Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Tough So Far

The full moon is killing us, plain and simple. Very little daylight deer movement is making chasing muley bucks in the sand a tough deal, but we did get lucky once so far with this old, solitary buck. We were situated on a small sandhill glassing about 2 sq miles of country when this buck happened to stand up, feed around for about 10 minutes, then reposition himself in the shade of a big mesquite thicket around 2pm. My buddy has hunted all over the world with this 300 Win Mag and 180 partition bullets, and a Leupold VX3 (yes, contrary to popular 24HCF opinion, they still work well).

We got to within 120 yards before the buck spooked, taking out from his bed at full speed, no screwing around, no stopping a looking back, contrary to some popular myths that they always do. My friend hit him the first time in the rear hip but he kept churning, obviously slowing down but had not stopped running. He made a fantastic running shot the 2nd time, off hand, anchoring the huge bodied, 7.5 yr old buck. Grosses 188 green for those that care.

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The search has continued with several more mid 180's bucks, and a small handful of slightly bigger ones, but with little deer movement it is extremely difficult finding bedded bucks like this consistently, especially those mesquite dwellers. Sometimes we get lucky and find an extraordinarily massive buck like this, but the ensuing stalk failed. Pic taken through a Meopta S2 spotter at app 1 mile.

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Man that's awesome.

The rut appears to still be in full swing. Today, on our way to the park where we walk Kimber The Wonder Dog, we saw a buck chasing a doe in a pasture just beside the road, maybe 20 yards from the fence. She was apparently not quite ready to dance and jumped the fence, crossed the road, and ran through a couple yards with Loverboy right behind her. He only glanced our way once, briefly, being totally focused on the doe.

Going back out Friday. Gotta strike while the iron is hot. I've hunted two half-days so far, seen does both days and popped one for the freezer. Hunting pressure on Tuesday was about half what it was for the opener so there's a getter chance to catch deer in their normal movements -I hope.

Is this an info-mercial or a hunt report?

Kidding aside, you're doing better than I on mule deer. Burned two tags so far, one late archery tag left.

Great buck for your buddy,congrats.

Great buck JG! Stay with them!

That's a really cool buck.
Keep after it!

Stay after them Johnny!

Your friend got a nice one, good luck with the hunt.

Congrats!

I have a ?

"hit him in the rear hip"

Do they have front hips ? grin

Great pics.

That's a Dandy,

Good Luck

Jerry

Congrats bud! Stay after em

Sweet!!!

Congratulations

Uhhh......in spite of the horrible weather consisting of wind, ice/sleet, etc, we decided to go back to the ranch this morning after taking Thanksgiving day off. We hunted until about 11, and went back to camp, only to find our camp had burned to the ground......Honda ATV, Polaris Ranger, 2 camper trailers all history. At least we weren't inside sleeping when it decided to go up in flames or you guys would've read the last of my dumbass posts !

Holy crap!

glad you're ok, how did it happen you figure?
hope it was insured, otherwise it will really really suck.

At least no one was hurt, count your blessings where you can.

Very Glad no one was injured or worse. Still a great loss.

Jerry

You guys are right. It is just "stuff" when you get right down to it. Thanks for the kind words.

The pics say it all......


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OMG, that is too bad. Glad to hear no lives were lost.

Wayne

That sucks but as you said it's 'stuff'.

Let us know when you find out, what's the cause.


Jerry