Short version, daughter first mule deer hunt and shot a nice buck! Long version below, and pics below that;
Little background: You guys have certainly seen some of my other posts of my daughters and wife and their deer and antelope. Carlee is my middle child and loves the outdoors, hunting and fishing! So much so, that she is studying Fisheries and Wildlife at South Dakota State. Since she is a student there and she worked in Lead, SD all summer she can get a resident license and tags in SD. She drew a west river any deer tag on her first try this year. Of course since she has shot whitetails here in Iowa, a mule deer was her primary target. We have never hunted muleys before so we certainly had some lessons to learn;
Before applying I started doing a lot of research on the areas and finally settled on a unit for her to apply for. There was a decent amount of public land and another site member pm'd me some info on where he had shot a wt, and seen some muley does. I went out to scout the unit in September and went to a different BLM piece first to scout. I saw a couple great bucks and learned a little about the area. I still knew next to nothing about mule deer and their habits. While I was out there I met a rancher and helped him build fence for half a day. He and his family were some of the most generous and friendly people I have ever met. He offered his cabin to my daughter and I for our hunt and if we didn't fill her tag on the BLM land he would take us to his other ranch to hunt.
So, Friday afternoon and evening we make the 7 hour drive out and meet the rancher again before bedtime. He told us he had a good feeling about the next day. He had told us about an area to sit on the BLM land and watch for deer at sunrise, then go after one that we like. I asked him what caliber of deer we should hold out for. He said if it makes you excited, shoot it
Carlee and I left the cabin 45 minutes before shooting time and were perched on a rock spine as the sun came up. It took about 30 minutes for us to start seeing deer. We were actually seeing more hunters than deer at first. Several guys were sitting on ridges glassing in the distance. We had a few deer move through and one was decent to us, but then a bigger, no brainer, buck appeared on the ridge past the other buck. We circled way around and underestimated the time it would take to cover ground and get ahead of deer. Lesson #1.
Next we sit on another ridge and glass. Carlee ends up with my new Theron Questa binos now cuz she can focus them better and see clearer. Lesson #2, just let the kids have the good stuff right away cuz they will get it eventually anyway. It isn't long and we have a buck coming up a creek draw right at us. This is a nice buck and we get pretty excited. This is gonna happen. He gets bigger the closer he gets. At about 300 yards he turns so we get Carlee and her rifle on the sticks. Before she can get the crosshairs on him he gets all nervous. Then a doe bolts up the hill past him, and he follows. Lesson #3, look for other deer, so they don't bust you when you move! duh, we felt like dummies.
It isn't long and we see a really tall buck go into a long cut and not come out, we go to grab our stuff and get after him and Carlee sits on a cactus. OUCH! Lesson #4 - check your perch thoroughly! Finally we get her hindquarters and pants picked clean and take off after him. We look the hills over all around us and count 5 other hunters. We get close to the area we thought the buck MIGHT be in IF he was still around after the 20 minutes of cactus needle picking. Like a dummy I didn't crawl up over the ridge, but walked up to it standing up, how dumb! Lesson #5 I just didn't think he would be right there. Well, there he laid, 202 yards away, bedded under a cedar tree. We get down, put the rifle on the sticks and the weeds are too tall. We scoot forward and put the rifle up again and the buck stands and trots up the hill 20 yards and stops. I tell Carlee to shoot him quick! She can't find him in the scope. Next he runs up to the top and stops on the skyline. 300 yard shot. NOPE, we couldn't shoot, too many hunters in the area to attempt that. Frustrated we climb up another hill and sit to glass and have some snacks and put on dry socks.
Earlier before our last botched stalk we had seen some other deer and a buck go into another draw in the distance. We decide we might as well go check them out. As we start heading that way one of the guys that was sitting on top of a big hill all day decides to walk down to the head of the draw that we are headed to to check out. I suppose he assumed we would bump something out to him. We take our time and go slow and glass and have a good plan this time. We will go down one side, not skyline ourselves, be looking into the sun so that we can look into the shadows of all the cedar trees and cut banks. We just get 5 minutes into it and two does come running out the bottom right to us, we drop down, Carlee gets the rifle on the sticks as the does keep looking behind them. I tell her to be ready, cuz the buck might come out behind them and they are only 80 yards away. Next we hear a snortwheeze type sound behind and above us, and I turn to see antlers go over the next ridge. CUSS!! The buck had taken a different route instead of following his does and gotten downwind of us. Well, another close call but no cigar. Carlee, says, "why can't this be easier?" I said cuz then everyone would do it. We gave eachother a pep talk and decide to just keep trying as we are getting closer and things will happen eventually. We have the next 3 weekends to hunt so our time will come.
