R
ridgetop
Guest
I've been wanting a good mulie buck ever since I was a kid in Jr. high, it was great to finally put it all together and tag my first muley with horns. Kind of like the old saying goes, you want what you cant have the worst, and believe me, its bad having the muley bug and living in Midwestern, mule-deerless country. My brother and I did trip to Nebraska several years ago that ended with a doe, and then againg we did a trip to Idaho for mulies that only netted a glimpse of a good one and passed up a few not worth dragging home on the Idaho trip. This year was going to be different, I just had a feeling...
Enough background? plainly put, this years muley hunt was short and sweet. It was a great hunt and I got to spend some time with Deerking. I cannot thank him enough for helping get me on this buck. We first spotted the buck hanging with a group of 5-6 does and a couple of smaller bucks at about 200 yards not quite an hour after sunrise. The wind was blowing steady and crosswise from the deer past us, and there was a nice rise between us that allowed us to get within 80 yards of them. We got set up on this little rise and took our sweet time looking the bucks over.
After a few minutes of looking at him at 10x through my scope, and Jeff through the binos, I knew it was up to me if I wanted to take him or keep looking for a better one. They were starting to feed away so a decision had to be made. We could tell he wasn?t real wide, but his rack had great backs and nice fronts, very symmetrical, decent mass and eyguards to boot. He was just too good of a buck for me to pass up, especially for my first muley buck, even with the muleymaster along. I only had a couple of days to hunt, and it was time to end the drought. It was just about as much of a slam dunk shot opportunity as you can get. His rack looked stunning in the fading shadows, and as big as a horse in my Leuopold?s crosshairs, broadside at 80 yards. I told Jeff to get ready... I was going to shoot him.
I made sure the other deer were clear, and there was not any doubt he was going down as I steadied the crosshairs with my bipod on him. At the shot the sound was a satisfying BOOOOM..twop. The 180 grain nosler partition caught him square in the center, directly behind the crease of his left front leg. He buckled, spun 180 degrees and stumbled a step or two, then dropped like a big gray bag of bricks. A few puffs of steam rose from the cold morning air in the sage as he breathed a last couple of breaths, and it was over.
?Note to self? half of a skinned big muley buck, its head, gun, backpack,and other gear, weigh a LOT more than you think. The pack out was a bit of a chore, but it was great to have Mr. Mountain Goat there to shoulder an unboned half of this 280 lb. (est. live weight) beast. Good thing it was just a short skip and a hop back to the truck. You might know how much DK likes to keep it easy walking and close to the road... Thanks again Jeff! I had a great time, and couldnt be happier with my first muley buck!
Good to see everyone elses success so far this year, and good luck to you still holding a tag for later!
Enough background? plainly put, this years muley hunt was short and sweet. It was a great hunt and I got to spend some time with Deerking. I cannot thank him enough for helping get me on this buck. We first spotted the buck hanging with a group of 5-6 does and a couple of smaller bucks at about 200 yards not quite an hour after sunrise. The wind was blowing steady and crosswise from the deer past us, and there was a nice rise between us that allowed us to get within 80 yards of them. We got set up on this little rise and took our sweet time looking the bucks over.
After a few minutes of looking at him at 10x through my scope, and Jeff through the binos, I knew it was up to me if I wanted to take him or keep looking for a better one. They were starting to feed away so a decision had to be made. We could tell he wasn?t real wide, but his rack had great backs and nice fronts, very symmetrical, decent mass and eyguards to boot. He was just too good of a buck for me to pass up, especially for my first muley buck, even with the muleymaster along. I only had a couple of days to hunt, and it was time to end the drought. It was just about as much of a slam dunk shot opportunity as you can get. His rack looked stunning in the fading shadows, and as big as a horse in my Leuopold?s crosshairs, broadside at 80 yards. I told Jeff to get ready... I was going to shoot him.
I made sure the other deer were clear, and there was not any doubt he was going down as I steadied the crosshairs with my bipod on him. At the shot the sound was a satisfying BOOOOM..twop. The 180 grain nosler partition caught him square in the center, directly behind the crease of his left front leg. He buckled, spun 180 degrees and stumbled a step or two, then dropped like a big gray bag of bricks. A few puffs of steam rose from the cold morning air in the sage as he breathed a last couple of breaths, and it was over.
?Note to self? half of a skinned big muley buck, its head, gun, backpack,and other gear, weigh a LOT more than you think. The pack out was a bit of a chore, but it was great to have Mr. Mountain Goat there to shoulder an unboned half of this 280 lb. (est. live weight) beast. Good thing it was just a short skip and a hop back to the truck. You might know how much DK likes to keep it easy walking and close to the road... Thanks again Jeff! I had a great time, and couldnt be happier with my first muley buck!
Good to see everyone elses success so far this year, and good luck to you still holding a tag for later!