a huntin' story turned blog amidst the greatest muley hunt ever...

[Blackhawk]

Good stuff...

[Talondale]

Entertaining read.

[huntnmuleys]

warmed up today.  finally out of the deep freeze. damn, it felt good to be getting back out....

ok, so I know in the morning I want to hunt my favorite spot of all.  its not the "rut zone" but its just my spot.  anyway, tonight I decided id see if my blind survived the heavy snow and howling wind in the rut zone itself  and if so sit the blind.  when I got there I feared the worst, but once I popped the roof back up and a ton of snow fell off, I could see the blind was fine.
 

of course the cows are still in here thick.  maybe worse than before.  looking around before the hunt, I only saw a couple sets of deer tracks. the wind really picked up about a half hour before dark, and I was covered up in cows so I figured id go do some glassing to prepare for tomorrow. the one saddle I can see in the distance from the blind had a couple does in it, and in my actual spot for tomorrow there were a LOT of deer moving around.  check this guy out, not a shooter but nice..

right at dark I spotted the buck im calling "hightower".  its that giant forkie with crab clawed fronts that I keep seeing. hes so tal and I just always say that name to myself when I see him.  I think I can get on him tomorrow, him or that big heavy 4x3 which is probably my favorite buck of all of the shooters ive seen.  tomorrow is supposed to be warm and calm, and I bet I do well.

should get some great pics too.

did I mention just how good it felt to be back out hunting again?

[Jayrod]

BEST OF LUCK brad awesome thread so far hope it ends up with a big Muley on the ground!

[Jack Shanks]

Good luck Brad! Great read so far. Muleys are such a challenge and so fun to hunt.

[snakebit40]

[gringol]

You are surely in a good spot if that is not a shooter!  Keep after em.  This is good!

[traditional_archer]

Wow!!  Keep it coming.  May your arrow fly true.  Great being able to see this, haven't been able to get out to hunt this year.  Way too cool.

[huntnmuleys]

talk about a neat morning. felt great to be out!!  ill let the pics show the sun turning a foreboding landscape into a gorgeous wintry day...
 
 
 

[huntnmuleys]

and I went for quite a hike.  found a few nice rubs...
 
 

the hard wind after the snow made for some interesting walking.  lots of the snow was soft and easy to traverse. some was blown in quite hard.  

in some places, these two things met up within inches. heres an 8 inch sink, then lookie there im hovering!
 

[huntnmuleys]

as for the hunting, I bumped three does shortly after I got to walking. still pretty dark but no bucks around.  shortly after I located 5 does and figured there was a buck and snuck in.  not an antler to be found.  that ended up being a trend this morning im afraid.  I just kept finding bedded does with no male escorts. some of these deer can be hard to spot...
 

I finally did locate a couple bucks, while I was working the rimrock along a big canyon. a smallish 3x3 and a spike were cruising the bottom. no pics, sorry.

pretty disappointing day for buck action. I did go back in to where dad got his buck to rescue/pull the blind if it was in one piece.  working that area, there were tracks EVERYWHERE!  buck tracks too, and they looked fresh.  the blind was collapsed in the snow but in one piece so I brought it out.  I did still have that camera in there and here are a couple of the frequent visitors to the area.  tonight im gonna work the ridgetops in there, and do some spotting and rattling..

 
 
 

[steadman]

Good luck Brad! Some good bucks still out and about.

[huntnmuleys]

"over on the mountain,
thunder magic spoke.
Let the people know my wisdom,
fill the land with smoke"

listening to a little CCR on the way to the woods tonight.  my Fogerty impression isn't exactly spot on, wonder if ill be better at deer hunting..

the answer was a resounding no.  hunted in the general vicinity of where those cam pics are, and drew a blank.  saw one so/so 4x4 hounding a doe but he got away before a shot or pic.  plenty of tracks and sign around, just no buck tonight.
 

driving out, was able to kind of glass near where I was this morning (even in the dark a deer can be seen in the snow).  deer everywhere.  where did they come from?  I think ill try to find out in the morning....

[kennyb]

Good luck Brad...this is a great thread. Thanks for taking us along! Keep your nose into the wind! Lol

Kenny    

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Sooner or later you will be in the right place at the right time.

[centaur]

Brad, sounds like your mulie hunt is mirroring my whitetail hunt. Let's hope we both get it done soon.

[huntnmuleys]

I hope we do soon as well, Pat..

just getting ready to leave.  its cold outside. good lord.  the first hour or two of this might not be much fun.

[huntnmuleys]

for those that like music, todays choice was a little Corb Lund.  "The Truck Got Stuck" is a longtime fave, and everytime I listen to that before an elk hunt I seem to do well.  figured id try it with deer.

the heat yesterday softening the snow up plus the cold last night equaled really, really crunchy snow.  pretty much impossible to sneak on much. early on however, I spotted my big, heavy 4x3 hounding a doe.  of all of my prospective bucks this year, hes my fave.  ive seen him standing by a buck that would outscore him by at least 20 inches, but he 4x3 just dwarfs him in body size.  that plus me hunting and getting close to him last year makes him my fave. anyway...

I watched him from a couple hundred yards hounding this doe.  there was one more with em, but he wasn't paying her much mind.

 


 anyway, they were working out on this peninsula that I happen to know very well, and I felt that even with the crunchy snow I might have a chance at him... this is a spot they typically drop off the top and work around the rim rock, maybe I could make the quarter mile in time to basically treestand him from that point. \\

it was not to be.

just after they crossed over a point and I could move and gain some ground, I spotted a couple does sort of behind me. and they saw me...
 

now I have no idea why, but instead of running away, the three of em (I know you can only see one in the pic, but trust me there were three) ran in a big, 3 or 4 hundred yard half circle around me and ran right into my buck.  damn it!   I moved as close as I could, but instead of doing what I was hoping they crossed the big canyon, and I was out of chances for this morning.

my little pocket camera takes great pics.  this is from a LONGGGGG ways away...
 

I actually watched him badger this doe for a bit, before I left.  with the loud walking, I felt I had no chance of doing anything but running deer this morning, plus where he went I feel I have a great ambush spot for this evening.  its a good long hike and ill want to be in kind of early, but honestly, this one might work...

[4dogs]

Very good !!    

[centaur]

Go get 'em this afternoon! Same situation here, crunchy snow that made it impossible to move quietly. Saw bucks chasing, but couldn't move on them. A balmy 12 here this morning; I'm betting Newcastle was just as toasty.