2011's Great Adventure

[waspocrew]

What a fun trip! Thanks for taking the time to post and share.

[bonehead]

sweet post

[sneekeepete]

Monday we were back at it hitting the high country. As always after opening weekend the deer were not moving at all. We glassed two does in the morning and four in the evening... That was all the deer we saw.
Tuesday morning however ended up different. We had made it 200 yards our of camp and were on two tiny two points feeding. At this point it was day four and Matt was starting to getting a little itchy but he held off. I tried yelling and clapping to spook these bucks further off the road but they just stared at me. 30 minutes later one got smoked ...
Anywho our morning hunt was much more productive with around 25 deer spotted and 3 small bucks passed.
We knew that the storm was supposed to be hitting us that evening so with high hopes we went back up way high in hopes that the storm would get some bigger bucks moving.
We still hunted towards a very productive bowl and ended up passing a pretty two point and watching a big bull with about 10 cows for a while.
By the time it was about 5:00 we started getting pounded with snow so we left our glassing point and began to still hunt through the bowl hoping to catch something moving. By about 6:00 it was snowing so hard it began to get hard to tell east from west and up from down so we started hurrying out of the high alpine bowl. We had nearly reached the trail head when I spotted 6 does and fawns leaving the bowl as well until they had spotted us. We looked them over really well and decided that if there was a buck he wasn't big enough to mess with. We went another 300 yards and again I spotted a doe and fawn. I got Matts attention and we looked them over. Then more deer appeared with them. I moved to my left to get a better look and out stepped a great 3 point. He slipped his pack off and slid over next to me and sat down. As he was orienting himself through the scope the buck turned straight away from us and a Beautiful 4x3 stepped out from behind him. The 3 point had slipped back into the trees by now with the bigger buck following. Then a fawn stopped to look back and cut the big buck off. He turned to take on last look and I told Matt. Shoot the last deer! He repeated the last deer right.... Yes BOOM! I saw the bucks front end drop as he snowplowed down out of view. I looked at matt who didn't know what just happened and said you just got your first muley!!!! He set his rifle down and jumped up and into my arms like I had just proposed or something
I got him calmed down and we gatherd his gear up and made our way to where the buck had been. It was just short of 100 yards.
The buck was still kicking so in his excitement Matt put one through his neck to finish him off. That finished up Matt's first Mule Deer hunt. I can't think of anyone who I would rather guide hunting that him. He is a great friend and worked his butt off for this buck. He could appreciate the struggle and work it takes to get a decent deer and would have been happy with just the experience of the hunt without a kill. Matt my friend you really deserved this buck and congrats on a great first muley!
And with that I will show him off.

[sneekeepete]

So come to find out it was snowing so hard Matt never even saw how big the buck was through his scope cause it was snowing so hard! He had it set on 3 power and I was looking through 8 power binos. He just trusted me and made the shot.
Once the pics were taken I bombed off the mountain and back to camp. Matt got his buck gutted and slid down to the trail head. Once at camp I jumped in the jeep and went to retrieve Matt and his buck. It was so muddy and slick from the snow we almost didn't make it up and back!
The next day it was absolutley awesome to see the transformation of camp and to reflect on such a great hunt. Matts buck was shot at 6:30 in the evening and right before it was too dark to shoot. What luck it was that our path crossed these bucks migration route.
The next day you could see all the deers tracks headed down the mountain!!!!

[sneekeepete]

This was our last day on the mountain. What a beautifu day... I had to leave my family in Utah for about 1 month while I finish everything up here in NC in the Marine Corps. I cannot wait to return again for good and maybe meet some of you in the future.
Again I am just happy to be able to enjoy my time like I have been able to and share my stories with all of you.
Happy Hunting!

[sneekeepete]

I'd like to say that I was wearing hunters orange when I killed my buck but took it off for the pics. Just thought I'd get that out there .

[derekp1999]

Great story, congrats on two great bucks.

[sneekeepete]

And to finish off Matts year one week after he got his Muley his stuck this whitetail buck back home in Pennsylvania!

[waspocrew]

Great looking bucks!

[sneekeepete]

thanks guys it was a blast and almost as fun to recount for all of you.