Brandon Guitierez
Lil-Rokslider
Most western bow hunters know that the State of California is not notorious for producing monarch type Mule Deer Bucks'. With that in mind, this is not a story about my harvest of a monster Muley. I am still a fairly new bow hunter, which is to say my learning curve is quite steep. Most of my time is spent devouring every piece of information I can to be as successful as possible during the moment of truth. Thankfully, I have ice in my veins. The thing that I believe my State doesn't get enough credit for is the beauty of the landscape. During my scouting season, I covered hundreds of miles that spanned several different types of areas. I am very thankful for the experiences I was able to have with the landscape in the zone I hunted this year. My connection to the land I hunt is an aboriginal one. My relatives have hunted these mountains for thousands of years. Having the opportunity to walk into the same timber the old ones did is an honor that I do not take lightly.
2016 marked my second bow hunting season. Coming off of a successful 1st year, where I was able to successfully arrow a Blacktail Buck at 63 yards with my awesome PSE Stinger (sarcasm inserted ha-ha), I was more than ready to improve and hopefully chase Muleys in an X Zone. Over the winter, I upgraded to a Hoyt Defiant and continued to shoot every day. Come hell or high water, rain or shine, I could be found outside making sure my archery skill was as good as it could be. Needless to say, I went through several dozen arrows! But I upped my effective range from 60 to 80 yards. To me that was one hell of an accomplishment.
When the draw became available I was excited to see that I was lucky enough to draw the X Zone A7. I was so happy that I began scouting in the beginning of June. One of my biggest takeaways from this seasons scout was that I need to invest rather heavily in game cameras. Before I began scouting, I upgraded my glass, but that simply wasn't good enough. Next year, I'll be setting up cameras. Throughout the course of June, July, and August I spent hours traveling all of the different back roads in an effort to learn the land that was available to hunt, and I tore though plenty of shoe leather in the hopes of finding good bachelor groups.
I went high many times, searched the valleys, and even tried to get close to draws that fed in alphalfa fields. Thankfully, water was plentiful this year, but that might have also added to the difficulty in finding a shooter. I saw so much beautiful land, and plenty of animals. This was actually the first time I was able to glass a giant Herd Bull (6x7) and dozens of elk in person. Thinking about it right now, it was funny, because I felt like the guys you see on TV (ha-ha)! Unfortunately, I was never able to come across a shooter buck. I saw elk, antelope, bears, dozens of little bucks and does, but no shooters. The closest I was able to get was the day before the season when I was able to spot a decent 3x3 in a clear cut with several younger bucks. I'm guessing he was probably a 4 year old. All in all, I spent at least 20 actual days scouting. I was aggressive, relentless, and most importantly I learned a very valuable lesson in the importance of staying the course and doing all I could to remain positive. It turned out drawing a good tag didn't mean that big deer were just going to fall in my lap.
On the day of the opener, I was filled with plenty of excitement, and even a little doubt, because of my inability to spot any shooters. My method of hunting might earn me a few comments from you hardcore boys on this website, and as I said, I am still a new bow hunter, so I have not graduated to backcountry back pack hunting yet. Next season will be my first set of hunts where grinding it out during the season will be done with a Kifaru on my back. On this trip I sat in a truck and searched many miles of back roads in my zone. This was my last hunting trip with my father in law, and road hunting is the only way he's ever done it. I can't tell you how many conversations we have had about me wanting to get out of the truck and really hunt. He'd just laugh and tell me that all of his kills were done from the road, and that it's completely silly to waste my time grinding it out in the mountains on foot.
I know road hunting is looked down on around here, but I will say, at least our method was to get to high spots and glass, look for stalking opportunities, and be aggressive once they presented themselves. I am not a "Bubba Hunter"! We traveled for over 12 straight hours, covering some of the nastiest roads imaginable in search of an opportunity. We saw plenty of animals, and I even got a stalk on a 400 - 500 lb Black Bear. What a rush! I pursued this Boar from several hundred yards in the timber, I got to 50 yards, he stood up facing me (easily 6 - 7 feet tall) as I went to full draw, and in an instant - before I could loose my arrow - ran away.
