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Jesse's Hunting > Hunting Articles > Tales from our Members > California G3 Buck Hunt
California G3 Buck Hunt
Eric A.
December 09, 1999
For those of you who remember, I was the guy who got drawn for a G3 tag. Well here is the story. I got to Independence on Thursday and scouted before checking into the motel. Found a nice 3X2 the first night. Next day was up early and driving up this shear cliff with about 1.5' of clearance on both sides of the truck. Had to use 4X4 to get up this road. I was scraping the clearcoat the whole way up on bushes. At the top spotted another 3X2 at about 70 yards, then another one at about 150 yd. Came down around 11:00 thinking I wouldn't shoot any of those deer unless it was Tuesday and I was ready to come home. Went back to the motel bought some lunch supplies and drove up another road into the hills. Turned off on a side road where there were no other cars to eat lunch. While eating here comes this huge 4X4 over the hill. Watched until he bedded down and then took note of where he was. Scouted some more. In the late afternoon went and scouted another creek bottom. Saw one forked horn. As we were walking back to the truck a large 4X4 walked across the path.
We went to visit a friend of my dads' who runs one of the fish hatcheries there and told him about our scouting and invited him to go with us in the morning. Decided to go after the 4X4 in the creek bottom and then go after the bedded one if the first one didn't work out. Opening morning. We were at the bottom of the canyon glassing the ridge where we assumed the deer had bedded for the night. Finally spotted him at about 600 yds. Started up the hill after him. Got up to within 80 yds. and peeked over a rock, but I never saw him so no shot. We hunted for that buck all morning and hiked over 3 canyons looking for him. Saw another 3X3 and a huge forked horn but I declined both of them. After lunch went looking for the bedded buck.
I dropped my dad off to start glassing the hill where he had bedded the day before. I went to turn the truck around. Looked in the mirror and saw my dad waving for me to come. Grabbed my rifle out of the truck and ran to where he was. He had spotted a big buck but after glassing it with the spotting scope, we saw that it was just a forked horn. We continued to glass the hill and finally spotted the big one bedded at about 325 yards. I tried to get on him from there but didn't feel comfortable with the shot (need a more powerful scope for that shot). So, I took off down the hill, crossed the creek at the bottom and started up the hill that he was on. My buddy followed me down and said he had gone over the hill. We looked back at my dad and he gestured to the left. We started making our way over there and jumped a doe. I was breathing very hard at this point from all the running at this altitude. Finally the buck rose up at about 125 yards. I sat down but had no shot due to bushes. Had to stand up and run about 20 yards further up the hill.
Finally had an offhand shot. He was broadside at 125 yards. I couldn't catch my breath. Missed the first shot, he started trotting quartering away. Missed the second shot. He turned to start going downhill. Missed the third shot and he started beating feet out of there. Fourth shot connected but to far back. I saw his hindquarters buckle but he was going like a bat out of hell downhill. I had one more bullet. Hadn't had time to grab anymore from the truck. So I take off running downhill for all I'm worth while my buddy is going a bit slower and staying high to try and keep an eye on the buck. After about 500 yards of straight down I stopped and Dave said that he had seen him tumble close by. We spotted him hidden under a bush at about 20 yards. Last shot through the neck ended the chase. The first shot had hit him about 5" in front of the tail but broke the spine so I don't think he was getting up again. Anyway it was a great hunt and I'm really glad I didn't get a shot at the 4X4 earlier. He was nowhere near as wide. This buck is 29 7/8". It's a long story but hopefully I kept your interest. Hope you enjoyed the story.
- Eric A
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