As an avid whitetail hunter who solely hunts my own private ranch, when given the chance to hunt mule deer in an area that was new to me, I jumped all over it. On this hunt, I found myself staring through a spotting scope, gazing over thousands of acres of sagebrush, trying to locate the white rump patches that are a dead giveaway of mule deer. On my second trip into mule deer country, I finally spotted a mule deer buck that I considered to be “for real.”
The first scouting trip revealed a denser mule deer population than I had ever seen before in Kansas. While I saw several nice bucks, I didn’t see one that I felt was worthy of my Kansas archery tag. Two weeks later, I arrived at my glassing location at peak movement time, set up the scope, and started glassing up mule deer. After a short period of time, a deer that I felt was “for real” filled my scope. I knew this buck was bigger than anything else I had seen. As I watched him, he began to work in my direction and I realized he was giving me an opportunity to position myself in his path. Scrambling, I geared up to make a move. While I did make a play on the buck, it was short lived as he found a group of does to be very distracting. I was able to get within 185 yards of the buck and watch and study him for 30 minutes before the sun set and darkness prevailed.
As the sun rose the next morning, I began scanning the vast, open country, trying to locate the buck with no luck. Knowing the buck had to still be in the area, I repositioned myself on another hilltop. Two miles away, I spotted two deer, one of which I felt was good. I figured the truck was approximately halfway between the buck and me, so I might as well go towards him. After half a mile or so, I was admiring the buck again and the sun hit his antlers just right. I realized it was the buck I had seen the night before. The stalk was on!
I knew I had to close some distance and fast as the buck was headed into the sage. I was able to get into a drainage and close a mile or so on him. I sat in the sage for several minutes, regrouping and studying the buck’s direction of travel. I was going to have to crawl several hundred yards to get to where I felt I needed to be.
Away I went on my hands and knees, stopping every few minutes and peeking above the sage to keep tabs on the buck’s position. I was feeling good when I spotted the rack of another buck. I knew if I spooked that buck, he would alert the big deer. I couldn’t move any further without spooking the buck, so I settled in and started ranging objects around me. Then, the buck appeared to my left and he was close! Buck fever was setting in, and I began trying to range him with shaking hands. At 56 yards, he was well within my range. It was time to try to make my shot. The deer was quartering hard towards me, so I settled on the point of his shoulder and released the arrow. The buck jumped and rose above the sage. I could barely see the orange and white vanes of my arrow sticking out of his chest right where I was aiming.
Disbelief set in as I lay on my back looking up into the Kansas sky, giving the buck time to expire. I knew the shot was good, although he ran out of sight. After a short search, the buck was dead 60 yards from where I shot him. Laying my hands on him, I realized I had killed a mule deer that to me was “for real.”
Login