Episode 5 – Winter Mule Deer Hunt Part II

Here is Part II of our fifth episode of Off Trail. This is the last part of Todd’s hunt.

If you haven’t seen Part I, check it out or you can read my blog about the trip.

Enjoy the video!

[bliptv Basecamplegends-WinterBuckHunt2007Part2456]

Following is the portion of the blog that pertains to this part of the video:

Thursday was an exciting day. We got on three bucks early in the morning and decided to make a drive. I tried to push the bucks to Todd, but they walked just out of bow range from him. We circled around and watched them feed most of the morning and in the process, we jumped our big three point – and it would turn out to be the final time we saw him. Today I found out that I had pause and record mixed up and therefore did not get footage of him – which makes me SICK. He was only about fifty yards from us when he bolted and we had no idea he was anywhere around. I thought I got great footage of him from close up though, only to find out today as I watched the footage, it wasn’t there. So the only footage we have of the big boy is from about five hundred yards. We watched the three bucks from early in the morning feed right back to the exact spot they were in when we spotted them first, so decided to try the drive again. The country is so wide open that stalking the deer is sometimes impossible – especially with so many pairs of eyes on the hill – and the snow was quickly becoming crunchy as the weather was warming up in the day to melt it, and freezing it hard at night. This time, Todd set up on their previous route and I stepped out to make myself visible to the deer. They got up from their beds and began heading up the ridge towards Todd. They only made it as far as the big buck, though, and when he got up, they all veered off and headed down the draw and eventually moseyed out of sight. By this time, Todd and I decided that maybe we’d exhausted this area and we tried some new territory. One of the cool things happened there as we came upon an old mine that is still being worked. It was all gated off with “danger” signs all around – a musty smell permeated from the dark hole. It was a pretty neat experience.

Friday was our last day of hunting, and it was the best day as far as close calls. Twice Todd was within bow range of nice bucks, but he didn’t know it either time. The first was early in the morning. We spotted some bucks bedded in the same draw where I’d tried to push them to Todd twice the day before. So, we decided that sooner or later, this plan HAD to work. He got set up and I allowed myself to become visible in hopes that they would get up and move towards Todd’s setup. This time the plan seemed to work perfectly. The deer (two bucks and about seven does) started to head away from Todd and I panicked and shouted to him “They’re heading to your right!” The deer looked back and me, and when they started to move again, they started heading straight toward where Todd had just moved to. I shouted again, “They’re heading straight toward you!” This shouting trick seemed to work as the deer were focused on me, and Todd slid into position, and yet the deer were in no way panicked. What I didn’t realize is that where Todd was set up, he could only see about thirty yards down the ridge. The deer got to within about forty yards of him and started to mill around. I’m not sure if they suspected that something was up there, or if I was just making them too nervous. Whatever the case, they milled around below Todd for two or three minutes and I still don’t know why I didn’t just yell for him to draw and step over the ridge. Instead I just watched and wondered why Todd wasn’t shooting. I could see that he was plenty close enough. I tried to push the deer by taking another step closer, but I slipped and slid a little ways down the draw. The deer came racing back towards me and squirted out the side of the draw out of bow range. When we met again, Todd let me know that he never knew where the deer were exactly as the terrain prevented him from seeing them.

Later that day, we spotted a nice 3 x 2 bedded down, but he’d spotted us, too. When he got up to run, we noticed he was not using his left hind leg. We knew he wouldn’t go far with a bum leg, and sure enough, he crossed the draw and found a sage to lay up under. As he bedded down, Todd decided he would try and make a hunt on this wounded buck. I sat where I was across the wide draw and watched the entire thing play out. When Todd appeared over the ridge above the buck, he was only about 55 yards away. I watched him slowly creep closer while the buck had no clue he was there. As the distance narrowed, I again began wondering why Todd wasn’t drawing and shooting. Finally Todd stopped and crouched. He stayed like that for five minutes and I finally put my camera down to look through the binoculars to see what exactly was going on. As soon as I put the binos up, I saw Todd coming to full draw. I dropped the binos like hot coals and started scrambling to find the record button on the camera. I video taped the buck running down the draw and around a bend and out of sight. When I caught up to Todd, it was a familiar story. He’d gotten to within 35 yards of the buck, but he couldn’t see him. He could just see the tips of his antlers through the sage and he thought the buck was looking right at him. I was across the draw and could have told him that the buck was oblivious to Todd’s presence. He was never locked in on his position. When Todd drew back, the buck stood up and bolted and never offered a shot.

That evening, we got on a nice 4 x 3 and tried to cut him and his herd off as they fed down the canyon. Again, though, we got too far in front of them and had to watch helplessly as they bedded down a mere 80 yards away. There was a forked horn that bedded eighty yards from Todd, but we’d lost sight of the 4 x 3 and no way to search for him with so many eyes around us. We were hunkered down behind a pile of rocks – the only cover around – and then we got pegged by the forked horn. When we were next able to take a peek over the rocks, the 4 x 3 was feeding away at 90 yards. He had to have been bedded directly underneath of us, but no way to have even looked because the forked horn had us spotted. With daylight fading fast, we had to simply watch as the last buck of the trip gave us the slip