Saturday: It was a rough start at 5 am. I hadn’t drank in a few weeks and the scotch – red wine – beer mixture from the revelry the night before did me no favors. I got dropped off and attempted to stalk on foot, but rare for New Mexico the wind was dead calm and I couldn’t get inside 150 yards of a deer without being heard. I decided to hang back and just glass as many deer as possible to see what I wanted to work on, so I worked the top end of some ag fields that abutted the river. I had been told to cull a deer that was a 3x3 or 3x4. I approached an alfalfa field that had 60 or so deer feeding in various parts of it, several outstanding bucks but one in particular caught my eye and I decided instantly I was going to hunt that deer exclusively and try and ventilate him. His 3x side looked like a giant pitchfork, his G2 was slightly bladed and he went out just past his ears and then up and up. After 90 minutes of looking over deer and waiting for the wind to pick up, I decided my time was better served going antelope hunting and hoping the wind would blow in the afternoon.
We drove around looking at antelope till lunch time, there were 4 of us with tags in the car, but didn’t see anything to shoot. After lunch we were heading out to look for more goats, but spotted some deer bedded in a treeline and took a closer look. The buck I wanted was the last deer on the left and looked stalkable. I got geared up and went 500 yards around and got behind this deer. I started my stalk and spent the last 50 yards on my hands and knees to get to 55 yards. Suddenly the wind changed and blew right over the back of my neck. The deer stood up, walked straight away and went to the other end of the 10 deer he was with and laid down. I snuck back out and we went to look for more speed goats.
On the way back in I saw those deer were still bedded in the same place. There was a line of cottonwoods where they had bedded in the shade and just on the other side of them was an irrigation canal with a foot of water in it. I hatched a plan. We drove on to the supply room and fetched up a pair of waders. The plan was to get in the canal and stalk in range, stand up and shoot the deer while it remained bedded. The wind was in and out, so I would move when it blew and wait when it didn’t. I started getting excited as I closed the distance to 100 yards. At 90 yards my deer stood up and started feeding. At 70 yards two of the other deer stood up and started feeding. I got to 60 yards and doe crossed the irrigation canal in front of me left to right. The deer I was after followed right after her. This plan was great, but I was 10 minutes late. I tried to salvage the situation by getting up out of the canal to get a shot, but as I crawled up the berm the doe was at 30 yards and he was still back at 60 in the weeds, I could just see his headgear sticking up. The deer that had not crossed the canal could see me at that point and blew and all the deer took off out into the field and the stalk was over. 2 close calls, 10 yards short of my effective range.
Then next 3 hours I walked down river several miles and came back at the deer in the river channel but was never able to get closer than a couple hundred yards. As the sun set I decided to get back after them in the morning and I went back to clean up for dinner.
That evening after dinner we drove to a secluded area of the ranch to look at the stars, you can see a lot in the middle of nowhere at 6500 feet you can’t see elsewhere. On the way out we ran across a herd of about 40 elk, mostly cows but including a 4x and a 350 class 6x. Pretty exciting to see such huge animals and the milky way is pretty impressive too.
Sunday: I left the house at 5:30 am on foot. It was still quite dark but I wanted to get in a decent position when it started getting light. I walked right into the lap of a forky before I could see much, he exploded at 5 yards and scared the bejeezus out of me. I continued on slowly and got to the top end of the field on a road. This road ran to the river with the big alfalfa field on the right and some waist to chest high sunflowers on the left. Down the road was knee high kosha weeds on either side and some cottonwoods of varying height on the right side. I snuck from tree to tree and was able to get 100 yards down the road. There were deer on both sides of the road. I had to stop as a doe saw me on my right side 50 yards away and started to stomp and blow. As I was waiting her out I was glassing and noticed the buck I wanted as on the left side of the road 75 yards off the road out in the sunflowers. I needed to get another 100 yards down the road and I would be even with him. The doe on my right took off running and I thought the whole jig was up. It turned out this was the best thing that could have happened as all the deer to my right in the alfalfa moved on to the opposite side of the field 350 yards away and I was able to quickly close the distance to the deer in the sunflowers on the left side who had not noticed nay of the other activity. I crouched at the edge of the road on a deer trail. The deer I wanted was with 5 other deer, one good buck and 3 does. I decided to watch and try to get in range to shoot him as he crossed the road. The buck kept feeding right toward me. He was coming straight at me. 60 yards, 50 yards, 30 yards, at 25 yards he stopped looking directly at me. I thought the jib was up but I remained motionless. He fed to 9 yards and then turned broadside with the front half of him covered up by some sunflowers. I drew back and shot through the sunflowers and heard him get whacked hard. He took off running into the alfalfa, I gave chase and busted through the brush on the edge just in time to see him fall. I walked back to camp on cloud 9 and we all got the truck and took a few pictures. He looked almost prehistoric, they are so big bodied compared to texas deer.
