So I will break this into sections so those that want to skip ahead to the hunt can.
HOW WE GOT HERE
So every year we sell a mule deer hunt or two on our ranch to help with expenses. I was contacted by the outfitter we use to see if we would have some mule deer to hunt. I said I would put out cameras because I had not seen much yet. In October I got a picture at one of our ponds.
So I told the outfitter we could sell a hunt this year as I knew for sure we had another big typical deer I had seen. So I decided to put out some cottonseed in several locations because my mulies love cottonseed. sure nuff I got pictures of him again
So now I needed to try to get the other deer on camera and see if I could find out where this deer was hanging out. I put out some more cotton seed on top of some of our hills. These mulies like to hangout on the ridge tops. Sure enough I got pictures of the typical and some other bucks but this deer was not on the cameras. I am going out of the country for 3 weeks and starting my second career a few days after I return so my dates to guide a mule deer hunt were tight. Jump ahead to the Monday after Thanksgiving and while we were sorting cattle at the ranch. I got a call from the dr's office and I had to go do some follow up procedures due to my test results from earlier in the year. With that having to be done before I leave the country it eliminated the ability for me to guide a hunt, which is a financial hardship for our ranch.
I checked the cameras on the ranch Monday night and this guy was hitting one of the remote spots where I had placed the cottonseed.
Since I would not be able to sell a hunt this year I decided that I would hunt this buck for the few days that I had to hunt.
THE HUNT BEGINS
Tuesday morning I left early and drove to the back of the ranch. I corned a stand we will hunt for whitetail this weekend and went and parked the jeep.
This location was on top of a horseshoe ridge that had a point at is apex. I walked about a third of a mile to the area where the previous picture was taken. I looked around the area in the dark and found a couple cedars to kneel behind. After day light I did not like my position so I moved and stood in another location until 11:00 am. After hunting I looked around the area for a better place to sit. The best place I found was directly in line with the area I fed the cottonseed. There was a couple small cedars and they sat right on the crest of the ridge. I broke off one limb and could shoot down an old fence line that was 35 yards down into a draw that ran to the point of the horseshoe. Next I decided that I had to find a way in where I did not have to walk the entire ridge. The problem was the hill dropped off right behind these cedars and was very steep. After a trip to the house I grabbed a chair out of another bow blind and carried it up the ridge.
I did not hunt this spot Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning due to the winds being wrong. Wednesday evening I found a spot to scale the side of the ridge that put me right behind the cedars where I put my chair.
The view from behind the cedars into the draw and also overlooking the opposite side of the ridge. The last photo is looking from the end of the cottonseed (kill location) back up the draw to the cedars that I was sitting behind.
Wednesday evening proved to be un eventful with no deer being seen. But I did determine that since I had no back cover that if I saw the deer coming to the draw I would have to draw my bow as soon as the deer starts to enter the opening in case it saw me behind the cedars.
