My 2020 Utah general season muzzleloader buck. Opening morning we bedded down two good bucks in the tall grease wood. We made a plan that I would sneak down to a opening, and Bret my father in law, and Jackson my 11 year old nephew would try and jump the bucks out of their bed. I was in position as they worked through the brush. The plan was working perfect I seen the two bucks jump up out of their bed heading in my direction. All the sudden they appeared in the opening I whistled a couple of times, and they froze at 125 yards. I placed my crosshairs on the bucks shoulder and and pulled the trigger when the smoke cleared I could see the buck went down hard right in his tracks. I was fumbling for a reload while watching the buck next thing I know he is on his feet running away from me. I was all loaded back up and the buck was out of sight, my excitement just got kicked in the gut. Bret called me and said “did he get up”. I assured him he did. Now the hunt was on. There was no blood where he had went down. We followed his tracks over the fence where there was a little blood on the brush he went through, and then a good puddle and then nothing. We made a plan to search the area where we had last seen him. This just isn’t your ordinary brush this stuff is 6 feet tall and very thick. After looking for 3 hours, I was on my way to pick up Bret in the ranger he was taking one last look in the brush. Pulling up to Bret about 100 yards from him there was a very small pocket of sagebrush between us, all the sudden the buck came blasting out of there between us. I jumped out of the ranger and Bret pulled up and shot and then I shot. We both missed. We watched the buck head down a deep rocky canyon. Our hopes again kicked in the guts. We decided to pick up on his track and follow him. We started following his tracks and this buck was no dummy. He would try and throw us off and where the canyon would split he would go up the other way and then back track. We followed his tracks a little further then we found more blood and then nothing. Jaxon and I went back for the ranger to see if we could get out in front of him, but the atv trail disappeared. So we started to hike to look down down on the canyon while Bret stayed on the track. My phone rang it was Bret he said “buck down”. A relief came over me we hiked down where the buck had expired. This was no easy hike off of these cliffs we finally made it down to him and man what a buck. We decided to get him taken care of and stuck him up under a rock ledge, and go back for him in the morning with the horses. The rest is all history. What a great hunt definitely one I’ll never forget.--
