Busted knuckles busted buck

[Ahiuranch]

This year I was lucky enough to draw a tag for a mule deer buck, once again like last year my plan was to hunt with my trusty Kalamazoo bow works recurve. Shooting during the summer was fun, that wasn’t always the case. Hunting with a compound I found shooting a chore that had to be done. It’s not that I didn’t like hunting with a bow but I feel like once you get the shot process down with a compound it’s hard to miss. My recurve on the other “hand” (pun intended) feels more like a test every time I shoot and I enjoy it very much.


Skip to 3 weeks before season, I fight mma and had a fight lined up. The plan was to get a first round ko like my previous 3 fights and every thing went according to plan. The guy I fought was a state champ wrestler so I ran a few uppercuts up the middle and put him out, a broken nose helped shade his eyes to a purple color. That’s when the problems started. I hadn’t realized till the next morning that I had fractured my middle knuckle on his face. I shoot three under so that was going to be a problem. I fought on a Friday and had to guide my lovely wife on her first mule deer hunt the next morning. So off we went, we had some very good encounters, two misses and 8 miles of hiking she ended up killing a very very large doe on day two with a muzzle loader. After that I decided I should shoot my bow. That is when I found out you cant shoot recurve with a broken/swollen hand.

I then thought I would just used my old compound that’s hanging on my wall as decorations. Within 5 mins I was shooting rings at 60 yards. Now at this point the outside temperature were around 65-70 during the day. Squeezing a trigger didn’t feel great but it worked. Skip to the week leading up to opening day. Winter decided to show up and the beautiful orange and red leaves that colored mountains turned to white. I thought I would go shoot the day before the opener to get a few reps in with angles, that’s when I again was let down because the cold affected my broken hand and made it very shaky. At this point I am coming to the realization that a bow is not gonna be conducive to ethical hunting. I guess a gun it would have to be. I can shoot from both hands pistol,carbine and long gun so I would just shoot left handed and take my right hand out of the equation with a tripod.

Well opening day we had a high wind advisory so I decided to just go up for the day and that was a mistake, I started hiking in the dark with the sweet sound of trees falling to the valley floor around me. I decided to stop in a clearing and await the sun. I took out my phone to text my wife and heard a weird sound and something told me to move so thus I ran about 5 yards. When I turned around I found a tree laying where I was standing. The “clearing” was clearly not so clear. The sun rose over the mountains and the morning that followed was uneventful, found a few does but that was it, off to the house I went. I didn’t hunt Sunday because we’ll I wanted to sleep and I had slotted 5 days for the week to hunt. Wednesday I took off after work and headed to the hills. It was dark and right as I was turning into the canyon I had a 2 point run in front of my truck. I hit the brakes and he made it out alive, I thought to my self “man these young deer wanna die”. I slept in my truck that night and awoke to more snow in the morning. Met some other hunters and found that one of them had never kilt a deer before so I told them go ahead of me so they would have first crack seeing as I would be staying up there and they were not. Well I end up catching up to them about 1 mile in and we chatted. They say go ahead because one of the brothers has asthma, so onward I pushed. About 200 yards later I see some doe’s and a 2 point buck they mill around at 98 yards. Once I cross the creek they take off and go up and around this draw. I know the trail goes right past the draw so as I turn the corner I slow down and sure enough they are all in there.


The buck I had spotted feeds up to me and stops at 10 yards and begins eatting on a tree. Now if I had a bow In my grub grabbers he would be dead but alas I had a gun so I didn’t shoot. He feed back into the draw with the doe’s and I sneak up to check for a bigger buck none were to be found. As I turn around because I heard a noise I find that the hunters from the bottom were behind me one of which is the guy that never has killed a deer. I signed to him to come closer and ask him if he would like to shoot a two-point with a grin on his face he said “yes, yes I would” I point out the buck and he takes a shot breaking its front shoulder and putting it down within 10 yards. I take some pics for him and head higher up.