Thursday morning (today) started with much anticipation. The wind had shifted to the north and had a good chill to it. I drove the same route and corned the road in front of the stand like the previous morning. I parked and walked to the location where I could scale the hill and go right to my chair with out disturbing anything that might be in the draw. I slowly made my way up to my spot and slipped into my seat. After a brief breather I put on my face mask, gloves and knocked an arrow. It was 6:00am. The clear sky was full of stars and a few meters help past the time as I waited for the day to break. As the the sun got close to peaking over the horizon I noticed movement to my south. The big ears stood out over the scrub cedar. A cautious doe was making her way toward me. Unfortunately she was walking right on the east edge of the ridge where I was sitting. I was totally exposed to the area she was coming from. She knew something was different and came in to investigate. She got down wind of me less than 5 yards away. She knew something was wrong and turned and walked to about ten yards and gave a few snorts to alert everything in the area. After she hopped off I grabbed my doe estrus can call and turned it over 3 times. I found out that mule deer bucks respond well to this call in the rut on a previous hunt in New Mexico. I was hoping anything that may have heard her would think she was just snorting at another deer. Within the next ten minutes I saw movement on the other side of the draw coming down that side of the ridge and it was antlers. I grabbed my range finder which has 6 power and verified it was the big mule deer buck. I thought again about drawing when his antlers started to hit the opening. He continued through the brush and appeared to be headed right to my shooting lane. My heart started beating heavy and I had to calm myself. Sure enough as I saw his antlers coming into the opening I drew my bow. The buck stepped out at 25 yards mostly broadside. I center my dot on my IQ and then put my 30 yard pin a little low to make up for the yardage. I probably slapped the release but I thought about squeezing it. I heard the arrow make impact and the buck lunged forward and was immediately out of sight. I quickly stood up to see if I could locate the deer in the brush. The direction he ran he would have to come back through my shooting area or go over the cliff to exit. I spotted his rack about 40 yards away standing there. I took a couple steps to get to the high edge of the ridge and could no longer see the deer's rack. Directly I heard a gasping sound in the direction I had last spotted the deer. A few seconds later I heard the noise again, then silence. I stood there for a couple minutes and decided to go down and look for my arrow. My arrow was stuck in the dirt, but on initial inspection I saw very little blood. It is often hard to see on a black shaft and as I looked where the deer had been standing the arrow started to collect dust and grass seed and it was evident that there was a good amount of blood on the arrow. I began to look for blood on the ground and there was none. I began to second guess what I heard and saw. I continued slowly, with an arrow knocked just in case, I had not gone 20 yards and there laid my buck. I was so relieved and thankful. I thanked God for a quick clean kill and stood in awe and admiring the buck. I pulled him out of the brush which was not easy and propped him up with a stick to get some pictures.
The buck has 14 scoreable points and a 23 1/2" spread. The issue now was getting him off of the hill. My only option was to drag him back down the steep side of the ridge to the road where I could get him loaded in the jeep. After all the skinning and caping I had to run to town for a couple things and finally got in after an evening scouting sit. I put a tape on him. To my surprise he taped out at 192 even. Our deer have incredible mass and so they always score higher than I expect. No matter the score I will never forget this hunt as it is one of the very few where everything went as planned and was on our family ranch. Thanks for reading.
HOW WE GOT HERE
So every year we sell a mule deer hunt or two on our ranch to help with expenses. I was contacted by the outfitter we use to see if we would have some mule deer to hunt. I said I would put out cameras because I had not seen much yet. In October I got a picture at one of our ponds.
So I told the outfitter we could sell a hunt this year as I knew for sure we had another big typical deer I had seen. So I decided to put out some cottonseed in several locations because my mulies love cottonseed. sure nuff I got pictures of him again
So now I needed to try to get the other deer on camera and see if I could find out where this deer was hanging out. I put out some more cotton seed on top of some of our hills. These mulies like to hangout on the ridge tops. Sure enough I got pictures of the typical and some other bucks but this deer was not on the cameras. I am going out of the country for 3 weeks and starting my second career a few days after I return so my dates to guide a mule deer hunt were tight. Jump ahead to the Monday after Thanksgiving and while we were sorting cattle at the ranch. I got a call from the dr's office and I had to go do some follow up procedures due to my test results from earlier in the year. With that having to be done before I leave the country it eliminated the ability for me to guide a hunt, which is a financial hardship for our ranch.
I checked the cameras on the ranch Monday night and this guy was hitting one of the remote spots where I had placed the cottonseed.
Since I would not be able to sell a hunt this year I decided that I would hunt this buck for the few days that I had to hunt.
THE HUNT BEGINS
Tuesday morning I left early and drove to the back of the ranch. I corned a stand we will hunt for whitetail this weekend and went and parked the jeep.
This location was on top of a horseshoe ridge that had a point at is apex. I walked about a third of a mile to the area where the previous picture was taken. I looked around the area in the dark and found a couple cedars to kneel behind. After day light I did not like my position so I moved and stood in another location until 11:00 am. After hunting I looked around the area for a better place to sit. The best place I found was directly in line with the area I fed the cottonseed. There was a couple small cedars and they sat right on the crest of the ridge. I broke off one limb and could shoot down an old fence line that was 35 yards down into a draw that ran to the point of the horseshoe. Next I decided that I had to find a way in where I did not have to walk the entire ridge. The problem was the hill dropped off right behind these cedars and was very steep. After a trip to the house I grabbed a chair out of another bow blind and carried it up the ridge.
