G3 Draw - Finally

Good morning. Sun tan lotion packed. Thanks for the reminder. Got to look pretty. Rocks were on the road the other day. The road did have the closed sign on it at Greys camp ground just before it really starts to climb but was open to one lane. Did not see any other locked gates or signs but I turned around approximately 2 miles before the top camp ground.
 
A few pics off fb. All within the past week.

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Rie bread said:
i think you won’t have to much trouble on onion valley road based on the snow line for the storm. what’s the status on the gate? closed higher up still?

possibly boulders in the road if it’s starts as rain
Click to expand...
Still closed Have a blockade above the campground right there saying road closed
 
weather was pleasant today in Round Valley…..sounds like it was wet and nasty 40 miles north in G3.
 
Built Muscle - I hunted G3 in 2020 with my father and son, I'm sure you've gotten plenty of help but please let me know if you need any suggestions on places to look. I will message you my cell phone number.

Terry
 
Good evening all. Still a little rough out there but things seem to be picking up some with deer patterns and the number of deer we are seeing. Spotted about 60 head today and about 15 of them bucks but no shooter. Some guy below us shot a freak 7x2. A lot of deer are staying way high. Just when you think these past storms would move everything down, it is not the case. The best deer we spotted today was about a 22 - 24" 4x3 high on the ridge line. Will see how it goes tomorrow. Have a new plan for tomorrow. I can say one thing, have been meeting a lot of nice people. New update tomorrow night. This is a shout out to Kevin and Kevin with the nice 4x4 they killed Sunday morning. Two very nice individuals and extremely glad my buddy and I got a chance to meet them and help out and shoot the bull.

Regards,

Built Muscle Mike
 
Good evening. Day three in the books. Still seeing decent amounts of deer. Still have not seen a full 4x4. Watched a couple of decent respectable 4x3 today and a couple of 3x3. Some of these deer are way up in the snow. Watched the hammer fall on a beautiful 2x2 today. Pictures to come shortly in the next couple of days. Did run across a mountain lion also. More to come tomorrow.
 
Congrats Michael! He's a fighter by the looks of him. We know you put a time in to this hunt and it is not always about the size of the antlers. Congrats again....he's a beautiful buck.
 
Good afternoon all. I'm going to try and write up my trip in daily trip installments to share my experience and what I learned. I hope all of you find this interesting and potentially useful for future hunts. Be patient with me.

Installment #1. Myself and my good friend Barry ( I'm on the right )
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made the trip and rolled into Independence on Sunday afternoon the 4th. As I mentioned in an earlier post I elected holding off from being in town Saturday morning opening day due to the storms and I believe this was a good move because I understand it was difficult to see and hunt. I started corresponding with and individual by the name of Kevin from this thread that also had the tag. He informed me that he scouted every month from July through November to prepare. He did hunt Saturday without any success. He contacted me on Sunday while I was on the road and let me know that he did drop a 4x4 off Onion Valley Road about 9:30 am. He ended up dropping him approximately 600 yards up the mountain from the road. Him and his son hiked up the mountain approximately 400 yards to a rock out cropping and dumped it approximately 200 yards from there. It is a really nice good size clean symmetrical rack. I only have the one picture and due apologize because it does not do the animal justice. My buddy and I helped him and his son get it the rest of the way down
G3 Kevin.jpg
the mountain and on to the decoy cart. Congrats to Kevin and his son. In the process of hiking up to the rock out cropping where he took the shot they did jump a mountain lion. There is all kinds of track around. It was a pleasure to meet him and his son. Good people and not afraid to share information to help other people out. Thank you Kevin. I really appreciate the opportunity to meet, talk and share some of this experience. Kevin - Please chime in on a response if I missed anything

Headed to the Bristlecone Motel in Big Pine after this to get ready for the next ( first day hunt ) morning. Next installment to come in a couple of days.

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Installment #2 - Monday 12/5 first full day of hunting. Started out on Onion Valley Road again about two miles past three miles past Upper Greys Meadow. Started in the same drainage that Kevin Killed is 4x4 as he stated he was seeing a lot of deer Sunday morning. My buddy and I put ourselves about 300 yards up drainage to do some better glassing of the surrounding ridges. We started glassing some deer up and down but nothin too exciting. Typical token fork horns and 2x3 and some 3x3's. Went further up onion valley road latter in the morning and did see a few more deer. Headed over to Division Creek for a little bit of the afternoon. That area was dead. No sign. Sage brush higher than I remember from 2006 and 2008. We could not glass up any deer. We were not the only individuals that said Division Creek was dead. Headed down the road and stopped to talk to a couple of people and was shown a picture of a Toad 5x5 that was taken at a very low elevation just a little ways past the Fish Hatchery. I wish I had the picture. I might be able to get it. Headed back to the hotel in Big Pine for some good barbecue at the Copper Top.

