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This year I had an archery elk tag and I was in the dedicated hunter program so I could hunt archery, muzzleloader and rifle season for a mule deer. I have always been pretty horrible at archery hunting for mule deer. I'm ok at the spotting but I'm a big guy that is pretty darn noisy trying to sneak within range. This downfall of mine may not work for deer but being able to sound like a heard of elk tromping around the mountain works pretty good for archery elk hunting. I generally focus on hunting elk with my bow and if a nice buck was to present itself that's an added bonus. Archery deer hunting when I have been in the dedicated hunter program has been more of scouting trips to learn where to find the bucks come muzzleloader season and rifle season. This year was no exception.
One of the last weeks in August I decided I wanted to try dropping into a high altitude basin I had seen elk in before. After Dallen was out of school for the day we took off for the mountain. We hiked in and spent the night under the stars inside a cluster of high altitude pines. It was a night Dallen and I will always remember. The temperature probably never dropped below 65 degrees so we were not comfortable sleeping in our sleeping bags. Now the big or should I say little problem. The mosquitoes! I has never in my life seen it like this. The mosquitoes were driving us crazy biting our faces, hands and anything that stuck out of your sleeping bags. And thus the balance between sweating to death and being eaten to death continued all through the night. Needless to say, we got very little sleep. Next time I plan on going in when the weather is that warm I'll be packing a Thermacell.
We were up before light and started working our way down the canyon. I made note of a couple of good sources to pump water from if I was to come back and spend longer amounts of time hunting here. As we rounded a little bend we bumped a couple bucks. They were within range albeit in the range towards the bottom of my sight pins. The one buck was a good 3x3 with a cheater on one side. The other buck we didn't get the best look at but I could see his left four point antler and we could also see that he was pretty darn wide. They never presented a shot but I took good note of how they worked their way around and out of the basin.
We explored around the basin the rest of the day and worked our way back to our base camp and out that night. Another great day with my oldest son.
The following week I made another trip in myself to see if I could get another shot at the wide buck. After watching the buck the previous week I decided on a plan to slip around in the dark and wait by a pinch point below some cliffs the buck had passed the week before. I had been in place for about a half-hour into daylight when the mountain erupted with gunfire high above me around the top of the basin. The shooting was also coming from multiple locations. What in the world? At the time I was very upset but later I realized it might have been a blessing in disguise as I learned more about what was in the canyon that day.
As the shooting started erupting the canyons emptied themselves of the deer and I mean emptied. I had four bucks come right by me at warp speed and I watched others come out of different areas and retreat to safety in the dense forest below. The buck I had watched the week before was one of the bucks that came right past me but this time he wasn't companions with the 3x3, he had an even older, heavier, taller buck with him. As they were coming I quickly drew my bow and hoped that they would stop or pause. They did, however they stopped inside the edge of some jack pines then dashed again through the open area I was hoping to get a shot from. I now had changed my plans. I wanted the tall, heavy, long tined buck.
After this day I had now counted five to six bucks that had four points or better and many other smaller bucks in that basin.
As I hiked out of the basin that day I ran into a couple of different groups of hunters with dogs and found out what all the shooting was about, the opening of grouse season. Who in the world decided to overlap these seasons I could have strangled that day.
A couple of days later I headed up another mountain with my bow and my pack ready to spend the last four days of the archery season trying to tag an elk. I was successful in tagging a little five point bull with my bow. See: 2007 Archery Elk Hunt — 5 Point Bull
With the archery season over I turned my attention back to the high altitude bucks I had seen. The muzzleloader season was just two weeks away and I couldn't get the images of those bucks out of my head. I spent some time on the range with the muzzleloader and was itching to get back in there with something better than my bow.
Two days before the opener we had an early snow storm. From the looks of it the higher elevation mountains had a good foot or more. I really wanted to have my son with me to go after the buck again but, with the snow, I felt it best if he sat this one out. A good friend of mine Ryan also had a muzzleloader tag and I invited him to come along. We went up the night before and found we couldn't drive all the way to the trail head. We decide to sleep in the truck and get up extra early with the additional mile now needed to hike to get into the basin.
I had hopes that if we could slip around into the funnel area we could have a good chance of tagging the two larger bucks. I figured that someone would be hunting up around the ridge and the deer might funnel out like they had during the grouse season. I also setup so I had a good vantage point of the funnel and where I could see into the jack pine where the bucks had pause the previous time.
