I recently completed my first mule deer hunt in Colorado with Jack Cassidy Outfitters. Jack leases a 40,000 acre ranch in the southeast corner of the state. While I certainly had dreams of punching my tag on a monster mulie, I knew I would be happy with a good representative buck for my first effort. Prior to arriving in camp, I spoke to a few hunters who had been out the week before I arrived. They told me how the hunting had been slow this year with not a lot of encounters. When I arrived in camp, the guides, Chris and Manny, while both being optimistic, gave me the same impression. Chris explained that it had been a very wet summer and the big bucks were hunkered down and not traveling to water as much as they normally would in a drier year.
The first day out, we came across about 8-10 does but only a couple small bucks. The second morning out, we hiked up and down the draws three to four miles through some absolutely prime mule deer country and only saw one doe. Driving through the ranch on our way back toward camp, I spotted two deer climbing a knoll about 600 yards away. Through the spotting scope, Chris was able to identify that it was two bucks, one smaller 3x3 and then other good 4x4 with a brow tine. With the deer close to cresting the top, we made a decision to take the larger buck. We approached in to about 250 yards, and I executed the shot. I had my mule deer down and was able to turn my attention to thinning out the coyote population. I look forward to another go at mule deer where I will be a little more selective.
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