Deernut great hunt! Tell us the details, what load ,distance, bullet performance etc etc.
Our strategy for the hunt was a basic spot and stalk strategy. We entered the hills in the pre-dawn light and slowly slinked our way through the sage covered barchan dunes. Our goal was to keep the wind in our face, spot a mule deer buck before it spotted us, assess its size, make a stalk and subsequently dispatch said big buck.
After employing this technique for about 90 minutes and traveling about a quarter mile, we had encountered four small bucks, fifteen does and what appeared to be a giant non-typical 800 yards in the distance. The reason I say appeared is because he was in tall sage and willows, and I couldn?t get a contiguous view of his rack. Nonetheless, it looked impressive.
My dad and I formulated a plan and began our slow, arduous stalk. An hour later, my laser rangefinder confirmed I was less than 200 yards from the deer?s last identified position, but I hadn?t seen him again. Just when I thought he was already aware of us and slipped away, I spotted his antlers beating up some brush. I suggested to dad that we belly crawl the remaining distance and close the gap further. Since my dad had recently taken a bad fall off a ladder, his knees were far too sore and he wouldn?t be up for it. But he gave me the go ahead. I belly crawled 75 more yards and decided not to push my luck any further. I rose to a kneeling position to get above the tall grass and began scanning for the buck. Remarkably, he was still there fighting with the sage and willows. Unfortunately, there was no clean shot. At one point, I considered trying for his neck, but opted against it. Several minutes passed and the buck made his fatal flaw and began to walk out of the cover. As he walked out, he offered a ?quartering towards me? shot and I let my 300 grain Barnes MZ expander fly. Almost instantly I heard the whomp of the hit and he began to stagger back to the cover. I quickly reloaded my Savage with the aforementioned bullet and 60 grains of VV N120 but it wasn?t necessary. The initial shot traveled over 20 inches through the deer?s chest and passed completely through the animal. He traveled less than 20 yards.
Upon examination of the buck, he was truly a beautiful specimen, but not quite what I thought I was shooting at. C?est la vie! I?m still ecstatic.
Similarly, we stuck with the same strategy to find a buck for my dad. With one exception, no crawling!
We chose an area significantly more rugged in an effort to use the lay of the land more to our advantage.
Deer sightings were very discouraging once we began our afternoon hunt. By discouraging, I mean none. After an hour of skulking silently through the sage I spotted a big-bodied animal highlighted by the late afternoon?s setting sun. Instantly, I recognized this buck was a shooter and my dad agreed. We discussed our options and started our stalk. The buck was 400 yards away and we needed to close that gap significantly. Since the wind was in our face and the sun at our back, we set out with extreme confidence. As we approached the buck?s last known location, we slowly slipped over a rise and began scanning for his whereabouts. He had worked slightly away from his last known location and was still within range but moving away in heavy cover. We assessed the situation and decided to wait and watch and if necessary move into a better location. Serendipitously, the buck stopped behind a slight rise, looked our way and climbed up onto the bank 174 yards away and began feeding in the open broadside to us. Dad settled his nerves, I turned on my digital video camera and filmed him making an awesome double lung pass through shot with his Traditions Tracker muzzleloader. The 300 grain Hornady XTP behind 100 grains of Triple 7 performed flawlessly and the deer toppled within 75 yards. Awesome!
Great Bucks, Are there any Muley's on White Bear first nation land I know they have huge whitetails
Redclub
Maybe. The White Bear First Nation Reserve borders the east side of the Moose Mountain Provincial Park. I've seen many Mule Deer on the south side of the park and are in huntable numbers. So, maybe.
The mule deer bucks in this area are not known for their size, so this may not appeal to you. The whitetails in that area are definitely world class though.
I hadn't replied sooner because everytime I've been online Photobucket's been down and I couldn't seen em. :?