By now it's 1;00 and HOT, like 65 degrees. Our backs are soaked with sweat. We decide to start the long hike, probably about 3-4 miles back to the truck and hunt our way back so that we aren't out this far at sunset. We climb up out of the river bottom to the top of the breaks and out of habit I turn to look down the drainage, as I'm doing so I think to myself, don't even look, you don't want to go back down there. As I turn I see a deer below. I turn and tell Carlee there is a deer down there, I glass it and it looks like a decent 4x4 to me. What do I know!?! I ask Carlee if she wants to go back down to try for him. We both contemplate it as we are exhausted and it is now 2:00 and seems even hotter out with zero wind. We decide to sit and just watch him and see what he does. We get glimpses of him through the cedar trees and see that he is a better buck than I had thought. The hunt is on for sure now. We loose him in the trees for 5 minutes so I hike down the ridge for a better look. We agree that if either of us sees him that she should come down lower to me and we can try to get into position for a shot. Finally he pops out and Carlee sees him and hustles down to me the next time he is hidden in the trees. He is slowly working his way our direction so we decide to just crawl up on a little knob and lay down and wait. We figure we can see 80% of the exits out of the trees we saw him in last. Carlee gets her .260 ready, laying on my pack and sprawls out prone behind it. Next she starts ranging spots where she thinks he may come out. She ranged a particular rock at 274 yards and told me that distance. She gets behind the rifle and finds the rock in the scope for practice. Just then the buck steps out of the trees and literally stands right over that rock as she has the crosshairs on it! Talk about a blessing! It was right between his 4 feet!! I didn't see it yet and she is whispering that he is RIGHT THERE, right where??? ON THE ROCK, it was chaotic for a moment, she says JUST ZOOM IN MY SCOPE, I turn the dial and she says, NO, TO YOUR OTHER RIGHT!, I twist it again and she says she is gonna shoot him, I reminder her to use the 2nd hash mark on the reticle she says yep, I raise my binos and she pulls the trigger, WHOPP!, he hunches up and runs down into the trees and doesn't come out. We wait 20 minutes and go look for him, he jumps up and slowly trots down the dry creekbed, we run down the ridge and cut him off and Carlee drops him with the next shot. WOW, we can't belive it. As we descend the hillside the buck just keeps growing. We are both almost speechless as we hug and admire him. What a beautiful animal! We can't believe how big his body is and how beautiful his chocolate colored antlers are. This is a real treat for a couple Iowa folks who have never seen a whole mule deer this close.
After a 15 minute photo shoot the work begins. We bone out all of the meat and get it into game bags except one hindquarter that has to come out whole with tag attached to it by law. We packed it all up into our packs along with the head and cape. We thought we could get it all out in one trip. HAA!! we made it 1/3 of the way up and out of the drainage before we admitted we couldn't make it 2.5 miles back to the truck with all of it in one trip. We hung 3 bags of meat in a cedar tree and came back the next morning for it.
I couldn't have asked for a better experience with my daughter. We got to see some new country, do some different hunting methods, see a lot of mule deer, we made some mistakes, and learned from them, we capatlized on an opportunity when the good Lord gave us another one, and we harvested a beautiful buck on public land amongst a sea of other hunters. I don't personally believe in luck, Carlee and I actually discussed that on the long drive out. To me, luck is when preparation, hard work, opportunity, and God's blessings all come together. Obviosuly we are thrilled with our hunt and it's outcome.The pack out was tough both days but Carlee was a trooper and we were glad that we had done the whole hunt the hard way and gotten all of the meat out.
On the way home we got to pull into a rest stop on the interstate for a game check by the SD game wardens. It was very interesting and good to see them checking so many hunters and fishermen. It only took 10 minutes for them to check all of our meat bags for the correct pieces, and we were on our way. Enjoy the smiles, I sure am!!
