Dandy Mulie by Doug Campbell
My first mulie buck while not simple didn't take long after I finally found him, which was the evening before I actuallyshot him. I've been looking for a nice mulie buck for 20 years since my first trip to CO. I sure never figured it'd take so long but as I'm sure many of you can attest to sometimes the hardest part is finding him.
I worked on stalking this guy for a couple hours that evening with a brrr cold wind blowing about 30 mph. he was on a flat with ten or so does and I just couldn't get under 40yrds of him so decided it'd be better to back off and try later rather than spook him out of the country.
It was supposed to be below zero (Far) the next morning so I slept in. Woke up about 6:30 anyway and looked out and it was 24º. Couldn't believe it so jumped into my stuff and headed up the mountain. I probably spent an hour and a half searching and finally saw a few does about a quarter mile above where they had been the evening before.
They were in some scattered firtrees so I started stalking up on them. I was about 60 yards away when I saw the buck step out from behind a tree. Before I could go any further a doe that had apparently spotted me decided to get curious. She came stiff legged up the hill toward where I was kneeling behind a small tree. Before it was over the whole bunch was around me including the doe the buck was trailing.
I tried to melt into my surroundings and by some miracle the wind was in my favor. The old buck wasn't concerned with anything but that one doe and she walked by up the hill about 20 yards. I knew where she went he'd shortly follow so got ready. He stepped into the hole I was looking thru in the small firtree I was behind. Perfect, doesn't get any better than that, right? Wrong, I sailed an arrow right over his back. Couldn't believe I'd blown a chance at a trophy buck like that. Well the doe was far enough along she didn't even know what had happened and made another circle thru the exact same spot and the poor love sick buck came by again. Two chances, I couldn't believe it so I drew back and let fly again and watched my shaft sail over his back in the exact spot again.
Needless to say I was pretty rattled after that. This time the bunch decided to drift down the hill a hundred yards or so. I dropped over a ridge and moved below and downwind again then crawled up behind a big rock as close as I could get, about 60 yards to see what would happen next.
After an hour or so the does had moved up the hill and I'd crawled ahead of them and gotten into their path of travel. They eventually, SLOWLY, started drifting by me so I had to stay frozen for another half-hour or so. I was about frozen literally then the doe the buck couldn't seem to forget came up and peed in the snow about 16 or 18 yards to my left. There was no doubt in my mind that the buck was going to be sticking his nose in that stuff if I didn't spook the whole bunch off by my shivering.
Sure enough here he came and my nerves were borderline shot, frazzled, frayed, gone.... I didn't know what was going to happen when I released the next arrow after my earlier shooting but we were about to find out. When he stuck his nose in that yellow snow I let fly and thought oh no bad shot, not enough penetration...Course I was expecting something bad by that point.
The buck bolted down the hill and I followed. He didn't go far and laid in against a tree. I slipped in and shot him again and while not in the right spot this one anchored him. Another arrow from 15 feet into the lungs and he was out in a few seconds.
Turns out he was hit in the liver so probably wouldn't have lasted long but the insurance shots made sure of it. I went back to where I'd missed the first two shots and found both arrows within 3 feet of each other. The only thing I can figure is he was skylined above me and I was shooting thru an eight inch opening in the small firtree and it just blew my mind. First arrow in him was a stone point, 2nd a WW, 3rd another stone since that's all I had left in my quiver ;{) All in all a very harrowing and exciting experience.
Topic: Dandy Mulie - Doug Campbell (Read 3072 times)
