Wyoming Mule Deer
- Thread starter jabber
- Start date
ashersdad
Well-known member
Very nice looking buck!!
Outdoor Man 2
New member
Super buck! Can't wait to hear the details.
Great buck, jabber. Congrats!
win70 classic super grade
New member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2009
- Messages
- 3
very nice buck jabber...congrats...cant wait to hear the details.
I realize this is a little backwards, I am learning I will do better next time. But anyways, here is the story.
This trip actually began in early 2008 with a youth elk hunt application in Utah. When the results were posted, Jacob had been drawn for a youth bull elk hunt in November, 2008. We were very excited. Fast forward to the end of September, 2008, my wife and his mom, who had been fighting cancer for quite a few years, was given two months. While she still wanted Jacob to go on the hunt, there was no way we would be going on either it or my Colorado elk hunt. She passed away the day we would have got home from his hunt. Fast forward again to February, 2009, where we go to a hunting show in Salt Lake City, Utah and meet a couple of friends there. One of them being Steve B. and his wife. Before we left the show, Steve so graciously requested that Jacob and I come antelope & mule deer hunting with him that fall. We put in the applications, and because I had already been building points in Wyoming, we were both drawn for the hunts we desired. Now on to the hunt.
It was opening day of mule deer season in the unit we were hunting in Wyoming. My son and I had already both harvested nice antelope. To get the full account of the story, I have to backtrack a little to the beginning of the day so it will all make sense. We had decided that Jacob would get the first shot at a buck. The first couple of hours went by with no deer sighting at all. Then while we were glassing a hillside across a drainage Steve spotted a nice buck laying down next to a group of rocks. We moved on out of site of it and then we put a stalk on it. When we got to where we thought it should be, it was gone.
After doing some more glassing and deciding that this buck did indeed leave the country, we headed back. Now, Jake & I are from the low elevation flat lands of Texas and by the time we went down and then back up the hillsides we were both out of breath and sweating despite the temperature in the 30’s. Jacob decided to take off his heavy jacket, a move he may regret for more than one reason a little later. We continued to glass the hillsides and drainages for deer. They just did not seem to be moving around at all. We saw numerous elk and antelope, but the deer were just shut down.
About noon, we eased by a draw and I spotted a bull elk at the bottom of it. A real nice bull elk. As we were watching it, Steve said something along the lines of “huge buck” in front of the elk. I shifted my binoculars over and saw an extremely wide, estimated at over 30”, buck with real white horns in front of the elk. We immediately moved out of site and began moving along the opposite side of the top of the ridge to a location that should put us within a couple of hundred yards above them. Now I don’t know if you have ever been in Wyoming, but trust me when I say this, the wind will knock you down. As we were moving along this ridge, the wind was blowing an estimated 40 MPH or more and it did indeed knock us down a time or two. And this was a steady wind of that speed, all day long. Unbelievable. Anyways, I digress, so back to the story, Steve was leading the way, with Jacob behind him, I was following Jake, and Jeff, Steve’s son-in-law was behind me. As we got out to the end of the ridge, Jeff got my attention and pointed down below us. There was a group of elk running away. In this group, there were a few cows & calves, one real nice bull and one bull that made the real nice one look like a baby.
At this point, Steve eased up over the ridge to look down and see if the buck was still there. He was nowhere to be found. While Steve was glassing, I glanced over at Jacob who had come out here without his jacket on, he was COLD, but he was sticking with it. First time for regretting taking it off. After about 15 minutes of glassing with no luck, Jacob could not take it anymore and headed back to get his jacket, Jeff went with him. Steve and I stayed out about 15 more minutes with no luck and then decided to head back, with Steve leading the way. When I got about half way back, I decided to easy over the ridge again to A. take a look and B. get out of the wind. When I got over, and started looking, I noticed a small buck and immediately eased down behind a rock and started looking a little closer. Then I spotted 3 more bucks right there in the same area. All 4 of them were respectable bucks, 2 of them being 4x4’s with about an 18” spread, but just not what I was looking for. Steve, in the meantime had also spotted them and came back to me. I ranged them at 140 yards and set there and watched them for about 5 minutes before they got nervous and eased over a small ridge out of sight. I went ahead and ranged the hillside behind where they went expecting them to show up there, it was at 280 yards.
Steve moved over and was glassing some more while I stayed put. I happened to glance over to the left of where the bucks had disappeared at and there he stood looking at me, quartering towards me. I yelled at Steve in my loudest whisper that I saw the big one over to the left. He couldn’t see him. Finally after what seemed like hours, but was probably only 30 seconds, Steve again says he can’t see him, but if I am happy with him, take him. About 4 seconds later, there was a loud noise from the end of my .280 and I saw this buck stumbling down the draw out of sight. I reloaded and sent a second shot his direction. Steve says he never saw him about the same time we see three of the smaller bucks run off. Steve is thinking and so am I, that I had just shot the fourth of the smaller bucks. Then after a couple of minutes, we notice the fourth small buck standing on the ridge behind where my buck had fallen looking down into the draw. I got a big sense of relief.
