Grizzley
Member
What's up?...l'm looking for a dead mule deer!
OYOA Goes to ND for Mule Deer
- Thread starter Big Fin
- Start date
Lawnboy
Well-known member
Dirty sucker!!! Eat a can of chili while you write what happened. We've all been waiting without food.
Grizzley
Member
I have heard you're great with a camera...I'm thinking those pictures are a camera trick. For all I know you shot a porcupine! Lets see the money shot...and I'm not talking about pictures from the Belfield Bar last night!
Today - Morning events
This morning started out more brutal than yesterday, as hard as that is to believe. The temps were 11F at daylight, and the wind had picked up a notch or two. Well, actually ten knots.
Our goal was to get to a point where Buschy had seen deer in the past weeks, glass, and hopefully be able to move in on them. We busted our way to the point, only to have frozen tears on our face by the time we arrived. The wind was so bad, it was blowing tears from you eyes. You couldn't glass. We only lasted about a half hour. My face was frozen. I couldn't feel my fingers, and Buschy could not hardly talk. Troy confessed his fingers were not working, so after busting four does on our way in, we decided to give it up and head back to the truck. Felt kind of wussy, but at this point, I think it was an issue of personal safety, not ability to tough it out.
From there, Buschy showed us his secret weapon. Unknown to us, he had purchased two Michael Jackson glitter gloves off E-bay, and that is what he uses as his liner under his chopper mitts. Had I know this guy had such tendencies, I might have reconsidered this invitation. Don't believe me, look at the attache picture.
We spent the morning driving to many different areas, and rotating turns to walk out to the points and glass. I don't think either of us lasted more than a half hour on any excursion. In this process, we saw one really nice 3X3. He stayed bedded right above a oil pad service road, and seeing no traffic the last two days, we were excited for the good chance this buck might represent.
The plan was made for Buschy and Troy to work over the ridge and come down on the buck from a quartering angle. I would climb the opposing ridge and glass the buck, and provide hand signals. Great plan, or so it seemed. I no more than got to the top of the ridge, and a red oil service truck stopped to look at the buck. Within a few seconds, he was on his feet and at full speed over the ridge, never to be seen again. I walked down to intercept Bushy and Troy to help them avoid wasting a long hike for nothing. How frustrating. The first good opportunity of the trip was busted by the only vehicle we had yet seen. Such is the luck the OYOA cameras seem to bring.
We spent the remainder of the day continuing our plan. No more deer were spotted in the morning. After lunch, Buschy glassed up seven does and two small bucks. For whatever reason, they decided to dart off, while he was still glassing them from five hundred yards. This wind must have had them spooked severely. With this strategy, we found two more groups of does, and two very nice (22"-24") bucks off by themselves. In both instances, the bucks bolted before we could get a chance to even get started on a stalk.
Afternoon events to follow on a separate thread - I exceeded the 10,000 character limit for one post.
Anyhow, here are a few pics.
Same reading in the morning and the afternoon. Combine that with 30+mph winds, and it gets real ugly, real fast.
Buschy getting ready to do his rendition of "Thriller," which if you get to know him, is really the same song, but to the words of "Killer."
Buschy glassing hard for bucks, while I hoof it to the end of the ridge.
There is a buck on this ridge, you just can't see him in the blizzard, or so Buschy promises.
This morning started out more brutal than yesterday, as hard as that is to believe. The temps were 11F at daylight, and the wind had picked up a notch or two. Well, actually ten knots.
Our goal was to get to a point where Buschy had seen deer in the past weeks, glass, and hopefully be able to move in on them. We busted our way to the point, only to have frozen tears on our face by the time we arrived. The wind was so bad, it was blowing tears from you eyes. You couldn't glass. We only lasted about a half hour. My face was frozen. I couldn't feel my fingers, and Buschy could not hardly talk. Troy confessed his fingers were not working, so after busting four does on our way in, we decided to give it up and head back to the truck. Felt kind of wussy, but at this point, I think it was an issue of personal safety, not ability to tough it out.
