I know a lot of hunters have not had a lot of success calling muley’s and/or blacktail’s but believe me they are very susceptible to this strategy. Seven 4 point muleys, 4 blacktails and to many 2-3 point muleys to count have been added to our freezers that we would never seen let alone harvested directly because of callin em in.
My partner Rod and I decided that this year we would branch outand try muley hunting in a new area and region. The area we normally hunt is stillproducing but we wanted a change. On the thanksgiving weekend I went out and scouted an area near Kamloops with my grandson. We saw lots of deer and some nice open country so itwas decided this would be the new place to hunt for 2012.
We arrived mid day after the ferry ride and the drive on the Coqahalla andfound a suitable place for the wall tent. It took us the rest of the daylight hours to getcamp set up and a good night’s firewood.
Next morning we both hopped on the quad and drove throughthe snow looking for sign and deer. We weren’t overly impressed with what wefound for sign and struck out on seeing any deer but a few areas held more sign and some promise. That pattern of little sign and no deer spotted held thatafternoon as well as the following day. Day 3 we decided to go hunt another area thatis a 15 min drive by truck that I have hunted many times. There was a lot moresign and lots of deer to be seen but what we found was that the 4 points weren’t with thedoes anymore, they had done there thing and were wandering their territorylooking for the few hot does that were still out there. We found close to half the tracks in the area where wecamped were lone bucks doing just that, where as where we were seeing lots ofdoes and dink bucks there was not as many big bucks still wandering around as there is a lot of pressure from many camps and hunters. So we madethe decision to stick close to the new camp and put in our time.
Day 4 of the hunt found us sitting in spots with greatvisibility and overlooking large cuts and area’s of good vision as the sun began to rise on another fine cold day. We had foundf a lot of sign in the fresh snow of the bucks just traversing the landscape and searching for those hot does. On my way intothe spot I chose to sit, I spooked a doe and fawn and watched a cow moose feed in frontof me. I love calling and set up so I would call every 15 mins faithfully, so that any wandering buck's that cameinto the area would be able to hear my call. Now the call I use is not thetypical grunt call or bleats. It is a call that the inventor of the diaphragmcall and the best wild animal caller on the planet, Wayne Carlton himself, had taught me. I have usedit many times over the years and brought down several good muleys, blacktail’sand whitetails to the freezer. After a couple hours of sitting and calling, I made another call and within 7 mins Ifinally noticed movement slightly off to my right side. Making his way throughthe cut block towards me was a good buck.The binoc’s confirmed it was a 4 point and my rifle brought the buck to thesnow covered ground.
My buddy Rod hunted through the next several days while Igot the meat back to camp and hung it up and prepped it for processing. I wentout a few times to look for one of the many coyotes in the area but was onlyable to call up this little crab claw buck. On the last night of our hunt Roddecided to give the call a try, so we practised at camp and away he went to apot not far from where my buck was and set up with a great view of up to 600yds around him. He had got to a great high spot for visibility and let out thefirst call but didn’t think it sounded to good so tried a couple calls to getthe sound correct when he noticed movement on the opposite hill side. It wasdeer at 650 yds and running towards him. He confirmed with his binoc’s it was a4 point and waited for him to get to shooting distance. The buck was notwasting anytime as he ran full tilt down the opposing hill and broke through the tree’sthat buffered the edge of the road below Rod. The buck turned broadside as heentered the old landing below him and his rifle barked and another buck was readyto go home for the winter’s food supply.
I have to admit that thenormal grunt calls are not nearly as effective as the one that Wayne showed me. The first time I gained faith in this series of calling I have watched a 4 point at 475 yds walk a ridge and stop each time I grunted normally but ultimately he decided to continue on his way. I did that 3 times before he was tailing off the ridge down into a creek bottom and would be gone forever. I remembered Wayne's advice and gave the call a try just as he was about to dissappear. He stopped in his tracks, turned towards me and never stopped walking towards me till he dropped on the ground at 47 yds.
I was sold forever that this call worked.
Their steaks, roasts and burger to me! Tom 
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Originally Posted by Wrayzer
