Nov 2017 Mule Deer Hunt
My first story on huntingbc.ca
It was November and a fair amount of snow was on the ground at this point in 3-31.
We were up there because of my friends drew a doe tag.
We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, got to our camp and setup for the first morning.
Thursday morning, we were up bright and early heading into our first locations that we've seen deer at earlier in the year.
We hunted hard and covered lots of ground but we weren't seeing any deer.
When I say we weren't seeing any deer, it wasn't like we saw a few here and there, it was absolutely zero.
This trend continued once again on Friday. Two days in and not a single deer was seen in our region but we kept seeing them on the side of the hwy late at night driving back to camp.
On our third day we drove to some new areas and still nothing that morning. We decided to gain some elevation as our plan to check lower areas came up short.
At around 11am we drove into our next spot, parked the truck and the three of us decided to have lunch and do some walking to see what we can find in this new location.
We were much higher up now and just like every other spot previously, it looked promising!
After 10 minutes of chatting and eating, I was preoccupied making some more food and my friend went off to look down the road for tracks with no rifle. I noticed this and didn't want to yell out at him but oh how I wanted to!
He got back and I gave him shit and explained that anything, at any moment can happen while hunting. So he says, "yeah yeah, I just forgot. We're talking and didn't think I'd see anything anyways."
So then my friend goes on to tell me he saw some moose tracks.
I said grab your rifle, I grabbed mine and show me what you saw.
We head down the road and checked out the tracks.
Immediately I kinda laugh and said these aren't moose tracks, they're buck tracks and it's actually a good size buck.
He's fairly new to hunting so I went over how to distinguish older buck tracks from a more rounded tip and the dew claw impressions.
Just as I was finished explaining this, I stood up and as I stood up in the corner of my eye I see this buck standing there looking at me, with seriously a cartoonish look on it's face like which expressed "WTF, WHERE DID YOU COME FROM!?"
So all within a matter of 2 or 3 seconds, I said buck! and I swing around my rifle but he began to run.
I couldn't confirm the points and it was 4x or better, so I didn't shoot but it looked like a good buck!
I tell my friend head back down the road in case he turns back in and I'll follow it.
Right after that I caught a glimpse of it and it was getting away fast. So I started to run.
Now this is winter, lots of deadfall and can't really see where I'm stepping. So I look like a fool trying to cover ground quickly. After about 30-40 yards, I spotted it again and it was stopped broadside staring at me. I immediately go for the check and confirm that it's a 4x4. I click off the safety and he turns, leaving me only an ass shot or texas bullseye as some of you may call it.
Blah... So I refuse the shot and it takes off out of sight down a slope towards a frozen marsh with a forest break between another open area.
I ran to where the deer was roughly standing when I confirmed the 4x4 and I see it now a good 120 yards or so away running along the left side of the tree line.
At this point my hearts racing and my breathe was heavy. I posted up, controlled my breathing and put my scope on it and watched it turn into into the tree break.
All I was thinking was control your breath, lower that heart rate and relax. as well as, please come out the right side of the trees across the marsh, Please come out please come out! haha
And sure as shit, a few moments later, with my rifle still ready I see the buck come out of the trees still at a run. I had no time to range it but my rifle is zero'd in at 200 and I thought he was about at the 200 yard range at this point so I slightly lead the target and fired.
miss.
I don't even take my eye off the scope, chamber the next round and control my breathe. Take the shot and
HIT,
Buck shows signed of a big buckle but I couldn't confirm the shot placement. So I chambered and just as he was about to enter the back of the marsh into the deep woods, fired and he slipped into darkness.
Now at this point I'm freaking out since I may have killed my first 4 point mule deer buck! I whistle to my friends who just heard a war zone of shots go off but they were far to my right since I split off from the road. We head down and find the blood.
In hindsight we should have waited a good 30 minutes before going down but lesson learned and we spooked the buck. He ran and went deeper into the woods.
we backed out left him alone for an hour or so and came back to only find our tracking leading us into a big loop and back up the hill we came from. The buck got up and down about 4-5 times leaving a massive blood pile all the way to his last spot. I found him bedded under some trees and took a shot to finish him off.
Can't wait to get out this year.
Going for Mule deer and Elk in September.
Depending on my success, I'll try for another buck in late oct or early nov
and hopefully somewhere in between all of that get a black bear.
Good luck with your season everyone!
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