By now, Jacob is having his second bout of regret for taking off his jacket. Him and Jeff, came back out to see what all the shooting was about. The fourth buck is still standing on the ridge, so I handed my gun to Jacob and tell him to take a look and see if he would be interested in it, one look and he says “Yes, he is”. While he is getting a rest, I pull out the rangefinder and range him at well over 300 yards. Just as I am about to tell Jacob he can’t take the shot it is too far, the buck decided he had had enough and vacated the premises.
Now comes decision time, where this buck fell is only 400 – 500 yards away from where the truck is, but, it is all uphill at a pretty steep incline. Going the other way, it appears to be very flat and we all think that we can get the truck pretty close to where the deer is from that direction. So Jacob, Jeff & I head off down the hill in search of the buck, while Steve heads back to the truck in search of a way down off the mountain and around to where we thought we would come out. About halfway down, we get to a point to where we can see the buck, and he is done. We go on down, do a few high fives and celebrating, then take a few pictures of the nice 4x5 with eye guards if you are counting points western style, or an 11 pointer if you are counting the way we do our whitetails. We got it field dressed and decided the best action would be to cut the deer in half and drag it out half at a time. So Jeff and I grab a hold of the hind legs and start dragging at about 1:00 pm. Well over 1 ½ miles and 4 hours and one snow storm later, Steve is finally able to get to us. At that time we decided to leave the front half in till the next morning.
Steve still hasn’t seen the buck yet, so I showed him some pictures on the small camera screen. He took one look at it and said “That is not the big buck”. After talking about it I remembered that the big buck was extremely wide and white. This buck, while the width wasn’t bad, he was not in the same class as the other buck and my buck also has nice dark antlers. I think about this for a second, and decide that I have absolutely no remorse about taking this buck. Not only is he my first mule deer, he is without a doubt the biggest buck I have ever taken.
The next day, we decide that the easiest way to get the front half out it to just go up the hill with him. So Steve and I latch onto him and start dragging. The first couple hundred yards of the route we chose was relatively flat. I had to stop twice and rest in that distance. At that point Jacob, took over for me, and along with Steve, they drug him the rest of the way out.
I would like to thank both Steve & Jeff for all of their help. Without it, I am not sure what I would have done. I would also like to thank my son, Jacob, I know that even though he did not harvest a mule deer, he did get his antelope, which is what he wanted dearly to start with. The only reason Jacob was allowed to go on this trip and miss a week of school is his record of getting straight A’s made me not be concerned that he would be able to make it up.
Here are a few more pics of both of our antelope & the deer.
This trip actually began in early 2008 with a youth elk hunt application in Utah. When the results were posted, Jacob had been drawn for a youth bull elk hunt in November, 2008. We were very excited. Fast forward to the end of September, 2008, my wife and his mom, who had been fighting cancer for quite a few years, was given two months. While she still wanted Jacob to go on the hunt, there was no way we would be going on either it or my Colorado elk hunt. She passed away the day we would have got home from his hunt. Fast forward again to February, 2009, where we go to a hunting show in Salt Lake City, Utah and meet a couple of friends there. One of them being Steve B. and his wife. Before we left the show, Steve so graciously requested that Jacob and I come antelope & mule deer hunting with him that fall. We put in the applications, and because I had already been building points in Wyoming, we were both drawn for the hunts we desired. Now on to the hunt.
It was opening day of mule deer season in the unit we were hunting in Wyoming. My son and I had already both harvested nice antelope. To get the full account of the story, I have to backtrack a little to the beginning of the day so it will all make sense. We had decided that Jacob would get the first shot at a buck. The first couple of hours went by with no deer sighting at all. Then while we were glassing a hillside across a drainage Steve spotted a nice buck laying down next to a group of rocks. We moved on out of site of it and then we put a stalk on it. When we got to where we thought it should be, it was gone.
After doing some more glassing and deciding that this buck did indeed leave the country, we headed back. Now, Jake & I are from the low elevation flat lands of Texas and by the time we went down and then back up the hillsides we were both out of breath and sweating despite the temperature in the 30’s. Jacob decided to take off his heavy jacket, a move he may regret for more than one reason a little later. We continued to glass the hillsides and drainages for deer. They just did not seem to be moving around at all. We saw numerous elk and antelope, but the deer were just shut down.
