Final trip out West for the year: ND Mule Deer

[Scoot]

"There's blood on the ground, baby!" I was just in the process of driving on I-94 past Cassleton on my way to Western ND and my buddy Slevy called me to give me this report from his afternoon hunt. He had the picture below sent to him the night before he left to go out there.

This buck had come onto his aunt and uncle's deck to eat some of the potted plants that remained there. Miraculously, Slevy had tipped over a hill an hour into his hunt and spotted the buck immediately below him. He ranged him, drew his bow, aimed carefully, and let 'er rip! The shot was perfect! Until the last few feet that is... Unfortunately, the arrow hit an unseen stick and angled sharply into the buck's neck. It passed completely through and the buck tore off. Slevy retrieved his arrow and followed good blood for about 100 yards, then left the blood trail and called me. We decided he'd wait until I got there, then take up the trail around 10:00 PM- about six hours after the shot was taken.

It was a long drive for me and an even longer wait for Slevy. I finally pulled in at 9:45. After handshakes and hugs with Slevy and his relatives, I got dressed up and we took off after the buck. The blood trail was good right away. We followed it for about 150 yards and I kept thinking "this buck has to bed up pretty soon". About 50 yards later we found his first bed in an area thick with trees and brush. He hadn't been in the bed for long, but there was a good amount of blood in it. We hadn't bumped him- there was snow in the bed. He only went another 30 yards before the next bed. However, the blood trail wasn't nearly as good between these two beds. Again, he moved another 30 yards and bedded again. Again, the blood trail got worse between the two beds. After the third bed, he got up and we never found another speck of blood.

We got up the next morning and replicated the final 50 yards of the night before. Again, no blood after the last bed. We did semi-circles and looked for the buck for the remainder of the morning, but came up empty handed. Tough way to start a trip...

[NoWiser]

I love story-time with Scoot!

[triggertrav]

dang - good luck with the rest of the trip. Can't wait to read/see pictures.

thanks for sharing.

[paceman]

I love story-time with Scoot!

+1

[Scoot]

Slevy and I headed out to some of our old haunts in search of a muley. Neither of us were particularly satisfied with the outcome of what had transpired last night and this morning (obviously), but I could tell that Slevy was really upset about it. There was a definite "F$#%!*@ it" feel to him and he was really bummed about it.

We did our best to shake that off and headed out in search of deer. Here's Slevy as we walked to an area to glass.

This is the kind of thing we saw that day:

We also stumbled into something I'd never seen while we worked our way through the area we call the "honey hole".

I'd never seen a snare before, but this one was hanging along a trail that looked to have been walked by both deer and coyotes. The wind had actually swung the snare over and it was hanging off the side of the trail, caught on a piece of sage. I adjusted it so it again hung over the trail, as I imagine the trapper intended it to.

In total we saw 23 deer this day, but all of them were does and fawns. Not one single sighting of a buck! Hopefully that's good news for helping get the number of muleys back up to where they should be, but it wasn't good news for us on.

We spent the evening eating Slevy's uncle's chili (excellent as always!) and visiting with his relatives. They're really great people and I always love getting to spend time with them. We had a few cocktails and talk'd the evening away. This is always one of the highlights of the trips out there- listening to all of the stories, past and present, of what's up out in Western ND. Some are past hunting stories, some are about oil, some area about the local "crazy people". It's always fun visiting with them.

[Scoot]

BTW, it was COLD! Mornings started below zero and the highs on Fri and Sat were in the low single digits. Add a little wind to that and it cut right through us! Any exposed skin went to heck on us very quickly. I used my thick gloves and face mask for almost the entire trip.

[Scoot]

The next morning we got up and headed to an area I really like. We pulled into the spot and were greeted by this sign (I didn't get a good pic of it, so this is a screen capture from the internet).

The land where I've had a ton of great memories over the past decade had been sold to an oil company and we were no longer allowed to go there. Dang- that really bites! I was very disappointed in this. I had a decoy, calling, glassing plan all put in place in my mind with an exact location to do it on this land. However, it looks like that won't happen again at that place. Bummer!

We decided to head further South and try an area where I had a crack at a buck last year in the late season. We were getting there a little late because of the delay at the first spot and the fact that it was an additional 15 miles away. About two miles before we got to our parking area we spotted some deer out in a field. There appeared to be a spike and a decent buck with them. We drove by and kept an eye on them before we turned around and planned on making a sneak. In the meantime, a group of guys in a truck stopped and were glassing them. They spooked the deer and they took off across the road in front of us/them. We could see where they were headed, so we looped a couple miles around in an effort to get where they were going to. Fortunately, the private land they were going to was not posted. We got out of the truck and sneaked into the area they were headed for when we last saw them.

We combed the area with our eyes and poked around several little cuts and draws. Eventually we crested a ridge and spotted this little spot.

It looked like a perfect hangout for muleys.

Upon careful inspection, we caught movement in the little patch and first saw a doe.

Soon we spotted the buck in the group slowly heading into the same piece of cover.

He headed into the patch and bedded down.

