Muleyhunter78
Active member
Thought i'd share my story of my 2017 mule deer buck. My hunting season has been a little more restricted this year as i normally spend 5-10 days a month in the field but this year has been way different. For Oct i had only one day for my local area due to work commitments(the worst thing ever). Since i only had the one day this month i figured i would go into an area i like to hit that is located in a no quad area. This is super helpful as local hunters where i live seem to have quad and truck seats stapled to their butts. Arriving at our parking spot before first light we formulated our plan and moved out. The first few hours produced no deer but lots of sign as per usual. Shortly after nine am as i was working along a ridge i look in front of me and at about forty yards i see a deer looking at me. All i see is deer and then frame. The area i am hunting in is in an any buck season at this time so i was just looking for a decent local buck to hang a tag on. Of course as per usual when puttering along a sun soaked ridge after a cold morning of walking i was slightly dozy. I unsling my new kimber hunter in 7mm-08 and get him in the scope, confirm again the good frame as he stares at me not twitching a muscle. I take aim at him (he is slightly quartering away from me) behind his should for the boiler room and as i squeeze the trigger he suddenly twists and the gun goes off. My brain tells me"that sounded like a hit", but my eyes are telling me you missed as he is tearing out of there. He heads down a knife ridge and i lose sight of him. I run up to the ridge edge and see nothing. When i cut where he ran there is no hit evidence. No blood, no hair, no tracks even(the ground was quite frozen). Now i am thinking to my self he is gone and i better head back to where he was standing when i shot a few yards back. Just as i go to turn i suddenly spot him about 150 yards away flanking me back up the next ridge. He stops and again stares at me. I take aim again and squeeze a round off. This time i see him hunch up and jump, then run uphill a few steps before he is out of sight. Now i know i hit him. I mark a tree in my mind where he was and climb down between the two ridges and climb to where he was. And nothing. No tracks, no hair ,no blood. What the hell i ask myself. Time to get focused. Well i think, he was running uphill last i saw him. So i move uphill a bit and try to find some sign. Nothing. Damn. Ok, back to where you think he was. Cast about a bit. Wait a track! this is followed by Oh wait, theres some blood. Bright red and frothy but not much. Now i am thinking i've lunged him. He can't be too far. Can't find any more blood though, just the initial few spots. Grid it up time. Looking about no more blood. Now i am thinking i need to mark this spot and work back to my partner so we can really grid the area up and find this buck. Not two seconds after that thought i happen to look down and think to myself "Now that is a funny looking log down there" Binos up and oh dang, thats a deer body on the ground. Move a little and see his head and rack, relief! Work my way down there and this is what i find as he lay.
Now i am stoked. I cut my tag, take some pics and get to work. This is the biggest bodied mule deer i have ever shot. He was literally a tank, like a small cow elk. The pictures don't do him justice. As i am working on him i get interrupted by a mule deer doe moving in on me. I admire her for a bit and get back to work, all while she just chills out eating and watching me. A few minutes later i get interrupted by another deer, this time a nice 2x3 muley buck shows up and feeds into about forty yards, totally not concerned with me. I finish up and get him in a good spot to start cooling off and decide to go meet up with the partner as arranged. As i leave the doe and the buck who are still hanging around just casually watch me walk away. I think, maybe that buck will stick around and the partner will get a crack at him, but if he doesn't thats good too. Back to the truck and meet up we decide to head back up with only one rifle and the packs. We arrive back there and look around for that 2x3 but he has moved on. No problem we have work to do any way. A few pics and we get him back to the truck two hours later. In the end it was a great day and we both we're feeling great with our one day october hunt. We processed him a few days later and we got 120lbs of meat off of him measured off the house scale. Wish we could have got a live weight off him. Any way here is a bit better look at him.
So it turns out the first shot did hit him as he abruptly turned. It zipped his neck (as you can see in the photo) and if i hadn't gotten the second chance he would have been fine. The second shot took both his lungs out. The 140 grain nosler partition did its job( as partitions always do). Thanks for taking the time to read my tale. As an aside i shot this buck about three hundred yards from last years buck in the same area, here is a picture of last years buck.
Cheers!
Now i am stoked. I cut my tag, take some pics and get to work. This is the biggest bodied mule deer i have ever shot. He was literally a tank, like a small cow elk. The pictures don't do him justice. As i am working on him i get interrupted by a mule deer doe moving in on me. I admire her for a bit and get back to work, all while she just chills out eating and watching me. A few minutes later i get interrupted by another deer, this time a nice 2x3 muley buck shows up and feeds into about forty yards, totally not concerned with me. I finish up and get him in a good spot to start cooling off and decide to go meet up with the partner as arranged. As i leave the doe and the buck who are still hanging around just casually watch me walk away. I think, maybe that buck will stick around and the partner will get a crack at him, but if he doesn't thats good too. Back to the truck and meet up we decide to head back up with only one rifle and the packs. We arrive back there and look around for that 2x3 but he has moved on. No problem we have work to do any way. A few pics and we get him back to the truck two hours later. In the end it was a great day and we both we're feeling great with our one day october hunt. We processed him a few days later and we got 120lbs of meat off of him measured off the house scale. Wish we could have got a live weight off him. Any way here is a bit better look at him.
So it turns out the first shot did hit him as he abruptly turned. It zipped his neck (as you can see in the photo) and if i hadn't gotten the second chance he would have been fine. The second shot took both his lungs out. The 140 grain nosler partition did its job( as partitions always do). Thanks for taking the time to read my tale. As an aside i shot this buck about three hundred yards from last years buck in the same area, here is a picture of last years buck.
Cheers!