The day began to get into the late evening, and we found ourselves on top of Roop Mountain. Now we had always been hesitant to try this location, due to the high volume of hunters in the area. This is a favorite mountain for all of the hunters who enjoy the convenience of a close hunting spot with high volumes of animals. It was for this reason that I did not even scout this mountain. But once we began to go up the mountain it was clear that the deer sign was unmistakable. As we got closer and closer to the top it was obvious that there were plenty of animals in the area, and it was only a matter of time before we would have our chance. Thankfully, mother earth decided to give us a little bit of rain when we reached the top and I couldn't help but be excited for an opportunity to glass up and stalk a good deer.
I'll never forget my father in law telling me, "You know I haven't hunted this mountain in over 10 years, but if we are going to find where the Muleys get away from the Blacktails, it's going to be on top". My father in law has never hunted bucks with a bow. He has dozens and dozens of good kills, which is to say he is super aggressive, and completely unconcerned with the size of the antlers. He's also an ass shooter ha-ha! During the morning part of our hunt, we came across 12 different legal bucks, and all he could say was "Go after him"! The funny part about this whole thing was that I told him that I would not go after a forked horn buck. There was just no way (save that sentence for later)!
Once we got on top the area opened up. The timber wasn't as thick, and there was plenty of feed everywhere. Suddenly my father in law slammed on the brakes, hit me in the arm, eyes as big as 50 cent pieces, and said "Get your bow, get out of the truck"! Listening to him I got out, using the truck for cover, I asked him where the buck was. He motioned in to his left and I began searching with my binos. Finally I located the buck. I can see why he was so excited. Far off in the distance stood the buck, with tall antlers, and a good body. The only problem was that this animal had busted us, and was staring right at me. I ranged him at 328 yards. The buck stood frozen, staring at us, tucked away by a huge pine tree. I told my father in law to keep driving down the road, and that I would try to stalk him. At this point I still could not tell exactly how many points he had, because he was looking directly at me and the symmetry of his antlers made it impossible to tell how many points he had, but I knew I wanted this deer. It was as if a small voice just told me... "That's the one"!
For some reason I don't get overly nervous or excited when I am in pursuit of an animal I am trying to harvest. Perhaps it's my experience as an Infantry Marine that has allowed me to be very calm when I am about to kill. Perhaps one day I'll get buck fever, but thankfully with the small number of successful hunts I've had so far, nerves have never gotten the best of me.
As he drove down the road slowly, I observed the buck to see what his reaction would be. I had a lot of distance to cover over dry sagebrush covered ground. Thankfully, the rain helped lessen the sound of my approach. The deer watched the truck move out of sight, and seemingly unaffected by it, he began to feed on the bitterbrush around him. I really liked the look of this deer. I was surprised to see that he was already hard horned, because all of the bucks I had seen up to this point were still in full velvet. He was obviously twice the size of my small 4x3 Columbian Blacktail that I killed the year before, and that was probably the reason I wanted to take this animal. While I do care about antlers, and I sincerely hope for the proverbial symmetrical 4x4 Mule Deer Buck, this one still spoke to me.
I checked the wind with my Smoke In A Bottle, and saw that the wind was perfect. The problem was that the sagebrush and bitterbrush was not as tall as it was in lower elevations. Thankfully, there were scattered Juniper Trees that I could zig zag too on my way to the deer, but it was still going to take a perfect effort to get in range of this buck. I have no idea how long the stalk took, but it felt like 5 minutes ha-ha! As I got to around 100 yards the deer began to move across my right side, which really made my shot chances limited. He moved into an opening that provided me with zero concealment. Between me and him stood on more small and bushy Juniper, and after that he was in a wide open space. I quietly snuck to the tree, observing the buck quartered away from me and feeding, I ranged him. I remember reading the numbers as they said 70 yards, and it was clear that if I was going to kill him it was going to take a perfect shot.
