I scouted a farm area near my home, we call the “strip”, it consists of four large farms, and is about five miles long and three miles wide. This area has turned out six “book bucks” in the past four years, with the smallest being a 161 inch 4x4. To see a group of bucks all scoring in the 170’s is not uncommon! I grew up hunting these farms as a kid, and have had many encounters with some true giants! With only my family having access to bowhunt, we have gone on a very strict management program. We have decided on shooting only deer that we think will make it to 150 or higher.  My summer scouting had turned up many “shooters”, and I was feeling confident we would get the job done. I felt like Bruce’s best chance at a buck, would be on the ground doing some spot and stalk.

             Bruce, President of Barrie Archery,  was set to arrive in Montrose on August 27^th, I was sure his best chance at a “wall hanger” would be the first week of the season. When Bruce got here, he shot his bow to reassure himself that everything made it okay, and we went and got him an elk tag. At this time Bruce unveiled his latest product’s to us. Bruce had a stabilizer on his bow unlike any other I had ever seen before. The stabilizer, the Barrie Archery “Sphere”, is six small silicon-based rubber balls on an aluminum shaft. These small balls are made of soft rubber, unlike most silicon-based rubber dampening devices on the market today that are made of a harder form of rubber. The soft pliable rubber is more adept at gathering vibration, Bruce proved this to me by doing a little demonstration. He took one of the balls and threw it at the floor as hard as he could, amazingly the ball didn’t even bounce! Being made of a softer rubber it actually absorbed the entire impact of the throw! In my opinion, this is the best shock absorbing material I have ever seen!  The other new product that goes hand in hand with the “Sphere” is the “Hemi”, this is basically one of the balls cut in half and placed on your limbs or accessories. Each ball has holes in it to soak up vibration, and let me tell you, this product works! Bruce came on this hunt armed with a Mathews “Black Max II”, and by Mathews’ standards this is one of their louder bows. Both products working together produced a silent shot from this high-speed set-up that was nothing short of amazing!    

            With the best time to hunt these bucks being in the evening, we would do some elk hunting in the mornings. I also have a ranch on the Uncompahgre Plateau, which harbors many elk and mule deer. We would spend our mornings chasing bugling bulls here. The evening before season started, I took Bruce on a short drive through some of the property we would be hunting. I have been after a large 30 inch wide 3x3 on the “strip” for about five years now. Encounters with him are so common, good friend and fellow Rocky Mountain Broadheads staffer Evan Baize began calling him “Pot Belly”, aptly named for his 350 pound frame. As we drove along the dirt road, I pointed out different fields where many large bucks had been taken over the years. When we approached a particular alfalfa field, I warned Bruce to keep an eye out for “Pot Belly”, because we had spotted him there all summer long. There he was 40 yards from the truck, just feeding away. Bruce was amazed by the sheer size of this old mature buck. Being only a 3x3 his whole life, I urged Bruce to take him out of the gene pool, whenever the chance presented itself. Bruce laughed, and said “Sweet!”

            After a fairly uneventful first day, our second morning dawned with bulls bugling in a distant draw. We quickly cut the distance to about 400 yards of the screaming bulls. The bulls seemed to be heading toward a large ravine on a neighboring ranch. After setting up three or four times, we were nearing the fence line ourselves. I decided that we needed to get to a stand of aspens, near the lip of the large ravine. Bruce and Cassie quickly raced forward to set up, when they got about 50 yards in front of me, I began cow-calling on my Primos Hyper Lip Single. The bull responded with a low guttural roar about 150 yards through the aspen’s. Almost instantly another bull in the bottom of the ravine answered him. We were in the driver’s seat now! It seemed the two bulls were racing to see who could get to me first. I was pleading frantically with my Primos cow-call for the closest bull to come to me. He responded by coming to the fence line about 30 yards in front of Bruce. When the bull jumped the fence, Bruce seized the opportunity and drew his bow. The bull was now 25 yards and nearing broadside. When the shot went off, Bruce’s’ set-up was so quiet, the bull barely even moved. I assumed Bruce must have missed, so I took my cow-calling into overdrive! I was so focused on watching the bull, that I didn’t notice that Bruce had nocked another arrow. This time I watched as another arrow tipped with a Rocky Mountain “Turbo”, passed completely through the bull from only 35 yards this time. Bruce’s shot, because of the “Sphere” and “Hemi’s”, was so silent that the bull hadn’t even heard either shot go off. The bull stumbled stiff-legged a mere 60 yards before expiring. Bruce had hit the 5x6 the first time, but an extremely quiet set-up allowed a follow up shot to be made. I can’t begin to explain how impressed I was with Bruce’s choice of broadhead, the “Turbo”. This small little head did quite a number on this bull! Made for high speed set up’s, this little dynamo is one of the best penetrating heads that Barrie Archery has ever designed! After spending twenty-plus years in the wapiti-woods pursuing these beautiful animals, I can clearly say that the single most important aspect I look for in an elk broadhead is penetration. With a large bull sometimes tipping the scales near 1000 pounds, everything is bigger, so you need good penetration just to get to the kill zone.

