I have fond memories of hunting with my grandpa as a kid. He was the main hunter in our family and the man who forged my passion for the outdoors. If he was here with us today, he would be proud of what I accomplished on this hunt.
The road to my successful hunt was long and tiring. It started several months ago. Since late May, I’d scouted a particular area that looked promising. To get a better idea of the animal activity in the area, I set up a game camera. Surprisingly, I got pictures of a couple of bucks with fresh velvet starting to grow. I hung up a few more cameras to identify any patterns in their movement. Without fail, I was seeing movement on my cameras at least once a week. Some of the deer looked to be potential shooters. Then, on June 28th, a beautiful 4x4 was captured on my camera, but it was only a short glimpse.
A few weeks later, I returned to my spot, hoping my cameras picked up any of his movements. To my disappointment, they did not. Hopeful that I would see him again, I let the cameras soak a few more weeks before going back out. On July 11th, my cameras picked up his movement, and upon closer inspection, he had a lot more horn growth since the first time seeing him. He was massive! I instantly became obsessed with him. At that moment I decided he would be my target buck for the rifle season. From then on, I would frequently check my cameras. It was quite the drive, and considering what the gas prices were at the time, it was costing me a small fortune, so I thought it would be fitting to name him “Cash.”
In August, he just disappeared. Afraid I may lose track of him, I rearranged a few cameras, placing them on the next ridge over in a spot where I found deer tracks and beds. After some time, he was caught on my cameras. Cash would frequently pass between two ridges during the night. Getting familiar with his movement, I was positive I knew where he and two bucks who followed him were going during the day.
Fast forward to the day before the rifle opener on September 16th. I made a list of stuff I needed to put in my hunting pack so I wouldn’t forget. One important thing was a little vile of my grandpa’s ashes. I know he would have loved to see me get this buck.
At 4 a.m., my alarm went off and I woke up full of energy knowing it was go time. I arrived at my parking spot an hour before sunrise and started the long hike in. I took my time, stopping about every quarter mile to kill some time while waiting for the sun to rise. I chose to hike to the location where Cash would pass through during the night. Once there, I sat down, pulled out my tripod, and glassed the area for a while, but I came up empty-handed. Wasting no time, I decided I needed to hike and glass the ridge side and canyon where I thought Cash would be during the day. I trekked through the north- facing side of the slope until I rounded the mountain and got to the south-facing slope. I sat down and glassed the north-facing slope of the opposite ridge for about an hour, not seeing anything. I hiked down the slope a little ways to peek over a little rolling hill I couldn’t see over with my binoculars. As I started hiking down, out jumped a little buck with two does. Not wanting to spook anything else, I slowly backed out and went back up the south-facing ridge with the wind in my favor.
I made my way up until I found what little shade I could in the area which was previously devastated by a fire. There I sat, glassed, and ate a snack. Having come up short so far, I was thinking about taking a little nap. However, I spotted what looked like a deer off in the distance. Upon spotting him with my binoculars, I confirmed it was one of the bucks, a nice 2x3, that would follow Cash. With high hopes, I scanned through the area and finally saw a huge back fork moving up and down out of the grass while he was feeding. My heart was racing. I knew that was Cash! Trying to stay calm, I pulled out my rangefinder. He was at 310 yards, so I dialed my scope to 4.75 MOA. Unfortunately, the spot I was at was so steep that I was unable to use my bipod on my rifle. I grabbed my pack, hoping I could set my rifle on it, but l couldn’t get it steady enough for a solid shot. Roughly 60 yards below me, there was a big granite rock. I decided to make my way there. As stealthily as I could, I army crawled face-first down the open slope in the dry grass. It was uncomfortable and I cut up my elbows, but I made it to the rock without being seen or heard.
Once again, I ranged him, and he stood at 248 yards. I adjusted my scope to three minutes. I was fully present at that moment, making sure to be as precise as I could. From where I was aiming, I found a small opening through the dead, burnt oak trees and tall grass. I slowly squeezed the trigger. The shot made my ears ring, and Cash bolted off. From my vantage point, I only saw the direction he ran for a split second before he was out of sight and going behind the brush between him and me. The two other bucks were alert and unsure of what had just happened. Nonetheless, I was feeling really confident in my shot. I made my way to where Cash was standing when I shot. When I got there, I didn’t see any blood, so I started hiking around in the direction I thought he went. Still, I couldn’t find blood or even tracks in the tall grass. I started to have doubts, thinking I might have hit a little oak limb and not my intended target. I set my pack where he was originally standing and pulled out the orange rain cover and left it there. Then, I hiked back up to where I shot from and looked for my orange pack. I glassed to see if there was something I might have hit when the bullet was in flight but couldn’t find any obvious branches. I knew he had to be hit because of the way he took off while the other deer were just standing around confused.
I decided to call one of my good friends to come help me track Cash. When he finally arrived, we made a game plan and split up. After hiking for a while, I ventured down further in canyon until I heard a faint yell. I called my buddy on my phone, and he said, “You better say you love me. I may have found a huge buck.” Until then, I had been feeling sick to my stomach thinking I injured Cash, but now I was relieved knowing I took a lethal shot that took him out quickly. I swiftly hiked back up, and when I met up with my buddy, I saw the biggest buck I’d ever seen, a true giant! He was only 40 yards from where I had shot him. Cash was right there the whole time tucked up next to an oak shrub.
I filled out my tag and took a few pictures. We began to process the meat on a big rock to keep it clean. Once our packs were loaded up and ready to be put on, I reached inside my pack and grabbed the vile with my grandpa’s ashes and spread them around the area. He would be so proud, and I’m sure he was probably looking down smiling because of the huge buck I had just harvested. As I lifted up my pack, I couldn’t believe how heavy it was. I put it on, and we started our two-mile hike out of the steep canyon with a once-in-a-lifetime buck on my back.
What an awesome experience it was with the highs of recovering Cash and spreading my grandpa’s ashes to the lows of thinking I might have injured an animal and a huge buck at that. This is a hunt I will never forget, and I would like to give a big thanks to my buddy for helping. Cash measured 29 3/8" wide and was 4x5 with really deep forks and a little kicker coming off his left G3. He measured out to 185 7/8".
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