Little background: You guys have certainly seen some of my other posts of my daughters and wife and their deer and antelope. Carlee is my middle child and loves the outdoors, hunting and fishing! So much so, that she is studying Fisheries and Wildlife at South Dakota State. Since she is a student there and she worked in Lead, SD all summer she can get a resident license and tags in SD. She drew a west river any deer tag on her first try this year. Of course since she has shot whitetails here in Iowa, a mule deer was her primary target. We have never hunted muleys before so we certainly had some lessons to learn;
Before applying I started doing a lot of research on the areas and finally settled on a unit for her to apply for. There was a decent amount of public land and another site member pm'd me some info on where he had shot a wt, and seen some muley does. I went out to scout the unit in September and went to a different BLM piece first to scout. I saw a couple great bucks and learned a little about the area. I still knew next to nothing about mule deer and their habits. While I was out there I met a rancher and helped him build fence for half a day. He and his family were some of the most generous and friendly people I have ever met. He offered his cabin to my daughter and I for our hunt and if we didn't fill her tag on the BLM land he would take us to his other ranch to hunt.
So, Friday afternoon and evening we make the 7 hour drive out and meet the rancher again before bedtime. He told us he had a good feeling about the next day. He had told us about an area to sit on the BLM land and watch for deer at sunrise, then go after one that we like. I asked him what caliber of deer we should hold out for. He said if it makes you excited, shoot it
Carlee and I left the cabin 45 minutes before shooting time and were perched on a rock spine as the sun came up. It took about 30 minutes for us to start seeing deer. We were actually seeing more hunters than deer at first. Several guys were sitting on ridges glassing in the distance. We had a few deer move through and one was decent to us, but then a bigger, no brainer, buck appeared on the ridge past the other buck. We circled way around and underestimated the time it would take to cover ground and get ahead of deer. Lesson #1.
Next we sit on another ridge and glass. Carlee ends up with my new Theron Questa binos now cuz she can focus them better and see clearer. Lesson #2, just let the kids have the good stuff right away cuz they will get it eventually anyway.
It isn't long and we have a buck coming up a creek draw right at us. This is a nice buck and we get pretty excited. This is gonna happen. He gets bigger the closer he gets. At about 300 yards he turns so we get Carlee and her rifle on the sticks. Before she can get the crosshairs on him he gets all nervous. Then a doe bolts up the hill past him, and he follows. Lesson #3, look for other deer, so they don't bust you when you move! duh, we felt like dummies. It isn't long and we see a really tall buck go into a long cut and not come out, we go to grab our stuff and get after him and Carlee sits on a cactus. OUCH! Lesson #4 - check your perch thoroughly! Finally we get her hindquarters and pants picked clean and take off after him. We look the hills over all around us and count 5 other hunters. We get close to the area we thought the buck MIGHT be in IF he was still around after the 20 minutes of cactus needle picking. Like a dummy I didn't crawl up over the ridge, but walked up to it standing up, how dumb! Lesson #5 I just didn't think he would be right there. Well, there he laid, 202 yards away, bedded under a cedar tree. We get down, put the rifle on the sticks and the weeds are too tall. We scoot forward and put the rifle up again and the buck stands and trots up the hill 20 yards and stops. I tell Carlee to shoot him quick! She can't find him in the scope. Next he runs up to the top and stops on the skyline. 300 yard shot. NOPE, we couldn't shoot, too many hunters in the area to attempt that. Frustrated we climb up another hill and sit to glass and have some snacks and put on dry socks.
Earlier before our last botched stalk we had seen some other deer and a buck go into another draw in the distance. We decide we might as well go check them out. As we start heading that way one of the guys that was sitting on top of a big hill all day decides to walk down to the head of the draw that we are headed to to check out. I suppose he assumed we would bump something out to him. We take our time and go slow and glass and have a good plan this time. We will go down one side, not skyline ourselves, be looking into the sun so that we can look into the shadows of all the cedar trees and cut banks. We just get 5 minutes into it and two does come running out the bottom right to us, we drop down, Carlee gets the rifle on the sticks as the does keep looking behind them. I tell her to be ready, cuz the buck might come out behind them and they are only 80 yards away. Next we hear a snortwheeze type sound behind and above us, and I turn to see antlers go over the next ridge. CUSS!! The buck had taken a different route instead of following his does and gotten downwind of us. Well, another close call but no cigar. Carlee, says, "why can't this be easier?" I said cuz then everyone would do it. We gave eachother a pep talk and decide to just keep trying as we are getting closer and things will happen eventually. We have the next 3 weekends to hunt so our time will come.