About noon, we eased by a draw and I spotted a bull elk at the bottom of it. A real nice bull elk. As we were watching it, Steve said something along the lines of “huge buck” in front of the elk. I shifted my binoculars over and saw an extremely wide, estimated at over 30”, buck with real white horns in front of the elk. We immediately moved out of site and began moving along the opposite side of the top of the ridge to a location that should put us within a couple of hundred yards above them. Now I don’t know if you have ever been in Wyoming, but trust me when I say this, the wind will knock you down. As we were moving along this ridge, the wind was blowing an estimated 40 MPH or more and it did indeed knock us down a time or two. And this was a steady wind of that speed, all day long. Unbelievable. Anyways, I digress, so back to the story, Steve was leading the way, with Jacob behind him, I was following Jake, and Jeff, Steve’s son-in-law was behind me. As we got out to the end of the ridge, Jeff got my attention and pointed down below us. There was a group of elk running away. In this group, there were a few cows & calves, one real nice bull and one bull that made the real nice one look like a baby.
At this point, Steve eased up over the ridge to look down and see if the buck was still there. He was nowhere to be found. While Steve was glassing, I glanced over at Jacob who had come out here without his jacket on, he was COLD, but he was sticking with it. First time for regretting taking it off. After about 15 minutes of glassing with no luck, Jacob could not take it anymore and headed back to get his jacket, Jeff went with him. Steve and I stayed out about 15 more minutes with no luck and then decided to head back, with Steve leading the way. When I got about half way back, I decided to easy over the ridge again to A. take a look and B. get out of the wind. When I got over, and started looking, I noticed a small buck and immediately eased down behind a rock and started looking a little closer. Then I spotted 3 more bucks right there in the same area. All 4 of them were respectable bucks, 2 of them being 4x4’s with about an 18” spread, but just not what I was looking for. Steve, in the meantime had also spotted them and came back to me. I ranged them at 140 yards and set there and watched them for about 5 minutes before they got nervous and eased over a small ridge out of sight. I went ahead and ranged the hillside behind where they went expecting them to show up there, it was at 280 yards.
Steve moved over and was glassing some more while I stayed put. I happened to glance over to the left of where the bucks had disappeared at and there he stood looking at me, quartering towards me. I yelled at Steve in my loudest whisper that I saw the big one over to the left. He couldn’t see him. Finally after what seemed like hours, but was probably only 30 seconds, Steve again says he can’t see him, but if I am happy with him, take him. About 4 seconds later, there was a loud noise from the end of my .280 and I saw this buck stumbling down the draw out of sight. I reloaded and sent a second shot his direction. Steve says he never saw him about the same time we see three of the smaller bucks run off. Steve is thinking and so am I, that I had just shot the fourth of the smaller bucks. Then after a couple of minutes, we notice the fourth small buck standing on the ridge behind where my buck had fallen looking down into the draw. I got a big sense of relief.
By now, Jacob is having his second bout of regret for taking off his jacket. Him and Jeff, came back out to see what all the shooting was about. The fourth buck is still standing on the ridge, so I handed my gun to Jacob and tell him to take a look and see if he would be interested in it, one look and he says “Yes, he is”. While he is getting a rest, I pull out the rangefinder and range him at well over 300 yards. Just as I am about to tell Jacob he can’t take the shot it is too far, the buck decided he had had enough and vacated the premises.
Now comes decision time, where this buck fell is only 400 – 500 yards away from where the truck is, but, it is all uphill at a pretty steep incline. Going the other way, it appears to be very flat and we all think that we can get the truck pretty close to where the deer is from that direction. So Jacob, Jeff & I head off down the hill in search of the buck, while Steve heads back to the truck in search of a way down off the mountain and around to where we thought we would come out. About halfway down, we get to a point to where we can see the buck, and he is done. We go on down, do a few high fives and celebrating, then take a few pictures of the nice 4x5 with eye guards if you are counting points western style, or an 11 pointer if you are counting the way we do our whitetails. We got it field dressed and decided the best action would be to cut the deer in half and drag it out half at a time. So Jeff and I grab a hold of the hind legs and start dragging at about 1:00 pm. Well over 1 ½ miles and 4 hours and one snow storm later, Steve is finally able to get to us. At that time we decided to leave the front half in till the next morning.
Steve still hasn’t seen the buck yet, so I showed him some pictures on the small camera screen. He took one look at it and said “That is not the big buck”. After talking about it I remembered that the big buck was extremely wide and white. This buck, while the width wasn’t bad, he was not in the same class as the other buck and my buck also has nice dark antlers. I think about this for a second, and decide that I have absolutely no remorse about taking this buck. Not only is he my first mule deer, he is without a doubt the biggest buck I have ever taken.
The next day, we decide that the easiest way to get the front half out it to just go up the hill with him. So Steve and I latch onto him and start dragging. The first couple hundred yards of the route we chose was relatively flat. I had to stop twice and rest in that distance. At that point Jacob, took over for me, and along with Steve, they drug him the rest of the way out.
I would like to thank both Steve & Jeff for all of their help. Without it, I am not sure what I would have done. I would also like to thank my son, Jacob, I know that even though he did not harvest a mule deer, he did get his antelope, which is what he wanted dearly to start with. The only reason Jacob was allowed to go on this trip and miss a week of school is his record of getting straight A’s made me not be concerned that he would be able to make it up.
Here are a few more pics of both of our antelope & the deer.
