So I was cruising another forum just doin the usual scrape together info to add on the tags my family drew and stumbled here. I am relatively new to actually targeting Mule deer. I have shot a couple nice blacktail even though to me all harvested game is nice. Ive never wrote a story like this so I am open to pointers and tips to improve my writing skills.
My first mule deer I shot was on Camp Pendleton in 2012. Ended up being the 2nd biggest by pounds taken that year the guy that beat me had a 4x5 2 pounds bigger. Myself and a buddy hunted all archery season and had nothing to show for it except lots of failed stalks and some misses.
Fast forward to opening day of rifle. That morning my wife, buddy and I ended up in one of the training areas that we had seen a few deer in during archery. We park on a ridge and we all head off to watch various valleys. After about an hour I made my way back to the truck and my buddy had the same idea. My wife apparently cut tracks and started to follow them. After we find her we tell her were going to a different part of the training area.
She climbs into the back seat of my truck and as we begin to drive I ask her to watch the road. Because I tend to run over bushes or a little off the road as my buddy and I look for animals(most of you will probably frown upon road huntin, I hike in now in Washington). No sooner do I say that we come up out of a low spot on the ridge and my wife shouts buck. So I stop and ask where, she says "UP FRONT" im still looking telling them Im going blind. Finally after a couple seconds I see it and say "nice buck" so my buddy and I get out. I ask my wife if she's gonna get out to shoot it because she saw it, she says "No, you guys shoot it" I drop to the prone and squeeze of a round as he was walking and I shoot just in front.
He doesn't take off but trots out a finger and out of sight. We get back in the truck speed to where he went out the finger. I spot him drop down now he's moving a little faster I put the crosshairs on his neck BOOM! miss, my buddy shoots and I see his shot hit the dirt (he was standing and had never shot a deer before so he was shaky, found this out after), I see the dirt cloud through the scope as I reload. I get my rifle back up (by this time he was maybe 150 yards)I see hair in the scope and BOOM! the buck was gone. I felt confident I hit him that time. We start to walk down the finger looking for him. My buddy finds him doing his last kicks. I ended up with a Texas heart shot, missing the guts. This was the first time my wife had ever been on a deer hunt. She liked analyzing the guts. Now she does a little taxidermy work here and there when she has time.
I got a free Euro mount and didn't have to skin my deer from a taxidermist was on base trying to get capes. So I let him have mine. Turns out mine had a busted lower jaw that had re-healed. Obviously that didn't slow him down.I get pictures of it tonight.
My first mule deer I shot was on Camp Pendleton in 2012. Ended up being the 2nd biggest by pounds taken that year the guy that beat me had a 4x5 2 pounds bigger. Myself and a buddy hunted all archery season and had nothing to show for it except lots of failed stalks and some misses.
Fast forward to opening day of rifle. That morning my wife, buddy and I ended up in one of the training areas that we had seen a few deer in during archery. We park on a ridge and we all head off to watch various valleys. After about an hour I made my way back to the truck and my buddy had the same idea. My wife apparently cut tracks and started to follow them. After we find her we tell her were going to a different part of the training area.
She climbs into the back seat of my truck and as we begin to drive I ask her to watch the road. Because I tend to run over bushes or a little off the road as my buddy and I look for animals(most of you will probably frown upon road huntin, I hike in now in Washington). No sooner do I say that we come up out of a low spot on the ridge and my wife shouts buck. So I stop and ask where, she says "UP FRONT" im still looking telling them Im going blind. Finally after a couple seconds I see it and say "nice buck" so my buddy and I get out. I ask my wife if she's gonna get out to shoot it because she saw it, she says "No, you guys shoot it" I drop to the prone and squeeze of a round as he was walking and I shoot just in front.
He doesn't take off but trots out a finger and out of sight. We get back in the truck speed to where he went out the finger. I spot him drop down now he's moving a little faster I put the crosshairs on his neck BOOM! miss, my buddy shoots and I see his shot hit the dirt (he was standing and had never shot a deer before so he was shaky, found this out after), I see the dirt cloud through the scope as I reload. I get my rifle back up (by this time he was maybe 150 yards)I see hair in the scope and BOOM! the buck was gone. I felt confident I hit him that time. We start to walk down the finger looking for him. My buddy finds him doing his last kicks. I ended up with a Texas heart shot, missing the guts. This was the first time my wife had ever been on a deer hunt. She liked analyzing the guts. Now she does a little taxidermy work here and there when she has time.
I got a free Euro mount and didn't have to skin my deer from a taxidermist was on base trying to get capes. So I let him have mine. Turns out mine had a busted lower jaw that had re-healed. Obviously that didn't slow him down.I get pictures of it tonight.
