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

That will make a grown man want to cry! powdr

JG,
What do you suspect caused the fire, butane leak, illegal aliens?

We suspect a short in one of the camping trailers, probably the one setup on north side. Speculating north wind blew flames into other camper, then into ATV/UTV's. We know it did not start at the box because the power cords were still OK. We'll probably never know for sure though.

JG that really sucks! Sorry about that misfortune!

But glad you guys were not in there when it started! Whew!


Just saw pics. Wow!

Dang, sorry about the fire JG...

Fortunately, nobody got hurt.

I'm very glad you DON'T suspect arson !!


Jerry

Glad nobody was hurt in the fire.

Damn! Sorry bud!

Dang JG! just checking in on the campfire after some time off and find this. After first thinking you were unfortunate I scrolled down to see the pics and now I'm thinking you were very fortunate. Had that happened at night somebody would probably be dead. Never seen ATV's burned like that. Had to be a hot fire upwind. Strange.

Holy moly my friend. Glad you ok.

If I saw a buck like that I would be shaking too much to hit 'em

And if I came back to camp and saw that carnage I would be shaking for a different reason.

I hate to see that for you but very glad y'all are alright.

wow, close call. Glad no one was hurt. Also lucky, no big grass fire, either.

Dang JG. Sorry to read about losing your stuff. The important thing is that you, your friends and any family that may have been there are okay!

Sorry about your loss.

You can buy "stuff"

JG,
Very sorry about your misfortune. You're one of the good guys on this forum and it's a shame bad things happen to good fellas.

Thank you very much Arns, I appreciate it.

Damn! I remember the first post (Great Buck!). Didn't see what it turned into.

That is crazy. Hope you end up whole.

As said, thankfully ya'll are ok.

That sucks. I am glad to hear nobody was hurt.