Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting A rookie wets his feet on a Montana Mulie

First off I want to say thanks for everyone with their tips and advice on mule deer hunting in general and apologize for an incredibly long post. I have spent my life chasing coastal blacktails in tight timber and was totally lost on chasing mule deer in the sage. I was toting my Tikka .270 with a SS 3x9 and 140 Bergers at 3000fps. I zero for 200 yards and feel confident to 800 yards in reasonable conditions.

I was going in totally cold, scouting various BMA ranches as I hunted. I am stuck hunting the evenings based on a work schedule and was frustrated several times with seeing nice bucks in the evening and running out of light trying to make a stalk. A couple of times I had high probability shots but it wasnt quite right, to far, wind switching to fast to get a read for a shot or concerns of locating a downed buck in miles of sage with no reference points. For me knowing when I should not pull the trigger is as important as when to pull it.

So Tuesday I had off work to vote along with the wife so we decided to make a morning hunt. This was her first time hunting with me and her 13 year old daughter decided it was a good day to skip school. They were bundled from head to toe in winter gear in the loudest material I have ever heard. I just smiled, mentally removed the chance of filling a tag and focused on simply showing them the experience of hunting. They come from a non hunting background so all they had to go on was a few stories and pictures from me. Concerns of being eaten by bears, wolves and coyotes were all very real to them. To ease their concerns we waited till daylight till we left the truck.

The property is a mix of cut wheat, rolling sage and a huge bowl several miles across. The plan was to try to catch the deer leaving the wheat and watching them bed down and go from there. Daylight did not keep them from being very close to me at all times.


At one point we saw a coyote at least 800yards out trotting down a trail. The wife asked very seriously if I would be able to shoot it when it charged. The morning ended with seeing about 200 pronghorn, the coyote and the butts of at least 20 deer when the wind shifted and they blew out of a draw in the wheat and bailed into the canyon doing mach 1. Not bad considering the concept of whispering and walking quietly were not being put into play. I had picked the route since it would only be a mile to the area I wanted to hunt and was fairly level ground but knew the wind was not in our favor. We decided to call it a morning and go back into town and vote.

The wife asked very honestly what would it take to fill the freezer with one of the deer we saw. I told her it would require an approach from the opposite direction to take advantage of the wind (blowing 20mph plus) and let the wind cover some of our noise but it would be a 4 mile hike in. Suprisingly they both agreed it would be the plan for the evening.

About 2pm we set out on our hike both of them visibly shaking with excitement and Mooch my lucky hunting monkey in position on my pack.



The first 3 miles were some pretty "dead ground" that showed no signs of anything and I told them to just enjoy the view and walk. There was quite a bit of singing, jokes and a 30 minute break to get on our bellies and see who could crawl the closest to a prarie dog.


Once we hit the first series of draws they both slowed way down and got quiet. I actually had to look back a couple of times to make sure they were still there. They were diligently using the binoculars everytime I stopped and were using hand signals between themselves. As we cleared one of the ridges we started to see deer all over the opposite side about 600yards out. We had a pair of forked horns, a respectable 3x3, 30 does and about 60 pronghorn. At this point the camera got put away and they both got super serious. We had a heavy crosswind gusting between 15-25mph and there was no way I was going to take a shot. The deer were unhurried and not a single animal was looking our way, we had about 30minutes of shooting light left. We backed out and made a plan that required running about a half mile loop so we would have a head wind and a reasonable shot at about 500 yards. The deer decided to feed into the field into a low draw and we could not see them. The girls decided to stay behind and I moved to a fenceline and used the tumble weeds stuck in the fence to hide as I crawled about 300yards to get to a good shooting position. At one point I was crawling about 25yards from a pair of does and they were looking away with the wind in the face the entire time, very gratifying to sneak past them.

I found the buck bedded down at 457 yards but all I could see was his head and I could not tell which way his body was facing. I kept crawling to get a higher view and cut the range to 356 yards. I dialed in for 350 and was proned out rock solid waiting for him to stand up and figured for a 20mph wind coming from about 10 0'clock. About 5 minutes went by and a doe walked past the buck and he immediatley stood up to check her out. He was on his feet for only a couple seconds when I let the shot go. I was greeted with the loudest thump I have ever heard in my life, Im guessing it was amplified in the wind. I briefly saw feet sticking up in the air before all hell broke loose with deer and pronghorn going every direction.

He was done when I got there and not a drop of blood on his hide. I saw a tiny puff of ruffled hair dead center on his shoulder, a classic Berger entrance. For me the impact point was maybe 2" high from absolutely perfect. When we disassembled him the near shoulder had a pin hole, a 1" entrance hole into his ribs and a 2" exit through the ribs with the top of the heart and lungs put through a blender.



The smile on my daughters face was priceless as we were rolling him into position.
[img]http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/...stuff/Montanahunt2012440_zps4ff4dca2.jpg[/img]
We finished by putting three quarters in my pack and one quarter in the wifes pack along with the backstraps and tenderloins. We chugged out the four miles with lots of smiles and more singing (to keep coyotes from attacking us ). At home my pack was 121 lbs and the wifes was 43 lbs so we should yeild about 110 lbs of meat.
[img]http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/...stuff/Montanahunt2012443_zps26f71e91.jpg[/img]

It was not the biggest buck on the prarie but the rancher indicated it was an excellent buck for the area. Quartering went pretty quick but looking at the teeth by flashlight I would guess about 5 years old and close to 225-250lbs. Even more importantly is my wife and daughter are absolutley hooked and are already talking about taking their hunter safety course and getting tags for all available animals next year. It has been a blast to start from scratch and learn on the run and I could not be happier for my first mule deer.

Thanks again to everyone for tips and suggestions.

Great story.....thanks for posting it.

Super story! It should be a fun ride getting the two of them into hunting. Congrats.

Best story of the day!

Great writeup and photos! It was particularly cool to hear about your wife and daughter's experience. I'm glad there was no coyote charge. I hear they can be vicious!

Eric

Great story, nice buck, wonderful family and awesome sunset. I can see as great as the West Texas sunsets are, they ain't got nothin' on Montana.

John

You've just described what hunting and life itself, is all about.

Sharing, enjoying, teaching and learning...for all involved.

Great hunt, pics and story.......thanks!

WayTo Go!!

Congratulations on a great hunt!

I can't say as I've read a better story.

Awesome write up man, and congrats on getting a couple more folks into hunting! Also thank you for not saying there was a hole through the front shoulders *grin*

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing a great hunt!

Way to go "DWD"

Dober

Great job! Love to see the families out together.

Congrats!

Truly awesome! Thanks for taking us along and congrats on a fine deer. You are a blessed man to have your family with you!

The pic with the sunset is awesome! Congrats on the buck!

Excellent! Looks like everyone had fun!

Great story and pictures, congrats to you! So glad the coyote didn't charge.......

Super story! Looks like ya got hunting pards for years to come!!!! Great pics too!!!

Congratulations!!!!!

Great story!