I tucked my rangefinder away, attached my thumb release to my string and started to step out into the open enough to provide me with a shot. Wouldn't you know it, as I stepped out I stepped on a dry tree branch and a loud "Snap" brought the Buck's attention from feeding to searching! I knew it was now or never, I quickly went to full draw, found my anchor, settled the pin, and let the arrow fly. I have found that it is very important to not only establish good shooting mechanics, but to practice them to the point of muscle memory. I watched the buck as the arrow took flight. I was so excited to see the hit (a perfect lung shot) and hear the impact of the arrow. He jumped high in the air kicking his hind legs back and ran off. All of this happened with my father in law parked about 600 yards away from me and the deer. I went back to the truck, and he jokingly said, "You know eventually you're going to have to get closer to the deer you kill"! We hugged, said a few things and waited for about an hour before we went to blood trail the buck.
Walking up to the spot I hit the deer, we found the arrow. I don't know how many of you guys use FMJ's, but I love those arrows. The weight and flight of those arrows hasn't let me down yet. It was a perfect blood stained pass through. Be that as it may, we became immediately concerned about the hit, because there was not enough blood in the area that I shot the buck. As we trailed the deer, finding a spot here and a spot there, he looked at me and said, "Are you sure you didn't hit him back"? With only a little blood to trail, and the fact that it was clear he was only running on 3 feet, Harold though I hit him in the ass ha-ha! I assured him I saw the impact and I knew it was a vital shot. When we opened the deer up, we found that he had severe internal bleeding, and that must have been the reason we didn't find much blood. But thankfully, the deer only traveled a little over 80 yards, and died quickly.
This was my first true Mule Deer Buck, and while he was not the monster I hoped for, the experience of the feeling of deciding he was what I wanted, the stalk, and the shot really made that day worth all of the money, time, and effort that I spent over the course of 2016. Next year I'll be putting in for Nevada Mule Deer. I'll obviously hunt my own State, and I'll be going with my Uncle up to Oregon for my first OTC Bull Elk hunt. There will be no more road hunting for me, as the maturation process of my hunting has reached the next level. I will be more picky about age class, and I will do my best to get it done the way many of you have made a habit of doing.
Sadly, my father in law is no longer my father in law. A week after the hunt that we shared, his daughter and I parted ways. But I will always be thankful for the 2 years that I was able to learn from him. He was the dad that I never had, and having him there to witness my first two kills will be something that is special to me for the rest of my life. To me, hunting is so much more than just killing an animal. It's about my relationship with the world around me, the challenge of fair chase, and the feeling of accomplishment. I may never kill the Monarch, but I will spend the rest of my life trying.
2016 marked my second bow hunting season. Coming off of a successful 1st year, where I was able to successfully arrow a Blacktail Buck at 63 yards with my awesome PSE Stinger (sarcasm inserted ha-ha), I was more than ready to improve and hopefully chase Muleys in an X Zone. Over the winter, I upgraded to a Hoyt Defiant and continued to shoot every day. Come hell or high water, rain or shine, I could be found outside making sure my archery skill was as good as it could be. Needless to say, I went through several dozen arrows! But I upped my effective range from 60 to 80 yards. To me that was one hell of an accomplishment.
When the draw became available I was excited to see that I was lucky enough to draw the X Zone A7. I was so happy that I began scouting in the beginning of June. One of my biggest takeaways from this seasons scout was that I need to invest rather heavily in game cameras. Before I began scouting, I upgraded my glass, but that simply wasn't good enough. Next year, I'll be setting up cameras. Throughout the course of June, July, and August I spent hours traveling all of the different back roads in an effort to learn the land that was available to hunt, and I tore though plenty of shoe leather in the hopes of finding good bachelor groups.
I went high many times, searched the valleys, and even tried to get close to draws that fed in alphalfa fields. Thankfully, water was plentiful this year, but that might have also added to the difficulty in finding a shooter. I saw so much beautiful land, and plenty of animals. This was actually the first time I was able to glass a giant Herd Bull (6x7) and dozens of elk in person. Thinking about it right now, it was funny, because I felt like the guys you see on TV (ha-ha)! Unfortunately, I was never able to come across a shooter buck. I saw elk, antelope, bears, dozens of little bucks and does, but no shooters. The closest I was able to get was the day before the season when I was able to spot a decent 3x3 in a clear cut with several younger bucks. I'm guessing he was probably a 4 year old. All in all, I spent at least 20 actual days scouting. I was aggressive, relentless, and most importantly I learned a very valuable lesson in the importance of staying the course and doing all I could to remain positive. It turned out drawing a good tag didn't mean that big deer were just going to fall in my lap.