I'm not very picky this time of year, but this buck just wasn't what either Slevy or I were after. We decided we'd be best off to leave him alone and let him grow up another year or two. We quietly slinked back out of there and headed for the truck.

I forgot to mention that when Slevy hunted the first afternoon, when I was driving out, he got not one, but two flat tires. He'd fixed the one and dropped off the other to be fixed in town. We only had until noon to pick up the repaired tire, so we made a round about way back to town to get the repaired tire. We glassed a few pockets along the way.

...and spotted this guy right off the road.

I tried to get my bow out quick enough for a shot. He was young and dumb, but not that dumb. He stayed out at about 100 yards and never let me close the distance.

On the way back to town we had to stop to grab Slevy's wallet. We did so, and on the way to get the tire saw something that really caught our eye.

[DonBo]

and on the way to get the tire saw something that really caught our eye.....

And? Honestly Scoot, you really know how to keep a guy hangin'.

[NoWiser]

Honestly Scoot, you really know how to keep a guy hangin'.

Donbo, don't worry, it was really nothing special. What caught their eye was the bikini ice fishing team on their way to Devil's Lake. They got distracted, ran a stop sign, and slid into the bus. Nobody ended up getting hurt but they spent the rest of the trip partying with the girls. Scoot texted me pictures on Sunday. It was really nothing to get excited about so don't lose any sleep waiting for the rest of the pictures/story.

[DonBo]

[DaveT]

I bet it went more like this...

[Scoot]

[ Scoot texted me pictures on Sunday.

Jim, those are pictures that can never be seen on the internet! Please don't share them with anyone!

[Scoot]

I bet it went more like this...

Bwahahahahaha! Dave, I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid! I'm pretty confident I'd have handled that situation a little differently than those fine fellas did...

[Scoot]

As we left Slevy's relative's place we drove down the gravel road, headed East and towards town. We were just about to turn onto a different road and I looked out my window to the left and there stood the buck that Slevy had hit on his first day out there. He was alive and well! It was obviously the same buck and he had a red mark on his neck to prove it. We parked the truck and tried to sneak on him, but he must have heard the truck and tucked into the trees. We looked at the clock and realized we only had 15 minutes to get to town before the store closed and Slevy would be stuck there until Mon morning. We bolted to town and got the tire, then "hauled the mail" back to where we'd seen the buck. As we approached the trees he'd been next to, we spotted him as he crested a little hill.

The plan was that I'd sneak on him from the road side and Slevy would go up the treeline to the West. There was virtually no wind and we both knew I'd almost certainly push the deer out of there without a chance at a shot- he'd hear me coming from 100 yards away and run, hopefully towards Slevy.

Slevy dropped me off and I waited for ten minutes before I took off up the hill. At first I moved quickly, but then I slowed down and didn't sneak up the hill at all unless there was an oil truck going past on the road. Those things made so much noise I couldn't hear myself in the crunchy snow, so I figured I'd have a fighting chance with all of the noise to cover my loud footfalls. As I crested the hill during the passing of an oil truck I spotted the buck immediately below me. I immediately felt the adrenaline rush that I get from this type of interaction- it came over me in a wave and quite literally made me smile at that moment. I love it! The buck was in range and totally unaware of my existance. I initially went for my camera, but nixed the idea- I hadn't drawn my bow on an animal of any kind all season and I wanted to get a crack at something this year. However, I realized a few things: 1) the buck had no clue I was there and looked to feed in the grass below for the unforseeable future, 2) the wind had died down to nothing and it was completely silent- any step I made would definitely be heard without any cover noise from a truck, and 3) there were no trucks coming by at that moment (for the first time in the last 15 minutes).

One thing I firmly believe in for hunting animals out West is this: aggressiveness kills elk, patience kills muleys. A lot of people who know a lot more than me would strongly support those words. Most of my mistakes with muleys have come when I haven't been patient enough. So... I waited for the next truck to come by so I could take the last two steps I needed to range the deer and get a shot.

Two steps... that's all. But I was confident I couldn't take them without getting busted. "C'mon truck... where are you?" There had been a truck every two minutes for my entire walk up, but now I really need one and nothing! The buck fed behind some tall grass and I lost sight of him. I didn't dare inch up to see him better out of fear that he'd hear me. I thought I heard him in the trees to my left that ran down to where he'd been headed. However, two pheasant ran by and I figured it was just them. No sign of any trucks... I inched forward, one small step at a time. Suddenly, the buck wheeled and blew out of the trees and headed away from me. He ran by Slevy, but at about 70 yards and offered no chance of doing anything with him.

Dang! When he blew out of there he was probably only about 30 yards away! However, once he reached the trees he was completely safe- the row of trees could have just as well been a brick wall. They were so incredibly thick I couldn't have shot through the first row, let alone the second one that he was behind.

Typical muley hunting- get close to having it all come together, but have it all unravel at the end. I've second guessed my decision to not take those final two steps without a truck to cover my noise a bunch of times now. Hindsight is 20/20, but I'm pretty confident I didn't make a bad decision. It just didn't work out.

