Friday A.M.
 This morning we hunted another different area of river breaks. We started out splitting up to glass several different areas. We got back together about 8:30 and compared notes. Jim and I had seen only does and fawns, but Murray had spotted a group of bucks a long way away on the river flats. He said there were two bucks in the group worth taking another look at. The only problem was that the deer went to bed in the tall, thick brush right along the river bank. Stalking them without knowing exactly where they were bedded would be a waste of time. So, we decided to do something radical (for bowhunters at least) - we decided to do a deer drive. The wind was blowing right down the river, so Murray (the guide) would walk through the river brush upwind of the general area he had seen the bucks bed in. I would walk adjacent to the brush about 75 yards ahead of Murray, and Jim would post a few hundred yards down the river where a creekbottom came to it. We were hoping that between Jim and I, one of us might get a shot at a good buck.   the river bottom brush where the bucks were bedded Murray started the drive, and everything was going according to plan. The wind was really howling, so there was no way the deer wouldn't get his scent. Several mulies came hopping out of the brush, all little bucks and does. A small whitetail buck busted out as well. As we continued, I came into view of Jim, and all of a sudden I saw his posture change and then I saw him draw his bow. I couldn't see anything, but obviously he could. He let his bow down, and then shortly drew it again. This time he let down only after his arrow was on it's way. About 5 seconds later a beautiful buck came running past me and went out of my sight, parralleling the brush. Jim went down to find his arrow, and Murray made his way over as well. Jim found his arrow covered with good lung blood and we shortly had a pretty good blood trail to follow. The trail ended about 125 yards later with a beauty of a buck, probably in the 160" class, a great 4x4 with nice eye guards. Murray got everything boned out and packed up, and we trekked about 3 miles back to the truck.  Jim with his beautiful 4x4 mulie buck Friday P.M.  that clump of sage was my blind We got done with Jim's buck early enough that we still had time to get me to the wheat field I sat last evening. This evening I sat in Jim's blind, though, because he saw a good buck last evening. I spent most of the evening trying to shelter myself from brutal winds and spitting rain, but had high hopes of getting some action.  a view from inside my blind  the coulee behind my blind where all the bucks came out About 5:45 a nice buck came into the wheat field about half a mile away and started eating away. He was probably in the 140-150" range, a nice 4x4. Over the next hour he worked his way slowly down the fence towards my blind. Unfortunately, he veered off when he was still about 2 hours away, and headed out to the middle of the field, into this depression where I could no longer see him.  the first buck out this evening my spotting scope was at 47x for this pic  another angle, same buck Between 7:00 and dark, five more bucks came into the field. Two of them were small 3x3's. The other three were all shooter bucks. One was probably close to 160", and the other two were between 175"-180" - they looked like twins. All three were 4x4 bucks. Unfortunately, none of them came less than 150 yards from me, they all headed straight to the depression where the first buck had gone. I got a few pictures of the first buck with my spotting scope, but the light was getting too dim to get pictures of the other bucks. I don't know where all those bucks were headed, but it must have been important, because they all went there. Tomorrow morning we're going to be on the edge of that wheat field watching for the bucks to come back from feeding all night. We'll then try to either ambush one or watch them bed and make a stalk. Tomorrow's the last day and our last ditch effort, but knowing these bucks are there gives me some confidence that I might still get a chance to take a buck home from this hunt.  an end to one more day of hard hunting Check back for tomorrow's update!
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