Big Mule Deer Down (photos)

November 12, 2006

We went out yesterday to see what we could find for Muleys. We saw a few does and smaller bucks early in the morning. Later in the morning we saw a decent buck head around a hill and down into a couple of poplar bluffs. Dale, Bob and I ended up east of the trees while Tyler was South. What we got to witness over the next few hours is what I love about hunting. There were a ton of does and probably a dozen bucks ranging in size from the 190's down to fork horns milling around between the bluffs. The bucks were busy chasing a couple does and fighting with each other. Over the next couple hours or so they put on a great show for us. We were trying to pick out which bucks were the best ones in the bunch. Finally Dale and I decided to try and get in closer so we could get a shot if one presented itself. Bob stayed East while Tyler moved in around to the west of the trees in case they spooked and headed out that way. Dale and I were able to sneak into about 175 yards undetected to have a better look. I saw one buck that from a distance had looked wide and heavy but had weak forks. Now that we were closer I was able to see quite a bit of junk on him along with the good mass and width. I told Dale to take him if he could. The bucks were still busy chasing the does and each other. Dale was having trouble getting steady for a shot over some bushes so I let him use my back as a rest. The good non-typical moved into a clearing and just before Dale was going to squeeze the trigger the buck went back into the trees. Shortly after this all the deer decided to bed down. This gave Bob an opportunity to sneak over to where we were. I was able to see parts of deer bedded through the trees but was not sure which was the buck we wanted. Quite a bit of time passed and the guys were starting to get impatient. I told them just to be patient and the deer would eventually get up to stretch. It was not much longer when a doe got up and browsed a little then bedded down again. Then another doe got up and two little bucks followed here. They began chasing here around. This caused the buck we were waiting on to get up as well and begin chasing her to. I told the guys to get ready and that he was up. We could see him moving through the trees. Finally he cleared the trees and both Bob and Dale had there guns up. Bob got his shot off first and all the deer bolted straight towards us. The big buck stopped less than 100 yards in front of us and Bob put one more in him. There had to have been 30-35 deer in those tress and they were running all around us. Bob's deer ended up having 17 total points including the brow tines. He had a 25 inch inside spread and a 32 6/8 outside spread. His gross score ended up at 193 and change. We could not use his toatl inside spread credit as his main beam's were shorter than his spread. This buck is one we had spotted earlier in the year during muzzleloader season but he was just a little out of range. Sorry for the long post but it was a very exciting day and I just wanted to tell the story. Here are a couple of photos.

CLB

3whunt · November 12, 2006