From there, Buschy showed us his secret weapon. Unknown to us, he had purchased two Michael Jackson glitter gloves off E-bay, and that is what he uses as his liner under his chopper mitts. Had I know this guy had such tendencies, I might have reconsidered this invitation. Don't believe me, look at the attache picture.
We spent the morning driving to many different areas, and rotating turns to walk out to the points and glass. I don't think either of us lasted more than a half hour on any excursion. In this process, we saw one really nice 3X3. He stayed bedded right above a oil pad service road, and seeing no traffic the last two days, we were excited for the good chance this buck might represent.
The plan was made for Buschy and Troy to work over the ridge and come down on the buck from a quartering angle. I would climb the opposing ridge and glass the buck, and provide hand signals. Great plan, or so it seemed. I no more than got to the top of the ridge, and a red oil service truck stopped to look at the buck. Within a few seconds, he was on his feet and at full speed over the ridge, never to be seen again. I walked down to intercept Bushy and Troy to help them avoid wasting a long hike for nothing. How frustrating. The first good opportunity of the trip was busted by the only vehicle we had yet seen. Such is the luck the OYOA cameras seem to bring.
We spent the remainder of the day continuing our plan. No more deer were spotted in the morning. After lunch, Buschy glassed up seven does and two small bucks. For whatever reason, they decided to dart off, while he was still glassing them from five hundred yards. This wind must have had them spooked severely. With this strategy, we found two more groups of does, and two very nice (22"-24") bucks off by themselves. In both instances, the bucks bolted before we could get a chance to even get started on a stalk.
Afternoon events to follow on a separate thread - I exceeded the 10,000 character limit for one post.
Anyhow, here are a few pics.
Same reading in the morning and the afternoon. Combine that with 30+mph winds, and it gets real ugly, real fast.
Buschy getting ready to do his rendition of "Thriller," which if you get to know him, is really the same song, but to the words of "Killer."
Buschy glassing hard for bucks, while I hoof it to the end of the ridge.
There is a buck on this ridge, you just can't see him in the blizzard, or so Buschy promises.
Today - Afternoon events
With the afternoon coming to a close, Buschy decided we should drive over and try another place we had tried yesterday to no avail. It was his turn to go and glass from the points, so Troy and I stayed at the truck and visited about the extreme hunting/filming these conditions presented. We both agreed that this was the toughest challenge we had faced in the two season of filming, and exceeded any other challenges by a large margin.
In short order we saw Buschy bouncing back to the truck with the thumbs up. He had found a group of four deer and thought we could glass them better with the spotting scope. Off we went. Through the scope we could see one small buck in the group. He was rutting these three does, but they paid him no attention.
We all discussed whether we should waste time on this buck, given he looked like an 18" 3 point. Troy and I worried that these conditions would never provide an opportunity for us to even film an encounter, let alone shoot a buck. So, we decided it was best to try get within these deer and hopefully get footage of an encounter.
Buschy has shot a lot of nice bucks with is bow, so I offered to make the stalk, if he would stay on top of the ridge and give hand signals. I knew once we dropped off the ridge, into the coulee, we would lose all vision of the deer. Great for us, the wind was in our face and the coulee gave us a vector that would allow us to intercept the deer, as they angled into the wind, exactly 90 degrees from how we angled into the wind. Off we went, already cold from the windy and freezing walk out to this point.
As we dropped down the coulee, I saw the deer cross in front of us about 300 yards. I looked up at Buschy and he was giving frantic signals that I could not interpret. Seeing my struggles in making him out in the ground blizzard, he dropped down the coulee and told me the deer had crossed in front and were angling up a draw almost parallel to us. I moved accordingly and climbed up on a bench that was the high ground between these two ash-filled draws. I looked across and could see three does moving straight away from us. Damn it, there was no way I could catch up to these deer with this little light left.
