Satisfaction...

[mulebuck]

Okay guys, I'm stuck at work for a few nights. Thought I'd kill some time with a couple scenarios.

Scenario #1: You draw a unit that you've always hunted in the past. Say a general area you can draw every two years or so.
The summer is spent getting in the best shape possible. You scout your nuts off and find a 170-180" buck that is great for the area. You stay on him until the opener and he vanishes. The last part of the season you give him one last try and finally locate him again.
At the end of the day he's on your back as you pack him out. All the hard work before and during season has paid off and you feel on top of the world.

Scenario #2: You draw a limited entry tag that you've been waiting years on. Or say, you bought a landowner tag for a great unit. Guide or no guide you end up taking a 200" plus buck in Nov/Dec.

Which of these two scenarios would you choose? A good buck taken on his turf where you worked your butt off. Or, a much larger buck that was taken with the help of late season.

 

[SirGlassalot]

I would choose both
But the one I worked by butt off for would mean more to me.

 

[eelgrass]

Excellent question. I think both scenarios have their pluses. For me personally, that special opportunity to get a 200 buck under easier conditions is exciting, and would have a special place on my wall to admire for the rest of my days. I've tried in the past, but no 200 buck for me yet. It's still hunting, for sure.

The personal satisfaction of scenario #1 is tough to beat. It validates you on a personal level that you have what it takes to be a good hunter.

Eel

 

[bucktaxi]

A 200" buck anywhere is a buck of a lifetime. I'll take him, and then keep looking for a good buck in the other areas I hunt as well. A 170"-180" buck is also quite a find and I'd work just as hard hoping to get lucky, but in certain circumstances I'll let a 170" buck walk hoping to see him again before the end of the hunt if nothing bigger shows up. A 170"-180" buck will be in real trouble on my muzzle loader hunt this year in CO.

 

[rmanwill]

I would say both Sirglassalot and ellgrass said it pretty well!!! Both are greta hunts and something that I would like to do sometime in my lifetime.

The self guided regular season is how I do it and get great reward from, but I would like to save up and someday go on a great guided hunt to say I did and take advantage of every oppurtunity I can.

Great question!!!

 

[sageadvice]

As a young man, rairly a Summer evening would go by without a brisk walk to one part or another of the ranch i grew up on to scout the Blacktail bucks in "my world". They were not of "book" quality but nice bucks still and plenty of them but i'd want the biggest of them and i wanted to know where to find him opening day, what trails he took to water, and how his competition was doing as well. With few disappointments, i'd get that "biggest" buck year after year. Sometimes it took until the last weekend of the season. I well know the feeling of that buck i had desired chucked up on my back and headed back to the ranch house.

I've also had some similar experiences with out of State Mule deer hunts, minus the serious scouting. Instead of scouting, i'd rely on past hunts in the area to give guidance as to what might be there. In those hunts, some real nice bucks were brought home, certainly some as big as in your scenario #1 and i feel blessed to have gone on so many great hunts.

So, i too am picking scenario #2. I don't have a 200+" Muley on the wall and though i see no way to afford to pay for a hunt like that, i may get "lucky" some day, would like very much to do so.

Joey

 

[compasswest]

I am a outfitter in New Mexico and drew a what i like to think of as a once in a lifetime tag (unit 16A 1st rifle new mexico), i know and guide the unit i drew well, but my FIRST call was to a guide that works with me who also knows the area, but better has the time leading up to the hunt to scout. I have guided hunts in other units in the weeks before my hunt, i am going to work and make money in place of taking off a bunch of time off to scout and look for a bull, instead i will let the guide do the work he is being paid for....... I will help because i am guiding all 3 bow hunts in that unit and will have a few places and i hope bulls for him to watch that I find in bow season, but lots can happen in the weeks before a hunt.

Will i have the same satisfaction killing a bull he found, heck yea i spent 16 years trying to draw this tag........ I think DIY is great, but add up the weeks of time off work, gas, miles on truck, ETC if your outfitter and guides are doing a GOOD job for you they will have a few choices in mind for you. In hard to draw units guides, outfitters are a great choice given a budget....

