We messed up on our air B&B reservation. Thought we had it till Friday. Got out of the Custer at noon on Thursday and had a voicemail asking why our stuff was still in the house.
We hauled ass on the hour drive back to Broadus, threw all our gear in the truck and decided to hit one of the last public places on the way out of the state.
Picked a random one that didn’t look great on the map.
We started seeing deer as soon as we got out of the truck. Several groups of 4-5 deer and one big group of 16.
Of course the group of 16 was over a mile away.
We had to circle around almost 2 miles to keep them from seeing us. I thought for sure there had to be a buck with that big of a group.
So after all that stalking we pop our heads up over the rise and see 19 doe and 1 spike. Unbelievable.
As we start our walk back to the truck I spot a really good buck with 3 doe coming off of private and walking on to public. They were 3/4 of a mile from us but right between us and the truck. With only about 20 minutes of shooting light left we had no choice but to run right at them.
My cousin went to where they were heading and I went to where they came from. After running as fast as I could to cover the distance I ranged him at 260 yards. By the I was too shaky from the run to hold on target and light was fading fast.
My cousin was closer so I was waiting on him to shoot. He ranged them at 160 yards, dropped his pack to use as a rest and when he got back on the deer he didn’t realize the buck had seen me and made a move to the front of the pack.
He had his crosshairs on a deer and was ready to squeeze the trigger when he realized it didn’t have antlers. If he would’ve looked about 20 yards to the right he would’ve seen the buck. Only had 2 minutes of light left at this point so we came home without a buck.
It was the most exciting hunt we had all week. Saw over 30 deer in a spot I would’ve never guessed they’d be.
Would’ve been a hell of a story to get that one in the last minute on the way out of the state. He was a good one too. 20-22” wide and really tall.
We put in some serious miles trying to find them though. Tracked 76 miles and 4,500’ of elevation in 6 days.
Planning on coming back in 2 years for revenge.
