Season Saver Muley

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seazofcheeze
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Season Saver Muley

Unread postby seazofcheeze » Sun Nov 19, 2017 6:34 pm

I had some tough luck this year.

In September I was drawn back on a 6x6 bull elk at 29 yards, unfortunately, he was 2 foot on the wrong side of public/private land fence line.

Oct 4th, I was drawn back on a target white tail at 18 yards but it was too thick to get a shot off.

I aggravated an old injury the next day and had to sit out Oct 5-Nov 3.

I thought I was ready to hunt and on Nov 4th I tried to draw back on this buck (below) at 30yds, but I couldn't get the bow back because of my injury. I then watched him stop broadside 5 yards from my tree and walk away, completely oblivious to my presence. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to hunt with a compound bow again because of my shoulder/neck injury. It was all getting pretty tough to swallow.

Image

Fast forward to Montana, November 17th. I'm 6 days and 30-35 miles of mostly sidehill hiking into the hunt. It's the morning hunt on a piece of public ground we hadn't been on yet. Right away we are into deer. The first buck we spotted was actually a 120" 8pt whitetail. We was nosing through a group of mule deer does. Shortly there after, we spotted a group of deer with a nice mule deer buck. He was a tall 4x4 with whiter than normal horns. We belly crawled up a knob and I got proned out and on the bipod. I was hunting with my buddies younger brother. He couldn't get the range finder to get a reading, so I estimated the buck at 400 yards. (Quick disclaimers: 1. I do a lot of long range shooting 2. I've learned from this trip I am terrible at range estimating in a prairie environment). I dial my elevation turret to 3.5 MOA, get settled and squeeze of a great feeling shot. I pick the buck back up in the scope and see him bounding away, looking completely unscathed. I'm pretty disappointed as it's the 2nd or 3rd biggest buck I have seen in 6 days of hunting.

We do our do diligence, go to site where deer was standing, look for blood, hair, etc. Nothing. I range back to some snow (more reflective) on the knob where shot was taken and it was 650yds. That explains the clean miss. I shot for 400yds (17" bullet drop) and at 650yds I have 72" of bullet drop. So, I was over 4ft low. We follow the deer over the next ridge and get good glass on the buck, no visible wound, no body language that says it's hit. He is too far to take a shot. With the range confirmed from the original shot, I know I hit well low. It's disappointing, but I am very happy it's a clean miss.

As we are regrouping and talking through the shot, we spot a good buck in the distance. There were deer all over in this coulee. We belly crawl up to a different knob and get glass on him, it's a good buck, a little shorter than the first one, but probably the 4th biggest buck out of 30-35 bucks I've seen in 6 days, so I am ready to shoot. He is in a grassy opening 20 yards from a tree line on a river bottom. We got a good range at 575 yards. Bad news is, we were pretty well stuck. It was wide open prairie between us and the buck. I had shot at the range a few days earlier in similar weather conditions and had a cold bore first round hit on a round 12" steel target at 500 yards. I checked my ballistics calculator app on my phone and plugged in 575 yards. I dialed up the elevation turret, deployed the bipod again and waited for a broadside shot.

The wind was dead calm, a rarity in about any portion of Montana. The buck finally turned broadside, and I squeezed off a good feeling shot. The buck lurched, and mule kicked, his tail started to helicopter. He was obviously hit, and I figured he would go down any minute, except he didn't. He worked into the tree line, and I couldn't get a follow up shot off. At this point in the story, a lot of people are going to think "terrible shot", "unethical shot", etc. I can't blame those people or those opinions at all. I'm not perfect, and I want to give an honest account of the hunt. All I can say is the conditions were ideal (no wind, stationary relaxed animal) and I am comfortable at that range and well beyond.

We watched him stand still through the glass for 2 minutes and he didn't go down, so now I believe the hit is unlikely to be immediately fatal. He is inside the tree line, obstructed by thick brush, and I can't get off a follow-up shot. After another minute or two, I believe I can see an opening through the trees to his neck, so I squeeze off another round. I see wood chips go flying from a branch I couldn't initially see and it's a miss. I think the shot is high based on impact on the branch, so I dial my turret to less elevation (I later found out this elevation correction was a mistake). At this point the buck starts coming back into the original grass opening. I rack the bolt and get ready for another shot. I steady, aim, squeeze, and "click". My magnum rifle only has a 3 round magazine and it's now empty.

I have 4 extra rounds in my vest. I fill the mag back up and put one in the chamber. I squeeze off a round and its a miss (low). After that shot, the buck actually worked towards us enough that he got in a very small ditch next to the grassy opening and only his head was visible, then it disappeared. We decide that since he is hit (possibly dead now) and we are out of his line of sight that we should sneak up to the next available cover, which, as I said previously, wasnt much cover at all. We ended up getting 400 yards closer with the buck out of sight in the ditch and then we spotted him bedded. I was just quickly getting setup to shoot when he spotted us, stood up and started bounding away. I could see as he bounded that his left front leg was broken from the initial shot. It appeared I hit the leg just below the brisket line, so my first shot was around 8" low. Dialing my turret down for the follow up shot caused me to shoot even lower, hence the miss on the follow up shot. Desperate to finish him off, I took an off hand shot while he was running at 175yds...miss, rack the bolt, shoot while running, and it sounds like a hit, but he keeps running over the hill. I'm not excited about how this is going...not at all. The buck is still alive and I have one round left...

