Took four days off to hunt back country mule deer in Alberta. Archery hunted last year in the same area and the closest I got was about 150 yards. This year was a little different, saw tons of deer running around, practiced stalking on three different doe's in case I managed to catch a buck asleep at the wheel.
A buddy and I were watching a large buck across a valley about 1200 yards away when I turned and saw a set of antlers down the hill from us approximately 400 yards away. Two hours from last light and we decided to go for him. He was bedded down in a clear cut about 50 yards from the tree line beside a patch of 4-6ft tall aspens. The ground between us and him was nothing but old dry clear cut, sounded like walking across a field of cornflakes. He heard us coming from a mile away but there were also some cattle skirting the edge of the clear cut down hill about 100 yards away so I don't think he was too worried, he stood up at 60 yards or so, used the aspens as cover and got to 44 yards. He was broadside staring right at me. Drew back, stood up slowly and hit double lung, little higher than I would have liked but it worked out. He took off crashing through the aspens and made it about 80 yards from where he started. Great blood trail once I found it.
Was about 7pm Friday night when we found him piled up, decided to go gutless method and it took about 3 hours all said and down. Ended up mostly solo for the butchering as my buddy headed back to camp to grab some things for the pack out, long story short he got lost on his way back to me and ran into another hunter by the name of Mike, that helped him find me. Shout out to Mike! He walked me through getting the tenderloins out without making a mess! Really appreciate his help and patience and guiding my buddy back to me.
My buddy and it packed it all up and hiked it 6km(4miles) to the truck. Made it back to the truck at about 2am, drove an hour home and straight into the freezer.
Went back out the next day and rode bicycles to down the trail to within a quick hike of camp, packed camp up and rode back to the truck.
Definitely need to learn how to field dress faster and debone, carrying all that extra bone is silly looking back haha.
Props to you crazy folks that do this solo or with bigger animals!
A buddy and I were watching a large buck across a valley about 1200 yards away when I turned and saw a set of antlers down the hill from us approximately 400 yards away. Two hours from last light and we decided to go for him. He was bedded down in a clear cut about 50 yards from the tree line beside a patch of 4-6ft tall aspens. The ground between us and him was nothing but old dry clear cut, sounded like walking across a field of cornflakes. He heard us coming from a mile away but there were also some cattle skirting the edge of the clear cut down hill about 100 yards away so I don't think he was too worried, he stood up at 60 yards or so, used the aspens as cover and got to 44 yards. He was broadside staring right at me. Drew back, stood up slowly and hit double lung, little higher than I would have liked but it worked out. He took off crashing through the aspens and made it about 80 yards from where he started. Great blood trail once I found it.
Was about 7pm Friday night when we found him piled up, decided to go gutless method and it took about 3 hours all said and down. Ended up mostly solo for the butchering as my buddy headed back to camp to grab some things for the pack out, long story short he got lost on his way back to me and ran into another hunter by the name of Mike, that helped him find me. Shout out to Mike! He walked me through getting the tenderloins out without making a mess! Really appreciate his help and patience and guiding my buddy back to me.
My buddy and it packed it all up and hiked it 6km(4miles) to the truck. Made it back to the truck at about 2am, drove an hour home and straight into the freezer.
Went back out the next day and rode bicycles to down the trail to within a quick hike of camp, packed camp up and rode back to the truck.
Definitely need to learn how to field dress faster and debone, carrying all that extra bone is silly looking back haha.
Props to you crazy folks that do this solo or with bigger animals!
