2019 Mule Deer

Nice job, I love big dumb Muleys. Did you kill him without being spotted or did he run the required 20 yards and then stop/turn to see why you weren't shooting yet?

Like I said, I love mule deer.
 
I’m 66 I have been hunting this ranch since I was 17. My Dad and the ranch owner were good friends. I have only missed one year in all those years. We have a good time. We have some cajun’s that have been coming for forty years and we have some great food and fun times seeing each other once a year.
The ranch owner has passed on and his son has taken over back in the mid 90’s. He and I are really close.
In 95 I loss my dad and I put his military headstone in the North pasture facing East. I put some of his ashes there and also in other places he liked to hunt on the ranch.
So this gets you kinda up to date.
November 8 the day before the hunt I was checking water in another pasture and I saw a beautiful buck along with another buck standing about 120 yards away and I watched until they trotted off. We don’t see these kind of bucks here. In fact the deer hunting has been very bad for several years ,
Saturday I went back in hopes to see the buck but no luck only seeing a couple of 4 and six pointers that day.
Sunday started out seeing some small bucks and then about 10 am I loss my footing and fell in the rocks. Just a few scraps but knew I was gonna be sore.
I went to my rv made some late breakfast and decided to relax and watch the Phoenix NASCAR race. About 3:30 I wanted to go for a ride and since the next day was Veterans Day I always put flags on my dad’s headstone. So I put my slippers on put my Ar-243 not my hunting rifle and the flags in the jeep and started the 8 mile ride up to the north pasture.
I was in no hurry and was just going slow when I went by some thick juniper and I thought I saw the body of a deer. I stopped backed up and sure enough it was I grabbed my Ar and it was a nice 8 point running up the mountain and then the big boy came running right behind him. I took off running trying to get a clear shot before they top out and I fired a shot and the big buck hung a left and was now running along the side of the mountain about 175 yds away I was able to get one more shot off and then he was out of site.
I started to climb up in the rocks losing my slippers about every other step and got to where I thought he made the turn to the left. I walked around looking for blood and thought I had missed my chance. I was really upset. I walked around some more and then I found some blood and hair. I stacked some rocks up there and walked around a bush and there he laid.
This was the biggest buck in over thirty years to come off the ranch. And one of the largest taken for that unit for that hunt.
He scored 186 5/8.
This was the same buck I saw the day before the hunt as I recognized him and the other buck. He was 1.8 miles from where I had last seen him. I have only seen a few bucks like this on this ranch in all the years I have hunted there.
So call it luck or call it what you want to but if I would have not been taking flags to my dad’s headstone I would have never had a chance at this buck. I got new slippers for Christmas from the wife but I will be wearing the blood stained old ones in camp next year.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top