We basically run up hill tracking the buck over the ridge and get glass on him, he's already several hundred away and about to crest the next ridge. We run more, my legs are on fire and I'm about to puke. We crest the next ridge and spot him. I immediately hit the deck, get him in the scope and my buddy says "315". I'm breathing super heavy, and I do my best to squeeze off the last round and "Crack!" Definite impact. But now I'm really sick as I see through the scope that the shot hit exactly where the first shot hit, left front leg, just below the brisket. It's hanging by hide now, but the deer manages to run over the ridge, and I'm out of ammo. I'm sick, just disgusted with myself. I'm second guessing everything, all the shots, this entire season, pretty much my whole existence. I feel like a giant p.o.s., like a real slob hunter, like everything I don't want to be. It's right around 11a.m. at this point.

There is no choice but to go get more ammo. The truck is close to 2 miles away. We get to the truck, unreal...I left my extra ammo at the house we are staying at. My buddy talks me off the ledge, we drive to town, get my ammo, drive to the local range to quickly re-confirm my zero, look at maps of where we last had eyes on the deer, and make a plan to get back after him.

Ariund 1:30pm, we depart the truck on the opposite side of the property, almost 2 miles from where we last saw him. I don't know how we are ever going to find this deer. There are literally a 1,000 different draws on this piece and he could be in any of them. It literally feels like an impossible task. We work through draw after draw with the wind in our face, glassing every nook and cranny ahead of us heading. We spot some deer, but no sign of the buck. At 3:00 p.m., an hour and a half after leaving the truck, we spot a group of does with a small buck. We all hit the deck and my right shin is impaled by 100 cactus thorns. My buddy (a native of Montana) says "they are acting weird, keep your eyes peeled". It's a good 10 minutes later and his brother who is also with us, says "There he is!" in an excited whisper. All we could see was his head, rack, and a bit of his neck. We were 90% sure it was the same buck, but we couldn't see his left leg (the broken one) because we was bedded. We are convinced a healthy buck would have bolted long ago and the rack looks nearly identical.

My buddy told me to get setup for a shot. Once I did, the two brothers moved slowly across the sidehill until the buck spotted them and stood up. It was all he could do to stand up. I saw the broken left leg. I aimed for the neck, squeezed off a round and finally put the buck out of his misery. When we gutted the deer, it was obvious that two rounds had hit the front left leg, but we also noticed a giant hole in one of the hind quarters. I'm almost positive I hit him there with one of the off hand shots I took after we spooked it from his bed in the morning.

Everyone was very relieved we were able to somehow locate and finally kill this buck. We had close to a 1.5 mile drag which involved crossing two large draws. It about killed all of us.

I learned a lot of lessons on this trip. Lessons about spot and stalk hunting, about friendship, about persistence, about ethics, about myself.

The hunt certainly didn't go how I imagined it would. I was so relieved to find this buck that afternoon. This hunted really made my entire season and was an unforgettable experience. I couldn't have done it without the help of my friend and his brother, so here are pics with them first.

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Relieved hunter
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Tagged and bagged "Buck in a truck"
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Kokes
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Re: Season Saver Muley

Unread postby Kokes » Sun Nov 19, 2017 11:47 pm

What a Rollercoaster hunt seaz! Glad it worked out for you man. Great write up.
Any plans for the rest of the season, can you shoot the bow yet with the shoulder?
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Re: Season Saver Muley

Unread postby oldrank » Mon Nov 20, 2017 12:13 am

Wow... What a hunt. It felt like I was right there with you reading it. That is a beautiful muley. Congrats.
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Dewey
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Re: Season Saver Muley

Unread postby Dewey » Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:02 am

Congrats :clap:
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Re: Season Saver Muley

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:33 am

Spectacular! :clap:
Expect the Unexpected when you least Expect it...
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Re: Season Saver Muley

Unread postby muddy » Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:55 am

congrts on the buck. Maybe look into a lock draw for your bow?
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"It's a good thing you don't need commas and colons to kill deer" -seaz
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<DK>
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Re: Season Saver Muley

Unread postby <DK> » Mon Nov 20, 2017 3:18 am

Awesome Seaz! :text-bravo: :clap: :clap: :clap:
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Hawthorne
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Re: Season Saver Muley

Unread postby Hawthorne » Mon Nov 20, 2017 3:23 am

Congrats again and great hunt!
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PK_
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Re: Season Saver Muley

Unread postby PK_ » Mon Nov 20, 2017 4:16 am

Tough hunt. Way to stick with it. Congrats
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Re: Season Saver Muley

Unread postby cedarsavage » Mon Nov 20, 2017 5:41 am

Awesome I love how you stuck it out through the ups and downs
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Re: Season Saver Muley

Unread postby whitetailassasin » Mon Nov 20, 2017 6:07 am

Congrats on the Mulie! Exciting hunt full of highs and lows. I hope you can bowhunt soon brother and get healthy.
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Re: Season Saver Muley

Unread postby Zonk54 » Mon Nov 20, 2017 6:30 am

Mulie buck is on my bucket list. Congrats!
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seazofcheeze
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Re: Season Saver Muley

Unread postby seazofcheeze » Mon Nov 20, 2017 11:13 am

Thanks a lot guys. I appreciate all the comments.

I still have all my MI tags, so I might try and do a little muzzleloader hunting for meat this year. I've never killed a whitetail with a muzzleloadet. MI gun season is only 4 days old and I already know several of my pre season targets are already hanging on buck poles.

As far as bowhunting goes, I have been shooting a 70lb. compound since I was 16 or 17 years old. My current bow is 9 or 10 years old, so I will upgrade in the off season to a 50-60lb draw bow. My shoulder is feeling quite a bit better but it's still weak. Hoping a little more physical therapy and some gym work in the off season will have me back in shooting shape by next fall.
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Re: Season Saver Muley

Unread postby john1984 » Mon Nov 20, 2017 11:43 am

Glad you got him. Congrats seaz
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Lockdown
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Re: Season Saver Muley

Unread postby Lockdown » Mon Nov 20, 2017 2:02 pm

Glad you got to put a nice one down my friend! Loved the story.


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