I spent 2 days scouting, looking for a big mule deer that I had been hearing about. I found some nice White tails but no shooter Mulies, however I was saving my sprained ankle for opening day so I was mostly scouting from the road. I was optimistic I would find the buck I was after and set out with high hopes opening morning of West River Rifle. A mile or two in my ankle was holding up nicely and I was able to watch a solid white tail bed down. Unfortunately he bedded in an abandoned (but public) road bed that was directly down wind of me. I didn't want to risk bumping him and I was still looking for the big Mule deer I kept hearing about so I backed out to check on a different corner of the ranch. 5 hours and too many miles later I had made a big loop to try and get a better look at the white tail with the wind in my favor. I got above him and spent about an hour slowly trying to pick him up in his bed. After covering about 90% of the road bed he had ducked into I was starting to wonder if someone had pushed him out with a truck or he simply decided to relocate when I spotted a coyote at 500 yds. I watched the coyote working an alfalfa field for lunch for awhile and decided I would try one last attempt to locate the buck before moving on to a different drainage for the evening hunt. I whistled for about a minute trying to get him to raise his head. No luck on the deer but the coyote liked what he heard and headed my way like I had rung a dinner bell. I decided there was no way the buck was still there and this would be a good time to score some brownie points with the sheep rancher who's land I was on. When the coyote stopped and sat down at 70 yds that was the end of him. Unfortunately the shot was enough to bust the bedded buck out of his hide and I got to watch a shooter white tail run over to the neighbors.
I should have known better to shoot a coyote before I had my buck on the ground.
That night I watched some flat tops feed through my drainage but there was no bone to be found.
The next morning I spotted the biggest mule deer I've seen on the ranch in 2 years. He was tall with good backs and weak fronts. I thought about taking him but decided it was too early in the hunt to fill my tag on this buck, and he could really use another year or two. I spent the rest of the morning trying to find the ghost Mule Deer. At lunch I stopped at a neighbors to see how they had been doing. I saw the Whitetail I busted out the day before hanging from the meat pole.He was a heavy 150+ and I felt sick to my stomach. My ankle was really starting to bother me so I was headed back to the Ranch house to ice it before the evening hunt when they mentioned that they had more hunters coming and were planning on hunting the pasture 150 yds from the washout my Mule deer was bedded in. While Icing I decided I better not let another chance slip through my fingers so I went back to have a second look at the Mule deer before things got crowded. When I popped over the crest of the hill he was bedded within 30 feet of where I left him. I thought about all the time I'd spent away from my family the last couple of months and how my ankle was not happy with all this activity and filled my tag.
The good news was my brother missed the opening weekend because he was in South Carolina for work and so we still had my east river rifle tag to fill along with his east and west river rifle tags.
After a couple weeks on our east river rifle opener I finally had my hunting partner and brother with me. We set up on a property that has been good to us in the past, but unfortunately the deer were moving everywhere but there. We watched at least a dozen deer run around, with one shooter, unfortunately they were on neighboring properties. After breaking for lunch and walking some sloughs on a different property we returned to the original farm. I dropped my brother off on a traditional travel corridor that overlooks a bedding area and I headed to the other side for the property. As I parked the truck and started towards a slough that sits adjacent to the travel corridor my heart sank. The buck that I was hoping would be there must have heard me park, because he was alertly watching my direction. You don't get to be a mature whitetail without having some mighty sharp instincts,I'm confident he didn't see me but he definitely knew something was up. He started heading out, directly down the travel corridor towards my brother. He must have picked up a second buck on the way because when he ran across an opening in front of my brother he had a younger buck with him. The second buck stopped to look over his shoulder and my brother's east river tag was filled.
The next morning I played hide and seek with 2 juvenile bucks, both of them walking within 15 yards of me. They will be nice in a few years, but not what I'm looking for. I was satisfied it was time to give our east river spots a rest and head back west to fill my brother's WR buck tag.
This was the easiest hunt of my life. We arrived on the ranch with an hour left before sunset so we headed out to an alfalfa field that had some nice creek bottoms running through it. We had been sitting on a bale pile for maybe 15 minutes when out pops a doe chased hard by a young 4x4. Having just shot a 4x4 the day before my brother let this one pass. 3 minutes later out popped a larger 5x5. He passed on this buck as well. I was thinking to myself, "Self, this might be a tougher hunt than you expected. He is being unusually picky." Just then the 5x5 looked confused and doubled back to try to pick the trail back up, stopped to test the wind showing nice symmetrical tines and my brother changed his mind in a hurry. BOOM
We slept in the following morning and left in time to make it to one of our east river hunting spots for the evening hunt. As we pulled in we spotted a half dozen does feeding in a neighbor's harvested field. With all the rutting activity west river I thought we better stop and watch the does to see where they were headed. Sure enough out popped two bucks about 5 minutes apart. Unfortunately I didn't have permission to hunt the feed area but we circled out downwind on our property to cover a travel corridor to see if we could intercept a buck while he was coming or going. While we were making our way to the fence line that separated our pasture from the field they were feeding in, I thought it was over when a doe stood up and snorted at us. She must not have seen us as much as our movement because she proceeded to trot right over to see what was going on. At ten yards she busted straight in the opposite direction of all the deer feeding the the field (WHEW!). Don't ask me how this is possible but maybe 3 minutes later out comes the bigger of the two bucks from checking on the feeding does to check on the bedded doe we just busted. As he jumped the fence onto our property I was fighting with my shooting sticks to get a good anchor for a 120 yard shot. I was dumbfounded as He followed her trail until he popped his head over the hill at maybe 20 yds and the stare down was on. All I could see were his enormous main beams arcing towards the sky. He had us pinned, the only opportunity I had was a neck shot, and the neck doesn't give a lot of leeway. I thought it was over when the 13 lined ground squirrels I had been shooting this summer ran through my head. I think i was on auto pilot as the safe clicked off. Center punched him and I'm hopeful I didn't ruin the cape, my taxidermist said he doesn't think it should be a problem... With that, after the best 3 day period I've ever had I said thank you lord for the RUT and our deer hunting was over for the year.
