- Joined
- May 9, 2024
- Messages
- 149
Well I just arrived home from my very first western hunt. A mule deer archery hunt in a place I hope to return to in the near future. I got my butt whooped. I mean i went 5 days without seeing a buck bigger than a forky… You start second guessing your decisions when you’ve been hitting it hard that long with little to show and no one to bounce ideas off of or get a second opinion from.
But on the 6th day things changed. I found a bachelor group of bucks with an absolute hammer in it (at least to me he was a hammer).
But there was a problem… he was bedding 200 yards from the border of my unit in what we will call a “safe zone”. I found him in his bed the first time I saw him, a 3-4 acre patch of large pines in the bottom of a small north facing basin. I was able to slip in and get some good pics of him but I needed him to come south up a drainage to get a shot and be legal. I sat 2 mornings and 2 evenings hoping he would come to bed or leave the bed and cross this imaginary line. The second day hunting him I caught him after a heavy thunderstorm dropping back in to his bed mid afternoon from a hillside to the north and was hopeful he might feed out in the evening to the south… No show. This morning I was hopeful maybe he’d drop off the mountain somewhere I could at least try a stalk on him on his way to bed. The same results.
Time was up. I packed up camp after the morning hunt, headed east and left him on the mountain.
He beat me. Really the whole mountain whooped me. But I think this specific deer sparked a new kind of love and respect in me for mule deer hunting. The scenery and the wildlife made the trip something I won’t soon forget.
I’m blessed to have these opportunities. I got to see a lot of cool things on the trip and look forward to my next hunt out west.
Hunting season is here. Hope y’all enjoy the pics & good luck to yall with seasons just kicking off and soon to come!
But on the 6th day things changed. I found a bachelor group of bucks with an absolute hammer in it (at least to me he was a hammer).
But there was a problem… he was bedding 200 yards from the border of my unit in what we will call a “safe zone”. I found him in his bed the first time I saw him, a 3-4 acre patch of large pines in the bottom of a small north facing basin. I was able to slip in and get some good pics of him but I needed him to come south up a drainage to get a shot and be legal. I sat 2 mornings and 2 evenings hoping he would come to bed or leave the bed and cross this imaginary line. The second day hunting him I caught him after a heavy thunderstorm dropping back in to his bed mid afternoon from a hillside to the north and was hopeful he might feed out in the evening to the south… No show. This morning I was hopeful maybe he’d drop off the mountain somewhere I could at least try a stalk on him on his way to bed. The same results.
Time was up. I packed up camp after the morning hunt, headed east and left him on the mountain.
He beat me. Really the whole mountain whooped me. But I think this specific deer sparked a new kind of love and respect in me for mule deer hunting. The scenery and the wildlife made the trip something I won’t soon forget.
I’m blessed to have these opportunities. I got to see a lot of cool things on the trip and look forward to my next hunt out west.
Hunting season is here. Hope y’all enjoy the pics & good luck to yall with seasons just kicking off and soon to come!
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