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"Jake's 197-inch, 5x6 Trophy Buck"
Photo provided by: Jake Huber

Here's a fun hunting adventure that Monster Muleys member, Jake Huber (aka JakeH in the forums), shared recently. He posted.....

"My 2019 Colorado 2nd Season Buck - Well I was able to pick up a deer tag the Friday before the season opened for a unit fairly close to home. With the short notice I was not able to secure time off for the whole hunt, but would have Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning but would have to work night shift monday through Thursday night, and would have the last 3 days to hunt as well.

I decided to hold out for a big buck the first weekend and then hunt hard the last 3 days and lower my standards depending on what I was seeing.

The first day I had my cousin with me and we seen a lot of bucks around 40 including a couple 170 class deer, as well we jumped a big buck midday in the sage and had about a 10 second window to evaluate and shoot him before he got out of sight. He was a super super heavy really tall narrow 4x4. I got a good look and noticed one of his fronts was noticeably shorter than the other side. I elected to pass as he ran over the hill 150 yards away. I was holding out for a 190 and figured at the time he was mid 180s plus it was only day one. After discussing with my cousin and really thinking it over we feel I severely under judged him and he was probably every bit of 190 and then some. I never could turn him back up and I would have really liked to get a better look at that buck lol.

Day two didn't start off well, woke up to a flat tire with a really slow leak, changed the tire and got out, half way through the morning got second flat, had to change that one out with the slow leak tire that I was able to get off the mountain with. That pretty much killed day two. I did see one 170 class buck though.

Day 3 I was able to run up briefly in the morning after filling my tire with fix a flat but didn't dare get to western without a spare. Seen some nice bucks but nothing to shoot. I went home got some new tires put on the truck and then was off to work for 4 stress filled nights, but luckily I was able to talk a co-worker into coming in a night early giving me one extra day.

So now day 6 (Thursday) of the hunt, I didn't get home till around daylight and still had an hour long drive to the unit, hunted all day and passed on 2 170 class deer seen around 20 bucks, spent most of the day in the area I seen the giant from day one.

Day 7 hunted hard, seen some good deer but still nothing out of that 170 range.

Day 8, My cousin decided to join me again we got out and right off the bat at first light we found 2 bigger bucks, a 3x4 about 170 and a 3x3 that was dang close to 170. We decided to pass them up even though I was getting a little anxious and both looked like great bucks. We decided to move to a new area but just before we got there another truck took the road we was gonna head into. We decided to go somewhere else rather than follow behind other hunters. On our way out we took one more road that loops back around to the main road just to see if there was any deer in the area. As we are driving my cousin spots a buck about 200 yards away. We both look him over and see tall with good mass and I thought I seen a extra on his right front, I decided to put the spotter on him. About this time the cousin says "you might want to shoot that buck" I put the spotter on him and confirmed the mass and good back forks as well as what I thought was a crabbed out front fork with an extra tripod looking thing on it, and I also thought I seen another tripod on the other side. Being second to last day to me he looked like a cool 170 class buck I decided to take him. I got set up off of my spotter tripod got a range of 250 yards just as he went into some thick oak brush. The buck wasn't scared but was pretty rutted up and on the move looking for does. He came out of the oaks at 290 yards and I was able to put one in the boiler room. He ran 20 yards and piled up. We walk up there and we are both surprised at what we found. He was a 5x6 and had some extras we hadn't noticed. Needless to say the buck definitely had some ground growth which is always nice. He went from a 170 class deer to what I felt was a low 180 class deer and I was extremely happy. Well after a picture session and getting him taken care of and to the truck I put a tape on him. I really didn't believe the outcome and had to measure him again just to be sure. He went from a low 180 class stud buck to a 197.5 giant and is officially my largest buck yet lol. For some reason I was just having a hard time seeing him for what he was.

So my buck is a 22" wide 5x6 that scores 197. I am a very happy camper and I just got to say it's always nice when they grow on you when you walk up to them. All 3 of my biggest bucks have done this for me lol."







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