Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Mule Deer at Devils Tower

I have a busy hunting season planned this Fall, so two weeks after returning from the moose hunt in the Yukon (posted in the General Big Game forum) my friends from North Carolina, Marty, Ricky, and Matt picked me up on 10/30 and we headed to Sundance Wyoming.
The second day of travel we drove through the Badlands in South Dakota. Here are the boys and a few landscape pictures.

We saw a few antelope and some coyotes looking for a meal in the prairie dog towns then headed on West.

A few hours later and after a stop at Cabelas we arrive at our destination. We were hunting with Seven J and Jeff and Deb Smith greated us and showed us around the lodge. We had already seen deer in the fields as we drove in and we watched deer from the deck before supper.

Supper in the dining room them we met our guides. Matt and Ricky were hunting mule deer and antelope and we're going to a property that held both. Marty and I would hunt together, him for whitetail and me for mule deer, our guide Conner was taking us to a 10,000 acre ranch that held both. Organize our gear and go to bed early to be ready for an early breakfast.

Nov. 1 - Day One

After breakfast we loaded into Conner's truck and headed out into the fresh snow that fell overnight and was still coming down. Thirty minutes later we reached the ranch and dropped Marty off in a blind overlooking a hay field. Conner and I drove on, parked the truck and hiked up a hill to watch a draw coming from another field. After watching some whitetail does we headed to the top of the ridge to glass a couple other draws. Lots of tracks but saw only one mule deer doe.
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Late morning we could still see a few dozen deer in the field below Marty. I sent him a text and he was ready to come out for lunch. He had seen plenty of deer including some eight point bucks and one ten point but nothing he wanted to shoot on the first morning. The ranch roads were turning into a mud bog so Conner decided we should run back to the lodge and pick up an ATV. We ate our lunch as we headed back to the ranch then Marty took an ATV ride up to a blind on a rim rock cliff overlooking a valley that funneled deer from their beds on the brushy hillsides. Conner an I then rode up top of a long ridge to do some glassing. We saw deer in several places during the ride but increased snowfall and fog made glassing difficult. At one point I am sitting on a hillside and visibility is less than eighty yards. Suddenly two 3x3 mule deer drifted out of the fog then turned and disappeared back in the fog. At the same spot an eight point whitetail appeared then the two mule deer pushed him toward me. They passed by under 40 yards.

Saw a few more does and small bucks then picked up Marty and headed back to the lodge for supper. Marty had a slow afternoon. Back at the lodge we found out Ricky had taken a 14" antelope and Matt had a nice buck.

nice story. Keep it coming

Nice bucks there. That antelope has really nice prongs for a 14er. Nice mulie buck too. I'd be happy with those two.

Nov. 2 - Day Two

We dropped Marty off at the blind he sat in the first morning and he wanted to stay all day. Conner and I went to a different ranch. On this property the hay fields were up top and a large T shaped canyon lay in the middle. We saw several small groups of deer into the canyon and about 9:00 they started moving up into the hay fields. A few bucks but nothing big. Very cold morning. Visibility was better and I got my first view of Devils Tower.

After throughly covering this small ranch we headed back to the big ranch about 11:00. Ate lunch then headed up on the ridge. We bumped a lot of deer including two eight point whitetails, but their buddy thought he was hid and stayed bedded for a picture.



I show this picture to Marty at supper and he said he saw over 100 deer before lunch, 30 bucks but nothing this good. Remember this deer, you will see him again.

We covered a lot of ground both on the ATV and on foot and around every turn I saw the tower.

From the top of the long ridge



Down in the valley

We went to the rim rock cliff where Marty sat the first afternoon and saw a mule deer fork horn and three whitetail bucks move through. One was a good, wide eight point. Conner kept saying "I wish Marty was up here".




We finished the day watching an empty hay field. All three of us were cold to the bone by the end of the the day.

Ricky and Matt continued to stack them up. A nice buck for Ricky and a 14 3/4" antelope for Matt.

Nov. 3 - Day Three

I wanted to get to the top of the ridge before daylight. We had only been up there in the afternoon and always bumped deer, 12 bucks the first day and 10 the second. Because we also were seeing some good whitetail bucks up there, Conner wanted Marty to come with us. Before first light we were posted under some pines thirty yards below the top waiting for deer to move up from feeding below.
As soon as it was light enough to glass I saw does 225 yards to my right. After they moved into the timber we didn't see anything for 30 minutes so Conner suggested we move down to the spot they came from and glass down the slope. Once in position we saw 5 mule deer does and two whitetail bucks in a small opening halfway down the slope. Conner got Marty in position to watch for the bucks. The does fed into the timber and bedded and the smaller buck moved through in the opposite direction. Marty kept watching for the other buck.
At this point I thought we were focused on getting Marty a shot but I kept looking back up the slope behind me. A few minutes later Conner turned and looked past me and said "Don't move, get your rifle".
Well I couldn't do both so I slowly reached over and picked up my rifle that was on my pack. I had a pine tree behind me so I turned and leaned against it for a rest. I chambered a round as I saw the buck walking up the slope right where we had been earlier. I knew the distance so didn't bother to range it. Conner said he is a tall 4x3. I took a short look through the scope and put the crosshairs above his elbow as he stepped out from behind a pine.
The picture below is looking from where the buck was standing back to where I was at the shot in far tree line.

Another great read.

Great pictures and story. Thanks for sharing. I got to fly around Devil's Tower as close as permitted and Mt. Rushmore in the same day.

My first shot caught Marty and Conner by surprise. They thought I would take a rest on by back pack or shooting sticks but the tree gave me a solid support and the crosshairs were steady. I hit a touch lower than I wanted with the first shot, broke the front left leg and penetrated upward into the bottom third of the chest. He turned and ran almost directly away to my right. As far as I could tell the second shot missed, but he stopped broadside and Conner gave me a range of 285 yards. The third shot dropped him. Further examination showed the first shot was lethal, but if they are still on their feet I'm still shooting.

Handshakes, pictures, field dress, an easy thirty yard drag to the ATV and we were off to the processor. I was shooting my Kimber Hunter in 6.5 Creedmoor with factory Hornaday 143 grain ELDX. As you can tell from the way I am bundled up it was cold and very windy.

I was back at the lodge for lunch and Marty headed out for the afternoon hunt. After lunch Matt, Ricky and I took a drive to sight see and get some pictures of the tower and deer.





In less than an hour the tower was shrouded in mist.