nice buck. Congrats.

[deer nut]

Nice buck indeed. Just curious, when you said he had back forks did you also see the fronts? Ive seen bucks that only have 1 up front though they had 2 in back, but luckily they've been 3x4s.....congratulations anyway on an awesome buck!

[Lozzie]

It's pretty common with Mulies that if they have forks in the back they will have them in the front as the front forks grow first. However on this trip I did see a buck that had massive forks in the back and only spikes on the front 3x3, very old looking deer probably on his way down. With this particular buck, yes I saw that he had forks in the front as he was shot at about 70 yards.


Nice buck indeed. Just curious, when you said he had back forks did you also see the fronts? Ive seen bucks that only have 1 up front though they had 2 in back, but luckily they've been 3x4s.....congratulations anyway on an awesome buck!