Three Forks Hunt: Finding the Right Buck
11/13/2009
Golden Quakies, Skyscraper Bucks and the Three Bears
Although some of the aspens had lost their leaves, enough retained the bright-yellow foliage that makes the Mountain West glow golden on sunny autumn days. We had beautiful weather to boot, never so warm that it dogged our hikes up steep ridges sitting over 9,000 feet, and not cold enough to require serious layering. The cool, clear air was perfect for glassing, and so I worked my favorite Zeiss Victory FL binos and absorbed the priceless vistas.
Among the hordes of elk and dozens of mule deer, we spied a couple of tempting bucks, both of which shared what I call the “skyscraper” type antler formation. This is where the main beams and other tines sweep practically straight up and the rear forks extend 20 inches or more above the skullplate. Both of these bucks had good fronts too, although both were short a point on one side, meaning they were 3x4s. Their mass also appeared decent, though that’s tough to judge from a distance.
It so happens that all my better mule deer trophies have sported the prototypical wide conformation, and so the two skyscraper 3x4s made me look twice. On one we started a stalk, but after glassing intently from closer range, I decided that, with a couple of days left, he just wasn’t big enough. It’s always a gamble to decide to pass on a good trophy animal, and any number of times I’ve lost out and come home empty-handed.
The glassing was paying off in other ways, however. One morning I panned over two very dark blobs, and upon scanning back found a sow and cub black bear. That afternoon Jeremiah called out that he was seeing a couple more bears below us, and then upon further study we concluded it was just one bear, and an enormous one at that, extremely fat and long. In drier sections of the Rockies bears are spread pretty thin, so to see three in a single day is a real feat.
Read Three Forks Hunt: The Final Chance.
Go back.
