2024 OFFICIAL Mule deer meat pole thread

[bpitcher]

My son took his first ever deer (doe) and first ever buck this year in the Texas Panhandle. Super proud of him. He made two excellent shots. He as worked hard all year in school and at the range.

 

[jpmulk]

Montana

 

[MNGrouser]

We had a fun little trip out to Montana this year. My dad and I drew tags and my nephew still qualified for the youth sponsor hunt. My brother was not successful in the draw but I got him registered for the alternate list and he started out with number 314. We wore out the FWP webpage refreshing his status to see if the number changed and he actually got the e-mail while my dad and I were already out there.

The plan was to have my dad take first dibs as mobility issues are slowing him down. Any decent buck he had the ability to take, I wanted him to take. Things ended up progressing not quite according to plan. Things happened a little faster than we planned and I had the opportunity to take this guy. I decided not to pass.



At that point my brother and nephew hadn't arrived from Wisconsin yet and we were able to find this buck for my dad the next day. He was a little bummed that it wasn't as big as he'd hoped or what the rest of us got but I was happy to see him punch his tag and make a clean, one-shot, kill.



We got our deer skinned out and hanging in the cooler when the rest of the crew arrived. They also brought a little bit of weather with them.


We did a little more hiking and took this pic right after my brother made a heckuva shot on his best mule deer to date. The plan was actually to let my nephew go first but our hunts don't often go according to plan. Similar to my buck, my brother had to make a quick decision and he decided not to let this one walk.




That left only my nephew to go. I was able to spot him cruising across the sage flats towards a brush choked coulee. We came up with a plan and after a LONG time on the glass I was able to find where he'd hung up. It was a long shot, with a killer cross wind and my nephew was having a hard time picking him out of the brush where he hid. Not the kind of low percentage shot we wanted him to take. So we regrouped and came up with a plan to approach from the other side of the canyon. Cross wind would still be in our favor and, if we made it work, we would be right on top of him. For once things went according to plan. We belly crawled inside 100 yards before he was visible and the kid made quick work of the chip-shot.


I'm thinking between draw odds, health, finances, going off to college, etc that the four of us probably are not going to manage a trip like this again. So we packed a lifetime of memories into this one!