carbonnation
Active Member
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I thought I would break up the warm winter and celebrate the Utah application period by sharing the story of the Muley buck that I was lucky to take with my muzzleloader this year. He is my best buck to date. This deer hunt, however, began with an Elk hunt I posted on this site about five years ago. So here goes, I'm gonna try to give it to you magazine style.
As we emerged from the thick pines, a strong gust of cold wind momentarily took my breath away. It was first light, and we had spent the last hour working our way up and around the mountain in the pre-dawn darkness. Now three quarters of the way up the mountain, we stood on a steep rocky ridge straining to pick up any sign of life in the basin in front of us.
Kurt broke the silence, "They should be just beyond that patch of pine." Not far away was a small patch of pines only about fifty yards wide, but between us and the pines was another fifty yards of open, steep, rocky hillside. We slowly began working our way across the opening occasionally dislodging a rock or two, which quickly turned into 10-20. With every clatter I cringed, but was finally greatful for the strong gusting winds that we had been fighting the past few days. As we approached the pines a rock gave way under foot and again sent several others cascading into the scattered pines a few yards below. Through clenched teeth I watched as three large mule deer bucks explode from their beds just below. I held my breath as I watched them bound over the ridge back the way we had come.
Kurt leaned toward me and whispered. "All three of those were good bucks. I would be happy with any one of them." I agreed with him. However, my focus had moved away from the retreating bucks and back to the herd bull and cows we were hoping were still on the other side of the pines.
In 2009 I was fortunate to finally draw a Limited Entry Muzzleloader Elk tag in Utah. And the scene I have been describing took place on opening day. I ended up passing on the bull we were stalking,(here is a picture of him that morning)
but as fate would have it, five days later we returned to the exact same drainage and I was lucky to kill a nice bull not far from where my hunt began opening morning.
But that opening morning stalk left me with two very vivid memories. The first was passing on my fist mature bull. The second was the image of the silhouette of those mule deer bucks as they topped the ridge. Although the area we were hunting was a Limited Entry unit for Elk, it was a General Unit for deer. To top it off my brother in law took a nice buck with his smokepole during my hunt as well.
Needless to say it was not hard to convince the rest of the group to start applying for this general unit. So for the past five years we have been trying to get to know the deer in this particular unit.
To be continued...
As we emerged from the thick pines, a strong gust of cold wind momentarily took my breath away. It was first light, and we had spent the last hour working our way up and around the mountain in the pre-dawn darkness. Now three quarters of the way up the mountain, we stood on a steep rocky ridge straining to pick up any sign of life in the basin in front of us.
Kurt broke the silence, "They should be just beyond that patch of pine." Not far away was a small patch of pines only about fifty yards wide, but between us and the pines was another fifty yards of open, steep, rocky hillside. We slowly began working our way across the opening occasionally dislodging a rock or two, which quickly turned into 10-20. With every clatter I cringed, but was finally greatful for the strong gusting winds that we had been fighting the past few days. As we approached the pines a rock gave way under foot and again sent several others cascading into the scattered pines a few yards below. Through clenched teeth I watched as three large mule deer bucks explode from their beds just below. I held my breath as I watched them bound over the ridge back the way we had come.
Kurt leaned toward me and whispered. "All three of those were good bucks. I would be happy with any one of them." I agreed with him. However, my focus had moved away from the retreating bucks and back to the herd bull and cows we were hoping were still on the other side of the pines.
In 2009 I was fortunate to finally draw a Limited Entry Muzzleloader Elk tag in Utah. And the scene I have been describing took place on opening day. I ended up passing on the bull we were stalking,(here is a picture of him that morning)
but as fate would have it, five days later we returned to the exact same drainage and I was lucky to kill a nice bull not far from where my hunt began opening morning.
But that opening morning stalk left me with two very vivid memories. The first was passing on my fist mature bull. The second was the image of the silhouette of those mule deer bucks as they topped the ridge. Although the area we were hunting was a Limited Entry unit for Elk, it was a General Unit for deer. To top it off my brother in law took a nice buck with his smokepole during my hunt as well.
Needless to say it was not hard to convince the rest of the group to start applying for this general unit. So for the past five years we have been trying to get to know the deer in this particular unit.
To be continued...
