Originally Posted by Dave_Skinner
Gosh, I haven't seen mulies like that in ages, like 95, 96. They've been hammered so hard by wolves. It was shocking to see the change in western MT in 2004 or so, after the wolves had met targets and were starting to arc up the spawning curve.
In fact, I see more bears than deer these days.


I hate to run of topic but WTF.....

About those two deer...........

I'd been doing really well on monster mulies for quite a few years in the area I hunt.
A few were tagged, they had been wintering in the Black Leaf Canyon area of NW Montana, my hunting area in the Great Bear was some 90 miles away from there.

In my hunting area there is a ridge that is steep and grassy on one side and a vertical drop of 1000 feet on so on the other.
It's north of Pentagon Mt. and South of Trilobite peak for those that care to chase....

Anyway, it's a hotspot for a lot of game but the Mule deer seem to love it there. For two years straight I'd been seeing a big drop tine mulie there, one time I was right on his azz without a gun, another time the following year I was at a distance and a clear shot wasn't in the cards..same deer or same genes idunno...

As I had said, my father and I had killed a 6x6 bull on the way into my camp, I'd field dressed it and left it lay, we were well after dark getting in to camp the way it was.
I had been looking forward to this hunt since we'd started planing it, I was doing it right, I had two hired hands, one camp roustabout that could pack a mule and a multi-talented cook. That elk was their problem to get into camp the next day, mine was finding a monster mulie for my dad.

We set off for my favorite hillside along that open ridge long before sun-up. We'd gotten there at the perfect time and there was nothing. Not the slightest sign of life, I glassed my azz off for a few hours and couldn't spot so much as a chipmunk.

I'd really been pushing dad, he'd flown in from Florida one day, jumped in a little Cessna and flew into the Great Bear the next morning and had shot and killed a bull before he'd gone to bed. Now it was lunch time the following day, we were both beat.

We nested down along side a big blown over buckskin larch and had some lunch as the day warmed. Didn't take long and we were both sound asleep....
When the peak heat of the afternoon began to subside the slight chill woke me, it was about 3:30 or 4:00, I peeked over the log we were laying behind and these two bucks were feeding about 75 yards away down the hill. I woke dad and got ready for the ambush, it couldn't have been more perfect, we had the log for a rest and all the time we needed to make a solid plan.

He was to shoot the bigger buck to the left, I'd take the other, they were like 20 feet apart. We did a countdown and shot simultaneously, both bucks went down like rag dolls, they just piled up right where they had stood.

Right then is when I realized I'd screwed up royally, there were 7 other bucks there I'd never even seen.
They headed down the slope about 250 yards away in a line, all one behind the other and they were in order as to size.
My big drop tine buck was leading the way, the ones my father and I had shot would have fit right in the middle of the group, we watched as three bigger and four smaller bucks filed outta there...

So goes life, at least we got the two that were standing side by side for the money shot on photos, not that I have a clue as to the positioning of the other deer, they were on the move and leaving before I'd ever seen them.
The photo with my father and I both in it took front page of the Hunting and Fishing news the following year....

The griz was the icing on the cake............

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]