It was another mile and a half up When I made it to the lake that I was planning to camp next to. It was at this point I found hip deep snow. I set up and glass for about two hours towards higher elevations and see no tracks or deer. This is only my second year hunting mule deer but my guess is they are down lower. So I pack all the way back to the truck so I can hunt another area with less snow. I drive out about 4 miles and decided to check the little finger ridge. I get set up to glass and see some elk come out. I have an elk tag and decided I would shoot one. I get 160 yards away and have everything set all I need is this cow to take a step forward out of a bush and she’s Jeffrey Epstein dead. Well the lead cow comes bowing back up the ridge and takes the herd with her down the opposite side. So I walk back to my pack and sit down within 30 seconds on the glass a 2 point walks out 127 yards down canyon. I tell my self he’ll be bigger next year and walk to the truck before my finger got to itchy.

I head home for the night and get up in the morning to go to a new spot. I park at the trail head and hike to the top of the ridge Only about 1 mile in but 800ft of elevation gain. The morning sun comes and brings with it more doe’s and more 2 points. This was the story for the next four days. Morning 5 arrives and I have to take my kids trick or treating that night so it’s the last day. I get to the glassing point and find about 20 doe’s and five 2 points. After 3 hours I am starting to get really cold. That is when I see it a 3 point! I get my big glass out and something is wrong. I find that one side is completely broken off at the base. The more I study him I come to the realization that he has no base and it’s just hair. He only grew one side, I look him over again and again he looked to be a 2 1/2 year old deer. What is a fellah to do? On one hand I would be removing bad genetics but on the other I would be killing a immature deer. I decided that the “broken buck” will be bigger if he makes it two more years and if I wouldn’t take a small immature 2 point then I wouldn’t take a immature 3 either. Don’t get me wrong if I see a 4 1/2 year old 2 point he’s getting it but at this point in my life with a gun I am not going to shoot a young deer just to kill a deer. Not when there are men, women and children that are hunting for the first time and could have a chance at killing these bucks. If they don’t then we’ll I may have a chance at that same deer but bigger next year.

I am not a trophy hunter not because I am against it but because I don’t have the time. I do like meat and a older deer has more of that. So down to Texas I will go in January with my two older kids so we can fill the freezer with white tails. So my question is do you pass on the young bucks in hopes of them getting older or do you shoot what you can because any meat is better then none??

-Kai

 

[Hnthrdr]

Some one once told me shoot whatever tips your trigger. It will be different for everyone and at different times. I think only the hunter behind the weapon gets to decide what that is.

 

[Ahiuranch]

Some one once told me shoot whatever tips your trigger. It will be different for everyone and at different times. I think only the hunter behind the weapon gets to decide what that is.

I do believe that’s how bison almost became extinct.

 

[Hnthrdr]

I do believe that’s how bison almost became extinct.

No buddy… bison almost became extinct because the US military and market hunters annihilated them, not because different people had different people standards of what trophies are

 

[Blowdowner]

Epic month for you. Except you missed one great opportunity - you should have uppercutted the falling tree.

 

[Howdy Partner]

Superman Punch.

 

[Ahiuranch]

No buddy… bison almost became extinct because the US military and market hunters annihilated them, not because different people had different people standards of what trophies are

I wasn’t saying grow them for antler size, i mean not shooting immature deer for conservation. If everyone just shoots anything with a horn on their head then wouldn’t that lower the population?? If I am not mistaken there were people on trains shooting buffalo as they passed by. Rosevelt shot the only bison he seen because he wanted a bison. Market hunters didn’t selectively shoot big bulls they shot anything they could. That was my point, if we all just shoot any buck we see then the age class of deer will continue to lower till there is no bucks. Or am I wrong in this thought process?

 

[bsnedeker]

I wasn’t saying grow them for antler size, i mean not shooting immature deer for conservation. If everyone just shoots anything with a horn on their head then wouldn’t that lower the population?? If I am not mistaken there were people on trains shooting buffalo as they passed by. Rosevelt shot the only bison he seen because he wanted a bison. Market hunters didn’t selectively shoot big bulls they shot anything they could. That was my point, if we all just shoot any buck we see then the age class of deer will continue to lower till there is no bucks. Or am I wrong in this thought process?

