Here's the buck I took in Wyoming this past season. It's been officially scored for both B&C and SCI and is now tied for the B&C Wyoming State Record with a score of 91 2/8. The buck also scores 92 4/8 SCI.
Despite how the photos look, I actually had to crawl through the snow for about 45 minutes as it was melting. It was definitely a different type of hunting experience for someone who primarily hunts in AZ and NM. Rodney hired Chad Smith and Pronghorn Guide Service to assist him on his (most likely) once in a lifetime Arizona Pronghorn Raffle Tag. He hunted a buck we had named FX for 2 days and couldn't get all the variables to mesh. On the 3rd day, his last day allocated for hunting, we decided to switch to our back up buck. This buck was no slouch coming in at an official 91 4/8 SCI and 89 B&C.
This is where my Dad and I have been for the last several days - in the Florida Mountains just outside Deming, New Mexico hunting Ibex with J.D. Woods. On the 12th (or 13th, can't remember) day of hunting J.D. made a long distance connection using our "Grimmett" rifle (made by McMillan) on an Ibex we named Bobcat. The shot was 565 yards. Preliminary measurements indicate that this Ibex should rank in the Top 5 ever taken from the Florida's.
Dr. David Meyer, one of the recent frequent purchasers of Arizona's coveted Antelope Auction Tag, drew a New Mexico tag this year and made a long range shot to down a buck we had named "SB". In the video the buck looked enormous and we weren't disappointed.
The buck officially scores 90 5/8 SCI, and 89 2/8 B&C. J.W. Marr booked a hunt with us in New Mexico this last year and he was able to take a great buck on one of our premium ranches on the first day of the hunt. Butterbean (my Dad named him so don't blame me! ;) was one of the top bucks on the ranch, but one of the more difficult bucks to snap a good photo of. J.W. made a 200+ yard shot at the buck (I'm sure J.W. will remember the exact distance) and dropped him around 9:30 AM on opening day.
The buck has 16+ inch horns and great top mass! The official scores are 85 4/8 SCI, and 84 4/8 B&C. A re-post from the old blog...
I met Ty in Valle at noon on the Thursday before the opening day in Arizona's famous and bleak Unit 10. He brought enough stuff to camp for a month. On Wednesday he called me to let me know when to meet him in Valle. During our call I was driving down an old two tracker in an area I don't scout much and I hit the brakes and said, "Hold on just a sec!" There was a buck 100 yards out my window standing there looking at me - this never happens on the Plateau. I could hear Ty yelling through the phone though it wasn't next to my ear, "What do you see? How big? You're killing me man..." After just a short peak I grabbed the phone and quickly rattled off, "I'm looking at the buck you're gonna kill. I gotta go," and I hung up the phone. The buck started trotting off. I grabbed my back up camera, a Panasonic FZ30, and put it up to my scope to try and get some evidence before the buck disappeared. My pictures weren't very good. The buck cleared a ridge and I hiked after him. I spotted him at just over 200 yards and took some pics with my real camera, though it wasn't quite made for this distance. The buck had short prongs, but great bottom mass. I thought he was about 16 inches. And knowing what I know about top mass I figured his tops were pretty big as well. I guessed him at 86 to 88 inches. The night before the hunt I sat down with Ty and we reviewed all my photos. I showed him several bucks over 84 inches and 3 serious candidates for us to chase opening morning. One was in Aubrey Valley and the other two were on the Plateau. Our camp was right near Tin House on the Plateau so I hoped we wouldn't have to go to Aubrey, but I didn't tell Ty where the bucks were as I didn't want that to influence his decision. I told him all 3 bucks were 86 inches on the conservative side and just told him to pick the one he liked the best. He chose the buck in Aubrey. Ugh. With the road going through Rose Well closed we would have to drive clear around and it could take several hours. Looks like we were going to be waking up EXTREMELY EARLY in the morning. And we did. I had an energy drink to get going and Ty helped keep me awake during the drive with more elk hunting stories than I'd ever care to remember! :) Turns out that Ty knows Chipper Jones and had guided many of the same hunters we had. We got to Aubrey at exactly the right time, which was a little surprising as we weren't sure exactly how long the drive was going to take. We plodded down the dirt road and stopped to glass a few times before we spotted him. He was within a few hundred yards of where I had seen him last. No hunters in sight which was unusual. We started hiking. Two miles out and the buck herded up with some others and rutted his way clear to the other side of our truck. We hiked back. When we got to the truck we were both dripping with sweat though the morning was still a bit chilly. We re-planned, but while we did the buck made tracks right back to where we just were! Gr... We hiked on him again as there weren't any roads in this area. This time, when we got to where the buck was, he decided to move away from us another two miles. We kept after him. We also noticed several hunting trucks just beyond him and wondered if anyone was chasing him. We knew the buck was just on the other side of the ridge about 600 yards from us. BLAM! A gunshot rang out and Ty exclaimed, "They shot him!" We didn't even know who "they" were at the moment, but we knew "they" were very close to us and most likely firing at the buck we were after. The herd bolted and appeared directly in front of us running full speed without the herd buck! We scanned, no buck, all does. Our hearts sank and then it happened - the buck appeared, unscathed, nearly 300 yards behind the does. The buck paused on the hillside just 311 yards away. Ty dropped him. The other hunters walked over to us afterward and they were very cordial. I wish I could remember their names, but one of them was a guide for Diamond Outfitters. Both were genuinely happy for Ty's success. Definitely an exciting hunt! Ty waited (like most people) well over 20 years to draw this tag! We had a blast hunting together and hopefully we'll get to do it again real soon. Ty's buck officially scores 90 3/8 SCI. Not much length or prong with those coming in at 15 3/8 and 15 4/8 and 5 4/8 and 6 1/8, but HUGE mass with his bottoms measuring 6 5/8 and 6 7/8 and then 7 5/8 and 7 6/8 under the prong. His tops were unreal at 5 7/8 and 5 6/8 just above the prong and 3 5/8 and 3 6/8 on his last measurement. We finally have a lot of those official B&C and SCI scores everyone has been waiting for!
The buck above we named Diamond because of his diamond shaped right prong. The buck on the bottom right was the "other" buck that was in contention for the Statewide Auction Tag buck. It wasn't until the day Mike arrived that we finally decided to take Diamond instead of Tank II. The photo of Diamond on the bottom left is the one that eventually was too much for us to take - we just had to find out if what we were looking at was real. It was. Diamond officially scores 90 4/8 B&C and 92 3/8 SCI. We finally have official B&C scores for most of the antelope we were involved with this year. I'll be posting some of the bucks in this blog with a quick rundown about them and I will also be updating the scores in the Field Photos 2009 section. Stay tuned!
This is a re-post from our old blog, Mark's buck was taken in 2008
We hooked Mark up with Dave Brown and, quite different to how we normally do things, Mark and Dave scouted many times together. This isn't a bad thing, it's maybe even a good thing, just not how hunts normally happen because usually hunters are coming in from out of state. Since Mark lives in Arizona and he knew he may never draw this tag again he thought he'd make the most of it by spending as much time in the field as possible. Together they scoured most of the unit and decided to chase a particular buck up on the Plateau on opening morning..... |
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