I did not hunt this spot Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning due to the winds being wrong. Wednesday evening I found a spot to scale the side of the ridge that put me right behind the cedars where I put my chair.
The view from behind the cedars into the draw and also overlooking the opposite side of the ridge. The last photo is looking from the end of the cottonseed (kill location) back up the draw to the cedars that I was sitting behind.
Wednesday evening proved to be un eventful with no deer being seen. But I did determine that since I had no back cover that if I saw the deer coming to the draw I would have to draw my bow as soon as the deer starts to enter the opening in case it saw me behind the cedars.
Thursday morning (today) started with much anticipation. The wind had shifted to the north and had a good chill to it. I drove the same route and corned the road in front of the stand like the previous morning. I parked and walked to the location where I could scale the hill and go right to my chair with out disturbing anything that might be in the draw. I slowly made my way up to my spot and slipped into my seat. After a brief breather I put on my face mask, gloves and knocked an arrow. It was 6:00am. The clear sky was full of stars and a few meters help past the time as I waited for the day to break. As the the sun got close to peaking over the horizon I noticed movement to my south. The big ears stood out over the scrub cedar. A cautious doe was making her way toward me. Unfortunately she was walking right on the east edge of the ridge where I was sitting. I was totally exposed to the area she was coming from. She knew something was different and came in to investigate. She got down wind of me less than 5 yards away. She knew something was wrong and turned and walked to about ten yards and gave a few snorts to alert everything in the area. After she hopped off I grabbed my doe estrus can call and turned it over 3 times. I found out that mule deer bucks respond well to this call in the rut on a previous hunt in New Mexico. I was hoping anything that may have heard her would think she was just snorting at another deer. Within the next ten minutes I saw movement on the other side of the draw coming down that side of the ridge and it was antlers. I grabbed my range finder which has 6 power and verified it was the big mule deer buck. I thought again about drawing when his antlers started to hit the opening. He continued through the brush and appeared to be headed right to my shooting lane. My heart started beating heavy and I had to calm myself. Sure enough as I saw his antlers coming into the opening I drew my bow. The buck stepped out at 25 yards mostly broadside. I center my dot on my IQ and then put my 30 yard pin a little low to make up for the yardage. I probably slapped the release but I thought about squeezing it. I heard the arrow make impact and the buck lunged forward and was immediately out of sight. I quickly stood up to see if I could locate the deer in the brush. The direction he ran he would have to come back through my shooting area or go over the cliff to exit. I spotted his rack about 40 yards away standing there. I took a couple steps to get to the high edge of the ridge and could no longer see the deer's rack. Directly I heard a gasping sound in the direction I had last spotted the deer. A few seconds later I heard the noise again, then silence. I stood there for a couple minutes and decided to go down and look for my arrow. My arrow was stuck in the dirt, but on initial inspection I saw very little blood. It is often hard to see on a black shaft and as I looked where the deer had been standing the arrow started to collect dust and grass seed and it was evident that there was a good amount of blood on the arrow. I began to look for blood on the ground and there was none. I began to second guess what I heard and saw. I continued slowly, with an arrow knocked just in case, I had not gone 20 yards and there laid my buck. I was so relieved and thankful. I thanked God for a quick clean kill and stood in awe and admiring the buck. I pulled him out of the brush which was not easy and propped him up with a stick to get some pictures.
The buck has 14 scoreable points and a 23 1/2" spread. The issue now was getting him off of the hill. My only option was to drag him back down the steep side of the ridge to the road where I could get him loaded in the jeep. After all the skinning and caping I had to run to town for a couple things and finally got in after an evening scouting sit. I put a tape on him. To my surprise he taped out at 192 even. Our deer have incredible mass and so they always score higher than I expect. No matter the score I will never forget this hunt as it is one of the very few where everything went as planned and was on our family ranch. Thanks for reading.
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