'09 DIY Public Lands ND Muley Hunt-- Semi-Live

[harvey lee]

As always Scoot, great job. I love to follow along for the next days thrills.

[marine_man]

Great write-up Scoot!

marine_man

[iffwalleyes]

Oh come on now. Awesome story so far Scott.

[NELS-BELLS]

I don't mean to rush you, but how much longer are we going to have to wait for the ending?

Thanks for writing about your trips and including the photos.

Nels

[Scoot]

For the sake of ending the story with the "end of my trip", I'll tell the happenings of the last day of our trip a bit out of order.

Oh, I almost forgot- Jake called last night to tell us he had a nasty case of poison ivy. I had no idea there was poison ivy out there (or skeeters- man were they out!), but here's what he looked like when we got back.

Jake and Briggs were long gone and Smidge decided not to hunt on Sat. He was going to be gone for most of the next week for work and understandably wanted to spend some time with wife and kids. That left Mort, Slevy, Gabe, and me.

For the evening sit that night, Gabe and I went to a new area (for us). We parked on a little field road and each dove off into a deep cut to the East and West of the trail. I immediately saw deer in my cut- all slick tops.

I carefully made my wat to a good vantage point and started glassing. Not five minutes into glassing, I spotted a nice buck- he was in a beautiful little hidey hole and would be in a great spot for me to try sneak on. He's tough to see, but you can make him out inside the circle below- he was just above a little stream and right below a clay cliff.

It was early and I figured he'd be in his bed for at least another half an hour. I had to hussle if I was going to get a crack at him. I got down to within 150 yards in about ten minutes. However, I reached a fence line that I had to cross. ...but wait a minute, why was there a fenceline there? I popped on my gps and saw that I had miscalculated how close I was to private property-- this buck that was in a perfectly sneakable spot was on private property. I knew from the posted signs on the way in that the private property was posted, so I turned around and marched all the way back up to my look out on top of the hill. It was a very frustrated and annoyed walk back up that hill.

I tried to put a move on another buck later that night, but some deer I hadn't seen busted me and blew out all of them out of there. I also saw two coyotes work together to corner and catch a jackrabbit in a sage brush opening- it was cool watching them work together and make the kill.

When I got back to the truck, Gabe was just showing up too. He hadn't had a chance to make any sneaks, but he did see three nice bucks, with one of them being exceptionally nice.

The next morning we packed up camp and headed home. However, that isn't really when my trip ended. My trip ended, at least mentally speaking, after the morning hunt that day. Here's how it unfolded.

Gabe and I went back to the spot we'd been a the night before. I'd see three deer really late that I suspected were bucks. I thought if we got in good spots early, we'd be in good shape to intercept these deer as they left the alfalfa field they were feeding in. In a nutshell, this plan was a total bust and nothing worked out the way we'd hoped it would. We bailed out of there early, hoping to sneak into another spot and possibly catch some deer still feeding, before they laid down for the day. We zipped across the road to another spot that Slevy had seen deer in before. This was not too big, but nice country. Almost immediately, Gabe spotted some deer. We ended up seeing a bunch of does and fawns, but 1/2 mile behind them we say a group of four bucks and another two bucks in two nearby, but seperate draws. We although the two bucks looked bigger, the four bedded down and were only a couple hundred yards downwind from the two. This made the two big guys pretty untouchable. However, three of the four were 4x4s and the biggest of the bunch was pretty darn nice! We took off and made a plan.

About a mile later, Gabe and I found ourselves one draw short of the bedded bucks. We carefull sneaked up to peak over the draw we needed to cross only to find the bucks back on their feet and headed our way. That was just the stroke of luck we needed! The bucks were feeding up this little draw.

Just to the left of the pic above was a little saddle- the bucks likely would work their way through this draw, to the right-hand side of the pic above, or they'd go through this saddle. I shimmied over to the left and decided if they came through the saddle, I'd get a crack. This left me no shot if they came up the draw further, but Gabe was in good position to cover that. I sneaked into this little sage brush, which provided good cover, but still allowed an open shot to the saddle.

The deer headed left, towards the saddle. Soon we saw two bucks moving into the saddle- the moment of truth was coming together. Although the biggest buck in the group was initially in the lead, now a nice velvet covered 4x4 was in front of him. The velvet buck was nice, but noticebly smaller than the 23" hard horned 4x4 behind him. I had my eyes on the hard horned buck, but kept the lead velvet buck in my peripheral vision so he didn't mess things up for me.