I hunted hard for this deer and it all came together. I only stalked him when he was in a good spot and I had a workable plan and I left him alone the rest of the time. I think spot and stalk mulies with a bow is my favorite sport. I have shot 3 pope and young in 3 years and my last 4 mulies have been shot at 9, 2, 12 and 14 yards.
This deer is a giant 3x4 with a 15 inch bladed G2 on his 3x side and huge mass all the way out. He also has some very interesting irregular growth coming out of his forehead. It will probably be a year before I see him again, but I can’t wait to see how the shoulder mount turns out, keeping the velvet on.
We drove around looking at antelope till lunch time, there were 4 of us with tags in the car, but didn’t see anything to shoot. After lunch we were heading out to look for more goats, but spotted some deer bedded in a treeline and took a closer look. The buck I wanted was the last deer on the left and looked stalkable. I got geared up and went 500 yards around and got behind this deer. I started my stalk and spent the last 50 yards on my hands and knees to get to 55 yards. Suddenly the wind changed and blew right over the back of my neck. The deer stood up, walked straight away and went to the other end of the 10 deer he was with and laid down. I snuck back out and we went to look for more speed goats.
On the way back in I saw those deer were still bedded in the same place. There was a line of cottonwoods where they had bedded in the shade and just on the other side of them was an irrigation canal with a foot of water in it. I hatched a plan. We drove on to the supply room and fetched up a pair of waders. The plan was to get in the canal and stalk in range, stand up and shoot the deer while it remained bedded. The wind was in and out, so I would move when it blew and wait when it didn’t. I started getting excited as I closed the distance to 100 yards. At 90 yards my deer stood up and started feeding. At 70 yards two of the other deer stood up and started feeding. I got to 60 yards and doe crossed the irrigation canal in front of me left to right. The deer I was after followed right after her. This plan was great, but I was 10 minutes late. I tried to salvage the situation by getting up out of the canal to get a shot, but as I crawled up the berm the doe was at 30 yards and he was still back at 60 in the weeds, I could just see his headgear sticking up. The deer that had not crossed the canal could see me at that point and blew and all the deer took off out into the field and the stalk was over. 2 close calls, 10 yards short of my effective range.
Then next 3 hours I walked down river several miles and came back at the deer in the river channel but was never able to get closer than a couple hundred yards. As the sun set I decided to get back after them in the morning and I went back to clean up for dinner.
That evening after dinner we drove to a secluded area of the ranch to look at the stars, you can see a lot in the middle of nowhere at 6500 feet you can’t see elsewhere. On the way out we ran across a herd of about 40 elk, mostly cows but including a 4x and a 350 class 6x. Pretty exciting to see such huge animals and the milky way is pretty impressive too.
Sunday: I left the house at 5:30 am on foot. It was still quite dark but I wanted to get in a decent position when it started getting light. I walked right into the lap of a forky before I could see much, he exploded at 5 yards and scared the bejeezus out of me. I continued on slowly and got to the top end of the field on a road. This road ran to the river with the big alfalfa field on the right and some waist to chest high sunflowers on the left. Down the road was knee high kosha weeds on either side and some cottonwoods of varying height on the right side. I snuck from tree to tree and was able to get 100 yards down the road. There were deer on both sides of the road. I had to stop as a doe saw me on my right side 50 yards away and started to stomp and blow. As I was waiting her out I was glassing and noticed the buck I wanted as on the left side of the road 75 yards off the road out in the sunflowers. I needed to get another 100 yards down the road and I would be even with him. The doe on my right took off running and I thought the whole jig was up. It turned out this was the best thing that could have happened as all the deer to my right in the alfalfa moved on to the opposite side of the field 350 yards away and I was able to quickly close the distance to the deer in the sunflowers on the left side who had not noticed nay of the other activity. I crouched at the edge of the road on a deer trail. The deer I wanted was with 5 other deer, one good buck and 3 does. I decided to watch and try to get in range to shoot him as he crossed the road. The buck kept feeding right toward me. He was coming straight at me. 60 yards, 50 yards, 30 yards, at 25 yards he stopped looking directly at me. I thought the jib was up but I remained motionless. He fed to 9 yards and then turned broadside with the front half of him covered up by some sunflowers. I drew back and shot through the sunflowers and heard him get whacked hard. He took off running into the alfalfa, I gave chase and busted through the brush on the edge just in time to see him fall. I walked back to camp on cloud 9 and we all got the truck and took a few pictures. He looked almost prehistoric, they are so big bodied compared to texas deer.
I hunted hard for this deer and it all came together. I only stalked him when he was in a good spot and I had a workable plan and I left him alone the rest of the time. I think spot and stalk mulies with a bow is my favorite sport. I have shot 3 pope and young in 3 years and my last 4 mulies have been shot at 9, 2, 12 and 14 yards.
This deer is a giant 3x4 with a 15 inch bladed G2 on his 3x side and huge mass all the way out. He also has some very interesting irregular growth coming out of his forehead. It will probably be a year before I see him again, but I can’t wait to see how the shoulder mount turns out, keeping the velvet on.
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