On the day of the opener, I was filled with plenty of excitement, and even a little doubt, because of my inability to spot any shooters. My method of hunting might earn me a few comments from you hardcore boys on this website, and as I said, I am still a new bow hunter, so I have not graduated to backcountry back pack hunting yet. Next season will be my first set of hunts where grinding it out during the season will be done with a Kifaru on my back. On this trip I sat in a truck and searched many miles of back roads in my zone. This was my last hunting trip with my father in law, and road hunting is the only way he's ever done it. I can't tell you how many conversations we have had about me wanting to get out of the truck and really hunt. He'd just laugh and tell me that all of his kills were done from the road, and that it's completely silly to waste my time grinding it out in the mountains on foot.
I know road hunting is looked down on around here, but I will say, at least our method was to get to high spots and glass, look for stalking opportunities, and be aggressive once they presented themselves. I am not a "Bubba Hunter"! We traveled for over 12 straight hours, covering some of the nastiest roads imaginable in search of an opportunity. We saw plenty of animals, and I even got a stalk on a 400 - 500 lb Black Bear. What a rush! I pursued this Boar from several hundred yards in the timber, I got to 50 yards, he stood up facing me (easily 6 - 7 feet tall) as I went to full draw, and in an instant - before I could loose my arrow - ran away.
The day began to get into the late evening, and we found ourselves on top of Roop Mountain. Now we had always been hesitant to try this location, due to the high volume of hunters in the area. This is a favorite mountain for all of the hunters who enjoy the convenience of a close hunting spot with high volumes of animals. It was for this reason that I did not even scout this mountain. But once we began to go up the mountain it was clear that the deer sign was unmistakable. As we got closer and closer to the top it was obvious that there were plenty of animals in the area, and it was only a matter of time before we would have our chance. Thankfully, mother earth decided to give us a little bit of rain when we reached the top and I couldn't help but be excited for an opportunity to glass up and stalk a good deer.
I'll never forget my father in law telling me, "You know I haven't hunted this mountain in over 10 years, but if we are going to find where the Muleys get away from the Blacktails, it's going to be on top". My father in law has never hunted bucks with a bow. He has dozens and dozens of good kills, which is to say he is super aggressive, and completely unconcerned with the size of the antlers. He's also an ass shooter ha-ha! During the morning part of our hunt, we came across 12 different legal bucks, and all he could say was "Go after him"! The funny part about this whole thing was that I told him that I would not go after a forked horn buck. There was just no way (save that sentence for later)!
Once we got on top the area opened up. The timber wasn't as thick, and there was plenty of feed everywhere. Suddenly my father in law slammed on the brakes, hit me in the arm, eyes as big as 50 cent pieces, and said "Get your bow, get out of the truck"! Listening to him I got out, using the truck for cover, I asked him where the buck was. He motioned in to his left and I began searching with my binos. Finally I located the buck. I can see why he was so excited. Far off in the distance stood the buck, with tall antlers, and a good body. The only problem was that this animal had busted us, and was staring right at me. I ranged him at 328 yards. The buck stood frozen, staring at us, tucked away by a huge pine tree. I told my father in law to keep driving down the road, and that I would try to stalk him. At this point I still could not tell exactly how many points he had, because he was looking directly at me and the symmetry of his antlers made it impossible to tell how many points he had, but I knew I wanted this deer. It was as if a small voice just told me... "That's the one"!
For some reason I don't get overly nervous or excited when I am in pursuit of an animal I am trying to harvest. Perhaps it's my experience as an Infantry Marine that has allowed me to be very calm when I am about to kill. Perhaps one day I'll get buck fever, but thankfully with the small number of successful hunts I've had so far, nerves have never gotten the best of me.