I turned and looked at Buschy and he was waving frantically and pointing further to the east. I could see that he was wanting me to follow his very exaggerated hand signals. So, I started to the east, even though the does were heading north.
I used a big piece of brush to hide me and Troy as we crossed the bench and neared the next drainage. I was looking up the drainage, glassing feverishly for the buck that was with this group. Troy whispered, "There he is." Where, was my question.
Right in front, almost north, rather than east, was a deer in the brush and ash trees. I couldn't make out if it was the buck, or not. As he moved his head, I could see him feeding hard, and I could also make out the three points on this side of his rack. He wasn't a lunker, but I was now within 100 yards.
He moved to the left slightly, and his eyes were now behind a big ash tree. I motioned for Troy to follow me. I moved forward to fifty yards. I knelt down and ranged the distance. In this wind, 50 yards was more than I wanted to shoot. The buck continued to fee with his head behind the tree, so I motioned Troy to my spot, and I moved forward again.
This was perfect. Well, almost perfect. The buck was feeding, completely unknown to me and if he moved further left, I would have a 45 yard shot. If he turned back and moved further right, I would have about a two foot opening, but would have a shot not much over 30 yards.
My hands were now freezing. Anyone who has sat for a long time in 11F temps and 30+ mph winds, knows that bare hands stop functioning real quick. I sat and waited. I kept one mitten on and put my right hand and my release in my pant pocket, hoping to keep warm. This lasted for what seemed like two hours. Only late, would Troy tell me that it took 17 minutes on tape. Still too long for hands to stay warm.
I was worried that if the buck did present a shot, I would not be able to draw may bow. I was shaking so bad. Not so much from the excitement, as I was the cold. I had been on my knees for over twenty minutes and had no circulation in my feet. I could not feel my toes. My hands were numb, and my face burned from the wind.
Finally, the buck turned right. I could see he might make the small opening. I ranged it, but in shaking so bad, I could not get a good read out. I then used my bow to brace the range finder and got a solid reading. 31 yards. Twice, he looked as though he would emerge, and I pulled my hand from my pocket and attached my release. Both times, he stopped just short of the opening, so I unhooked the release and tried to re-warm my hand in my pocket.
I looked at Troy and told him I was going to shoot the buck, given the classic encounter we had on our hands. He nodded in agreement. I did not know this, but the 20 minutes he had on tape when we arrived upon the buck was now down to one minute. He had to turn the camera off to save tape. We were too close to change tapes at this time.
About the time I was ready to give up in fear that the cold had compromised any ability for me to shoot, the buck took two steps. He was now in the opening, but the angle was quartering to much toward me. I drew back and hoped he would turn more away, giving me some broadside option. As if he heard my request, he moved slightly away from me, making it almost a perfect broadside shot, with most of his vitals still exposed in my shooting lane. Being at full draw, I knew my strength was gone, and I decided as soon as I had the pin on his chest, I would release.
Next thing I remember was watching the arrow head toward the buck and strike him good. A little far back, but no doubt, a lethal hit. He jumped the ten feet up the far side of the coulee and struggled off about fifty yards. I watched as he staggered to keep his balance, then do a nose dive into the brush. I was shaking uncontrollably. I kept and eye on the buck as Buschy grabbed my pack and headed the 250 yards down the coulee to where this encounter had unfolded.
Buschy had watched the buck collapse and was more excited than I was. We moved forward very slowly, watching the buck make his final struggles and roll down into the coulee.
With fading light, I moved forward and found the buck in the bottom of the coulee. I couldn't believe it. He is not a great trophy of size, but in terms of challenges faced and commitment to success, he is my best trophy ever.
Troy and I both agree, that this is the most difficult filming yet. The footage acquired, in the context of below zero windchills and using archery equipment, makes this public land buck our best work in two seasons of filming. Some will watch and yawn, seeing the buck is no monster. But for those who have fought such conditions, day after day, and archery hunted public lands after two weeks of rifle season, know what commitment and effort it took to shoot this buck, let alone get world class footage of the entire event.
