Nevada - Three tags, unlimited fun

[Big Fin]

I'm too busy to tell the entire story, so hopefully Spitz, NVLongbow, and Cornell2012 will chime in with their version of events. Suffice to say, the most fun I've ever had in a week of chasing mule deer.

Great camp, great guys, public land, and plenty of deer to make two episodes.


Matthew got the "skunk out of camp" and notched the first tag.


Spitz pulled another rabbit out of the hat after passing many bucks.


All photo credits below are attributed to Marcus Hockett (MHMT).
















Hope to someday share a camp with such a great crew and have such great luck in the field. Matthew, Marcus, Mike, Scott, Curtis, and Matt H. all helped make this hunt a true pleasure.

 

[kansasdad]

Looking forward to the fleshing out of the story. Camp friends can make or break a trip, so (internet) knowing your buddies, I can imagine that it was a fantastic time, and the great deer taken are just the icing on the cake. Congratulations.

PS: super starry and evening photography

 

[7mm08mo]

Looks and sounds like a awsome week. I hope to someday have a buck like that. Congratulations to all.

 

[elkantlers]

Nice bucks all around. Congrats.

 

[PNWGator]

Wow, what a hunt! Congratulations to everyone.

 

[Big Slick]

That is a great hunt! Oh and great bucks to boot, congrats to all!

 

[mdunc8]

Doesn't get any better than that!! Congrats!

 

[NVLongbow]

Good times! I always enjoy being on your pit crew Randy.

 

[Bambistew]

Ufda. Damn nice bucks all the way around. Just spent a week in northern NV, have the itch to get back and chase big bucks.

Amazing country.

Congrats

 

[Matt/VT]

Very nice, glad it was fun! Looking forward to the details.

 

[PAGOAT]

Congratulations to you all, I look forward to watching the future episodes.

 

[mtmander]

they all looked like nice bucks

 

[noharleyyet]

Nice haul...solid campmates all.

 

[schmalts]

Great batch of bucks! Looks like a great time

 

[recon6036]

Boy, that looks like it was a great time. Nice bucks for sure. Congrats to all!

 

[Spitz]

Man what a week of fun. Will be hard to do the story justice with my mediocre storytelling skills but I'll give it a shot.

Matthew had a boatload of NV deer points that he was willing to share with Randy and I and the three of us hit the lottery. Their nonresident draw odds were still below 5% and my resident odds weren't much better for the late tag we drew. The season went through November 5th.

Being temporarily relocated to another part of the country for work I wasn't able to do any physical scouting. However, Google earth, onXmaps, speaking with past hunters, game wardens and the biologist gave us an idea of where we wanted to concentrate. Then NVLongbow, who puts together one heck of a nice camp, came out from Reno to do some recon, setup camp, and check out the areas we had decided to focus on. He was instrumental in narrowing down the area we would hit for the next week. Randy got to camp on Saturday night and I got there Sunday evening. The guys saw literally hundreds of deer the first day and that became the norm each day of the hunt. The deer numbers were incredible, but consistent with what we had researched, mature bucks were few and far between until the rut really gets going. Each day leading up to the end of the week was getting consistently better as far as buck sightings, but not without covering lots of country with our binoculars and spotting scopes.

 

[Spitz]

The weather Sunday afternoon brought rain and a steady 40 mph wind that kept the guys pinned down. I met them in camp and the wind lasted through the night. We woke to a skiff of snow and no wind. Couldn't have asked for much more to get the deer moving and hopefully some of the bigger boys to start thinking of chasing the does. Again, we saw hundreds of does but the bucks were all little guys.

Tuesday Matthew flew in to Salt Lake City so Randy took off to pick him up. Scott (NVLongbow) and I, along with Marcus the camera guy spent the day looking over new canyons and country in the area that we had decided to hunt.

Disclaimer: I'm not great at remembering to take pictures, especially when the othe others I am hunting with are fantastic photographers with expensive cameras . . . So in my version of the story you'll have to use your imagination. Picture beautiful NV scenery, healthy range conditions, the countryside dotted with mule deer does and the occasional little buck.

Randy and Matthew met up with us about 3 pm and it wasn't but 20 minutes later that we had a real. Ice 3x4 buck staring at us from 100 yards and oblivious to his potential death as he had his nose as close to a doe's butt as she'd let him. We looked him over for a bit and really thought Matthew would be wanting to dump him, but only being 20 minutes into his hunt, Matthew elected to pass.

 

[Gr8bawana]

Congrats to all of you on some fantastic bucks.

 

[Okbow87]

That doesn't look like you guys had any fun at all.....

 

[Lawnboy]

Amazing week! Man that makes me Jones for for a big Muley