Just like clockwork the wide buck made his escape and stopped in the jack pines at 45 yards, just like he had before. This time I sent a 45 caliber pistol bullet, from my 50 caliber CVA Firebolt his way. Unfortunately, his bigger brother wasn't with him but I was tickled to death with the wide buck my son had found with me during the archery season. The buck turned out to have a near whitetail like right antler. I'll look for his big brother next year.
After boning him out I carried the deer out so Ryan could be light enough to explore and hunt some of the pockets on the way out. We had seen a good four point and some smaller bucks slip up and over the one side of the basin as we slipped our way in that morning. We hoped that he could find this buck on our route out of the basin. But that just wasn't to be.
Come to find out the hunter that pushed the buck towards us was a brother to a good friend I work with. We met up with him at the truck and found that he had been scouting the area and the buck he was after happen to be the one with my tag on it or at least that was what he wanted us to believe. Hmm... I guess he hadn't seen the larger buck...or had he? I'll keep that a secret and try for him next year.
The buck measures 31" wide but lacks any antler length to score very well. Oh well, he's over 30 inches wide! I lost a lot of points with the wife when I told her we had to have him mounted. She just didn't understand it when I told her that if a mule deer gets to be 30 inches wide it's the rule that they have to be mounted. After all I didn't want this buck waiting at the pearly gates to thump my rear because he made it to 30 inches and I didn't show him the respect to have him mounted. I thought it was a good explanation, my wife didn't, we compromised. The buck is now mounted but, he is above my desk in my work office and not in my house.
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Spotting for deer with my 243 WSSM A-Bolt Stainless Varmint Laminate with fluted barrel.
After taking the past year off from mule deer hunting I was itching to go back after them again. I was also excited to be sporting a "new" knee. With being ineligible to hunt mule deer last year, because of the dedicated hunter program, I finally had my ACL fixed again. It took two surgeries during the summer of 2005, one to get the old screws, faulty ACL removed and cadaver bone added. A second surgery to remove a tendon and thread it through my knee. My knee and leg wasn't near 100 percent this year going into this hunting season but it was more stable.
I entered the dedicated hunter program again this year so I could hunt all the seasons. During the archery and muzzleloader seasons I was unable to locate anything of interest to chase after with a rifle. For the rifle season I decided to spend a couple of days with my brother and friends back in one of our favorite deer locations.
This rifle season I was looking forward to hunting with my 243 WSSM A-Bolt Stainless Varmint Laminate with 85g Barnes Triple Shock bullets. During the past summer I had the barrel fluted. I wish that I had weighed the barrel before and after to know for sure the reduction in weight. I figure that it is close to a pound in weight reduction. One thing for sure is that the rifle feels a lot more balanced and not nearly as top heavy as it was. Another thing the fluting really did was make the rifle really cool looking.
We backpacked in and I spent the night rolled up in a tarp. My friend Clint had a homemade bivy made from Tyvek. What a cool inexpensive lightweight bivy system. I'm definitely going to have to make one of these.
We woke up the first morning to a light snow storm. Perfect! We setup on a point to glass out over a couple of canyons. Snow squalls would move in and reduce our visibility to nothing off and on most of the day. In between squalls my brother Weston spotted a pretty nice buck across the main canyon. Weston and Clint went after him and I stayed back to glass, however in between snow squalls the buck and his does disappeared. I eventually spotted a few deer bedded in the oak brush and my brother and Clint were now in position on a finger ridge about 300 yards away from the bedded deer. I tried picking apart the brush with my spotting scope but I was unable to find the buck.
After waiting him out for a good hour, some other hunters had showed up behind me. I was afraid they might mess things up so I blew a coyote howl to get my brother's attention so I could hand signal and point out the extra company we were going to have. A funny thing happened, the coyote howl must have made the buck uneasy or something because he magically appeared. Just as I got the buck in my spotting scope I saw the buck go down. Then a second or two afterward I heard the report from the rifle. Hmm... I'll have to throw a coyote howl into my bag of tricks for future hunts. My brother was using a 270 WSM A-Bolt Stainless Stalker with a 130g Nosler Partition handload of his to take this buck.