Everything had unfolded over the course of several minutes, but suddenly, things seemed to happen very quickly. I ranged the lead buck and waited for the following, bigger buck behind him. The big guy had to only take five more steps and I'd draw and shoot him, right where the velvet buck currently stood. However, while the big buck fed his way forward, his sixth sense seemed to kick in- he snapped his head up and locked on me immediately. I was busted! I didn't move or do anything, but he somehow felt I was there and picked me off. Now, I had a decision that instantly popped into my head- try fashion a shot on the bigger, but alert buck or take a crack at the velvet buck, that had no clue I was there still (at least for another second or two). I didn't hesitate- I immediately swung my bow left and put my pins on the velvet buck. Although smaller than the big guy, he'd be my biggest muley so far and I'd be tickled pink to take him. He was walking and quartering slightly away. I grunted "GRRRRRRRNT" and he stopped immediatly. I settled my pins in on him and let the arrow go. My pin was EXACTLY where I wanted it and I made a rock solid shot. I head the hit of the arrow, but didn't see it somehow. I knew I had made a good shot and figured he wouldn't go far. Awesome!!! We tried to watch the deer run off, but they'd gone behind a big hill and we couldn't see much.

Below is a pic of where I shot the buck- he was just to the right of Gabe in this pic.

I didn't see where the arrow hit and unfortunately, Gabe was still looking at the bigger buck when I shot. He, understandably, figured I'd shoot at the bigger buck, so neither of us saw the hit. After about 30 minutes, we went to look for my arrow and blood. We weren't going to push anything, but figured we could get on the start of the blood trail. That's the point when things turned South. We couldn't find a drop of blood where the deer stood or where it had run. After looking for half an hour, I decided we should get some reinforcements. I walked the mile back to the truck to call Slevy and Mort for help. While walking back, I ran into this guy.

He was nice and rattled when I was about 15 feet away from him, which I greatly appreciated.

I got back to the truck and called Slevy and Mort. They were just finishing taking care of the deer Mark had shot that morning! Mark's first muley!!! They put a sneak on some deer that were feeding out of a field in the early AM. They positioned themselves in front of the deer as they exited the field. They popped up after a long sneak to find a fork horn only 40 yards away. Mark readied an arrow and they poked their heads back up to see where the buck was; Mark with bow/arrow ready and Slevy with a range finder. The buck had closed in on them and was almost at 20 yards- he caught some movement and ran out to 45 yards. Mark drew as the buck wheeled away, Slevy whispered "45" as the buck stopped and looked back, quartering away. Mark let his arrow go and "WHACK"- the buck dropped on the spot from a spine hit. When Mark told me I was super happy for him! Someone had finally connected and it was on his first muley to boot! Awesome!!! Here's a pic of Mark's buck- Mark cut it from some video he'd taken of it (remember, no camera so no pics to show you otherwise).

I have to run to a meeting- I'll post the finish as soon as I can.

[mrklean]

OH COME ON, thats just mean

[Sifty]

OH COME ON, thats just mean

I'll second that.

Sifty

[Scoot]

OH COME ON, thats just mean

Sorry, but it takes a while to write this up and to cut in all the correct pics.

Mort and Slevy showed up and I shook Mark's hand and congratulated him on his buck. He was reserved about celebration, stating it was a "smaller buck". Slevy and I wouldn't have any of that though and we were really happy for him to have taken his first muley- very cool!

On the way back to where I hit the deer I decided to show the guys the rattle snake (we had to walk right past it on the way there). I'd marked it, noting that it was 15 yards to the South of a large, white rock. I carefully walked up to the rock, making sure I could still see him. This time, I spotted him before he rattled. I got to about ten feet from the snake with no rattling, with Mort and Slevy 10 and 15 feet behind me. I could see him plain as day:

Wanting to show the guys his skill at rattling, I stomped the ground. I heard rattling, but to my horror, I heard it immediately BEHIND me, where Mort and Slevy were, not at the snake in front of me. They guys must have been fooled by their ears, because they didn't react at all. However, I turned around to see a HUGE snake not more than two feet from both Slevy and Mort!!! I must have walked within a foot or two of it. I pointed it out and they quickly moved away from it.

If you look carefully, you can actually see that there are two snakes wrapped up in a ball in this pic- one is slightly lighter in color than the other.

I'm no herpetologist (meaning I don't study herpes ), but I assume they were wrapped up together for thermoregulation- it was cooling off and they were trying to stay warm, we thought. Regardless, there were three rattlers in a very small area and this run in put the fear of God into us!!!

After VERY CAREFULLY tip toeing out of there we made it back to where I had hit the buck. Gabe had found blood and was waiting for the whole crew to show up. Since I'm color blind, I climbed ahead of the guys and tried to stay out of their way. In doing so, I was working up a very steep hillside to try get to a vantage point where I could glass for a dead deer. I was nearly on all fours and the ground was right in front of my face as I scaled up the steep hillside. I didn't even know another rattle snake was in front of me until it was less than two feet from the tip of my nose! I rolled over backwards/sideways and away from the snake and immediately went into panick mode. I was still on pins and needles from the run in with the three snakes 20 minutes earlier and this almost sent me over the edge. No bites, no venom, no harm done, but that encounter scared the tar out of me!!!

