375H&H
Well-known member
Ok I've been meaning to post this for a while so here goes.
I didn't draw my elk tag this year so I figured I would focus hard on mule deer. I started on the mountain but wasn't able to spend quite as much time as I wanted to as my wife didn't want me to be gone as much this year due to the loss of our son. That was fine with me as I could still hunt from home and stay every other night in our mountain camp. Well all the deer were not where they usually are however I did screw up a stalk on a decent buck, temps were in the 60s, and the pressure was a little more than average. So I thought, what the hell, I will give the plains a go and went back to where my dad and I antelope hunted, remembering that we saw a 180-190 inch buck earlier in the year. I ended up putting on my usual 10 miles to stir up some bucks, but not the big one. So I passed on a few and figured I would come back the next day and find the bucks again. They hang out in one edge of the property and you can glass in there pretty well. Well I found 2 and chased them for a bit before they stopped in a draw where I could stalk to within 50 yards easy. I take off down the hill and my heart is beating like disco is still alive and I stop to calm myself down. The deer are over the next rise. I start up the hill and a nice buck, which was bedded in the tall grass, busts up and is boiling straight away from me as fast as he can go. I quickly tell he is a shooter and pull up my trusty big rifle and give him one of Harley's famous Texas heart shots and he drops. As I walk over I can't believe what has all happened and then I see the original deer come walking by at 50 yds and then spook. As I get up to my buck I see he has quite the interesting rack, crowned like the red stag my dad shot, good mass, and great length, but no width. Who cares, I love encounters like this where there is no time to think, just instincts. Big, big body on him, and almost 2" of fat on his hq. typical plains deer in October, getting fat for the rut. Great time, great animal, and glad I was able to see my wife more and still get a nice buck considering all we have been through. Thanks for reading.
I didn't draw my elk tag this year so I figured I would focus hard on mule deer. I started on the mountain but wasn't able to spend quite as much time as I wanted to as my wife didn't want me to be gone as much this year due to the loss of our son. That was fine with me as I could still hunt from home and stay every other night in our mountain camp. Well all the deer were not where they usually are however I did screw up a stalk on a decent buck, temps were in the 60s, and the pressure was a little more than average. So I thought, what the hell, I will give the plains a go and went back to where my dad and I antelope hunted, remembering that we saw a 180-190 inch buck earlier in the year. I ended up putting on my usual 10 miles to stir up some bucks, but not the big one. So I passed on a few and figured I would come back the next day and find the bucks again. They hang out in one edge of the property and you can glass in there pretty well. Well I found 2 and chased them for a bit before they stopped in a draw where I could stalk to within 50 yards easy. I take off down the hill and my heart is beating like disco is still alive and I stop to calm myself down. The deer are over the next rise. I start up the hill and a nice buck, which was bedded in the tall grass, busts up and is boiling straight away from me as fast as he can go. I quickly tell he is a shooter and pull up my trusty big rifle and give him one of Harley's famous Texas heart shots and he drops. As I walk over I can't believe what has all happened and then I see the original deer come walking by at 50 yds and then spook. As I get up to my buck I see he has quite the interesting rack, crowned like the red stag my dad shot, good mass, and great length, but no width. Who cares, I love encounters like this where there is no time to think, just instincts. Big, big body on him, and almost 2" of fat on his hq. typical plains deer in October, getting fat for the rut. Great time, great animal, and glad I was able to see my wife more and still get a nice buck considering all we have been through. Thanks for reading.
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