Mule Deer Fanatic

Excerpts from 250 News:

Monday, November 05

Farmers and ranchers in the Ft St John, Dawson Creek and Peace River area say this year will go down as one of the worst years in recent memory for the population of deer, moose and elk .

They say the record snow falls last year resulted in the death of an estimated 1,000 animals in the area between the Alaska Highway, and the junction of the Peace and Kiskatinaw River.

Ben Tschetter of the South Peace Colony says “We think that the Elk may have wintered the best, but there is no doubt the deer population was decimated by the snowfall. There were days when we where taking 10 to 12 dead animals away from our cattle feed troughs every single day. We felt so sorry for them but there was nothing we could do. “

Tschetter says the wildlife would eat whatever they could find “The Mule deer and the White tail’s were coming to our yard for feed and while we didn’t want to not let them feed, they were dying with full bellies from eating hay and alfalfa that they were not accustomed to eating.”

Meantime the butcher shops who regularly see a huge increase in their business starting from late August to October 31st, say the season has been a bust.

One butcher reported he normally would cut and wrap about 130 to 140 animals a year. He was down to just 28 this year.

Everyone is hoping this winter won’t be as bad as last year , fearing another heavy snowfall will wipe out the deer, moose and elk population.

 Mr. Mike Haviland, “Tater”, of Missouri, got his deer mixed up. Congrats anyway, Mike.

Kit Maxfield, a Hunting Sports Plus Member and his big Kansas Buck for 2006

Here is his story:

I left the HSP office on Thursday night after work in the middle of the big snow storm for the opening weekend of the KS 06′ deer rifle season. After a long white knuckle drive out to North Western Kansas I arrived at my motel which was only about 8 miles from the farm that I had reserved.

Each day I saw a ton of Mulies (30-40), and was trying to locate a trophy buck to put a stalk on. I had seen plenty of bucks each day, almost pulled the trigger on a few. I had held out until the third night of my hunt (had to get back to work), when I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time. One after another Mulies were appearing out of what seemed to be nothing. That evening I had been watching an absolute monster for about a half an hour, when two others stepped out. They meandered about in the alfalfa and the second largest of the group broke off from the main herd to tend a small group of does that were headed East of my location. The small group of does walked up and over a hill right in front of me, and the buck followed suit. Once this buck crested the hill it was the first time in the trip that I had a real opportunity to close the distance between myself and a shooter buck.

Do I wait for the biggest buck of the group to come closer when I only had about a half an hour of legal shooting hours, or do I leave all of my gear behind and make it happen with the buck that just went over the hill. In my head these thoughts were racing, then all I could think was “GOGOGOGOGOGO”. I left my gear behind and made a b-line to a point where I thought I could get a shot off. As I approached the apex of the hill I could not see any deer, and then as the buck lifted his head, all I saw was bone. The buck in the picture was the second largest of the three trophy animals that I saw that evening. The largest is still running around, and at least survived the opening weekend of the season.

This buck was harvested on Mid-America Hunting Association land by hunter Nathan.

This buck came from the same Association, killed by James P.

Muley Madness South Dakota Style

Bob’s buck scored 205 Gross

This story just in from the Rapid City Journal:

“Bob Healey of Box Elder hunted for many years to finally shoot a buck big enough to put on the wall. He dropped it opening day of the West River rifle deer season on public land “in northwest South Dakota.” 

By Kevin Woster

“Kansas deer hunters boast about having record numbers of “Huge Bucks.” It certainly cannot be denied, but there could be an underlying reason — for years, non-residents were not allowed to deer hunt in Kansas! Now that the state has allowed non-residents in on a drawing basis, those that received the lucky draw, can attest to that fact — Kansas has an abundant number of huge bucks.

When I was a teenager, the annual deer hunt was virtually a state holiday. Schools closed down on Friday, and all the businesses had deer hunter sales. We all hunted as families. Deer hunters happily displayed their bucks for all to see, and everyone was interested in seeing them. High schoolers talked about the hunt for days afterward. I miss those days. So, I was delighted to find this article published in the Missoulian (Montana) showing that somewhere out there you may still find some old-fashioned values.

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Fierce competition closes in Alberton
By ROB CHANEY

Montana’s general hunting season ended Sunday. Alberton High School’s bragging season started Monday morning.

Actually, bragging about bagging game has been an intramural sport at Alberton High for years. But it took on a battle-of-the-sexes vibe this year among members of the school newspaper staff. The weekly “Hunter’s Corner” column in the Panther Press alternated between male and female writers, who took aim at each other’s egos with gusto.

“We have a good hunting tradition at the school, and our girls are very successful hunters,” said Kent Haab, who teaches computer and business classes when not supervising the Panther Press. “Last year, the girls bagged some big animals and the boys didn’t do so well. They kind of take jabs at each other, but it’s all in good fun.”

Senior Jordan Johnson figured about two-thirds of Alberton High’s 70 students chase big game every fall. He added a 3-by-4 whitetail buck to the boys’ total

“Everybody in the school is pretty big on hunting,” Johnson said. “And a lot of our teachers are into hunting, so it’s nice to talk about it with them. This year, everybody that had a tag pretty much got an animal. Most everybody got something toward the end.”

“We’re always competitive and the girls usually beat the guys – not really, but we like to say that,” said senior Becca Petersen, who credited her gender with a 5-by-5 mule deer buck and a cow elk this year. “There’s way more guys hunting than girls. But we haven’t really ever kept track before.”

Petersen said the competition kept many student hunters in the field more this year than in past hunting seasons. Everyone struggled with the dry weather early in the season, with most kills coming around the last week. Petersen dropped her muley shortly before Thanksgiving dinner.

“Everyone in this class keeps track of who’s got what,” said Lyndi Ishler, whose mountain goat last year helped trigger the competition this year. She logged a 4-by-6 whitetail buck this year, and brought it to the school parking lot to make sure it was accounted for. She said most of her hunting classmates worked the mountains around Alberton and the Interstate 90 corridor.

Panther Press writer Cody Hoose reported a final tally of 32 tags: 10 from eight girls and 22 from 15 boys. The ladies brought home one mule deer, seven whitetails and two elk. The gents delivered five muleys, 12 whitetail and five elk. The rules specified number of tags, so by the rules, the boys won.

“That’s usually how it goes – the girls jab their jaws and the guys go out and hunt,” said Hoose, who scored a fork-horn mule deer buck. “But I know a lot of people failed elkwise, including me and my cousins.”

This being the first year of publishing the bragging contest, no one’s sure what the future will hold.

“I’m not sure what we’ve got in store for next year,” Hoose said. “I just hope there’s a competition.”