millagerobert

My New Addiction With Mule Deer. [/align]

I grew up primarily a whitetail and elk hunter. My father preferred the meat of a whitetail over that of the mule deer, and filling the freezer was his primary reason for hunting each fall. Over the last few yearshowever I have developed a love for Mule Deer hunting. I mostly blame my buddy Dustin for getting me hooked on Mule deer hunting. After having to look at the impressive mounts on his wall, I thought it was about time to play catch up. The fact that I was 30, a native Idahoan, and had never taken a Muley, was too much to stand any longer.

Finally in 2006 I drew aMule deer tag in a local unit where I knew my chances of success would be high. My buddy Dustin also managed to draw the tag, and I knew his experience and access to some private property would be a huge benefit. We spent a lot of the late summer and early fall scouting bucks. Dustin’s scouting paid off on opening day with the very nice buck in the photo above. I had a lot to learn about Mule deer, especially when it came to judging a decent buckfrom a trophy buck. Compared to Whitetail they all looked huge, and I would have punched my tag early on if it wasn’t for Dustin’s help and guidance.

After many trips, and letting a lot of decent bucks go, I was starting to wonder if I would be able to fill my tag. With two days left in the season, we managed to glass a buck across a canyon that we hadn’t seen that season. While not the monster, with junk hanging off in every direction, that I dreamed about. Dustin however assured me that it was a verynice buck, and the largest we had seen in all of our trips in this area. We decided to see if we could get around to the other side of the canyon and get close enough for a shot. After about an hour of travel we came to the canyon rim and saw the buck as we peeked over. He was looking away, so I attempted to make my way to a tree about 20 yards away to get a proper rest. Just as I neared the tree, the buck swirled around and stared right at me. He had me pegged, so I had to quickly take a shotoff hand. From about 100 yards I hit him hard with my 300 Win. and down over the hillside he went. I was hoping to drop him in his tracks, but with the aid of gravity he managed to go about 300 yards down into a very steep canyon. After a short search we located him, with just a little bush preventing him from tumbling another several hundred yards into the canyon bottom. It was so steep in fact that I had to use my bino strap to tie his horns to the bush in order clean him. After several hours of hard labor we managed to get him out of the canyon, on to a four wheeler, and back to the truck. For my fist Mule deerI couldn’t have asked for more. He was a nice typical 4×4 with decent eye guards and very heavy horns.

For the 2007 season I had hopes to try some Mule deer hunting in the high country, and spent some time during the summer scouting different areas of the state. Dustin and I found some promising units, and saw some very nice bucks. With scheduling and various events however I was unable to devote the time to get into the back country to pursue Mulies that fall. Dustin and some of his friends however did meet with some success.

For 2008 I again spent the summer scouting the high country, with hopes of pursuing a high mountain Mule deer. We managed several backpacking trips, and saw a few bucks. I however was not going to be hunting the back country this season, since as dumb luck would have it I drew another Mule Deer tag in a local trophy unit.


With my draw tag in hand I was again looking forward to a season of hiking canyons and glassing bucks looking for the right one. On the first day out I saw several decent bucks, and one shooter buck. The shooter buck however was way across the canyon on private ground that we didn’t have permission to hunt. The next morning while making our way into the canyon at daylight we spotted a bunch of Mule deer does making their way across a field. I setup just in case a buck was in tow. Just when I was thinking the does were alone a very nice buck came into view. I only had a few second to decide whether or not to shoot before the buck would go out of sight. I knew that Mule deer are hard to judge going away from you, but could see that his horns were out past his ears, and that he appeared to be a good buck for the unit I was in. I fired and he went down hard. A second or two later I saw his head come back up from behind the rise where he fell, I attempted a neck shot to finish him off, and he disappeared with the shot. Upon finding him I was greeted with the fact that on my finishing shot, I took of one of his horns near the base. I couldn’t believe I shot his horn off, but was later relieved to find out that it would be a easy fix for the taxidermist. This buck ended up being a very nice 26 1/2 incher with very long tines and scored about 182 gross, 177 net. Along with a nice trophy, I found this farm field fed buck to be great eating, and managed to get quite a bit of good meat from him. Another plus on this hunt was that my young cousin was there for his first experience with taking a big game animal.

My poor buddy Dustin didn’t get to tag a Muley this past season, though I don’t think he has anymore room on his walls anyways. He was however able to help another one of our friends, Jerry,take his first Mule deer. Here are a couple pics of Jerry’s buck and a short little blurb Dustin sent with the photos.

Well, opening day has come and gone and it was a good one! I spotted this buck at daylight along with about 12 others, but Jerry wanted this guy. It took us about 3 hours to work into a position across the canyon from him. We closed the distance to 505 yards and Jerry decided it was a little out of range for his gun. I handed him mine, dialed the scope up and took to the spotting scope. I had the buck in Jerry’s spotting scope and never even heard him tell me he was about to shoot. I think I saw the bullet hit his ribs about the time I heard the report of the rifle. This old boy turned downhill and went about 100 yards before piling up on the hillside. We thought that was the end of it………….but mule deer hunting always has to be a little more dramatic than that! He gave it one last kick and tumbled about 300 yards through rocks, brush and trees before he landed in the creek at the bottom of the canyon. Jerry was a nervous wreck, he thought he finally shot the buck he had been salivating over, and watched him get all busted up. Well, all turned out well, the buck was fine (unless you consider he was dead!). It took us about 4 hours to quarter, cape and pack him out……..but the big ones always do!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Welcome to the club Jerry!
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I can’t wait to see what the next seasons brings. I hope to finally get the time together to go after these guys in the high mountains. While the canyon groundwhere I have taken my two Mule deerpresent their own challenges, I love the high country, and dream of some day earning a big old Mountain Muley.
[/align][/align]I posted this over at basecamplegends.com and thought I would share.[/align][/align]

hunting junkie

Congrats to you and your friends, i have been going to south dakota for three years now with success
with a bow,as soon as i get home i want to go back

ksfowler

Nice story and deer congrats.

thndrchiken

Great story and great pics, I can only hope to someday hunt the country that you call home.

kybuck20032001

congrats on the deer, looks like you have a great collection of bone too