Nick's Montana Mulie

[the nikster]

Disclaimer: I made a mistake while on this hunt. I let my pride override my better sense. It turned out ok. I am aware of it-I need no reprimand.

You may remember I went to Montana again this year for a mulie hunt. I was excited to see a couple of deer from 3 years ago. The drive was about 8 hrs full of deer and elk sightings as well as some beautiful country.

 

[the nikster]

I saw an albino mulie fawn on the way in and got it on video but not pics. I'll try to put together a 2010 video later and promise to include it. When I arrived at the ranch I met with Rick the ranch boss. I told him which 3 areas I was looking for big bucks in and he told me a young girl had likely harvested 1, a poacher had another and the third was unknown. So, sufficiently deflated I set out to find my fortune. These are pics of the ranch house.

 

[the nikster]

That first evening I met up with a couple of friends from NY who had arrived earlier in the day and then I set up in the bottoms near an old dry creek. I saw plenty of whitetails and a couple dozen mulies. I took 1 photo of a 3x3 through my scope but he was a bzillion miles away.

 

[the nikster]

That evening we gathered at the ranch house and traded stories about what we had seen(mostly we lied). Next morning I went up high into the timber. I saw 4 does early as I left my truck. They were about 40 yards away with a stiff crossbreeze but it was too dark for pics or video. An hour later I watched as a small bull and a REALY HUGE monster bull laid down in a creek bottom. He was really big and wiiide! I moved around to a draw I thought the deer might be moving through and saw only 3 does. Then a herd of elk, probably 2 dozen with 3 small bulls. Then another herd of bulls, maybe 30 or so but nothing approaching the size of the buster I saw earlier.
I met up with my friends and we decided to push some timber. I saw 1 doe. As I neared the end of the timber patch I spotted a 4x5 bull bedded ahead of me and took some video again but no pics-dumb, dumb, dumb.

I went back to my truck and went for a long drive. My desire was to spot na bunch of draws and see if I could spot a nice buck. 3 hrs of driving and all I saw was 1 doe and fawn. Then I finally spotted some does getting up out of their beds. Like popcorn they started popping up outta nowhere in the bottom of a big flat draw. Soon 2 bucks also stood up, one looked like maybe....
I moved within 500 yards and set up my spotter and placed some scent just in case. The bucks with the does were too small so I just sat there. They were chasing 1 doe a bunch so I wanted to see if they attracted more bucks.
About 5 minutes after I placed the scent 2 small bucks came at me from downwind. I had a cow call so I mewed abunch and they hung around for about a half hour.

 

[the nikster]

Early the next morning I was in the same area looking for the deer. I figured they would bed in the same area but perhaps they picked up a better buck. I had told my wife I would come home the next morning so I was feeling a bit of pressure. The rut was picking up and I really wanted to hang out for a couple more days but she's the boss.

As the deer moved up the draw I spotted a decent buck pushing a doe. Then another buck with another doe, and another! I decided which was the biggest and that I would take him if given a shot. The bottom of the draw was flat but had a cut from an old creek that bisected it. As the deer moved up the draw they would drop down into the creek and reappear anywhere! Sometimes I could predict where but mostly I guessed wrong.

The 2 smaller bucks pushed their does onto the ridge across from me while the better one dropped into the creek with his doe and never came out. I decided it was go time. I moved within 200 yards of the last place I had seen them, I stopped to compose myself and come up with a plan. Satisfied, I moved to the edge of the creek and kicked up a flock of gamebirds-and nearly crapped myself. Still befuddled from the birds I took 1 step and everything broke loose in an instant but I remember it all clearly.

The doe was up and running and the buck was right behind her as they ran straight away at 30 yards. At 50 they took a right turn and disappeared for a moment. I took 2 steps and her head appeared again. Instantly, they were out of the creek and moving quartering away. I took my time, placed my crosshairs on his chest and fired. He didn't skip a beat. Unbelievingly I held again on his chest at about 150 and fired again and saw dirt about 3 feet over his back! "What the hell", I thought and probably said. Here's my mistake. I knew my rifle was off. I knew I had missed clean twice, and yet....
As he turned to run from my right to my left I held below his chin about knee high and fired.
He was down and not moving. I moved toward him and he never moved. finally he rolled downhill with all 4 legs up in the air then again settled and quit moving. I had moved about 40 yards towards him but though I forgot my brass so I turned around, walked back and looked for my brass-which I finally found in my pocket.
I thought this would make a good video so I got out my camera and tried to find him in the screen, but he was gone...

 

[Spitz]

Great story!