Tuesday 12/6 - Started out in the same place as the previous morning. I put myself about 200 yards up the mountain further an my buddy stayed back at the truck to glass some other areas from different angles. Started seeing some deer at first like but nothin to get excited about. Deer were paralleling the ridges going back and forth. About 8am two large groups of deer moved from the south to the north across the ridge. One group in a very, very fast manner and the other group very, very slow. Decent 3x3 and a real nice tall wide fork 2x3 plus a couple of forks. About 16 deer in total about 200 yards below me. Did spot a nice 3x3 a mike away on the top of the ridge. Still not spotting any 4x4's. Did have a fork horn walk to within five yards of me while I was on the mountain. Stayed on the ridge until 1pm and my buddy and I headed over to Baxter Pass. Did not see one deer driving over there or walking a ways up the trail. Headed back to the hotel. About 40 deer in total this day. Prior to coming down the mountain and heading over to Baxter Pass a 7x2 was killed below my buddy at the truck. This deer was beaded down all morning and my buddy never spotted it because of the angle of where he was at. Old deer with natty bone. Not real tall or wide but unique. Starting to get a little discouraged as we are not seeing the number of deer or quality of deer we thought we would be seeing especially after the weekend storms. Next update to come in a couple of days with more interesting information. Stay tuned
G3 7x2.jpeg
G3 7x2.jpeg
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Thanks for telling us the story to that point. It looks like that 7x2 needed a put down shot at close range. Seen eyes like that before and it means close range. That is one unique looking buck...lots going on around those bases.
 
Good Sunday afternoon all. Watching football and writing about my G3 experience. Cant beat it.

Installment # 3. Wednesday 12/7.

Well, my buddy and I decided to hunt the same general area on Onion Valley Road that we did the previous two days since we were seeing deer and were hoping to see some new deer. The difference about this morning is that it was much colder and it sleeted the night before as the road was covered in white sleet about three miles past Upper Greys Meadow. I decided to watch one ridge and a lower section while my partner watched another ridge and another lower section. I was not seeing hardly anything except for a few bucks and doe's up in no mans land. Nothing like I had seen in the previous two days. I walk about a half mile to my partner where he was scouting by the truck and he was seeing a lot of deer close and up to 1,400 yards away. Some of the same standard bucks and only one that appeared decent but this was at 1,400 away. We took a quick road walk and started spotting some more deer and some decent track. No shooters. I took one more quick walk up by the canyon where Kevin shot his 4x4 and what I thought was a deer 250 yards away was the mountain lion. I watched him for a bit as he was headed up the mountain. He never caught wind of me. It was about noon at this time and we decided to take a drive up the road to a big turn out where we could glass a different ridge where we had spotted some deer the previous days. We get to the turn out and two cars and four guys were spotting some deer. My partner and I actually met these guys on the first morning we hunted which was Monday the 5th. We met Dale, Larry, Roger and Clay. Absolutely a great bunch of guys and good people. Dale was the tag holder, Larry was his good buddy on the trip. Clay DeValle was the guide from Dry Creek Outfitters along with his good buddy Roger Kelling . Clay and Roger are top notch and Clay knows the area extremely well.
Any way, we pulled into the turn out and the guys let us know that they were getting Dale ready to turn him loose on a beautiful fork. The fork was running with some doe's and about 180 yards away. My partner and I watched the entire thing unfold and absolutely awesome to watch. Dale put a money shot on him, the deer turned, moved a few feet turned again and moved a few more feet and dropped like a rock. Just a beautiful deer.
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My buddy and I hung out with them and took a bunch of pictures for them until they got the deer loaded and took off. During some of the time they were getting the deer down from the mountain my buddy and I were watching some doe's and a 4x3 about 240 yards below us. This deer was tempting at the time and it would later be the deer I shot. This deer can be seen in my above post from 12/7 that says A couple of pics from today.. My buddy and I hung out the rest of the afternoon watching these deer to see what they would do to help us prepare for the next morning. I just want to say CONGRATULATIONS to all these guys and a thank you for letting my buddy and I hang out while everything unfolded. Dale made a great shot and Clay and Roger took care of the Heavy Lifting down the mountain I truly appreciate the chance we had to meet them and in the end make new friends and contacts.

