Jay Scott Outdoors: Bill Henderson's Monster Muley

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Bill Henderson's Monster Muley

     My friend Brody Henderson had an epic hunt helping his dad on a Colorado 3rd season mule deer. Here is what he had to say about the hunt:

     "My Dad's name is Bill and he was pretty much speechless after he shot this buck of a lifetime. He didn't really know what he had even after it was down. It wasn't until we got home and compared it to the 170 inch buck I shot last year that it sunk in. Bill is 70 years old but is in pretty good shape for an old timer and because he was able to hike a bit he was able to kill this buck. There are no roads or 4 wheeler trails into the parcel of public land we hunted so the deer had basically been left alone. This buck was killed in central Colorado in a very overlooked area of BLM land (we saw no other hunters in the area) that I've hunted before that requires a mild uphill hike of about three quarters of a mile from parking area to about 7500 feet elevation. This buck was killed on November 9th at 8:30 am during pre-rut/early rut and was killed in an area used by a large number of resident does and small bucks.
    I glassed him up the evening before while my Dad watched some does and a forkhorn pass close by us. He looked like a good 180 type buck when I glassed him in low evening light at maybe four hundred yards. Luckily, the big guy was still there the next morning near the same group of does. The next morning, we circled around and uphill of the does before first light and then slowly stalked in on them when we saw they weren't coming uphill. We almost got in too close and I didn't see the buck until we were about 70 yards away but there was a slight breeze in our face and the buck never knew we were there. He was feeding uphill of the does and Dad got down on his knees and on his sticks for the downhill quartering away shot. He used a Weatherby Mark V .308 with a 168 grain TSX that passed through his chest and then the right leg.

     He's a mainframe 4 x 4 with two nice stickers on right side and a small one near the base on left side, 25 inch inside main beam spread and 31 inch outside greatest spread with tons of mass that carried all the way through the frame. The mass is what made it such a cool buck. Rough Gross Score is 209 1/8. I actually think he was a year past his prime. He still had a huge body and thick fat on his back and hind quarters but the rack had a couple spots on the right and left sides that were probably stickers last year and incredibly I think he would have scored quite a bit better last year.I'd say he was at least 6 1/2 but probably a year or two older. My feeling is he was not a buck that used that area year round but came down out of the high country because of late October/ early November snow and the rut. It was a great hunt with Dad and even more fun than killing my bull a few days earlier."

     Great job Brody putting your Dad onto such an awesome deer! Hunts with the family are second to none.