13 replies to this topic

[CRITTRGITTR]

Well Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I was over in X12 scoutin for the archery opener. We saw about 20 does and 4 spikes in the Leavitt Lake area. Saw a lot more does and more spikes in the Leavitt Meadow area. And on the Bodie side found a small bachelor group of 2 forkies in the 14"-16" range a 3x2 about the same class and a 3x3 with little crab claw forks about 20" wide but much taller than the others. Really nice trip though, and the weather was awesome at Leavitt Lake even caught a few brookies for dinner. Season starts in a couple weeks I cant wait! Anyone else have a buck picked out yet? Oh and I took lots of pictures but the dog decided to eat the USB cord for the camera so... Hopefully I will get one soon. Bryan

[Braz]

I'm sure there are some guests who just read your post and are thanking them for the scouting trip. Saved them gas.

[Portagee_Shooter]

I'm one of them...I'll be there with a couple buddies who drew x12. I hadn't even thought of bringing a fishing pole but now I will. Thanks for the 411!

[4RHUNTS]

I'm sure there are some guests who just read your post and are thanking them for the scouting trip. Saved them gas.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

[dabob]

I'm one of them...I'll be there with a couple buddies who drew x12. I hadn't even thought of bringing a fishing pole but now I will. Thanks for the 411!

Portagee_Shooter, if you shoot that 3x3 20" wide buck, we want to see some pictures. If your right handed, hold your rifle in your right hand and your fishing pole in your left hand.

[CRITTRGITTR]

Ha Ha! Yea I gave up a little info, but the Bodie Hills are a very large area and I wasn't to specific on where they were exactly. Not to mention the Bodie Hills area conists of tall, thick, noisy, sage. My hat comes off to anyone succesful in arrowing a buck in that country. This is my first tme hunting in this particular zone. My family and I used to fish all over the Bridgeport area every fall. Have seen some very exceptional bucks but I'm still lookin for my first archery buck. So forky's beware! Good luck to everyone.

[Frank]

Ok, you're killing me so I just GOTTA chime in. LOLCRITTR, glad to see you take the criticism so well... Unfortunately, many folks do not! Like most of the others, I am truely hell bent on not giving away hunting locations for many (obvious) reasons. However, this time you did little, to no harm in all honesty.Bodie is not large... It is ENORMOUS! Also, while you did good, Leavitt meadows is not the best place to find bucks. Not bad, it's just that there are better places. You should do fine @ Leavitt with Archery however. I started hunting & fishing X-12 over 45 yrs ago, long before there was a lottery system or an X12 unit. X12 was formed out of X9 btw. Yes, a couple of my predator hunting buddies are hunting X9A & have scouted it outalready and have their bucks scoped out. They obviously are confused though, hunting deer instead of predators. lol Anyway, we'll see how they do.All the best of luck to you & your group and let us know how you do.Frank

[handgun]

I 2nd critter being a good sport. Just talkin huntin...

[CoyoteHuntress]

Hubby had an x12 last year.. Well Since I am not familar with the names in the area I only know where we were as in The big tall mountain outside of Bridgeport... No clue on name BUT There is a monster up there. We went after him and didnt get him not for want of trying...Far as I know he is still there... He is very high up and very smart, But if you get on him you will be drooling for days... LOL Hubby passed up some real nice smaller bucks that were all nice in their own right, but they werent him .... Ended up eating that tag but who can shoot a smaller buck after seeing such a monster....He was HUGE, as in look up at the top and youd see this little tniy dark blob with huge antlers.. MANY people saw him and tried going up there.. But where he is, its really hard to get close enough even for a 800 yard shot. He is smart.. We went up from the back and made it to the top but where he is you cant see him from the very top.. Its like he is 1/3 of the way down.. And he was in the same spot every day LOL... Broad day light he beds down in the rocks.. Like a dang billy goat.. its wide open with no cover except therocks and he can see you way before you even get close enough for a shot, plus its a very steep climb.. We watched a guy try hiking it.. and he barely made it up the side at all before he was wore out.. We passsed quit afew nice bucks.. if there is alot of hunters get up high and watch the brush. It looks short but its above the deer.. WE glassed for hours and saw alot of good bucks... If there arent alot of hunters pushing the deer around hike in thru the trees... Good luck Oh and yes there are coyotes there Pretty ones too.. As fr giving out X12 info... Anyone that trophy hunts knows about X12.. You stand a decent chance at a nice buck up that way..But to be honest the majority of teh nice bucks I took in last year were D5 bucks...

[Shoot-it]

Huntress I know what you said is true I have heard that before they will get up high in the rocks aren't them big bucks smart!

[clampdaddy]

A was up there a couple weeks ago but just saw does and a spike. Last time I drew there a buddy took a really nice four pointer on opening morning over by Green creek.

[CRITTRGITTR]

I don't know that I am capable of shooting 800 yards with my bow. It's great to see a huge buck while hunting even if you don't get a shot. It's nice to know they are around and they sure don't live to be big and old by bein stupid. I agree 100% about the D5 bucks. I have a good friend that lives in the Arnold area. He does a lot of filming after the the season is over in a few "secret" hot spots. I could tell you stories about how big these bucks are but i'll let you use your own imagination. I will say there are more 30" bucks in that area than most people would ever imagine. I don't want to sound like the guy I met at a wedding last week that killed a 115 LB coyote. He didn't have his camera... Has anyone ever done any calling in the X12 area? I've personally never seen a coyote there but one of the guys in Ken's Sporting Goods was telling me they kill a lot of em.

[CoyoteHuntress]

The coyotes are there, we saw plenty. Didnt actually call them in since we were deer hunting but they were their during rifle..

[CRITTRGITTR]

Yea thats always been my take on it. I never wanted to go bangin away in the woods at coyotes when there were still deer to be had. But I was thinkin maybe, just maybe I might be able to get one in close enough to arrow. That would be pretty exciting as well as a real challenge.