Next installment in a few more days
 
Hello everyone. Hope everyone is doing well and survived the winter O.K I never finished my story so here I go. Meant to finish it in December but then life hits. Sorry about that. Probably good timing now that the draw is getting close.

Anyway, here I go. I shot my deer on late Thursday afternoon December 8th. Early that that morning my partner and I were scouting a lot of deer in a bowl just above Upper Greys Meadow but still the typical deer we have been seeing. We were actually trying to find the nice 3x4 that we were watching the day before where we were parked when Dale nailed that nice Forked Hon
 
Did not mean to press enter. Sensitive Laptop. Where Dale shot his nice 2x2. In the process of watching these deer I met the Laws family. Big Mike, his wife Karen and their son. Karen had the tag. Big Mike drew the tag in 2018 and shot a really nice 4x4. They continued to a turn out about a mile up the road to watch a ridge. My partner and I drove up the road and stopped to talk to them and ended up watching the ridge for the morning with them. This family is great people and big time hunters. My partner and I really enjoyed the morning with them. They were not going to shoot anything unless it was 28" or bigger. They ended up eating the tag. We watched a decent amount of deer float the ridge during the morning and some 4x3's but no 4x4. I started to get set up to drop the hammer on one about 400 away but my buddy said hold off and I did. Big Mike and family took off and things got slow for the mid afternoon. Big mike came back about 3pm and we started watching some deer about 800 yards away on top of the ridge come down. They really never got into a comfortable range I was looking for as there were a couple of decent 4x3's. I believe the same ones from the morning time. About 4pm we all decided to take off for the day and come back on Friday. Big Mike took off down the road and around the corner and while I was warming up my truck he comes hauling ass back up the road, looks at me and says get in my truck now. The deer we were watching came down the opposite side and were basically just up the mountain off the road. I got my gun, got in his truck and we got around the corner and they they were, I mean right there. My buddy had to finish loading my truck before he could come down the road. I get out, loaded one shell, mount my gun and Big Mike goes, that one on top of the ridge line not the one on the left. 170 yards up, put the cross hair on him and that was it. The sound that bullet made when it hit that deer was amazing. It was the biggest slap sound I have ever heard. The deer dropped right now with no extra movement. My buddy showed up in my truck just as I was getting ready to drop the hammer and could not get set up in time to video it. Got the deer down to the road after about 30 minutes and that is the picture you see in my earlier post above in #132. I cant thank Big Mike enough You can see my deer from the day before in posts #129 and #130. It was an overall excellent and great day. Sorry for being so long winded.
 
Trip Wrap up conclusion. Well, for me it was an excellent hunt. I had been looking forward to this time for a long time. I have shot a number of deer in my days but all out of D7 so this hunt was a treat for me and like an out of state hunt. The G3 hunt does carry its naysayers on this forum as not being worth it any longer and it can be argued in many different ways with Pros and Cons. Here is my take. It was an excellent hunt and a great time for me and like I said a treat for me. With it all said and being done this trip for me was not about killing an animal but about getting out and enjoying the beauty of the Eastern Sierras and seeing some decent deer but really it came down to spending great time with my hunting partner Barry who I cant thank enough for going on this trip with me. I could not have done this trip without him or would want to. The other great important aspect of this trip was meeting the people I did and bonding some friendships. All the people I mentioned in my posts are great people and I am blessed to have had the chance to meet them. I hope I see them again some time. The deer and got was decent and respectable in my mind and I feel good about it. It was not the monster I was hoping for, so be it. It was obviously not in the cards. The biggest deer I have shot to date so I am at my pinnacle right now. Will have to see what D7 holds for me this year, probably tag soup again. I enjoyed the area and trip so much I will be going back again this Thanksgiving weekend to scout and watch deer. I did not cover any of this area on my trips in 2006 and 2008. Those years were all about Divsion Creek. If I can be of assistance to anyone for this upcoming year please reach out to me and I will be more than happy to help. The only thing I could say is be very picky on your draws this year. I think this upcoming G3 season may be really tough just because of the winter and from what we were not seeing this past year for quality and number of deer.

Regards,

Built Muscle
Mike Obradovich
 

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