Aught-SixGuy
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2012
- Messages
- 1,897
- Reaction score
- 12
Been a bit since I've been on here and shared anything. This year I was fortunate enough to go to Wyoming on a disabled veterans' hunt and shot my nicest goat yet. Opening morning started with a freak buck that I really wanted. We spotted him about a mile off and made a play. We ended up cutting him off and I had a 200ish yard running shot but I just flat out missed him. So we worked along the top of the valley he went into, draw to draw, trying to pick him back up. He started pushing does and we saw him another mile off to the west. So we went the long way around to where we thought he was headed. When we got there, we saw what we thought was him up on a bluff with some does a couple thousand yards out. So we went around the bluff and hiked up the backside. As soon as we crested the bluff, we ran into what we saw, which ended up being a smaller buck with does. We passed him up, and they spooked to the south of us. We decided to cross the bluff and look back into the valley from the opposite side of where we were at first. After seeing nothing, we decided to head back to the truck. As we were putting our gear back on, I caught movement about 350 yards to our right. It was two bucks. The freak and one I hadn't seen yet. They were working right toward us. We sat down to let them come, flagging our hats to keep curiosity up. The freak turned around and went back the way he came... I was not happy. That is, until the second buck turned his head and I saw those cutters. Best part, he kept coming in. So we settled in and started ranging and waiting. 350... 320... 290... 250... He locked up facing us at 230 yards. I was sitting cross-legged with my rifle on a very unstable tripod and tried to settle in for a shot. I pulled the shot and it went just beside him. I thought I blew it. But to our surprise, he started toward us again, finally giving a broadside but quartering toward us shot at 213 yards. I put my binos under my right elbow so I could get some rear support to steady myself. I settled in behind his shoulder and squeezed off the shot, just as he started walking again. The rifle fired and I heard that unmistakable "WHACK" of a bullet hitting hide, and he dropped. Figuring since he started walking as I shot, I probably hit him back and we gave him a few. After about 5 minutes of him not moving, we headed toward him. As we came upon him, I saw that I did indeed hit him back, in the ham to be precise, and that he was still breathing. I put a mercy bullet through the boiler and he was done. It was such a fun hunt, and even though I was not shooting as well as I normally do (first time missing in AGES), we still got it done opening morning and put a beautiful buck on the ground by 10:30. I haven't taped him yet, he's at the taxidermist getting Euro'd but we gave a conservative length guess at about 13"-14" and the cutters are probably 5"-6" or thereabouts. My last goat went 73 and he was smaller than this one, so I'm hoping for a mid-high 70s score if the mass holds out to make up for shorter length. Either way I'm absolutely stoked. Plus he has some really nice ivory tips to boot.
