Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Backpack Nevada mule deer

Had a great hunt with my brother down in Nevada last week. Didn't kill one of the big boys that lives up on the mountain, but I was very happy to bring this boy home.



My brother had an unsuccessful muzzleloader cow elk hunt in the same unit, which had closed and of course this happens our first morning out.



A beautiful place!



Discovered this on our return to the pickup, anyone see the issue here?

congrats on a great deer. beautiful looking country. how about some details on the rifle and finding the buck.

Thanks!

Quick rundown on the buck. We found this buck and 4 others in a bachelor group the night before. They were in a spot that was not really good for a stalk so we let them be and figured we would find them in the morning.

Sure enough, the next morning we found them but they were up on top of the ridge, in the open and heading for the next basin to the north, no way to get close. We let them go for the time being and spent the bulk of the day watching a different basin. As the afternoon wore on, we decided to go find the bachelor group.

Heading north, we slowly scrolled over the edge looking into the basin and immediately saw a buck bedded, then saw 2 others. We knew there were 2 other bucks somewhere but couldn't find them, so I decided to shoot the 3 point if he stood up. On cue, he stood and I lined up the shot, which was about 165 yds steep downhill. I shot, he went down. As we were gathering our packs to go retrieve him, he stood up and I shot him again. He jumped straight up in the air then ran into the timber. We hiked down the hill and found him on his feet, very sick, but alive, so I put a finisher through his head.

During butchering, we found that my first shot hit high, just above the spine where the shoulder and neck meet. Clearly I had pulled the shot. My second shot hit him through the lungs and was fatal, but he was pretty amped up and kept fighting. Tough critters.

My rifle is a first generation Browning A-bolt in 30-06. I was using Barnes Vor-tex 150gr. ammo. The scope is a Leupold FXII 6x.

You might have a mouse in your ventilation system. Scenery is very very nice thanks for the PICS.

great hunting story Thanks!

Did a packrat get a hold of your cabin air filter?

Great looking deer and gorgeous country. Thanks for sharing!

+1! congrats.

Yup, either a pack rat or a mouse. Was a bit surprised to see a big puff of dust some out of the vents when I fired up the Taco. The little bugger had filled up the fan with filter scraps and juniper bark. He was settling for the winter! Fortunately, it looks like he beat feet when the fan came on.

Sounds like you had a great hunt in some beautiful country.

Looks like you are gonna have cabin air filter pieces everywhere when you turned on the fan . . .

Wait a sec here, I bet that is how you figured out there was one and that the mice liked it too.

I did not even know there was such a thing until I found out the one in my truck was missing and the one in my wife's car was disgusting.

Went with a buddy to NV last fall for a muzzleloader deer hunt. Had an amazing hunt. Talk about quality! We saw bachelor groups of bucks each day and for that matter some great bull elk. We even bugled the bulls just for sport. Had a fantastic time and it seemed like unlimited country and no other hunters. He drew for rifle elk in another unit this year so we go back in a couple three weeks to give that a go.

I am extremely impressed with the quality of the hunt in NV. Kudos for their management.