I decided I’ d drive back up in the morning with my son to help me bone and pack out the front quarters and headgear. This worked out great- except for when I stopped at the check station on the way out that first night. Not planning on detaching the hind quarters when I field-dressed the deer, I hadn’ t intentionally left evidence of sex on the hind quarters.
This deer isn’ t a giant to most seasoned hunters, but I’ m pretty ecstatic about him. He’ s a mature deer taken on a one-day, public land D. I. Y. hunt. Scoring what I guess to be in the low 130’ s He’ s my largest deer to date- I couldn’ t be happier!
Great buck Dale! Congrats! antlers when I shot him, but I’ d tried not to look at them, and just concentrate on the shot. He sported a beautiful chocolate 4x4 rack with nice eye guards. Luckily, the first mile or two was pretty much straight down an avalanche shoot, so after field dressing him I drug him out that far whole. When things leveled out a bit an the brambles took over in what had now become a running creek bed, I gave up my delusions of getting him out in one piece and cut his hind quarters off. I lashed my rifle and his hind legs to my pack, marked his position on my GPS, and resumed tumbling down hill. It was only another mile or so to the road, but when the snow started piling up I started getting a little nervous about having a hundred plus pounds on my back shinnying down rock chutes in unfamiliar territory.
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