So with that, Fin has punched his tag, and we have three days of additional treachery to try film Buschy doing the same. I hope he gets one. Regardless of the size, any buck he may get under these conditions is a trophy of the highest degree.
Not huge, but one of my best trophies ever.
Two very cold and equally happy guys.
Packing in the dark. Need to get some of those "close to the road" deals, someday.
Amazing how big snowflakes look in the flash.
Only a half mile to the truck. Thank God.
With the afternoon coming to a close, Buschy decided we should drive over and try another place we had tried yesterday to no avail. It was his turn to go and glass from the points, so Troy and I stayed at the truck and visited about the extreme hunting/filming these conditions presented. We both agreed that this was the toughest challenge we had faced in the two season of filming, and exceeded any other challenges by a large margin.
In short order we saw Buschy bouncing back to the truck with the thumbs up. He had found a group of four deer and thought we could glass them better with the spotting scope. Off we went. Through the scope we could see one small buck in the group. He was rutting these three does, but they paid him no attention.
We all discussed whether we should waste time on this buck, given he looked like an 18" 3 point. Troy and I worried that these conditions would never provide an opportunity for us to even film an encounter, let alone shoot a buck. So, we decided it was best to try get within these deer and hopefully get footage of an encounter.
Buschy has shot a lot of nice bucks with is bow, so I offered to make the stalk, if he would stay on top of the ridge and give hand signals. I knew once we dropped off the ridge, into the coulee, we would lose all vision of the deer. Great for us, the wind was in our face and the coulee gave us a vector that would allow us to intercept the deer, as they angled into the wind, exactly 90 degrees from how we angled into the wind. Off we went, already cold from the windy and freezing walk out to this point.
As we dropped down the coulee, I saw the deer cross in front of us about 300 yards. I looked up at Buschy and he was giving frantic signals that I could not interpret. Seeing my struggles in making him out in the ground blizzard, he dropped down the coulee and told me the deer had crossed in front and were angling up a draw almost parallel to us. I moved accordingly and climbed up on a bench that was the high ground between these two ash-filled draws. I looked across and could see three does moving straight away from us. Damn it, there was no way I could catch up to these deer with this little light left.
I turned and looked at Buschy and he was waving frantically and pointing further to the east. I could see that he was wanting me to follow his very exaggerated hand signals. So, I started to the east, even though the does were heading north.
I used a big piece of brush to hide me and Troy as we crossed the bench and neared the next drainage. I was looking up the drainage, glassing feverishly for the buck that was with this group. Troy whispered, "There he is." Where, was my question.
Right in front, almost north, rather than east, was a deer in the brush and ash trees. I couldn't make out if it was the buck, or not. As he moved his head, I could see him feeding hard, and I could also make out the three points on this side of his rack. He wasn't a lunker, but I was now within 100 yards.
He moved to the left slightly, and his eyes were now behind a big ash tree. I motioned for Troy to follow me. I moved forward to fifty yards. I knelt down and ranged the distance. In this wind, 50 yards was more than I wanted to shoot. The buck continued to fee with his head behind the tree, so I motioned Troy to my spot, and I moved forward again.
This was perfect. Well, almost perfect. The buck was feeding, completely unknown to me and if he moved further left, I would have a 45 yard shot. If he turned back and moved further right, I would have about a two foot opening, but would have a shot not much over 30 yards.
My hands were now freezing. Anyone who has sat for a long time in 11F temps and 30+ mph winds, knows that bare hands stop functioning real quick. I sat and waited. I kept one mitten on and put my right hand and my release in my pant pocket, hoping to keep warm. This lasted for what seemed like two hours. Only late, would Troy tell me that it took 17 minutes on tape. Still too long for hands to stay warm.
I was worried that if the buck did present a shot, I would not be able to draw may bow. I was shaking so bad. Not so much from the excitement, as I was the cold. I had been on my knees for over twenty minutes and had no circulation in my feet. I could not feel my toes. My hands were numb, and my face burned from the wind.