Having said that there is also a great thrill in DIY hunt will depend on the number of animals in the area and what quality level is. IE: unit 2C NM has low deer numbers like the strip, but if you are in the right place right time quality level is unreal... we killed a 210 on film opening day 2C last year, i bet mark was as happy with the deer i had been watching for 5 months as he would have been DIY, but again i am a outfitter......

www.200inches.com

 

[brownie]

I definatly would pick scenario number one, just think about it, all that preseason scouting from the cab of my truck, and then to see that buck, the last day run across the road right in front of me. I jump out, jam a shell in the chamber, find a rest on the hood of the truck, and let him have it. I then load him in the truck, pop open a cool one and reflect back on how I busted my ass on another great foked horn. Just kidding Danny! I'm still pissed about the 200 inchers that missed my bullet over the years, I can still see them in my dreams.
Maybe this is my year, hope my tag in Nevada puts me in scenario #2 just one more time, maybe I won't miss!

Thanks, Doug.
P.S. You must have too much time on your hands to dream up stuff like that.

 

[Founder]

I've been lucky I guess, because I have experienced close to both scenerio's. I have only killed one buck over 200" in November, but he was a monster with everything....real cool, so that was a pretty neat day. It was in a good unit (3 points to draw), and not all that "physically" demanding of a hunt.

I have killed a number of 170-200+ bucks in "lesser" areas and during less desireable hunt dates.

Killing bucks that I have seen during a scouting trip is real cool to me. Those ones are a bit more special than others.

In the end though, I guess I would go with option #2 (no guide & no private land) because 200 inchers are REALLY big, and even in a SUPER unit during the rut, they are REALLY rare and hard to come by.

When I look at my bucks from over the years, I can't pick any one hunt that was the most special, or one buck, that I most "earned".

Brian Latturner
MonsterMuleys.com

 

[woodruffhunter]

I'm not proud, I will go with the 200" buck

 

[gb22]

Wonderful question!

I'd brag about the big one....to everyone else. On the INSIDE, the first scenario would be the best.

I've been at this long enough to have gotten a couple of those 200-inch critters. I love to brag to the neighbors, but the skill involved with the HUNT or the HUNT for the others I've taken, is what brings the internal backpats. (Two of my "favorite" mature deer (less than 200 inches) beat me.....I'll remember those two critters for ever.)


Within the shadows, go quietly.

 

[mathewsman]

gb22 said it best! That's exactly how I feel. Great question to give us all that gut check.

 

[mulebuck]

> P.S. You must have
>too much time on your
>hands to dream up stuff
>like that.

Only at work Doug!

Out of all the bucks I have taken, the one I cherish the most was ironically the one I worked the hardest for. He wasn't my biggest but the elation I felt from staying on him and eventually taking him was overwhelming.
Like Brian said, there's just something about taking an animal you've scouted out.

I'll probably always choose scenario #1, that is until #2 presents itself.

 

[Deerlove]

I'd take either, I bust my but on all the hunts so it would just me good carma right? LOL

 

[wymoose]

That's a tough question. And I'm not a score junky. But if they were both DIY scenarios, I would probably pick #2.

http://www.huntaddicts.com

 

[longshooter338]

Scenario 1 for me cant justify the money over hard work and satisfaction of getting him on his terms. Took me 18 days to do just that on a southern utah 187 inch muley in 2008 posted on this site under sept 24 muzzeloader.

 

[bigmoose]

Gotta go with the 200 incher. There are not that many around. It is still a hunt and you have to do things right to make it happen. Also, I would feel lucky I was able to get that kind of tag to give me that opportunity. Just doing that is a feat in this day and age.

Moose

 

[fatrooster]

I would take scenario #1 over and over and over. Theres nothing like "Doing it Yourself"!!!!!! fatrooster.

 

[nmelk13]

LAST EDITED ON Jun-16-09 AT 07:49PM (MST)[p]Didnt stinky have a post on this thread saying how his satsifaction was his wife???? Or was it a different one?

BTW stinky hang on to that one you have because you will never find another that looks like that and stays honest with your ugly a$$!

Oh I graduated in 93 Bulldog ladies loved the cavemen!!!