After last year’s mule deer hunt had been full of blunders and bad luck, we were pretty keen on getting back out and redeeming ourselves. Kyle had his sights set on a decent velvet buck, and I was going to uphold my usual standards: anything legal is fair game, unless I don’t feel it when the situation arises.
When I pulled in on Thursday night, Kyle already had the trailer set up and the generator running. The new and improved version actually features working electricity, which means lights! No suffering with gas lanterns that have a tendency to burn the hair of my hands during the ignition process. Friday was a scouting day, and we took it easy. We hiked around, glassed and saw decent groups of deer in good locations. We found one very nice buck in a super spot, with two good approach routes; just a day early.
Kyle trying hard not to skyline himself
Unfortunately, while drawing on a gopher, Kyle’s bow spontaneously unstrung itself. He tried again after restringing with the same result. Some study showed that the string was no longer coming straight off the top limb, but at an angle. His bow now dysfunctional, Kyle set up a rendezvous with his wife to collect his 40lbs practice limbs, so at least he had a weapon. Limbs and riser are currently back at Stalker Stickbows for inspection and fixing.
Bow on the fritz
Opening morning we split up. An hour into the day or so I found five bucks and five does, in separate groups. The biggest buck, a nice 4×4 with good mass, was bedded underneath an overhang, in a dream location for a stalk. Unfortunately he didn’t stay there and all five of them started feeding down into a gully where I would lose sight of them. I had to move to be able to keep my eyes on them, and some time between leaving the glassing spot and getting to the bucks something spooked them. I found three of them 80 yards below me, in the open, staring at the opposite hill side. A swirl of my scent perhaps, the birds that I flushed, something else; I don’t know, but the result was that I never could get into range before they departed. Kyle had similar bad luck with a lone buck that he stalked.
Over the course of the rest of the day, and the Monday (no Sunday hunting for big game in this area) we found several more bucks, and does, and stalked a few of them, getting as close as 27 yards, without a shot opportunity. We also managed our usual: being too impatient and spooking them.
One event on Sunday is worth mentioning, involving a beautiful wide 3X3 buck and his two minions. We were scouting a new area, and had slid over the edge of a coulee, just below the ridge to do some glassing, when further down, three bucks appeared on the valley floor. They went straight for an overhang that provided some shade. The best spot really was only big enough for one deer. The 3×3 claimed it and kept the smaller 4×4 at bay by pointing his antlers at him when the smaller one pushed in from behind. The forkhorn in the rear tried to get into the 4×4’s spot but he similarly got discouraged by a show of horns. The big guy bedded, the 4×4 found another spot, which left the forkhorn out in the sun.
Like a disgruntled kid he went stomping around above the two older bucks, until all a sudden he froze, and looked right up at us. Clearly he didn’t like what he saw because he just kept pacing back and forth; long enough to get the old guys worried enough to get up out of their bed. All three moved on, across and out of the coulee.
The take-away here is that next time we’d probably not sit down inside the coulee to glass. Despite camo clothing you can still be spotted, and even if you are not seen right away, it can be very hard to get back out of your location unseen, in case you have to circle around for a stalk. Better to belly crawl to the edge, and glass into the coulee that way, especially if you can find a sage bush to hide in.
We had to leave to return to work other life duties too soon. Hopefully we can squeeze in a few more days later in the season.