The guys got on the blood trail and their efforts were nothing short of amazing! Being color blind, I don't get to trail many deer- if it's not buckets full of blood, I can't find it. So, I tend to watch people follow blood trails. Having watched my dad bloodhound out many, many deer through the years, I have him as my comparison to judge others by. No offense to anyone who's ever tracked a deer in front of me, but most people don't compare very favorably to my dad at this- he was absolutely amazing! However, these three guys would have kept up with him and I honestly think he'd be impressed with them if he'd been out there watching them. Here's a couple shots of them on the spore.

Like most tough tracking jobs, they spent most of the time on their hands and knees and forward progress was painstakingly slow. For five and a half hours we followed the teeny tiny bit of blood- a speck here, a drop there, once every few hundred yards there'd be a quarter size spot of blood. But, after almost six hours and over a mile on the trail, we lost the trail for the final time.

This year is my 26th year of bowhunting. I've never lost a deer that I hit before this. I've been really lucky on four deer- two femoral arteries, two gut shot. But, to this point, I'd never hit one that we didn't recover. That's not the case any more. The guys were really impressive in their efforts tracking it- both in terms of their blood finding ability and their time/effort put in, and I really appreciate them working as hard as they did to try find that buck.

That was the point at which my trip essentially ended. I got a serious case of the heck-with-its (there's another name for this, but it's a family friendly site ). For the sake of not ruining the rest of the day for Slevy and Gabe, I pretended to accept it and move along (at least as well as I could), but I was pretty well crushed. I sat that evening, but my heart wasn't in it. I tucked tail and headed home the next day.

As far as what happened on my shot- I can still see my pin in my mind's eye, resting exactly where I wanted it to be when the arrow released. Our only guess is that I hit it really high, just below the spine and above the lungs in the dreaded "void" area. It's a reasonable guess- the buck likely took quite a few steps closer to me after I ranged him and while I watched the bigger buck. Regardless, it's water under the bridge now and I'm left to stew about it for a very long time.

Thanks for following along- I appreciate the comments, questions, and feedback. Have a great season and shoot straight.

[Fred_Bear]

AWESOME story Scoot!! It was fun reading along, and that really sucks about losing that deer. One of the worst feelings there is!

[sticknstring]

Great story... probably not the outcome you were hoping for but another trip worth of valuable experiences. That's what it's all about anyhow. If you hunt long long enough, you're going to lose an animal. Things happen. Been down that road and I don't have 26 years under my belt. There's only one thing I'm afraid of... and you were able to survive 3 eerie encounters. I hate snakes! I'm not sure what the regulations are but I would've been shooting!

[Sifty]

Great story Scoot.

I look forward to next years adventure.

Sifty

[bigbucks]

Good job, great story. I've lost deer before & it's no fun. My cousin's son had to go through that with a very nice buck this weekend. It happens at least once to most of us.

[Jameson]

Thanks for taking the time to share Scoot!

A great read even if it could have ended a little better.

[Jim Uran]

Darn good story Scoot! Can't wait to make it out there. How hard is it to draw a tag over there for a Minnesota guy?

[Scoot]

Darn good story Scoot! Can't wait to make it out there. How hard is it to draw a tag over there for a Minnesota guy?

Used to be really easy, but it's getting tougher. This year we saw more hunters than ever before...

[huntnfish]

Great story as always, scoot! Its always tough losing a deer. I have lost one and there are always the what if's running through your mind. The deer I lost was about 7 years ago with a rifle and I can still see the cross hairs. It should have been a gimme but something went wrong and to this day I can't figure out what it was.

On a side note, thanks for saving me the money of ever going out west to hunt. Just seeing those pictures made me pick my feet off the floor. I'm not afraid of snakes I just really don't like them and choose to keep my distance.

[Coach1310]

Great story Scoot. Thanks for sharing. I'm already looking forward to the next Scoot DIY Hunt!

[plannerman]

OUTSTANDING STORY!! Thanks for sharing. Always wanted to head to western ND but can't convince my buddies to join me...maybe it's the snakes! Looking forward to heading west for rifle season and wandering the hills. Thanks for living up my September.

[Sorgy]

Scoot,

I finally had a chance to read your story. You bring us into the hunt. I thouroughly enjoyed it That is some interesting land you were hunting-- an adventure around every bend.

Thanks for posting it.

Steve

[iffwalleyes]

Not the success of your last couple years of elk hunting trips but I would bet is was still alot of fun. Like I say I have never had a bad hunting or fishing trip just bad hunting or fishing. The trip itself make for the experience and to be out with some close friends makes it all worth it. I sure hope I can get back west in the next couple years again.

[Wanderer]

Props to you Scoot.

FWIW, I like the story being broken up into chapters.

[96trigger]

I am standing and applauding. Very nice.

[wolfman-k]

Another Great read! Thanks for yet another vicarious DIY hunt. It's too bad you couldn't find the buck, but sometimes that happens. There's a pretty good chance that he survived, with the small amount of blood you guys had to follow. Again, thanks for sharing.

[mrklean]

another great story scoot thanks for sharing

[Scoot]

Thanks guys. I really enjoy when others have taken the time and effort to write up their stories for me, so I'm glad it's appreciated by you too.