desperatehills asked me to explain how the hunt went down so here it goes.
A longtime hunting buddy (who didn't have a tag) and I arrived from Tennessee on Thursday (9th). We had stopped 2 nights and stayed in hotels to acclimate since we both live at 300 feet of elevation here in West TN.
Thursday we got up and drove to the hunting area and set up camp close to a ridge that would allow me to glass 2 basins. My friend has a bad knee and couldn't make the hike up to the ridge that night. I saw several deer but none that I could positively ID as bucks. We got up the next morning and move camp closer to the area where we saw deer the previous afternoon. That afternoon we made a short climb behind our new camp and saw multiple deer including several bucks above us on the ridge. Nothing huge but since I had never killed a mule deer, I wasn't going to pass up a lot of deer. Later in the afternoon we saw a group of bucks on the opposite ridge. this group included 2 really good deer, a 4 x 4 and a heavy 3 x 3. They were feeding on the steep rugged face of the ridge opposite us. We talked about it and both agreed that the 3 x 3 was the best buck we saw that day but weren't sure if these bucks were huntable. The other deer were pretty close to camp but we thought our chances were better to hunt them opening afternoon rather than opening morning.
Opening morning, I hiked up to a high saddle to try to get a different view of the area that we planned to hunt that afternoon. I saw a group of 6 young bucks and bumped a pretty decent 4 x 4 but he was well out of MZ range. When I arrived back at camp my friend said that he watched the 3 x 3 and the 4 x 4 all morning and had them bedded in a rocky cut on the steep mountain opposite of camp. Based on the topography of the mountain, we thought we knew the route they would take to get back to the feeding area that they used the previous afternoon and earlier this morning. My friend asked if I was to to trying the climb up and beat them to the spot. He was going to stay at camp and let me know if when they were on there feet and moving. Due to the contour of the mountain, I should be able to move in position without being seen by the bucks.
The climb was going to be very steep and rocky so I ate a quick snack, filled up my water bladder and tried to pack as light of a pack as possible. I wasn't sure how the 51 year old legs were going to respond after a long early morning climb but I couldn't turn down the chance to get on the 3 x 3. I headed up the mountain and made pretty decent progress (adrenaline is a wonderful thing). My friend signaled me that they were on their feet, heading my direction and that I need to pick up the pace. Fortunately, the stopped and bedded in the last rocky cut before the feeding area and that gave me time to make the final stalk. I got to a rock outcropping and could see a young 2 x 2 that was with the other 2 bucks. The angle wasn't very good to get off a shot so I climbed to a 2nd outcrop and tried again. Same problem there, so I climbed up the a 3rd rock outcropping that gave me a better angle and view. I could see the 2 x 2 clearly and barely make out the 3 x 3 bedded in a rocky area. After an hour stare down with the 2 x 2, he left the cut and headed to the feeding area. About 10 minutes later the 3 x 3 got out of his bed and stepped out of into view at about 100 yards. Since I have gun hunted in almost 10 years, I was pretty nervous about making the shot but fortunately I made the shot and the buck only made it about 100 yards before he went down. What a feeling walking up on the 3 x 3. Not sure how big he is to guys who routinely hunt mule deer but for a TN guy, he was more than I ever expected. He looked like (and felt like) he weighed 350 lbs.
I quickly took some pics with the timer on my cell phone and started trying to get him quartered and caped. Pretty challenging task on the side of a steep mountain. By the time I finished this process, the buck and I had slid 250 yards down the mountain. It took me 3 trips to get him packed out. The process of packing him out was pretty demanding on the steep rocky slope but I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. It was a dream hunt for me.
Sorry if I got a little long winded!
