Hunting & Fishing 2013 WR South Dakota "Whitetail"

[blksno]

Spent 3 days and 2 nights camping on the open prairie roughing it in a tent through night time temps dropping into in the single digits and not only hiking gun and gear across the prairie into some pine canyons...but carrying the beast out on my back.

The experience was like nothing I'll ever forget and look forward to doing again.

Special Thanks to Derek at Exo-Kote for the Highlander hydrodip and Travis at TS Customs Precision Firearms for building me this nail driving machine. It defiantly looks as good as it shoots.

2013 West River Deer. What appears to potentially be a Whitetail/Mule Deer Hybrid, but is yet unconfirmed. The metatarsal glands are about 5" long, so I'm confident it's got mule deer genes, even if it's back a generation.

7x6 with 23" outside spread scoring an unofficial 158 3/8 gross and 154 net. No monster, but the best I've ever had in my cross hairs and it's unique when coupled with the experience of the hunt.

My only regret...missing the kill shot on video. Solo hunting on film, is a whole new skill.

 

[Bill Larson]

there`s something to be said for a man that will do that.you sir deserve the new state record deer......you have my respect...

 

[Wyfox]

What a stud of a buck, that's a deer to be proud of!!
What stock is that?

 

[blksno]

Much appreciated man. I've been looking forward to doing this for years, and finally had the chance to make it happen. A lot of buddies including the relatives thought I was crazy and wanted to know my approximate location pending any disasters. I told everyone I was going out to score...even if it took until the end of the season...which would have been 6 nights. Ended up scoring on day 2.
I had a absolute blast and hope to do it in the mountains some day.
I know for SURE I'll be doing it next hunting season, but hopefully with a buddy to run a camera.

After I started carrying this thing out, I knew I had better get some video of it or no one would believe me. It would have been about 3/4 of a mile out a ridge to the south plus another 3/4 of a mile across the prairie if I headed back to camp...so I opted to go up and over a nasty ridge to the north, about 1/2 mile to a fence line where I could get to it with my Explorer.
The first half of this clip, is getting to the top of the first ridge...all that was left was another 700 yds to the fence...mostly down hill, but to much timber to easily drag without getting hung up...so I opted to carry it...even down hill. Stopping whenever I needed a rest of course.
Carrying it isn't hard...its picking up dead weight that is a real bitch!

I'll be adding more pics and videos to add to the story...but here is the extraction.

<embed width="600" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v200/c_bass16/2013DeerExtraction_zpse5690c00.mp4">

 

[blksno]

What a stud of a buck, that's a deer to be proud of!!
What stock is that?

It's the Manners T5A

 

[piglatinhater]

Nice buck!

 

[Lumpy33]

Nice job congratulation way to get it done

 

[boudin]

Awesome buck cbass.

 

[kurt]

That is a great deer with some sweet character will make a real nice mount. Good work

 

[S_Lunsford]

Congrats on an awesome buck cbass and much respect for the way you accomplished harvesting it.

 

[pizzamanny]

Could you post a gear list and what you would or would not bring the next trip?

 

[tt123]

There seems to be something wrong with the video.

There was a problem playing your video

File has invalid structure- Unable to load video.

Looks like a great buck, and a great trip too. I'd love to do something like that.

Silly question perhaps, but was it on a deer lease or public land?

 

[MTyotehunter]

Neat buck! kind of mule deer like the way it forks and what a sweet kicker! congrats!

 

[Smcarroll]

Very nice deer.

 

[coldboremiracle]

My only regret...missing the kill shot on video. Solo hunting on film, is a whole new skill.

I hear ya there pal, it's frustrating. You wanna get it on film because its so close, and be able to share the memory with others forever. But when the time comes, you just gotta shoot!

Awesome deer BTW, and killer hunt, the best kind of memories.

 

[bullseye13]

Beautiful pics, great buck. congratulations!

 

[blksno]

There seems to be something wrong with the video.

Check now.

Silly question perhaps, but was it on a deer lease or public land?

Private land. Family owns quite a few acres in western South Dakota. I've been helping to manage the 'scrub' bucks for the last few years and I finally got to score a nice one.

Could you post a gear list and what you would or would not bring the next trip?

The only thing I had with me on this particular hike that I didn't need was my extra fleece pants and top, base layer was plenty...but I wasn't about to risk needing it and not having it when it drops into the single digits when the sun goes down. I guess I didn't need my Glock either, but mountain lions have been known to frequent the area and I wasn't taking any chances.
The point of the pack was to be able to put in whatever I might need and man up. Rather than go in light and come out freezing my ass off. I wish I would have taken 20 oz of water and some latex gloves...but the draws had plenty of snow to nibble and the latex gloves are just nice to keep clean so you don't need to wash blood with snow and get cold if you don't have to.

I had mittens, my ghillie hood, buck bomb, doe estrus, rattle, grunt, skinning knife, back up Gerber LMF II, Glock 34, bino/lrf combo, Kestrel, phone, wind powder, ammo, secondary tall bipod for seated shots vs prone shots, extra fleece jacket, extra fleece pants...not sure what else I had, maybe some extra coyote calls in my chest pack, but no biggie.

I was only 1.5 miles from camp, so it wasn't like I was planning to be out for 24h or anything.

 

[kurt]

along with the latex gloves a little pack of baby wipes are nice they have lots of uses when out in the field from clean up to emergency tp

 

[mdesign]

Great buck you got there, congratulations!

 

[HideHunter]

Nice! Being from SD I never knew it was legal to hunt with suppressors until now.

 

[Bobo3020]

Sweet gun and nice buck!