I took this 185 inch P & Y buck in Utah in the 2005 Archery season. I saw him hanging out with four other bucks a day before the hunt started. The five bucks were hanging out in a bachelor heard and feeding from the thick oak down into the sagebrush flats at night and moving back up into heavy cover in the morning into the thick Utah oaks "if that gives you any idea what part of the state I was in". I made numerous attempts to place myself where the bucks would pass because the hot temperatures made for hard stocking and put the bucks down yearly before the heat rolled in. If anyone has ever hunted the Utah archery hunt they will know what I'm talking about. The Utah archery opener for deer usually consists of dry hot conditions with full moon phases and short morning and evening hunts. After a couple of fuddle attempts I decided on the last evening to set out early in order to position myself where the bucks might pass on there way out to feed in the evening.

During this time of the year it doesn't get dark until around nine so there is a lot of time to think where is going to give the best chance for success. This last evening I set out at 3:00pm to get a good start on the last of my hunt on the private ground. The hike wasn't terribly far for once on this hunt because I had it all worked out and I got in there early before things even got close to stirring. When I first got over to the area I was going to hunt for the evening I couldn't find great cover because it was in the flats between two knolls an in order to give myself a good chance of a reasonable shot I had to find a place in or around the flat hanging meadow that the bucks would pass around. After setting up for an hour or so I decided to change my position because the wind started to shift and blow over the open area that the bucks liked to stop by on there way down to greener pastures in the valley bottoms where there were agriculture.

I moved across the open meadow as slow and quietly as I could so I wasn't to spook anything moving in and as soon as I got to the other side of the meadow and looked across to where I just was I saw the five bucks hanging out not more than 100 yards from where I just was. I couldn't believe it. The first thing I couldn't believe is how they didn't smell or hear me as I moved a 100 yards from where I first set up. I found a large sagebrush to hide behind but that was all there was around me except for sheet grass. As I sat there for several hours watching the five bucks I had two smaller two points approach me within thirty yards and I thought they were going to spoil it all but even when the small bucks got spooked from getting to close to me the other five bucks that were still in the same stop didn't take off. As the sun started to fade I wondered if the bucks would make it over to me. They seemed a little shy from when the small two bucks approached me but the draw of heavier pastures kept them wanting to come my way.