First off I wanna thank my good buddy Tanner for all his help on this hunt.

Now then, I'm not much of a story teller, but I'll try to hack this out as best I can.

Headed out from college in Lincoln, Nebraska Friday morning with my sister and got home in Denver in time for dinner. After grabbing my gear and loading my truck up, I left my sis and headed into the hills. Rolled into Tanner's house after another couple hours driving and discussed strategy with him and his dad. Figured out a game plan for the morning, loaded up our packs, and managed to catch a couple hours of sleep.

Woke up at 3am the next morning, ate a quick breakfast, slammed some coffee, and hopped back in the truck. We got to the trail head at 5am, strapped on our packs, and started hiking.

We got up to our planned gear drop spot a little quicker than we anticipated, thanks in large part to me pushing Tanner up the hill. After dropping most of our camp equipment we began slowly working up a drainage. Glassing the entire way with the wind in our face made for favorable stalking conditions. Tanner spotted deer on the ridgeline almost immediately, but they turned out to be does. We continued working our way up the drainage and a couple coyotes managed to catch our wind and that apparently pissed them off pretty good because they wouldn't stop barking/howling at us for the next 30 minutes.

I passed on a smaller buck trotting across a meadow above us and spotted a group of about 8 does at the head of the drainage. We picked up some more elevation in hopes of glassing across to the other side of the drainage, but that plan was interrupted when Tanner spotted 3 bucks below where the does had just been. The group consisted of a decent basket racked buck, a real small buck, and what we thought was a pretty good sized deer. A quick glance through the Zeiss spotter confirmed this was a deer that we would go for.

Dropping back 50 yards to get a ridge between us and the deer allowed us to pick up some more elevation and get a group of pine trees between us and the deer's line of sight. We managed to stalk to a distance that I felt comfortable shooting from and after setting up the Stone Glacier benchrest, I was able to put a bullet in a good spot and dropped him where he stood.

It was an awesome day in the woods that I don't think I'll ever forget. Gonna be tough driving back to Lincoln in a few days...











This deer had an absolutely monstrous body on him and was covered in fat. He also smelled like hell, must've been getting excited for the rut to get going.

Well done!! Congrats!!!

Nice buck.
Well earned.
Happy for you two.

Great buck!

What about rifle cartridge details, gotta feed the looney trolls you know

Mike

Kids......sheeesh.... Looky them hi-tech collapsible trekky poles. When did the old ridgid cow-pokers (sorting sticks) go outta style?

Great buck, starsky (and tanner). When are you taking me?

Very nice! The future is in good hands!

Thanks everyone.

Forgot the gear report! Knew I'd forget something...

Packs: Tanner was using a SG Sky 7400 and I was using the Solo. They kick ass. Period.

Rifle: My 7mag built on a 700. Shot a 180 Scenar started at 2860fps and it worked perfectly.

Trekking poles help a TON coming downhill with some weight in the pack. Even if they are just fancy cow-pokers...grin

Didn't get a chance to break out the tent and assorted gear, but it provided some nice additional weight to add to the workout.

starsky;
Congratulations on that very fine mulie buck and thanks for the additional photos and details.

You did just fine as a story teller by the way sir....

Chasing mulies in the high country was/is one of my favorite hunts - though I'm still trying to wrap my head around the elevations you all hunt at. It's weird for me too that there are still trees that high as our mountains turn into alpine at about 7500' or so typically.

I'll bet the trekking poles work well too - I used to cut a straight Saskatoon stick for the way down with a loaded pack - you folks might call them Serviceberry down there?

Anyway, those cut poles saved me a twisted ankle or worse on a few deer way back in the day.

Thanks again and again congratulations on a fine buck. All the best to you as you head back to school this fall and good luck on your remaining hunts too.

Dwayne

They also make a good set of buffler sticks, if the sage is too deep for the stone glacier bench....

Great buck!!

Nice muley!

Very nice mule deer buck!

Great story and pics.

Thanks Dwayne! Don't think I've come across any serviceberry down here in Colorado. I was indeed very glad to have those poles on the way out, they also provide a nice additional push going uphill too .

Coming from school in Nebraska out to the higher elevations of home definitely takes a little while to get used to.

Thanks for the kind words and have a good week, sir.

Great buck, congrats!

One hell of a nice mule deer. I'm jealous

You guys sure didn't waste any time, congrats on a great buck.

Congrats! That's a great buck!

Simply awesome Kyle, congrats on a beautiful animal and making some great memories.

You guys have it going on! Nice! Congratulations.

Tanner needs to get in shape so you don't have to push him up the hill next time.

I love spending time on the hill with these two guys. Most of the time I only get out with Tanner lately with Kyle in Nebraska. If I could get them both out at once I think they could push me easier though. Hoping to get them both on a bear hunt next fall if schedules work out.

Kyle shot all summer with me out to about 900 yards, and was making first round milk jug hits any time the wind wasn't whipping out to past 650. The proud dad of me has to relay on the info that this buck was at 582 yards on a pretty good angle. The rifle pic on the pile of backpacks was the rest. So the two of them together made a pretty good team on this hunt.

Congrats to you two happy bastids.......





Good job!!!

Heckuva good buck starsky! Congrats and thanks for the great pics.

2nd that for sure, modesty to boot about the shot also. A whole other thread in another forum with a bunch of internet experts bad mouthing the 7 mm Rem Mag and these young guys are out showing what it can and has done in the hands of knowledgeable, skilled shooters. congrats again great job you two. Magnum Man

vey nice buck , and even better memories , congrats.

Congrats on one dandy of a buck! I remember when I was one of the young bucks around here. Now I just feel old. You two did well, very well.

+1, especially the old part. Nice job guys, great buck!

*PS- It's nice that you boys decided to carry some extra weight up and down the mountain. When you're old like us, you'll figure out ways to go without!

Awesome buck! Congrats on a fun hunt.

Great buck! Congratulations!

Nice buck and enjoyed the story. Congrats.

Great Buck! That white stocked rifle would get you killed on state land here in Michigan!

Awesome buck! There's no way it was that easy!

Congrats on a fine buck! 'Bout time Tanner starts getting in shape after sitting around like he has done the last couple months....

Great buck, well done!

Great, FAT buck! Congrats!

Awesome buck!

Man, what a great buck. Congrats!!!

Prayers sent.

Most definitely one of the highlights of my year. Even after hunting Dalls, Brown Bears, moose, caribou, etc... Mule Deer in my home state reign supreme as my all-time favorite hunt, and it don't matter if I have the tag or not. It was an absolute pleasure to watch a good buddy take a beautiful critter...

Truth be told, I think I was more excited than starsky was, especially considering I had found this deer almost a month prior and we were able to locate him again so promptly. He didn't move more than 1,000 yards from where I'd seen him while scouting.



Here are some pictures of a normal sized person next to the buck, for size reference. starsky is almost 9 feet tall so it doesn't give a good representation of how large the deer's body was, especially considering how long we have to go until the rut kicks in!

That last pic looks bigger than the last spike bull elk I shot. Like that pic.

Congrats to both of you!

That deer is a pig!

Well done to the both of you.

I like your taste in spotting scopes.....

Congrats guys - that is just an awesome buck!!! I think you got the muley thing down Tanner, you have posted some really fine bucks the last few years.

The taxidermist finished him up here recently and he's now hanging in my parents' house. Thought you guys might like to see him, I think he turned out great.

Good job guys!

Starsky that's a great buck and he looks great up there! Nice.

Hey, that turned out really well.
Nice critters to the left of him too.

That is a very nice mount.

Great mount!

Congrats again...........

Great Job!

Nice.

Fantastic! my favorite game animal.