speedgoatstunna
New member
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2009
- Messages
- 22
After having a rough start to the season for myself and hunting crew, the Thursday following the opener we were waiting on parts at work. Having the day off I knew I had to get to the badlands and try to stick a mulie. As luck would have it, the wind was from the west, something that never happened for me opening weekend. Last year I killed a good buck in a spot I had never previously hunted. I decided to try that spot again as it is really only feasible with a west wind. It had started to rain on the way out, but was pretty well done when I reached the parking spot. As I arrived at a glassing point, the wind all but died. After glassing for 3 hours and only finding 3 does and a small forky, it was time to move in deeper. I could see the butte that I shot my deer on last year, but the mirage made it difficult to see anything of detail. I cut the distance in half to that butte and settled in for another glassing session. Not more than 3 minutes there and I spotted a buck to my right underneath an old nasty cedar. I could only make out one side and could tell he had 4 there. Good enough for me! Made a big loop around to get the wind right, dropped my pack, and started up the ridge. Once on top of the ridge an antelope doe appeared below me. Not wanting to spook her and inevitably the deer as well, I backed off and headed further down the ridge. Coming up over that ridge, I could see the doe working her way back east. I found the cedar that he was bedded below, but couldn't see thru all the brush. Finally at 41 yards I could see tines below the tree. The wind started picking up, and I just kept inching closer and closer. At 21 yards I could see his nose thru the brush. His vitals looked to be totally blocked by the brush, but after waiting for 45 minutes I looked thru my binoculars and saw it was just 3 large leaves in the way, less than a foot from the deer. Shadows can make things so deceiving sometimes. I picked a leaf and put my 20 yard pin there and let one fly. He immediately stood up from his bed and looked back at me for a split second before stumbling down the hill. It didn't sound like he went far and I never saw him come out the bottom of the draw. After 15 minutes I went to his bed to look for blood and there was a spot there about the size of a volleyball of bright red blood. I went in his last known direction looking for blood and was shocked to see him laying belly up and face planted into a big sage only 23 yards down the ridge from his bed!! This was only the second archery mule deer with my bow, but shooting 2 nice bucks back to back years only about a half mile apart is pretty awesome to me. I called my buddy Jake and gave him the news every hunting partner loves to hear. Took a little over an hour to cape him and bone him out. Loaded him up in the exo 3500 along with about 25 lbs of glass and tripod and hit the hills back to the pickup. An hour and a half of packing later and I made it to the truck before I needed a headlamp. Not bad for a school night!! A very rough tape on him puts him at 164. 30 1/8" outside with 18"+ and 17"+ g2's. Super stoked! Sorry some of the pictures didn't rotate. Can't wait until next year and good luck to all bowhunters this year!