Ask yourself how deer with bigger antlers are going to help grow deer populations? A lack of big bucks is not the reason mule deer populations are going to shit. A lack of habitat and an explosion of predators is driving the problem.

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[Hnthrdr]

I agree with you to a point. I think that since we now have tag quotas, passing up animals becomes more of a personal preference or choice. Which is what I was referring to. That you shouldn’t let anyone outside of yourself influence what size of deer you shoot when you have a tag in your pocket. This year I’m hunting a high pressure low trophy unit. I’m taking out an army buddy who hasn’t killed a mule deer ever. My standards and his standards are very different when it comes to what we will shoot and that is totally fine. He is in “any legal buck mode” I am just looking for a very mature or very unique buck to kill. Plus when your shoot an antlered animal, in theory it won’t have that big of an impact on the population since the bucks aren’t the ones having any fawns. You want to drop population kill off a bunch of does and the population will plummet.

 

[Ahiuranch]

Ask yourself how deer with bigger antlers are going to help grow deer populations? A lack of big bucks is not the reason mule deer populations are going to shit. A lack of habitat and an explosion of predators is driving the problem.

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I literally said in the first sentence i am not talking about antler size. I am talking about maturity levels. If a buck is killed in its first year of life then it probably didn’t have a chance to breed and create another deer. So if a place has high hunting pressure with a buck to doe ratio of 10-1 and every year anything with a horn is killed wouldn’t that bring down the deer population?

 

[Ahiuranch]

I agree with you to a point. I think that since we now have tag quotas, passing up animals becomes more of a personal preference or choice. Which is what I was referring to. That you shouldn’t let anyone outside of yourself influence what size of deer you shoot when you have a tag in your pocket. This year I’m hunting a high pressure low trophy unit. I’m taking out an army buddy who hasn’t killed a mule deer ever. My standards and his standards are very different when it comes to what we will shoot and that is totally fine. He is in “any legal buck mode” I am just looking for a very mature or very unique buck to kill. Plus when your shoot an antlered animal, in theory it won’t have that big of an impact on the population since the bucks aren’t the ones having any fawns. You want to drop population kill off a bunch of does and the population will plummet.

That is kinda what I am getting at you would pass it up because your buddy who is new will have a chance at it. Also I understand that bucks don’t have the fawns but if an area doesn’t have bucks because anything with a horn is shot then the doe’s can’t reproduce because there’s no bucks to breed them.

 

[Ahiuranch]

I agree with you to a point. I think that since we now have tag quotas, passing up animals becomes more of a personal preference or choice. Which is what I was referring to. That you shouldn’t let anyone outside of yourself influence what size of deer you shoot when you have a tag in your pocket. This year I’m hunting a high pressure low trophy unit. I’m taking out an army buddy who hasn’t killed a mule deer ever. My standards and his standards are very different when it comes to what we will shoot and that is totally fine. He is in “any legal buck mode” I am just looking for a very mature or very unique buck to kill. Plus when your shoot an antlered animal, in theory it won’t have that big of an impact on the population since the bucks aren’t the ones having any fawns. You want to drop population kill off a bunch of does and the population will plummet.

Also this may sound like a odd question but how often are quotas done? I mean are biologists out there every year checking deer then making a quota or is it every few years? I only ask because perceivably if it’s done every few years the buck population could lower a lot over a few seasons and the tag allocation might be to slow to catch up. I am new to tag quotas that’s why I ask

 

[Hnthrdr]

I believe it is done every few years, and I agree. I am in Co, and honestly we switched to later season dates, and more does tags in some parts of the state, which were not over objective for population. We could be a first hand example of bad management wrecking a herd for years especially will a more normal or cooler weather + snow expected next weeks.