Third time the charm?

Sunday Jordan helped me on another attempt to get my road system buck.  And like my last attempt with Mike S we failed (click for post).  I'm a little worried I've lost my hunting mojo. Two hunts in prime big buck habitat and I come home with nothing for the freezer twice?  I've always thought of myself as a good hunter and generally every time I go hunting I like to think I come home with a mature 3 pointer (3X3 with eye guards).  But not lately.

Am I guilty of hubris - have the Gods clipped my wings like with Icarus?  Or am I getting too old - the mangy old lion who can't quite make the kill? I'm not sure, but I sure do hope that the next time I go hunting we get a big old buck. Here's to the third time being the charm!

I do know that on this last hunt - like the first hunt - we did our due diligence.  We worked for it, but we also got a little unlucky.  On arrival in the alpine we started to glass the bowls and there were no deer.  Then we saw another hunting glassing the same bowl!  Someone had hiked in and camped where we wanted to hunt. And so we went to plan B - we hiked to another mountain.

There we did find a bachelor group of big bucks.  And we did find a BIG buck too.  We were actually in position waiting for a buck to show himself when one did suddenly appear (see last photo).  Only he had already winded us and was on his way out of Dodge.

So the long trek back to the car yet again without meat on the pack.  And to make matters worse - some world class bushwhacking.

Here's to the third try.

Patrick