Back from my desert mule deer hunt.

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Well it didnt last as long as I would have liked , but it was a great time.

I had been scouting a pretty good track for a couple of months, never had laid eyes on the begger but had been monitoring his sign and had made few trips in his area to check for his routes and feeding areas.

I never got real agressive with my scouting as I did not want to take the chance of causing him to change locals on me, but had gotten a pretty good idea of his bedding and feeding area.
I did not get a chance to hunt on opening day due to other commitments, and Saturday started out really slow as well.

I have a good friend who is kind of a local mule deer hunting legend around these parts who has had a pretty rough year.
He had a bout with cancer and radiation and finally chemo , things were looking pretty good on that field when a few weeks ago he came down with double pneumonia.

He spent two weeks in the hospital and was feeling pretty low about life in general and deer hunting in particular.
I was staying at his place for my hunt as it was considerably closer to my unit,on friday eve he was trying to figure out how he could get out and hunt since he could only walk with a cane and was weaker than a sick kitten.

So I volunteered to take him saturday wich was the second day of my hunt. Not much we could do with him in his condition but I drove him around till about noon when he started to fade considerably and I took him back to the house .
He was feeling kinda bad that I had not gotten to even start my hunt yet as I only have a 10 day hunt in my unit.
I tried to tell him that I enjoyed BS'ing with him and seeing him up and around as much as I would shooting another mule deer, but I could tell he still felt bad for taking up my time.

I had decided to hunt a horse back this year and had adopted a mustang from the BLM a few months ago to make into a hunting horse for my desert hunts.

I train horses for additional income so he was coming along pretty well.

Well I jumped him in the trailer and headed out, an hour later I was unloading at the windmill where the buck I had been scouting had been watering. I was hoping that no one had beaten me to him yet ,but was pretty confident that he had already long ago turned nocturnal due to quail season opening in the area several weeks ago.
I figured that the road hunters would never see him and very few folks would be willing to really get up in the rough to go roust him out of his hidey hole.

I had previously determined a general location of his possible day time haunt and saddled up and started rimming out to higher country.
I glassed some cattle grazing right under the crest of the mountain range and determined that they were hunting greener grass up there for a reason ,so I just kept climbing their direction.

As luck would have it I jumped him out of his bed just below the crest of the mountain and he stopped for one last look back before topping over.
One shot in the shoulder at about 300 yards across a canyon and he slam dunked and skidded about 20 yards down the side of the ridge.

It took me better than an hour to get around the head of the canyon to where he was at and then I walked past him twice trying to find him in the fading light.

I finally did and then had to quarter him to load his big fat hide on my little mustang.
My mustang had never been packed on before and I about half expected to have my hands full to keep from loosing horse , deer and equipment on the backside of nowhere Az.

No worries mate! my little stud snorted a few times at the load and then came trailing along behind me like a lost pup looking for a friend.

I got back to the truck just before full dark and then spent about 30 minutes trying to get that dang horse loaded in the trailer again, oh well thats horses for ya.

Jim was still up when I returned all bloody and tossed and empty 06 shell in his lap, you should have seen his face light up when he realized that there was now a buck hanging in his barn again!
I think that signaled to him finally that deer season was once again playing, and he seemed to get some renewed enthusiasm for the game again.

So thats why I just now got back and reported, I spent the next couple of days out with him to see if we could get lucky on a road hunt.

We didnt, but that is no matter.
I talked to him on the phone tonight and he is feeling stronger and things seem to be looking up.

I f he hasent got one by this weekend I am going to go back and take him out again .

See if we cant hang another old desert mulie in that barn of his.

Take care and thanks for listening.

Craig.
 
Thanks for sharing...its the little details that really make the stories great. Hope your friend is feeling well and gets him another deer too!! You didn't say how big he was? I wish I could adopt a BLM mustang!!! I'd love to have an old indian pony...one from idaho area, maybe an apaloosa?? That'd be a prize wouldn't it? Thanks again for sharing
smile.gif
 
Craig,

What a great story! That is what hunters and hunting is all about. Have a great season!!!

Good Hunting,

Bob C.
 
Sounds like it was a great hunt for you and your friend, congrat's on the buck, how big was he? as large as you thought not having seen him before?, I'm sure the taste of fresh deer has helped you friends health.

------------------

Keep your hooks sharp and you powder dry.
Wildoats

"The expactations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools."
Confucius
 
Hey guys I am sorry I didnt answer sooner,,

He was a 4x4 with just a little over 24" inch spread.
Not a book buck by any stretch but perfectly symetrical with a lot of height.
I didn't have him weighed but he was a very large bodied buck for this unit with about a half inch of good white fat over his back.

I figured him for about a 4 year old buck, and yes from his sign I had figured him to be at least this big, although we always have visions of some heavy headed hog somewhere in the back of our minds don't we?

All in all he was a great buck, extremely pretty rack with a lot of height, decent mass and very deep forks.

My only regret at all is that I screwed up and shot him in the shoulder which ruined that quarter.

That was my safety shot as he had taken a step back towards me when he stopped which put him a little quartered my direction.
I figured a behind the shoulder shot at that angle might not anchor him where he stood , and I had no desire to be tracking very far in that terrain with the sun going down.

So against my stomach wishes my mind won out and I pulled it a little further foward and ruined a quarter but perhaps saved the deer.

On another note I wanted to mention the bullet I was using, I shot this buck with a 150 Nosler Ballistic tip out of my little pre warning round top ruger 77 30-06.

I have not shot any game larger than a coyote with BT's in years as I had some bad experiances with them in the past.

However my usual desert muley rifle which is a stainless laminated Rem 700 in WAY throated out 7 mag had just got back from the gun smith and my usual loads were not doing things I liked.

I didnt have time to figure things out so I just loaded up some rounds for the little ruger.

I knew that it loved BT's on paper and I had an old box of 150's , so I loaded a batch up to around 3000 fps and went to see how it liked that recipe.

After a little dialing in 3 shots made one little ragged hole and the 4 knocked my mulie on his keester.

As I said the left front shoulder was in very bad shape, but the bullet went on and took out the top of the heart , the lungs and various other parts I could not identify.

Then it punched out a rib and a quarter sized piece of hide behind his right shoulder .

All in all the bullet performed perfectly at that distance in my opinion.

Tons of initial expansion and trauma, excellent penetration and no sign of blow up fragments to be found anywhere.

How it would have held up at 50 yards instead of 300 is yet to be known, but at 300 it was a gem.
 
oH yeah I did get some pics if i can bet them developed and posted somehow, and as you can tell I am here this weekend and not guiding my buddy again.

Reason is that he got his buck a couple evenings ago.

Taking my buck was a good thing, him getting his was a GREAT thing!

Wish I had been there.
 
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