This pic is of Joe and his very nice 2nd day mule deer buck - this year's hunt was all Bass-Akwards! In a complete reversal of "tradition", our deer tags were filled during the frist three days . . . here's how things unfolded.
Opening day, Oct. 1, for our [Region B] hunt areas dawned clear and WINDY - and , for all but two days, WINDY conditions dominated the daily weather report. On the opener, Joe and I elected to do our "normal" walk-about on the "FRANCIS PLACE" . . . and so we did just that - the result was dismal; we went an entire day without observing a deer! Impossible! The sign pointed to there being a few deer about, but not LIVING there - just passing through - and the grocery list appeared short. Still, I was content that BIG MIKE had opted to not participate in opening day . . .thus, even though we drew a blank, had opportunity arisen, I would have been free to "pass" on anything short of HUGE! ;)
The dawning of day two found Joe and I perched among the rocks on the knob at THE GATE - this day would prove mostly overcast, with 20 - 30 MPH NW winds, with partial clearing late in the afternoon. Within minutes, I glassed a pair of bucks, only their antlers were visible above a ridge-line: they were a mere 500 yards to our SW. Joe's Swarovski spotting scope proved them both unworthy of pursuit: a spindly, but wide & tall 3x3 and a mega-dink forked-horn - they weren't going anywhere, so we resumed glassing and kept at it for roughly two hours.
In all, our observation post revealed a total of only ten head of mule deer - a pretty poor showing for an ideally overcast AM of viewing from THE GATE! :( Of the ten, only four were antlered: the previous pair and two spikes - yikes! WE opted to get down-wind and put a stalk the the first duo - there COULD be more of their pals bedded below the ridge-line and nicely tucked both out of sight and the annoying wind . . .
The stalk produced no more deer - it was just the pair of adolesents.
Since the wind was up, we decided to conduct a few short walk-abouts and see what might be hanging out in the locale. We jumped a few does and two more dink bucks: a spike and a spike x fork. This vicinity did show a little more sign - at least a few deer were calling the area home. The day passed pretty uneventfully, until late in the afternoon, while glassing off the quads, we observed a vehicle - about 1.5 miles to our W/NW - right up against the boundary fence. We wondered aloud, what they might be up to - the answer came FAST!
They drove away from the fence, headed Northerly, along the ranch trail for a couple of hundred yards, whereupon, three red-vests jumped forth and and began rocking - seconds later, we heard the rifle reports! "They must have seen some goats" I though aloud, to which Joe replied, "maybe". Then, simultaneously, we saw the dust cloud! We were able to follow the progress of the fleeing "goats" by the large mass of sullied air billowing up and racing along a distant ridge - but at the point of the ridge, two mule deer bucks raced around to our side! One was WIDE and TALL, but appeared to be a 3x3, while his pal was clearly a 3x4 - both were of the "keeper" variety. By then, we had cut the distance to 3/4 of a mile. The neighboring hunters, on foot now, pursued the bucks via several ridges: one stayed with their vehicle. We sat and observed, as the two bucks circled, eventually escaping any further shooting episodes, while surviving several brief sightings. After about an hour, all of the hunters were back at their truck and headed North - their hunt, for these bucks, was over! ;)
Meanwhile, Joe and I had observed the muleys cross to our side of the boundary fence (bad juju for mule deer) and disappear into a header, after quite a spell , we decided they had to be tucked-up in one of two header draws:for us, the hunt was ON!
Joe drove over to the West boundary trail and unassed his quad, about 300 Yd. South of the North boundary fence, while I opted to park at the "gas well" and sneak along the East ridge-line of the East header - just in case! I had traversed about 200 Yd. of ridge, when I saw Joe slip into a saddle to peer into "his" draw: quickly, his shootin' stix (StoneyPoint PoleCat) were redied and his reliable Custom .270WSM was pointing N/NE . . . BOOM! Uhg OH, NO whump! Truning now, Joe was obviously ready to fire a second shot! BOOM . . again, no whump!
Just as quickly, the lesser of the the two mule deer bucks bounded through a slight saddle and onto "my" side of the board! The range looked like about 250 to 275 yards. "Yep, it's the 3x4 . . . nice mass . . good thing BIG MIKE stayed away again today", I was thinking as the 1MOA Burris dot settled low behind the bucks shoulder . . . "maybe it'll be ok to take this one today" . . . Then, as the buck bailed into a deep but small cut, Joe appeared in the saddle, now a mere 75 yards from the buck! I had decided that I'd take the shot - Joe obviously couldn't see the buck!
Now content to let trouble pass, safely in his hideout, the muley had positioned himself directly between me and the setting sun - shooting was imopssible - until the buck moved further South! A decision was forthcoming - pronto!! BOOM! WHUMP! The 3x4 was down and out; Joe's .270 had finally decided that hitting something was ok! ;) Seriously, Joe missing game is a rare occurrence! But this deer had a better than average dose of luck, which at 80 yards, finally wore out once he opted to exit his hide - Joe's offhand shot resulted in a "double lunger" - the previous attempts had been clean misses! Then, the work began - Joe didn't allow for much picture taking - we were as far from the trucks and then from town as we could get - and still be on THE RANCH. Still, I was pleased with having to settle for a camera shot ! ;)
Regradless that we "knew" where they had gone, the biggest of the two bucks had, altogether,eluded further detection!
Though BIG MIKE didn't show up, his presence was felt . . . was I REALLY going to shoot a 3x4 on the second day? RG