Nebraska 2021 Muzzy Hunt

[Stillwater165]

Well I wasn’t gonna post anything from our failed Nebraska muzzleloader hunt but it might just shed some light on a pretty bad situation. We headed out the second week of season , had some snow , had some cold , everything you want in a late season hunt. We hunted both the Sandhills and Pine Ridge Areas , hunted all day every day hard. We’re no pros but we’ve been in these spots before. Nobody filled a tag out of 3 of us , we could have easily but spikes , forkhorns and tiny tiny 3 points aren’t our cup of tea ! I kept a log every day of what we saw , where , temps , wind , etc. I take our hunts kinda seriously lol !!! I did have one chance at a mature 4 pt but as luck would have it my new Burris scope was junk ! Ended up at a random gun shop putting a new one on after my miss ! Well here’s what we saw , granted some of these deer were the same just different days. One old sway back muley doe with notched ears we saw every single day. In 6 days , 242 mule deer on public ground , 219 of those were does , 23 bucks. And out of the 23 bucks , only 2 were shooters and that’s stretching it ........ not very good odds ! In fact terrible odds , they need some definite changes out there ! Pretty sad I can take 2 boys out there and they let the young bucks walk but 90% of the rest out there kill anything with a horn. On a better note the boys had fun and we took some decent pictures. I’m perfectly okay with the big nothing in this deal !!!

 

[Stillwater165]

 

[Stillwater165]

 

[Stillwater165]

 

[Stillwater165]

 

[Stillwater165]

 

[Stillwater165]

 

[Stillwater165]

 

[Stillwater165]

Lol , this was the “bigger” of the many tiny bucks we saw !

 

[Stillwater165]

And another .....

 

[Stillwater165]

 

[Fallfreak]

Great pic of the doe on the hay bail!

 

[Sheepeater]

Worst thing that happened to that state was the in-line muzzleloader season

 

[Cooper]

Those are dang cool pics

 

[Stillwater165]

They need to make some changes out there , they’ve got the doe numbers in places but the age of the bucks is pretty sad .......

 

[Stillwater165]

I happened to talk to many other out of staters hunting while I was there and other than 2 young Whitetails taken down by Halsey ..... nobody had a buck !

 

[Warbo]

Pretty awesome pictures!! I’ve never seen deer get on top of hay bales before, that’s kinda cool!!

 

[Joe2Kool]

Kool pics SW! Those in the Pine Ridge and those with the Buttes in the background look very familiar to me.

I'll be there chasing turkeys soon enough!!

The quality time with your sons is awesome. For me, some of my most memorable hunts haven't involved a kill.

 

[Joe2Kool]

Lol , this was the “bigger” of the many tiny bucks we saw !
View attachment 66428

Studied this fellow a little more. He might be approaching that magical 30 inch mark!!

 

[whiteantlertip]

I have hunted many times in western Nebraska , and found that if you don't have private to hunt on it can be tough to kill a good buck there. the public ground gets shot out pretty fast. Try knocking on some doors in the spring time , maybe you will find a honey hole . I know it can happen , don't get discouraged . ?

 

[fullthrottle]

Nice pics, hard to go hard for that many days and not see more mediocre bucks, let alone a mature buck here and there. How do you like that muzzleloader? I’ve been seriously considering one?

 

[Stillwater165]

I’ll tell you straight up ....... that new cannon looking Paramount is the real deal. We went back to Iowa and pilled up 3 big Whitetail bucks. I’m no expert but I’ve got 35 years in the muzzy game and it’s the best I’ve shot. I hated the primer system right away but I’m over that now.

 

[Stillwater165]

Not sure if I’ll do this hunt again , last year we did rifle ..... we were sucessful but it is an absolute three ring circus. And to be quite honest this years Muzzy deal was less pressure but still way too much. I’ve got a hard time dealing with inconsiderate people , one chunk we were sitting on another couple walked in on us in plain sight right at prime time. So we had what I thought was a good talk after dark in the parking lot. The couple asked if we were hunting the next night , I said yes I will be in the first bowl , the boys will be in the second , same spots as tonight. They said okay they would go elsewhere cause that would be too many people in one area. Sounds great right ???? Well we get out there , pull in the parking lot and see there truck. Yep the 2 pos ‘s flat lied to me and were sitting exactly where my boys were the night before ! They must have started hiking in about noon to get ahead of us , any normal person wouldn’t go in till prob 2 o clock or so. I guess I don’t play that way , if your that big of pile that you need lie to a parent and 2 kids over some stupid deer you don’t belong in the woods ! The funny part is they never saw a single deer that night as we watched 2 canyons away. We saw deer tho ! Hopefully they read this on here !

 

[S-3 Ranch]

Not sure if I’ll do this hunt again , last year we did rifle ..... we were sucessful but it is an absolute three ring circus. And to be quite honest this years Muzzy deal was less pressure but still way too much. I’ve got a hard time dealing with inconsiderate people , one chunk we were sitting on another couple walked in on us in plain sight right at prime time. So we had what I thought was a good talk after dark in the parking lot. The couple asked if we were hunting the next night , I said yes I will be in the first bowl , the boys will be in the second , same spots as tonight. They said okay they would go elsewhere cause that would be too many people in one area. Sounds great right ???? Well we get out there , pull in the parking lot and see there truck. Yep the 2 pos ‘s flat lied to me and were sitting exactly where my boys were the night before ! They must have started hiking in about noon to get ahead of us , any normal person wouldn’t go in till prob 2 o clock or so. I guess I don’t play that way , if your that big of pile that you need lie to a parent and 2 kids over some stupid deer you don’t belong in the woods ! The funny part is they never saw a single deer that night as we watched 2 canyons away. We saw deer tho ! Hopefully they read this on here !

Sounds like public water duck hunting, almost need to camp where you hunt if you want to hunt it