As he drove down the road slowly, I observed the buck to see what his reaction would be. I had a lot of distance to cover over dry sagebrush covered ground. Thankfully, the rain helped lessen the sound of my approach. The deer watched the truck move out of sight, and seemingly unaffected by it, he began to feed on the bitterbrush around him. I really liked the look of this deer. I was surprised to see that he was already hard horned, because all of the bucks I had seen up to this point were still in full velvet. He was obviously twice the size of my small 4x3 Columbian Blacktail that I killed the year before, and that was probably the reason I wanted to take this animal. While I do care about antlers, and I sincerely hope for the proverbial symmetrical 4x4 Mule Deer Buck, this one still spoke to me.
I checked the wind with my Smoke In A Bottle, and saw that the wind was perfect. The problem was that the sagebrush and bitterbrush was not as tall as it was in lower elevations. Thankfully, there were scattered Juniper Trees that I could zig zag too on my way to the deer, but it was still going to take a perfect effort to get in range of this buck. I have no idea how long the stalk took, but it felt like 5 minutes ha-ha! As I got to around 100 yards the deer began to move across my right side, which really made my shot chances limited. He moved into an opening that provided me with zero concealment. Between me and him stood on more small and bushy Juniper, and after that he was in a wide open space. I quietly snuck to the tree, observing the buck quartered away from me and feeding, I ranged him. I remember reading the numbers as they said 70 yards, and it was clear that if I was going to kill him it was going to take a perfect shot.
I tucked my rangefinder away, attached my thumb release to my string and started to step out into the open enough to provide me with a shot. Wouldn't you know it, as I stepped out I stepped on a dry tree branch and a loud "Snap" brought the Buck's attention from feeding to searching! I knew it was now or never, I quickly went to full draw, found my anchor, settled the pin, and let the arrow fly. I have found that it is very important to not only establish good shooting mechanics, but to practice them to the point of muscle memory. I watched the buck as the arrow took flight. I was so excited to see the hit (a perfect lung shot) and hear the impact of the arrow. He jumped high in the air kicking his hind legs back and ran off. All of this happened with my father in law parked about 600 yards away from me and the deer. I went back to the truck, and he jokingly said, "You know eventually you're going to have to get closer to the deer you kill"! We hugged, said a few things and waited for about an hour before we went to blood trail the buck.
Walking up to the spot I hit the deer, we found the arrow. I don't know how many of you guys use FMJ's, but I love those arrows. The weight and flight of those arrows hasn't let me down yet. It was a perfect blood stained pass through. Be that as it may, we became immediately concerned about the hit, because there was not enough blood in the area that I shot the buck. As we trailed the deer, finding a spot here and a spot there, he looked at me and said, "Are you sure you didn't hit him back"? With only a little blood to trail, and the fact that it was clear he was only running on 3 feet, Harold though I hit him in the ass ha-ha! I assured him I saw the impact and I knew it was a vital shot. When we opened the deer up, we found that he had severe internal bleeding, and that must have been the reason we didn't find much blood. But thankfully, the deer only traveled a little over 80 yards, and died quickly.
This was my first true Mule Deer Buck, and while he was not the monster I hoped for, the experience of the feeling of deciding he was what I wanted, the stalk, and the shot really made that day worth all of the money, time, and effort that I spent over the course of 2016. Next year I'll be putting in for Nevada Mule Deer. I'll obviously hunt my own State, and I'll be going with my Uncle up to Oregon for my first OTC Bull Elk hunt. There will be no more road hunting for me, as the maturation process of my hunting has reached the next level. I will be more picky about age class, and I will do my best to get it done the way many of you have made a habit of doing.
Sadly, my father in law is no longer my father in law. A week after the hunt that we shared, his daughter and I parted ways. But I will always be thankful for the 2 years that I was able to learn from him. He was the dad that I never had, and having him there to witness my first two kills will be something that is special to me for the rest of my life. To me, hunting is so much more than just killing an animal. It's about my relationship with the world around me, the challenge of fair chase, and the feeling of accomplishment. I may never kill the Monarch, but I will spend the rest of my life trying.