 

Nice bull Bruce,

           It was time to shift our focus to chasing Mulies the following morning. This, for me, is bowhunting in its rawest form, you versus an animal with extremely keen senses, on ground level. I cut my bowhunting teeth on spot-and-stalk mule deer, and I am proud to say I am a much better bowhunter for it. After blowing thousand’s of stalks, you become much more aware of the noise you may be making and things going on around you. Bruce and I discussed all this and more, sitting in my truck in pitch blackness. It was August 30^th, a cool snap had hit, and we had a full moon. It seemed like everything was going our way! With a SSW wind, the game-plan this morning was to slip South, with the wind in our faces, along the edge of a large marsh. Hoping to ambush a mature buck there, we set out. We quickly covered a mile or so, and as we were nearing a field edge, suddenly a large buck appeared 200 yards to our right. It was apparent he was already aware of our presence. A mature 4x4 with good width and deep forks, I quickly judged him at 180 gross. A definite “shooter”! With the buck already aware of us, we decided to leave him alone and possibly look for him later that afternoon. We then turned and went straight East of us, a mile or so, to a large draw. The West-facing slope of this draw is covered with a jungle of large cottonwoods and small willows, and I had seen many bucks here all summer long.

To get to this draw we would be crossing the same field where we had seen “Pot-Belly” only a few days before. We both were optimistic, it was still early, and we just knew good things would happen. We slowly crept our way to a large drainage ditch in the bottom of the draw. Just as quickly as we arrived, I spotted bucks, sky-lined by the rising sun. Bruce looked at me and said “what should we do?” I quickly replied “I think we are in a good spot”. Bruce must have thought I was nuts! These buck’s were 300 yards away, and still showing no signs of coming our way, but over the course of scouting this draw, I had seen this same group of buck’s work their way to the drainage ditch that we were now hidden by. There were six bucks in this group, and while not our largest, some showed potential. The bucks were just about parallel to us, when they started down into the draw we were nestled in. We agreed that the largest buck might go 170 gross. I asked Bruce if he was interested in taking this buck and he gave me the combination head-nod and “Uh-Huh”. When the buck’s reached the bottom of the draw, they were engulfed by tamaracks and willows. We weren’t sure where they were, when suddenly Bruce said “Here they come”.

All we could see were velvet-covered antler tips, until they stepped out 30 yards from us. The big buck was the fourth to come out into the open, he moved toward us slightly and then turned perfectly giving Bruce a quartering-away 25 yard shot. As he drew his bow, all of the bucks peered at us. Luckily for us, there was a huge cottonwood behind us, and there must have been a glare from the rising sun. With this glare in their eyes’, Bruce reached full draw. When his shot broke, I could clearly see his Rocky Mountain “Gator” plunge completely through the buck. The arrow positioning was great! We watched anxiously as the buck stumbled back into the tamaracks. During the 20 minute high-five session we had, all of the bucks had emerged from the brush…, except one! We wanted to go slow, but we just knew the shot was perfect! We hadn’t gone 30 yards on the blood trail, when Bruce yelled “There he is!” Bruce couldn’t wait to get his hands on him! The Rocky Mountain “Gator” had made for some easy blood trailing!

Bruce all smiles

Sitting there by his buck, Bruce asked me what I thought he would score. I replied “170 gross, 165 net, but he could sneak up on us”. Sneak up, he did! This buck gross scored 180, and nets 171! With nearly 40 inches of mass, and 4 inch brow tines, this buck is truly magnificent! As a testament to the great habitat on the “Strip”, this was only a 3 ½ year old buck! They say “give your bucks time and food”, well I like to say “give my bucks sweet corn and alfalfa, and me some time to hunt them”! We did have many encounters this season with “Pot-Belly”, however, he is still roaming the “Strip”. Maybe next year! Congratulations to Bruce on a truly awesome hunt! My family and I had a wonderful time being able to share our neck of the woods!  

Bruce and guide Steve

To see the complete Barrie Archery Line: Rocky Mt.
To see the Primos Line: Primos

Reprinted with permission from the Oct 2005 issue of our good friends at : Bow & Arrow Magazine