[NoWiser]

Bummer you didn't get a shot, but it's great to see the buck is alive and well!

[sticknstring]

Bummer you didn't get a shot, but it's great to see the buck is alive and well!

Yep! Scoot - you still taking pics w/ that Panny? It's nice having a powerful optical like that. I've got a 30x on my Christmas list - hopefully I'll be able to share some better pics next fall.

[Scoot]

Stick, these pics were taken with a Sony HX-1. My wife has claimed the Panny, so it's tough for me to get permission for that one. My wife has her eye on a DSLR and I'm looking into mirrorless cameras. Given our current budget I'm guessing we'll make use of the two bridge cameras we have. Hopefully we'll get a DSLR sometime soon, but it doesn't look like Santa is bringing one this year.

[slimngrizzly]

Good story Scoot! too bad it didn't work out... yet I guess....

Love all the photos! You really do capture everything it feels like!

[Scoot]

We spent much of the balance of the day looking for deer by poking into areas by vehicle, hiking a few hundred yards, and glassing. It's not our favorite way to hunt/look for deer, but it allowed us to cover a lot of ground and look for sign in the snow.

We glassed some of the country past beyond this rock and Slevy spotted some deer.

We saw one good buck in the mix- we both picked up his split rack on top and bottom through our glass, so he was at least a 4x4, which was about all we needed to know to head out after him.

Here's Slevy on the walk into the area the deer were spotted at.

After a mile hike, here's the cut we ended up in.

Eventually we spotted a dozen deer in this little cut, with three of them being bucks. I never did get a good picture of a buck, but here's one of the does in the area.

We had worked our way up a ridge and just crested it when we saw three does working their way towards us. Eventually the deer bedded down about 100 yards in front of us and completely blocked our path towards the bucks. We were stuck. We finally spotted the best buck in the mix and discovered that he only had one side to his rack- the other had broken or fallen off already. Given this new info about the buck and the fact that we had no play on any of these deer anyway, we backed out and made our way to the truck. We got there just as it got dark.

We ended up seeing 45 deer this day. Considering the tough numbers of muleys out there right now, we were very happy with that. It gave us some hope that the numbers would improve next year again. However, there were some reasons this was not the case too, which I'll get into later.

Fun day! I almost got a crack at a buck and I got to experience the heart-skipping fun of close interaction with a nice buck. A good day spent with a good buddy while in the outdoors- tough to beat.

[Scoot]

Here are a few more pics from the next morning.

Now you might get the idea that nothing was killed on this trip. However, nothing could be farther from the truth! When we pulled into the house to load up our gear and head out, we discovered that our arrival had spooked sevaral grouse and one of them had flown into the sliding glass door at the back of the house.

Slevy tried to take credit for it, but I was driving! LOL

[Scoot]

That's the end of the posts related to hunting. Slevy and I each got one chance and neither of us made good on the opportunity. With the crunchy snow out there it was really tough going, but we did the best we could. It was a fun trip and I'm glad I got to go out there.

Next year at this time I'll officially be a MN resident. That means I'll have to apply for an archery any deer license and from what I understand, I've got about a 1/4 chance of drawing the tag. That really saddens me. The move to MN was a very good one for my family, but with regarding to bowhunting was a really tough pill to swallow. I'm allowed to hunt some really wonderful land in ND on the Eastern side of the state and I love going out West too. I'm now a good hike from the closer land and most years I won't be able to draw a tag for muley country in ND. I was really disappointed about all of this on the drive home. As I thought about the hunt though, there was a lot more to be disappointed about. I'll post some more pics tomorrow and explain.

[NoWiser]

Nice job on the grouse! That takes skill. It sounds like Slevy was just jealous!

The years you didn't make it elk hunting you usually did an early mulie trip. Do you prefer hunting them in September or December? Obviously the cold weather and snow pose challenges, but I'm thinking the hot weather can, too. How is spotting them in the snow? Are they tougher to pick out with or without the snow? I know when I hunted them their white rumps were what made them stand out.

Thanks again for posting your stories. I know they take longer than most think to put together, but they sure are enjoyable to read.

[Scoot]

Nice job on the grouse! That takes skill. It sounds like Slevy was just jealous!

[DonBo]

Thanks Jim. There seems to be considerable waning interest. I'm not sure if my stories have lost their shine, if my writing/pictures aren't as good, if it's just the same ol' same ol', or what the scoop is. Not much chatter in any of my stories this year. If only somebody else went on a fun adventure and could share his story with the rest of us...

Believe me Scoot, there's plenty of interest in your stories. Over 1600 hits right now.

Why the shortage of feedback? Hard to say, but it is NOT because of your story telling or photography skills. I enjoy follwing along and also know how much work goes into puting these together, very much appreciated.

[Scoot]

Thanks Don- I appreciate that. I'm not sure of the reason, but it's been a pretty consistent pattern in my stories this year. It might have to do with the lack of hero shots in my stories this year. When I've shown the horn porn pics there seems to be a lot more replies. Tough year for tag punching for me, so that might be part of it.