While waiting out this buck Clint had spotted another good buck back across the canyon on the opposite side. After Weston's buck was on the ground they moved their way down the ridge and got as close as they could before they would not be able to see the buck because of the thick oak brush. Clint made a picture perfect 569 yard shot with his 243 Win. A-Bolt Stainless Stalker to bag his second mule deer to date. I believe he was using a 95g Ballistic Tip Winchester factory load. The bullet struck home for a double lung shot with the bullet mushroomed nicely against the opposite shoulder's hide.
I stuck out this year but, for me the experience is far more rewarding than the antlers on the wall. I enjoy spending as much time in the field as I can. If I find a deer that I'd like to shoot that's a bonus.
Weston's 2006 mule deer taken with a 270 WSM A-Bolt Stainless Stalker
Clint's 2006 mule deer taken with a 243 Win. A-Bolt Stainless Stalker
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| I set the camera on my day pack to take this photo. The photo was taken the morning after near hypothermia and I was rested up and back out looking for elk. |
2006 proved to be a memorable archery elk hunting adventure for me. I changed hunting locations this year and other than using Google Earth and topo maps to learn the area it was my first time hunting the area. I had accompanied my father hunting this area as a young boy and I had a few childhood memories of the experience and area.
I planned a four to five day backpacking trip into the area. On the third day I moved my base camp in a couple of more miles and up a pretty substantial amount of vertical elevation. Shortly after dropping my pack, where I wanted to camp, it started to rain. The weather forecast before I left said that there might be a few sprinkles so I had not packed any full waterproof rain gear.
That evening I dropped down a beautiful canyon to look for elk while rain fell lightly all that evening. I had spotted a bull from above, way down in a steep dark canyon so I slowly worked my way through the timber cow calling every few minutes when all of the sudden I heard a stampede of hoof beats coming right at me from behind. I knew what it had to be so I quickly drew my bow and whirled around in one quick smooth motion. Just at I did, two rag horn bulls came sliding to a stop. They were about 15 yards from me but in heavy dead fall and under growth. I still remember one of the bulls lowering his head down near the ground to look through an opening at me, as I moved my sight pin from his nose to other small openings trying to find a way to slide an arrow through the timber. Then just a quickly as they came in they bolted out.
By the time I got back to my base camp I was totally soaked and physically drained. I setup a tent like bivy out of a couple of tarps, took off my wet clothing and crawled into my sleeping bag. It was at this time that my hamstrings in my legs went into full blown cramps that just hurt like no other. Now on top of that my body started to shake uncontrollably all the while I was desperately trying to get my legs straightened and the muscles to unlock from their horrific lock down cramping.
I distinctly remember thinking to myself, "so this is what it feels like as you are starting to get hypothermia." So I just kept trying to straighten my legs and stop shaking while I kept saying to myself "stay calm, just stay calm." I was in my warm sleeping bag and out of the rain, so I just kept as calm as possible and after several minutes I was able to get the cramps and shaking to subside.
It was an eye opening experience for me and I have worked hard to be more prepared on my hunting adventures since that day by getting more technical clothing and other lightweight technical gear.
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| This is a sample packet and a 120 capsule bottle of Hammer Nutrition's Endurolytes Electrolyte Replacement Supplement. | |
One product that I have started using since that hunt has been Hammer Nutrition's Endurolytes Electrolyte Replacement Supplement. A friend who had been competing in triathlons suggested and offered me some trail packets of the Endurolytes. These pills have been amazing for me on my hunting adventures. Whenever I am about to make a serious hike I take one of the pills and if I am still hiking after three or so hours I'll take another pill. When using these pills my legs really feel like they have more strength and endurance. I also have never had any cramps in my legs when I have taken these pills during or after a prolonged hike.
I often take extended backpacking trips that require that I pump water while I am on the mountain. These Endurolytes Electrolyte Replacement Supplement pills work perfect for my style of hunting. I don't have to mess with mixing powder into my water or carry additional weight with bars and jell and the like. I just carry a handful of these capsules in my pack and take one or more when needed for a hike.
Another product that I set my sights on getting because of this hunting experience was a set of Browning Dry-Lite camo lightweight hunting jacket and pants. They are basically just the waterproof, taped outside layer from the insulated XPO hunting clothing Browning offers. I like the Dry-Lite pant and jacket because they are not as noisy as your traditional rain gear and all together they only weigh about a pound. So I can hunt in my camo cotton or fleece pants, shirts and jackets. If it starts to rain I can pull out the Dry-Lite and I'm going to stay warm and dry.