S
sti1471
Guest
The opening weekend of the Utah rifle hunt has come and gone and I had a great time hunting Unit 12/16B/16C. What did everyone else see? Any bucks, what units did you hunt? did you get shots, or did you tag a buck? If you tagged a buck lets see it!! I will start first.
On Saturday opening morning, 5 minutes after it was light enough to shoot I saw 3 deer up on the cap at about 150 yards away, I pulled off the road and checked them out. It was a group of 3 bucks. Two 2-points and a spike. One 2 point had tall antlers with about a 14" spread. The other 2-point had a little shorter antlers with about a 20" spread but we could not tell for sure with the lighting but it could have been a smaller 3 point. The spike was legal by about an inch. As I was trying to determine size, yardage and if I wanted to tag one or not, there was a group of 4 hunters walking the cap about 70 yards to the left of the bucks. There was another hunter about 100 yards to the right. The group on the left seen us looking at something and focused a line from my truck right to the bucks.
After spotting them they got down on their knees and put their scopes on them. 4 seconds later as I was reaching for the door handle I heard the shot. 2 hunters in that group shot a total of 3 times as the deer were trotting away resulting in no casualties.
The buck he shot at was broadside to me so the shooter must of had a view of his frontal chest. The bucks were in no hurry and just standing there looking at us, this told me he rushed the shot trying to prevent me from shooting first. I watched as the deer turned and ran towards the trees as I heard the following 2 shots. The hunter on the right had no idea what was happening this whole time lol. I put the truck on the road and continued on.
Sunday I went back up to the same mountain. On the drive up near the top I observed a 4 point buck walking along the side of the road. However since it was initially spotted with headlights and shooting light was not yet legal, we watched as it slowly walked off the road.
I gave some thought and then went in after it. My hopes would be to see him on foot in 10 minutes when light was legal. I got up there and once it was legal I began tracking. The tracks went down into the trees in a canyon off a steep side of the mountain where a retrieval would have been a nightmare.
On Saturday opening morning, 5 minutes after it was light enough to shoot I saw 3 deer up on the cap at about 150 yards away, I pulled off the road and checked them out. It was a group of 3 bucks. Two 2-points and a spike. One 2 point had tall antlers with about a 14" spread. The other 2-point had a little shorter antlers with about a 20" spread but we could not tell for sure with the lighting but it could have been a smaller 3 point. The spike was legal by about an inch. As I was trying to determine size, yardage and if I wanted to tag one or not, there was a group of 4 hunters walking the cap about 70 yards to the left of the bucks. There was another hunter about 100 yards to the right. The group on the left seen us looking at something and focused a line from my truck right to the bucks.
After spotting them they got down on their knees and put their scopes on them. 4 seconds later as I was reaching for the door handle I heard the shot. 2 hunters in that group shot a total of 3 times as the deer were trotting away resulting in no casualties.
The buck he shot at was broadside to me so the shooter must of had a view of his frontal chest. The bucks were in no hurry and just standing there looking at us, this told me he rushed the shot trying to prevent me from shooting first. I watched as the deer turned and ran towards the trees as I heard the following 2 shots. The hunter on the right had no idea what was happening this whole time lol. I put the truck on the road and continued on.
Sunday I went back up to the same mountain. On the drive up near the top I observed a 4 point buck walking along the side of the road. However since it was initially spotted with headlights and shooting light was not yet legal, we watched as it slowly walked off the road.
I gave some thought and then went in after it. My hopes would be to see him on foot in 10 minutes when light was legal. I got up there and once it was legal I began tracking. The tracks went down into the trees in a canyon off a steep side of the mountain where a retrieval would have been a nightmare.
