MY MONSTER BUCK!!!

My father and brother have been hunting a particular area in Wyoming for the past four years, I have not been able to go since the cost of the hunt was more than I could afford. I knew that eventually the day would come when I could bag a trophy mule deer buck.

On October 19^th of 2004 I was finally in the same spot that I have been dreaming about for the past four years.  I have hunted mule deer before, but that was in the mountains, this was in the river bottom.  This was the same spot where bucks ranging from 160 to 193 points B&C were taken just in the past few years.

As the sun started poking above the horizon I found myself along with my Father and family friend Mike Hartman sitting on a ridge glassing over the river bottom, being a little discouraged of the rumors that we have heard about the deer population on the ranch has vastly decreased.  We sat on top of the ridge glassing only to find a couple of doe and fork horns ( four point eastern count).  We drove back into camp discussing how we could find these incredible creatures. When we arrived at camp we discussed the morning hunt with some other hunters just to find out that there just weren't a lot of deer around. Was it hunting pressure, weather, coyotes, who knows, all we knew is that we needed to find them since there were only three days to hunt.  The day came and went like it never happened, how could we go all day and only see 3 small bucks and a few doe. That night we all talked not only about the cow substances, but where to go and how to bag that once in a lifetime buck.  We decided that it involved a lot of walking, ( if you've ever hunted the western states you know that it’s a lot of work), so that night we went to sleep laughing at each others jokes and the fact that we were all freezing.

The next morning found us walking the river bottom.  Only one mile into the walk we saw a group of bucks that consisted of four fork horns and one nice looking three point. We had to get around these deer to get a better look at the three point to see if he was a shooter.  We decided to back track and go around the back side of a neighboring ridge and get on top of these deer. Just before we started our short journey we spotted another deer, there he was, a beautiful muley!!  The only problem we faced was the distance between us and him.  So without too much hesitation we crouched down and ran as fast as we could to cut the buck off.  When we got to the top of the ridge, we noticed that the group of younger bucks had bedded down.  We did not see the big buck, but we just knew he couldn’t have gone too far.   So we decided to wait them out.

After about a half an hour the younger bucks started to walk off one by one.  We knew it was getting close; the other deer moving should have made the bigger one stand up, but that didn't happen.  We were puzzled but not worried when the other deer moved out of the area but did not pick up the bigger buck we knew he had to be around there somewhere.  We walked down the ridge to find that the big buck was nowhere to be found.  We then started to walk down river just to find that he was nowhere.  As the evening approached we wondered where the big boy went. How in the world did we not see that buck?  How did he manage to elude us?  We watched another western sunset with an empty tag and aching legs, knowing that the next sunrise would bring on the last day of the hunt.

The next morning brought with it a cold, rainy, windy day and a big stroke of bad luck.  I wasn’t going to leave there without my trophy, I had to push on.  We started that morning again glassing over the river bottom on a part of the land that no hunter had touched this year, just to find nothing moving about.  After a little discussion Mike and I came up with a game plan, he was going to drop me off at  one  part of the river and meet me about 3 miles up river at a crossing. 

I started my descent down river with an aching body and mind.  A lot of thoughts cross your mind when you have put so much effort into something and not been successful.  Though upset at the lack of deer that were sighted, I still had a little more hunt left in me. One mile came and went without luck, then two.  At about the third mile I had reached a bend in the river where I couldn’t get across to walk the large area of sage brush on that side.  I decided the best way to save time and energy was to throw rocks into the river and yell to see if I could get something to move.  Needless to say this unique and original hunting method brought with it no success either.  Tired and hurting I had reached mental and physical exhaustion. I knew that I planned for nothing.  I must not be the hunter that I thought I was.  As I rounded the bend of the river, coming up on a ranchers dam, I saw something out of the corner of my eye.............and there he was.  A beautiful mule deer buck bounding away from me.  So, being very desperate I quickly did the only thing that I could think of, I yelled, “hey”, much to my surprise, it worked, the buck stopped and turned, that’s all the opportunity I needed.  I pulled up my 30-06 and squeezed an off handed round and the buck was down. I did it, I shot my monster!!!  With nothing between my buck and I but a 3’ foot deep river, I bounded through it, which was a very cold and shocking experience.  I didn’t care I shot a monster.  As I reached the downed animal, I found that he was a 4x5 with a 24 ½” spread!!!

With a little lighter foot step I ran to the top of a neighboring ridge to try and find Mike.  Well, I didn’t find him, but I saw the truck about one mile ahead.  I walked up to the truck, then I got Mikes attention, Mike not knowing I shot a Monster buck was glassing around, looking for deer.  So I decided to give him the signal that we had planned if I shot a deer.  So I did it.  In the middle of nowhere I danced my first jig.  Looking back at it I’m thankful for being persistent, having the father and friends that I have to look up too and having only one person to say they saw me dance a jig.

He may not hang in everybody’s trophy room, but I proudly hang him in mine.  Thanks to everybody who was there the day I shot my trophy mule deer buck.

If you would like to send us your success story, email it to, ryanb@triplebhunting.com