The scenery in Mill Creek canyon was spectacular, as usual, and the bucks were plentiful enough but VERY difficult to approach. We made 3 attempts to stalk one big 4X5 and absolutely failed on each. No closer than 450 yds, especially with several pairs of doe eyes keeping watch. They busted us dropping off the canyon rim, even at a spot that we thought was out of their line of sight. Here's my rifle perched near the edge in the early morning. Most of our time was spent behind binoculars staring down and scanning the coulees for deer.
My huntin' buddy, Travis, who is a youngster at 33, did score a nice 3X4 after a fast stalk late on Wednesday evening. We spotted the buck and another 2X3 sparring on a hillside a thousand yards away. Travis took off at a trot and I watched him as he made his way down behind a hill and away from the bucks position. He laid down and BAWOOM, followed by the sound of the bullet from his 270 WSM smacking the buck. It staggered away rather wobbly, but he hit it again because he didn't want to have to go any further down into the canyon. The buck collapsed and he went to work on it. 15 minutes later, right at sunset, he had it cut in half. I was headed down but he waived me off, something that was a bit of a relief to my tired old mind. He had to leapfrog the front and hind end out and didn't reach the truck until way after dark. Back at camp we skinned the halves, cut off the horns, and tossed the rest. Since Travis has sick 2 and 4 yr old kids he left for home at 9PM. It's a minimum 1 3/4 hr trip out to the headquarters, all of it in 4 wheel drive, than another 30 miles to home for for him. I had already been down in that canyon once that day and was pretty tired, but he made the trip safely.
One "funny" event we had was one of my cousins opening the outhouse door and finding Mr No Shoulders guarding the premises. The little bugger was rattling away and wanted no part of the invasion of his napping spot. I put the snake in a 5 gallon bucket, took it for a walk, and dumped it away from the camp.
One reason for the lack of success was that the season was scheduled a week earlier than in the past. The temps were in the mid 80s and no cooler than 42º in the morning. The season ended on Sunday 30 Oct, but I departed Saturday at noon. So far as I am aware only 7 bucks were taken in our area, with most being small forks and 2X3s. The "meat hunters" filled their tags with the first bucks they saw, but we "horn hunters" held off. On the way out we spotted 2 legal bucks, one a decent forkie that ran down the road in front of my truck.
I had better mention that I took one shot at a nice buck that was standing broadside at 300 yds. The shot was taken with the little 7mm Mauser that 86er sent out to me and I missed clean, shooting over his back. It was downhill at a 21 degree angle, so I figured that the bullet would have a little drop and put the crosshairs right on the top of his back at the shoulders. Sadly, I did not have a chance to test fire the rifle before hunting, so the miss was on me. The buck was a fork, but what a fork he was. The spread was 24" plus and the bases were thick. The bad thing is that I watched that buck for over an hour and had him dead to rights at 120 yds, but couldn't decide to take him. Travis came over and asked me why I didn't shoot and all that came to mind was me not wanting to shoot "just a fork". That 'ol buck is still out there and will maybe be around next year. He will always be nothing but a 2X2, but a very nice one at that.
