Mule Deer Fanatic

Scouting MPEG4

A couple good bucks from Johnyutah5

My friend, Jason, scores big by killing 3 different predators in one month’s time (with help from his 12-year old son). He is a hero for saving mule deer and other game animals. All Mule Deer Fanatics need to follow his example.

My mother used to say: “A miss is as good as a mile”.

Apparently, this guy’s “friend” shot ( his bow) before he had time to duck. Don’t do this to your friends.

This guy is a brother of a friend. He has killed a lot of BIG Mule Deer. I am truly envious.

Even friends of mine, who ought to know better, are in favor of making the Arizona late bowhunt a draw hunt. When I ask them why, the typical response is, “everything is getting overhunted”. When “reasonable people” view mule deer hunting this way, I wonder why, as hunters, we have become so willing to attack the symptoms vs. the problem. By applying band-aids to the symptoms, the real problem is obscured. In our self-centered desire for presumed “better hunting”, we cut off our nose to spite our face.

We are witnessing the last of a dying breed – so to speak. There aren’t very many mule deer hunters left who know how good it could be, having seen how good it once was. If the present trend continues, there will be no over-the-counter mule deer tags available anywhere. To me, this slow cancer of declining opportunity feels like a loss of freedom. I have told my friends that once it is taken away, it will not be given back.

Since I, apparently, possess one of the last remaining over-the-counter Arizona mule deer archery tags, I decided to put it to use on the “opening day” of the unit 10 late bowhunt. December 14, 2007, was my first attempt at this hunt, and may very well be my last.

There was a fairly fresh blanket of snow over much of the unit, so I decided to find deer by looking for tracks. I especially like to find tracks that are so fresh that the deer are still standing in them, but I didn’t find any of those. The muleys in this area don’t need to migrate, but they do anyway. Snow is a great blessing for the few remaining deer because they can go wherever they please and have access to what would otherwise be a scant supply of water in this drought-ridden state.

I spent most of the day behind the steering wheel, and I covered a lot of ground. High, low, north, east, west, and south. Mid morning I found a likely looking spot with fresh deer tracks crossing the road, and decided to set out on foot. I hiked for 3 hours. The only live animal I saw, not just while hiking, but for the whole day, was a fox.

Some say that tracks in the snow tell the story. Rabbit tracks were, by far, most abundant. I cut hundreds of them. Coyote tracks were next in abundance. There were about 30 sets of these. There were three deer tracks, and one lion track. The lion was fairly large, having a 4 inch wide foot print. The lion had been hunting from the ledges overlooking a sidehill. I used a similar strategy.

If I were to judge the number of animals by the number of tracks, then it is absolutely amazing that there are any deer left at all. For every 10 deer there would be 3 lions and 10 coyotes. I don’t know how the rabbits survive either.

I did not see one live deer all day. Most of the hunters were driving the roads. Most were congregated around the areas where there were deer tracks. In a couple of spots, there were migration tracks that looked somewhat like a herd of sheep had passed through. Over the rest of this very large unit, tracks were very few and far between.

Now, after a hunt like that, wouldn’t it be easy for me to say that the unit is overhunted and that it ought to be a draw? It would be, if I were ill-informed. But, I realize that the problem is “not enough deer”, and the symptoms are: poor hunting experience, and overcrowding around where the few deer remain. The solution is to have more deer, not less hunters. And, if we were to go back in time, we would find that, once upon a time, there were more deer, more hunters, more opportunity, and more success. What is the solution, you ask? Less predators – way less. Our wildlife agencies have taken to managing hunters for the predators, instead of the other way around.

As far as I can tell, with the possible exeption of water, there is ample habitat for many more deer, both in quantity and quality. The rabbits and the elk are making it possible for the predators to avoid starvation from the lack of deer or there would be no deer and no predators.

I had a lion tag in my pocket. If I could have shot ( or shot at ) a lion, coyote, or fox – I would have done so. The fox, that I saw, didn’t hang around long enough for a shot or he may have had an arrow enema.

Do your part. Kill predators. Resist decisions that reduce opportunity for hunters.

Kyle Lopez, 14, of Divide, Colorado – killed this buck during the 2007 season:

He tagged a trophy buck that, according to reports, has scored more than 303 inches net Boone and Crockett and will be the largest buck ever taken by a youth as well as the largest mule deer taken in more than 20 years. The buck has 41 points and a 37 2/8 inch outside spread. The main frame alone is more than 207 inches with more than 100 inches of nontypical points.

Hunter bags huge Muley in Atlanta, Georgia. How could this be?

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