 

[the nikster]

I placed my video camera back in my pack quickly. Really there was only one place he could have gone, straight up over the ridge about 25 more yards. I'm a big man. Some might call me fat (my kids do). I sprinted up the 200 yards to the top of the ridge in about 60 seconds. I was in no condition to shoot but when I got to the top I spotted him moving away at 200 or so yards and waited for him to present a shot. I used these moments to heave and cough and choke and further startle him.He presented a shot(actually 2) and I supposed I missed both as he cleared the next ridge outta sight.
Like a huge camoflaged lumbering slugg, I plodded my way to THAT ridge. I was about 10 yards from a fence and 15 yards from a frozen dirt road. I looked everywhere for blood. I spent perhaps a half an hour. I think I found 1 track of his in the road but no blood. Across the road was a HUGE bowl/draw with massive mesa looking mountains and deep draws.
I looked and looked. I saw several does but no bucks. After another hour of glassing I found another small buck tending a doe a half mile away at the top of the other side. I determined I would drop to the bottom of the draw and let my scent blow through the draw and work around to the other deer. If I made it to them I would go home and eat my tag.

It took me an hour. I was within 200 yards of the small buck having seen nothing in the draw. He was looking right at me. I was sick to think I had hit and lost the bigger buck but I decided it was time to quit. I started walking back to my truck while keeping an eye on the little guy. With all the noise I was making he should have been rivited to me, but he looked away, twice. Downhill. So did I, and there he was. Moving up through the sage.

He was moving slowly and I made ground on him quickly. At 100 yards I fired another round and down he went but as soon as he went down I could see his head was back up.
I was amazed! I moved with 25 yards and he was up and running again. I took a running shot at 40 yards and he tumbled face first into the dirt...

Then the ba5tard got up again. Inconceivable! I had 1 bullet left. I shot him again and he went down. In preparation for the inevitable I pulled my knife out expecting to have to go man-to-man. Shockingly, he stayed down. This is how not to be a good/successful hunter.
I covered more than a mile and only saw 1 track. I perservered and finally was rewarded but never should have put myself in that situation.

Despite all that, I am VERY, VERY proud of this deer. I have bigger. I do not have more memorable.
If you made it this far, you have some idea of how long and daunting this hunt was. It was disapointing in some aspects but it was memorable. It was epic.

 

[the nikster]

Footnote:
I hit the deer multiple times. In the last pic you can see I trimmed a couple of points that looked too long. He had a hole in his ear. He had a hairless/bloodlessstreak across his brisket. He was hit by a Texas lungshot. It appears I hit him in every nonvital area I could. There was no blood in his chest. His guts were intact. I think he just gave up before I did. Not proud of it, but I learned from it.

 

[tarheel]

Nice mulie Nikster, and a good story to go with it. Did you ever determine why your gun was so far off? Oh; you're not fat, just filled out.

 

[AZ402]

Cool buck, congrats!

 

[shoots-straight]

That's a good deer. Way to go. Enjoyed the story.

 

[mdunc8]

Sounds like a great time. Great buck too. Congrats.

 

[Brisco]

Good job on sticking it out and telling us about. Not every body shares the details of their mistakes. I think you did fine.

 

[huntRme]

Nice buck. I've had some lucky mistakes too.

One year while dragging out my buck my quick release swivel did just that and my rifle fell to the ground. Hmmm. Picked it up and went on with business and never checked it to see if there was any damage. Big mistake. Fast forward to elk season. Spike elk standing in the open, 100 yards away. Me flat on the ground with a steady rest over a big clump of grass. First shot, no response. I kicked myself for not sighting in my rifle. Second shot, same thing. I thought that maybe it was shooting high so I held underneath it and got the same results. Then decided maybe its shooting low so I held head-high over its chest and at the shot there was a loud "crack" and the bull piled up in his tracks. It seems I was hitting a foot or more to the right. The first two shots were within two inches of one another in the liver area, though the bull showed no reaction of being hit. The last shot the bull was facing the opposite direction and I hit him behind the ear. Got my elk, but it wasn't pretty.

 

[highmountian]

Great bucks congrats!

 

[BOWUNTR]

Very nice. Congrats. Ed F

 

[Sytes]

Some great pics! A nice buck - What an adventure to get him too. Think you forgot the kryptonite bullets or something...

 

[SagebrushSlayer]

Nice buck, I wouldn't be ashamed. To continue the hunt and end up with your tag filled is comendable.

I have had an incident like yours, however I never hit the deer and spent the next day worried that I had, while looking for it. Took a couple days to think (and shoot) of why my gun was off.

 

[Big luke1981]

Congrats on a nice buck, Thanks for the story and cool pics.

 

[the nikster]

Thanks folks. I had a similar problem when I got to Alaska this September. My rifle was hitting 4 feet high and 2 feet to the right. Mike and I zeroed it in and I shot a caribou. After this hunt I went to the range and at 25 yards I was 3 inches right and 6 inches high. I now have it back on zero but next time, who knows. I'll have to shoot it a bunch this spring and ferret out any problems I encounter. The buck yielded a bunch of good meat.