By now it's 1;00 and HOT, like 65 degrees. Our backs are soaked with sweat. We decide to start the long hike, probably about 3-4 miles back to the truck and hunt our way back so that we aren't out this far at sunset. We climb up out of the river bottom to the top of the breaks and out of habit I turn to look down the drainage, as I'm doing so I think to myself, don't even look, you don't want to go back down there. As I turn I see a deer below. I turn and tell Carlee there is a deer down there, I glass it and it looks like a decent 4x4 to me. What do I know!?! I ask Carlee if she wants to go back down to try for him. We both contemplate it as we are exhausted and it is now 2:00 and seems even hotter out with zero wind. We decide to sit and just watch him and see what he does. We get glimpses of him through the cedar trees and see that he is a better buck than I had thought. The hunt is on for sure now. We loose him in the trees for 5 minutes so I hike down the ridge for a better look. We agree that if either of us sees him that she should come down lower to me and we can try to get into position for a shot. Finally he pops out and Carlee sees him and hustles down to me the next time he is hidden in the trees. He is slowly working his way our direction so we decide to just crawl up on a little knob and lay down and wait. We figure we can see 80% of the exits out of the trees we saw him in last. Carlee gets her .260 ready, laying on my pack and sprawls out prone behind it. Next she starts ranging spots where she thinks he may come out. She ranged a particular rock at 274 yards and told me that distance. She gets behind the rifle and finds the rock in the scope for practice. Just then the buck steps out of the trees and literally stands right over that rock as she has the crosshairs on it! Talk about a blessing! It was right between his 4 feet!! I didn't see it yet and she is whispering that he is RIGHT THERE, right where??? ON THE ROCK, it was chaotic for a moment, she says JUST ZOOM IN MY SCOPE, I turn the dial and she says, NO, TO YOUR OTHER RIGHT!, I twist it again and she says she is gonna shoot him, I reminder her to use the 2nd hash mark on the reticle she says yep, I raise my binos and she pulls the trigger, WHOPP!, he hunches up and runs down into the trees and doesn't come out. We wait 20 minutes and go look for him, he jumps up and slowly trots down the dry creekbed, we run down the ridge and cut him off and Carlee drops him with the next shot. WOW, we can't belive it. As we descend the hillside the buck just keeps growing. We are both almost speechless as we hug and admire him. What a beautiful animal! We can't believe how big his body is and how beautiful his chocolate colored antlers are. This is a real treat for a couple Iowa folks who have never seen a whole mule deer this close.
After a 15 minute photo shoot the work begins. We bone out all of the meat and get it into game bags except one hindquarter that has to come out whole with tag attached to it by law. We packed it all up into our packs along with the head and cape. We thought we could get it all out in one trip. HAA!! we made it 1/3 of the way up and out of the drainage before we admitted we couldn't make it 2.5 miles back to the truck with all of it in one trip. We hung 3 bags of meat in a cedar tree and came back the next morning for it.
I couldn't have asked for a better experience with my daughter. We got to see some new country, do some different hunting methods, see a lot of mule deer, we made some mistakes, and learned from them, we capatlized on an opportunity when the good Lord gave us another one, and we harvested a beautiful buck on public land amongst a sea of other hunters. I don't personally believe in luck, Carlee and I actually discussed that on the long drive out. To me, luck is when preparation, hard work, opportunity, and God's blessings all come together. Obviosuly we are thrilled with our hunt and it's outcome.The pack out was tough both days but Carlee was a trooper and we were glad that we had done the whole hunt the hard way and gotten all of the meat out.
On the way home we got to pull into a rest stop on the interstate for a game check by the SD game wardens. It was very interesting and good to see them checking so many hunters and fishermen. It only took 10 minutes for them to check all of our meat bags for the correct pieces, and we were on our way. Enjoy the smiles, I sure am!!
