I wanted to share some pics of the mule deer we killed this year in Kansas. The first buck is a buck shot in the September muzzleloader season. We watched this buck a lot last year and decided he was a young 190 inch buck and decided to let him walk in hopes he would live another year and break 200 the next year. During many hours of scouting in July, August and September we could not turn him up. This was driving me crazy and I thought we made the wrong choice by letting him walk. Finally just a few days before season my brother caught a glimpse of what we thought may be him a long ways off and more less dark. The next couple days I glassed this area morning and night in hopes that I could confirm it was him. Finally the day before season I saw him walking in the very last light long after the sun had set. I wasn't sure it was him but knew it was a buck we for sure wanted to hunt. We set up opening morning on the highest hill in the area in hopes we could see him before he bedded. We found him and made a stalk to within 40 yds of him but you could not see him due to the tall sage. As the hunter was setting up his bipod he made the mistake of sitting his gun down and touching a sagebrush with leg of the bipod and the game was over. He ran over the hill without getting a shot off. The next day we were lucky enough to find him again and unfortunately the hunter missed the buck at 185 yards. We hunted this deer for 5 days with out getting another shot off but had a few other close encounters but luck was never on our side. On day six of the season hunter number 2 was in camp and we continued to pursue the big non typical buck. After 4 more days of hunting luck finally turned our way and we were able to finally get our hands on the buck after one 150 yd shot from the muzzleloader. The buck ended up scoring 210 6/8 and was 32.5 inches wide.
Fast forward to the opening day of regular firearm season hunter number 1 decided to return to redeem himself. I had a big typical in mind to hunt. We had only caught a couple glimpses of him this fall but knew he was big. Opening day we found this giant typical at first light. After watching him break off from the herd of does and disappear over the hill in search of a hot doe and headed to some real rough deep cuts we thought we would not see him again that day. We continued to glass from our hill in hopes of seeing him again. About an hour later to our amazement we seen him about a mile away coming back towards us and the does. We bedded them down and had a text book stalk to within 180 yds but the buck was bedded behind a yucca with no shot. We waited about 30 minutes and he stood up and started feeding our way. At 160 yards Bill made a great shot with the muzzleloader and dropped him. He fell only about 500 yards of where we shot the non typical in September. Last year I watched this deer fight another buck and break his entire g2 off at the main beam and he got to live another year and grew another 10 inches or so. This buck ended up scoring 191 and was 29.5 inches wide.
This wrapped up our mule deer hunts for the year. A very good year considering the terrible drought we are in.
Jeremy Gugelmeyer
Fast forward to the opening day of regular firearm season hunter number 1 decided to return to redeem himself. I had a big typical in mind to hunt. We had only caught a couple glimpses of him this fall but knew he was big. Opening day we found this giant typical at first light. After watching him break off from the herd of does and disappear over the hill in search of a hot doe and headed to some real rough deep cuts we thought we would not see him again that day. We continued to glass from our hill in hopes of seeing him again. About an hour later to our amazement we seen him about a mile away coming back towards us and the does. We bedded them down and had a text book stalk to within 180 yds but the buck was bedded behind a yucca with no shot. We waited about 30 minutes and he stood up and started feeding our way. At 160 yards Bill made a great shot with the muzzleloader and dropped him. He fell only about 500 yards of where we shot the non typical in September. Last year I watched this deer fight another buck and break his entire g2 off at the main beam and he got to live another year and grew another 10 inches or so. This buck ended up scoring 191 and was 29.5 inches wide.
This wrapped up our mule deer hunts for the year. A very good year considering the terrible drought we are in.
Jeremy Gugelmeyer
