Ben and his 31″ mule deer buck after getting back to the truck.
I would love to say that on every bowhunt for mule deer that I have been successful. Well that is not the case, if it ha been, then I would have to say that I would be hunting in enclosed area. That is not the case for me with elk, antelope or deer.
Well this hunt was more for my good friend and hunting partner Ben Olson, the only hunting partner in my past that could read what I was doing on a hunt, whether it was making a drive or working an area.
On this mule deer bowhunt, both Ben and I were hunting and area in the Grizzly Unit. We would be hunting about a mile apart, as both us had spots that we thought were ours to hunt. I had a great spot, but Ben would be the only person to be successful on this hunt and he would do it in a big way. That is not to say that I didn’t see any great bucks, but I did see some dandies, but failed to connect on them. Guess I was just too picky and let a couple of good bucks go, trying to get the monster buck.
Anyway Ben would be hunting a bowl that harbored some dandy bucks in the past.
As the story goes, Ben spotted this monster mulie at about 300 yards out; the buck was running with 10 other bucks. There was enough cover with Junipers, Sage brush and rocks, with the wind blowing into his face at 15 knots; he was able to walk right up on the buck’s butt. The buck never knew that Ben was at full draw at 45 yards as the buck turned to feed. The rest is history according to Ben as the buck jumped and went about 15 yards and lay down.
I knew where Ben was and made my way just before dark to see whether or not if he saw of go anything. To my surprise here Ben with this monster mulie already quartered and caped. This did make it a fairly easy pack out to the truck even though darkness had fallen upon us. It had not been the first time that we had to walk out in the dark from this area. This was before we started using GPS’s.
This was Ben’s best buck from the area in the number of years that he has hunted the area.
I think it finally sank in with Ben, how nice his buck was!