It was about 7:15 – 7:30 and I get a text, ” 160 DOWN “……………. Now Vince & I, B.S each other as much as any hunting buddy’s could or should…… it’s fun at times, however for some reason, I knew this was real ……..

My replay, ” do you want me to come to you ” his reply, ” YES “………. I climb down from my perch and ride the 2 miles to his stand, I hike down the ridge to him……. as I get within sight of his stand I see a monster dead not 15 yards from his tree, my eyes can scarcely take in the sight……. this buck looks like his head is on fire with flames for antlers………

Vince is still shaking as he stands over him….. he can barely talk as I approach……. he try’s to tell me how it went down, but can hardly get it out………

( Vince shoots a compound so we will skip forward )

He tells me there is a huge 3×3 and we should take this buck out whole as to not contaminate the area and come back and sit his stand, who am I to argue when a man who is willing to let me sit his stand he just shot a monster from……..lol lol lol

Now with that being said, have you tried to move a big muley buck up hill “NOT” field dressed……. one word comes to mind….. HARD, well maybe two words, VERY HARD……. because we are not Escared, we did it, mostly on adrenalin and stupidity, however we got him to the top.

We wrestle him onto the quad and strap him down, it’s about 11:30 or so, Vince is driving us back the 11 miles to our truck and I spot a small herd of deer bedded with at least one buck, I tell him to drop me off.

I sneak back around to them and they are still bedded, one of the does gets up and the buck stands up, I come to full draw and shoot, whack……… I hit a tree branch, the rest stand up, but do not seem to know what’s going on. The buck starts to walk from my left to right, I already have an arrow on the string, he does the classic muley stop and look back, the arrow was on it’s way…….however I was not able to hold my line, and the arrow hit him a tad to far back & low.

He throws both barrels like a heart shot, yet I saw where the arrow hit…… about 5″-6″ to the back, I might of peaked at the shot…….. they all boogey out and I walk back to Vince.

I tell him what happened & he says, ” we got him ” lets just come back in 4-5 hours…… we mark where he was and leave.

Thank the good lord we both had a flask with us…….. we eat some food, and as we stand over his buck smoking cigars and sipping whisky, he tells the story over & over & over & over, each time more is added to the story…..ha ha ha ha ha Jamison will do that to ya.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love it each time……. heck, I cant wait to hear it again.

We sneak back now to where I hit my buck and try and sort out the blood trail, it’s spars at best, but we get a heading and start to work our way down the trail, we find where he bedded, and that’s it. Doubt about the shot starts to seep into my noggin, as we are both starting to grid search, we are about 100 yards or so apart, I keep moving in the direction I think he went, there is nothing, nota.

I start to move into heavier cover, and as I look to my left there he is, in his bed looking right at me down a open hallway of brush, bedded in a rocky out crop with one lane straight to him, one step in any direction and you could not see him, I slip an arrow from my quiver and slowly come to full draw, moving like malaises in winter. He stays in his bed just watching me, I keep pulling until I reach my clicker and the arrow slips from my fingers, arcing right into the front of his chest, he explodes from his bed and Vince whistles.

I whistle back, and move toward him, he says he found some blood, I tell him I just shot him again…… he says is he down….. I don’t know…. I hit him in the front of his chest as he was in his bed looking at me.

I take him to where I just shot him and there is blood every where, he exploded for a death run and was down.

Now we really go crazy……. 2 huge California muley bucks on the same day…..

PS, I was using an ILF longbow 63lbs and 665 grain arrow with a Tuffhead 300.