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Muley Crazy Article"Big Mountain Buck" Big
Mountain Buck It was the end of the first day of my hunt and as daylight began giving way to darkness, we glassed a multicolored, oak brush covered plateau. We soon discovered a small bachelor band of bucks, and although great deer, they weren’t what we were looking for. Fifteen minutes later Mike suddenly proclaimed. “I’ve found your deer!” One quick look through the spotting scope and I knew instantly, he was a magnificent buck. After a brief discussion, we decided that there was not enough daylight remaining to make a proper stalk so we retired to camp, hoping to return before sunrise and relocate him. It was mid-September and I was hunting mule deer in northern Utah with Mike Macfarlane of Big Mountain Outfitters. Although I had hunted with Mike several times in the past, this hunt seemed particularly special. Two years prior, I had blown a chance at a buck that likely would’ve scored in the mid-190’s, and last year, I had to cancel my hunt due to a ruptured Achilles’ tendon. I was hoping for a small measure of retribution this year. Before the hunt there were cheerful greetings from my old friends; Mike, Ray-the trusty camp cook, and Dustin and Greg-the skillful guides. On the first morning we took a short hike to an elevation of 7,700 feet. There we glassed several canyons and saw many deer and multiple bucks, the largest scoring in the 170’s. After lunch we moved to the other side of the ranch and after glassing some high country we moved down to a large plateau that was surrounded by steep canyons. This is where we ended up finding the buck. The morning of the second day started early and was filled with anticipation. Once in position, we started seeing deer immediately. Two beautiful bucks were browsing in the early morning sunlight, but they were still a few years away from being true trophies. Thirty minutes later e spotted a large buck in the 175-180 range. We were confused initially as although the buck had a split on his right G3’s, we were sure the buck from the night before had split G3’s on both sides. On any other hunt this would have been a shooter but we knew there was a world class buck nearby. More than a hour passed and we began to wonder if our good luck had run out. Then, as if on cue, the buck was there. Nestled in dense oak brush was a true buck of a lifetime. His large rack was still in full velvet and it indeed had split G3’s on both sides, as well as a nice eyeguards and two kickers on each side! We were still over 600 yards away, so we gathered our gear and carefully backed away and out of site. We hiked down a canyon and then up a small hillside to a position approximately 260 yards away. Although the smaller buck was still there, the big buck had disappeared. Minutes seemed like hours until…..”There he is, “ I whispered. I remembered Mike’s words as I settled behind the shooting sticks, “Take your time and do it right”. Despite a case of buck fever I was able to shoot and the buck appeared to go down into the dense brush. After several minutes of searching Mike yelled, “Come help me drag out your deer!” And what a deer he was-gross scoring just over 198 inches! He was everything we thought and more. My many thanks go out to Mike and my friends at Big Mountain Outfitters.
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MIKE MACFARLANE at 1-801-330-3860 |
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