Archery Opener Monster Buck

Had a fantastic weekend on the opener of the archery hunt, thought I'd share our experience. Opening morning, Aug 15th, 2015, we hunted hard in the morning, hiking several miles. I had an elk tag, my 12 year old son had his first deer tag, and this was opening day of his first big game hunt. In the morning, we got into a large heard of about 80-100 elk, but couldn't connect with one. There is nothing like being within 20-30 yards of a large herd of elk, smelling them, talking with them, etc. That is something I love about bow hunting, the challenge of getting up close and intimate with the animals. We did see one nice 4x4 buck that morning, but he was too far away for a shot and busted us shortly after finding him.

After a long morning hunt, we drove into town to get lunch and ice. We were on our way back to camp to get ready for the evening hunt, when we spotted a couple of bucks feeding in a thick aspen grove on the right side of the road. My son excitedly jumped out of the vehicle, (wearing shorts, flip flops and Utah Jazz hat) and we kept driving 20-30 yards to keep the deer preoccupied with the vehicle, not with him. I looked back through the back window and he was at full draw, then he shot, right as a motorcyclist passed by going the opposite direction. He ducked down a little bit, then looked back at us and gave a fist pump and a huge smile. I got out of the vehicle, walked over to him and he said he hit him in the vitals. Just then the guy on the motorcycle drove back up to us and asked if we had just shot a deer, he said it was laying in the middle of the road. The deer bolted after being shot, ran about 100 yards, outrunning the motorcycle. The buck cut him off, "did a somersault" and collapsed right on the gravel road in front of him. The guy on the motorcycle and his friends were really excited for him, congratulating him on a great shot.

The spike was shot at 15 yards through the lungs. The arrow went completely through, threading the needle between a couple of ribs. I was really proud of him for connecting with the vitals his first time ever shooting at a big game animal. Special thanks to swbuckmaster and the J.O.A.D coaches at DATUS for helping him get started in the right direction.

His setup:

• Mathews Ignition
• 40lb draw weight
• 75gr. Muzzy broadheads

Buck stats:

• Full Velvet
• Right Antler: 6 1/2" length
• Left Antler: 5 1/2" length (probably loose some symmetry points here)
• Spread: 5 1/2"

Anyone tell me what the score is on that monster? LOL

Through all this I learned a couple of things:

1. I'm a lot happier seeing him succeed at getting a small buck off the side of the road than if I would have tagged an elk that day. We made some fantastic memories. It'll be a hunt we'll never forget.
2. It's a lot easier to find/recover an animal if a guy on a motorcycle finds it for you less than a minute after taking the shot. Blood tracking is overrated anyway.

Here is the Aspen Grove the buck was feeding in:

The aspen grove and road he died on: