January Success
New Mexico
Well I finally did it, I broke the longest streak of not killing a mule deer buck! I tried hard to keep the streak alive but broke it anyway.
The day before the hunt I forgot I had the flatbed trailer hooked to the truck and jacked knifed the trailer into my pop up camper jack and ripped it of of the camper, if that wasn't bad enough it also crunched in the back corner of my truck.
Day one of the hunt I glassed up a few Does and no bucks, it was super cold with a frigid wind chill.
Day two brought an even colder morning then the day before, I hunted/froze all morning but only saw a few Does and decided to meet up with a friend and do a little road scouting. As we drove around we were seeing some quail and I couldn't resist trying to get one but after two or three misses I was super focussed to not shoot until I had ranged the next bird...........well I jumped out of the truck and ranged two quail at 20 yds sitting perfectly together it was a perfect shot setup, I drew and put the 20 on em, Whap!!!! I forgot to nock an arrow and blew my string up, I was spiraling in a downward fashion. So I told my friend to take me back to camp so that I can go to Roswell and try to fix my bow. On the way back to camp we drove by a herd of deer with 3 bucks, one was a monster buck....guess who didn't have a bow! So my buddy jumped out and I took his truck back to camp but I only went 500 yds and ran into another herd with 3 more bucks in it and as I got closer to camp I saw another herd with 2 bucks in it, all I could do was look at them and drive on.
I unhooked the trailer and took off to Roswell, a good friend of mine (Trophyhill) text me the name of the bow shop and said they know how to work on a D-350 and not to worry. I walk in the bow shop (Kill Shot) and ask the guy if he can fix my bow up, he quickly said sure but it would take a week to get a string shipped in........my head started to spin thinking that I would have to drive back to Abq. Just when depression was starting to set in my phone buzzed, it was Trophyhill, I told him what the bow shop said then he says well I think I have a string and cables at my camp (he happens to have the same bow) Wow! I drove back to his camp, grabbed the string and cables and went back to the bow shop. I have to give this shop a plug, Robby at Kill Shot did a great job with my D-350 and I left there back in business, I am also super thankful for Trophyhill's generosity!
Never go on a hunt without an extra set of string and cables!
I started the next day with a fresh outlook, my friend didn't kill anything so all the bucks were still out there. The weather started warming up and for the next 4 days I spent many hours behind the glass keeping track on a handful of bucks with only one possible opportunity but I screwed that up. While watching a big herd of deer through the bino's I heard a noise right below me, I slowly looked under my bino's and saw a nice 2x3 standing 10 yds away. Now for how I screwed up, 1) No arrow nocked 2) Phone with phone scope adapter was sitting on top of my bow 3) tripod and scope was between my legs 4) fixated on glassing deer from afar and not glassing my immediate surroundings. By the time I moved everything and was ready to shoot the buck had moved out of my shot range, I had to laugh at myself for such rookie mistakes but I had one more day to hunt and remained positive.
The barren country I was hunting, it's brutal when windy!
The barren country I was hunting, it's brutal when windy!
Day 6 Trophyhill connected on a nice buck and brought it by our camp to show us, it was a great evening of stories! I went to bed that night not knowing what I was going to do for my last day of hunting but with Davids success I was looking forward to the next day despite the weather forecast for some big winds mid day.
The last day; I woke up and decided to change up what I was doing, instead of walking into a particular area and glassing up the deer I decided to jump on the ATV and head out to look at some tanks way out in the flats, the plan was to sit water even though I have never had any luck doing so. I ended up parking the ATV a mile away from a tank and walked in, once I got there the rookie mistakes I made a couple days earlier were still on my mind. The first thing I did was nock an arrow, then I glassed the immediate area, set up the tripod and scope 2 ft out in front of me and glassed the further areas, as I got off the glass I looked to my left and saw the tips of antlers jumping a fence that was behind a small burm and I quickly grabbed the bow that had an arrow nocked! then I ranged the top of the burm at 40 yds before I could range anything else he was already coming over the top and straight towards me, I quickly clipped the release to the bow string but noticed that the range finder string was tangled on my release...dang it! I un-clipped and got the string off of the release then re-clipped all while he was walking towards me from 40 yds with nothing but dirt between us, as he got to about 5 yds from me I thought you better draw or he is going to run you over so I drew with as little movement as possible, his eyes got as big as silver dollars and he whirled around a small tree and down the burm he went, by the time he got to the bottom of the burm I was already standing and chasing him with my pins, I tried to whistle but only made a whooshing sound but he still stopped and turned to look at me and the arrow was on its way. I never saw the arrow or where it hit but the buck took off, the morning sun was shining on him and I couldn't see any blood but after 30 or 40 yds he just hit the dirt and didn't move again......I was standing there absolutely speechless and couldn't believe that it finally happened, I had just killed my first mule deer buck with my bow after 30 years of hunting them every year, there was never a hunt that I didn't put in a 110% effort every day. I had killed a doe with my bow about 12 years ago and have killed many elk but for some reason the mule deer buck had evaded my best efforts. Over the years there have been so many close encounters and fantastic experiences that once the buck hit the ground all of those memories rushed through my mind, what a great journey it was!
nice buck mrelite success stories like this keeps me bow hunting my last mule deer buck was twenty some years ago but i still hunt them
what a nice buck, you should buy a powerball ticket
Nice! The guys at killshot are good people. Kudos to trophy hill.
Nice buck! 30 years! I thought I was bad at going on 17 years now for me since I killed a buck
Thanks guy's, I hope none of you beat my record!!
As long as I'm willing to shoot a spike in UT, I never will!!! ;^)
When I first started bowhunting big game it took me 2 years (basically 4 seasons: Sept/Jan/Sept/Jan) to kill my first mule deer buck in the last 30 min of the last day of season. I went from thinking it was impossible to thinking I could do it every year!
I manage to kill a couple deer over the next few years, but all of a sudden I've looked back and for various reasons it's been a dozen years since I killed one! Dang, how time flies.
Nice! I was woried you weren't going to get your bow dialed in, in time. Those little Bowmaster presses work pretty well, I keep one in the truck when I'm out in case of emergency. Sweet!
Very Nice mrelite. I'm still waiting for my first buck with a bow. I did have a coues deer buck at 20 yards a few days ago. He was wagging his tail at me and seemed to be saying "please don't shoot me I'm just a spike"... ugh!
Congrats
Nice! Looks like your shoulder is doin ok. Did you take him on public or private?
Yea the shoulder is doing okay for most things but I do favor it and I try not do things that makes it hurt!
BLM and State, without access to State it would be hard to hunt a lot of the areas around your neck of the desert.
Sfire I don't know if I would have given the little guy a pass that late in the hunt!
Congrats on a well earned buck JP! Damn I love bowhunting! Guess you didn't need "Clyde the Phone Guide after all ;)
LOL just the thought of having to call a 1-900 # for help made things happen
Lol! (Inside joke there) and no I'm not Clyde the phone guide. That "self proclaimed" title belongs to another lol
He wasn't kidding when he said high winds! About the time I got camp cleaned up , camper hooked up and in the road, there was a big brown cloud covering the high plains. I remember thinking to myself "they're screwed"! Turned out quite the opposite to my utter amazement.
sfiremedic, I don't think the Couse was saying that at all. It was more like "go ahead. I'll show you the true meaning of ducking the string" ;)