Finally, the buck turned right. I could see he might make the small opening. I ranged it, but in shaking so bad, I could not get a good read out. I then used my bow to brace the range finder and got a solid reading. 31 yards. Twice, he looked as though he would emerge, and I pulled my hand from my pocket and attached my release. Both times, he stopped just short of the opening, so I unhooked the release and tried to re-warm my hand in my pocket.
I looked at Troy and told him I was going to shoot the buck, given the classic encounter we had on our hands. He nodded in agreement. I did not know this, but the 20 minutes he had on tape when we arrived upon the buck was now down to one minute. He had to turn the camera off to save tape. We were too close to change tapes at this time.
About the time I was ready to give up in fear that the cold had compromised any ability for me to shoot, the buck took two steps. He was now in the opening, but the angle was quartering to much toward me. I drew back and hoped he would turn more away, giving me some broadside option. As if he heard my request, he moved slightly away from me, making it almost a perfect broadside shot, with most of his vitals still exposed in my shooting lane. Being at full draw, I knew my strength was gone, and I decided as soon as I had the pin on his chest, I would release.
Next thing I remember was watching the arrow head toward the buck and strike him good. A little far back, but no doubt, a lethal hit. He jumped the ten feet up the far side of the coulee and struggled off about fifty yards. I watched as he staggered to keep his balance, then do a nose dive into the brush. I was shaking uncontrollably. I kept and eye on the buck as Buschy grabbed my pack and headed the 250 yards down the coulee to where this encounter had unfolded.
Buschy had watched the buck collapse and was more excited than I was. We moved forward very slowly, watching the buck make his final struggles and roll down into the coulee.
With fading light, I moved forward and found the buck in the bottom of the coulee. I couldn't believe it. He is not a great trophy of size, but in terms of challenges faced and commitment to success, he is my best trophy ever.
Troy and I both agree, that this is the most difficult filming yet. The footage acquired, in the context of below zero windchills and using archery equipment, makes this public land buck our best work in two seasons of filming. Some will watch and yawn, seeing the buck is no monster. But for those who have fought such conditions, day after day, and archery hunted public lands after two weeks of rifle season, know what commitment and effort it took to shoot this buck, let alone get world class footage of the entire event.
So with that, Fin has punched his tag, and we have three days of additional treachery to try film Buschy doing the same. I hope he gets one. Regardless of the size, any buck he may get under these conditions is a trophy of the highest degree.
Not huge, but one of my best trophies ever.
Two very cold and equally happy guys.
Packing in the dark. Need to get some of those "close to the road" deals, someday.
Amazing how big snowflakes look in the flash.
Only a half mile to the truck. Thank God.
Ultrahunter
Active member
Great hunt Fin, that looks like a good buck to me!!!
Lawnboy
Well-known member
Great Story and buck. Anyone who has ever tried to bow hunt in the winter knows the challenges it brings. I'm really surprised that you could even get your bow pulled back in those temps. Congrats again.
Horn Seeker
New member
Great story! Man...that looked and sounded Toooo cold!
By the way, here in Billings right now its 9 degrees and the wind is flat out howling out of the NE.... Brutal...
By the way, here in Billings right now its 9 degrees and the wind is flat out howling out of the NE.... Brutal...
hardscrabble
Active member
Congrats Big Fin! My hands were cold just reading your great story.
van franke
Active member
That's a great buck and what it sounds like a very memorable hunt. Congradulations.
IdahoBugler
Well-known member
What a great story and great trophy. You did well considering all the elements. I really can't wait to see this episode. It will be tops on my list as I love archery hunting these late hunts for muleys. Good luck Buschy.
upper deck
Member
Great job Fin. Always rewarding when you fight through those conditions.
Muley1
Member
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2009
- Messages
- 128
Congrats Big Fin and great post and pictures. Under the conditions you've had the past couple days, it truely makes it a trophy.
AZ402
Well-known member
Well done, I agree with the others, this episode will be a great one..
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