Ya know, everyone should have the feeling of being fameous even if it's just for one day of their life. I've always been a small fish in a small pond so when I clicked on the POW WOW I didn't even recognize myself. I knew something looked familiar but my first thought was "how did Shane get his picture up there." Shane is my identical twin brother.
I shot that buck 2 years ago in northwestern South Dakota. Could spit into Montana from the ranch.
We had a record drought in that area all summer and the goats were hitting the water holes like clockwork. Opening day of the season was on a Saturday. The previous Tuesday the ranch got 3" of rain. There was water everywhere. When we pulled in the rancher said "You guys should have been here last week". Gee I've never heard that before on a hunt.
This was an unguided hunt so we had to set up blinds on fence crossings and just put in long hours. I've always been a patient sitter so 15 hour a day in a blind wasn't a big deal for me. We climbed into the blinds at 5:00 am and crawled out at 9:00pm. On the 4th day I was in a hay bale set about 10 yards from a fence crossing. The set consisted of 4 bales pushed togather. See the crossing? Keep in mind these crossings are all over the place and antelope are skittish as all get out around them.
At 9:00 I watched this buck bed down in front of me 100 yrds away. During this time a couple bucks would run up to the fence and look into the field where the big guy was then run back into the pasture. I thought that was odd and unfortunate for me. About 12:30 I was roasting in the blind. The sun way high and there was no roof on the blind. I was questioning whether I would make it all day. The buck was still laying there. I took a couple pictures of him.
I layed on the ground and squeezed myself under the round bale as far as I could to get out of the sun as much as possible. I hollowed out a hole at the bottem of the bale so I could see the buck laying there. I would doze off for a few minutes then open my eyes and check on the buck. I suppose I did this a half a dozen times when I opened an eye for a peek the buck was gone. I quickly started checking all my loop holes and saw the buck posed up and walking toward the fence stiff legged. It looked like he would meet the fence 50 yards to the west of my position. I checked another loop hole and saw a good buck on the other side of the fence looking at the big boy. The big boy didn't want the other buck to enter the alfalfa field but the other buck wasn't leaving. The newcomer started walking down the fence toward my crossing. He was tight to the fence. The big boy was about 30 yards into the field and started paralleling the new buck. Both were coming my way intent on each other. I had to make a decision on which port hole to set up on. The new guy would pass at 10 yards but 5 strands of barbed wire would be between us so I quickly dismissed that one. The big boy should pass the blind at 20 yards. When he got to my opening he stopped and looked at the other buck. I let one fly but forgot to hold low for the drop. He did drop but not enough. I had to give the spine shot buck another one. It was a good feeling knowing I'd put in 52 hours in 3.5 days to have that opportunity.
I've never had a buck measured and decided not to measure this one either. I had it mounted for the wall to symbolize the memory. Shooting an animal with a bow and arrows crafted by your own hands is as good as it gets. Why put a score to something like that? Maybe I'm afraid if I measured a buck it would score one inch less then the book minimum and someone would say "oh that's too bad." I hate trying to explain something to someone when I know deep down inside they will never understand what I'm trying to explain. Ever been there? Chad
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