That night I watched some flat tops feed through my drainage but there was no bone to be found.
The next morning I spotted the biggest mule deer I've seen on the ranch in 2 years. He was tall with good backs and weak fronts. I thought about taking him but decided it was too early in the hunt to fill my tag on this buck, and he could really use another year or two. I spent the rest of the morning trying to find the ghost Mule Deer. At lunch I stopped at a neighbors to see how they had been doing. I saw the Whitetail I busted out the day before hanging from the meat pole.He was a heavy 150+ and I felt sick to my stomach. My ankle was really starting to bother me so I was headed back to the Ranch house to ice it before the evening hunt when they mentioned that they had more hunters coming and were planning on hunting the pasture 150 yds from the washout my Mule deer was bedded in. While Icing I decided I better not let another chance slip through my fingers so I went back to have a second look at the Mule deer before things got crowded. When I popped over the crest of the hill he was bedded within 30 feet of where I left him. I thought about all the time I'd spent away from my family the last couple of months and how my ankle was not happy with all this activity and filled my tag.
The good news was my brother missed the opening weekend because he was in South Carolina for work and so we still had my east river rifle tag to fill along with his east and west river rifle tags.
After a couple weeks on our east river rifle opener I finally had my hunting partner and brother with me. We set up on a property that has been good to us in the past, but unfortunately the deer were moving everywhere but there. We watched at least a dozen deer run around, with one shooter, unfortunately they were on neighboring properties. After breaking for lunch and walking some sloughs on a different property we returned to the original farm. I dropped my brother off on a traditional travel corridor that overlooks a bedding area and I headed to the other side for the property. As I parked the truck and started towards a slough that sits adjacent to the travel corridor my heart sank. The buck that I was hoping would be there must have heard me park, because he was alertly watching my direction. You don't get to be a mature whitetail without having some mighty sharp instincts,I'm confident he didn't see me but he definitely knew something was up. He started heading out, directly down the travel corridor towards my brother. He must have picked up a second buck on the way because when he ran across an opening in front of my brother he had a younger buck with him. The second buck stopped to look over his shoulder and my brother's east river tag was filled.
The next morning I played hide and seek with 2 juvenile bucks, both of them walking within 15 yards of me. They will be nice in a few years, but not what I'm looking for. I was satisfied it was time to give our east river spots a rest and head back west to fill my brother's WR buck tag.
This was the easiest hunt of my life. We arrived on the ranch with an hour left before sunset so we headed out to an alfalfa field that had some nice creek bottoms running through it. We had been sitting on a bale pile for maybe 15 minutes when out pops a doe chased hard by a young 4x4. Having just shot a 4x4 the day before my brother let this one pass. 3 minutes later out popped a larger 5x5. He passed on this buck as well. I was thinking to myself, "Self, this might be a tougher hunt than you expected. He is being unusually picky." Just then the 5x5 looked confused and doubled back to try to pick the trail back up, stopped to test the wind showing nice symmetrical tines and my brother changed his mind in a hurry. BOOM
We slept in the following morning and left in time to make it to one of our east river hunting spots for the evening hunt. As we pulled in we spotted a half dozen does feeding in a neighbor's harvested field. With all the rutting activity west river I thought we better stop and watch the does to see where they were headed. Sure enough out popped two bucks about 5 minutes apart. Unfortunately I didn't have permission to hunt the feed area but we circled out downwind on our property to cover a travel corridor to see if we could intercept a buck while he was coming or going. While we were making our way to the fence line that separated our pasture from the field they were feeding in, I thought it was over when a doe stood up and snorted at us. She must not have seen us as much as our movement because she proceeded to trot right over to see what was going on. At ten yards she busted straight in the opposite direction of all the deer feeding the the field (WHEW!). Don't ask me how this is possible but maybe 3 minutes later out comes the bigger of the two bucks from checking on the feeding does to check on the bedded doe we just busted. As he jumped the fence onto our property I was fighting with my shooting sticks to get a good anchor for a 120 yard shot. I was dumbfounded as He followed her trail until he popped his head over the hill at maybe 20 yds and the stare down was on. All I could see were his enormous main beams arcing towards the sky. He had us pinned, the only opportunity I had was a neck shot, and the neck doesn't give a lot of leeway. I thought it was over when the 13 lined ground squirrels I had been shooting this summer ran through my head. I think i was on auto pilot as the safe clicked off. Center punched him and I'm hopeful I didn't ruin the cape, my taxidermist said he doesn't think it should be a problem... With that, after the best 3 day period I've ever had I said thank you lord for the RUT and our deer hunting was over for the year.
