The 2004 Mule deer season ended up being a quick success for myself this year. I went back and forth with myself quite a few times before deciding to heck with it, even with no one to go with, I'm going on opening day. I decided to go to a spot that I had never hunted before, but with the help of two buddies had scouted earlier in the summer. We saw some decent bucks, but nothing huge. As I was going on my own I wanted to make sure I didn't pull the trigger on something smaller than what I already had so I was looking for something larger than a 3x4 with a 23.5" spread. Opening morning came early as I drove to the area from my home about 2 hours away. When I got to the trail head there was a Jeep there with 3 other hunters. As we walked up the trail we would take breaks together and we got to know each other slightly. As we walked and talked I learned that they had never hunted there either, but they were headed to the same place I was. I told them I would peel off and find another place to hunt, but instead they offered to have me just hunt with them. I thought that was very generous and I greatly appreciated it. As we conversed while taking the much need breaks I learned that one of the gentleman (Jason) had already harvested some pretty nice animals in his life, but his buddy (Matt) had never shot a buck. Jason and I took on the approach that unless it was pretty good sized we were in this to get Matt a buck. The first hour of daylight found us looking over 8 different bucks, one of which was a real hog. We planned our approach, but in the end we didn't get the hog. However, there was several bucks together and Matt got his first. It was a nice 3 point.
As we were dressing it out, Jason's father shot a small 4 point. As we got these two deer loaded on packs and headed out, I decided to just hunt back to the vehicles with these guys and then go home. Even though I hadn't pulled the trigger, the day had been more than a success. I had seen lots of bucks, nice country and met some really nice people.
About a quarter of a mile from the truck we jumped a buck that we had seen earlier in the day but had given us the slip. We could tell by the odd point growing in from the front fork. We couldn't tell how big he was but he looked big enough. Jason took a shot as he was running and missed, so I really concentrated on the running buck and pulled the trigger. To my pleasant surprise he did a sommersault and was dead. The bullet had hit him right where the neck meets the head, shattering the spine. I was using a .300 Winchester Magnum with handloaded cartridges. My load consists of a 200 grain Nosler Accubond propelled by a healthy dose of Hodgdon H1000.
Needless to say I was thrilled. He was not quite as wide as my largest deer, but he was a true 4x4.
2004 Mule Deer Success
