My friend's mule deer...

[Chef]

Here are some pictures that my friend sent me.

He shot this buck on the opener 2010.

 

He will follow with details of the hunt...Congrats again Neil!

 

 

[Knifeboy]

Chef thanks for posting the photos.

 

Okay so here is the story.

 

I got drawn in unit 20B for stink pigs (this is a new area for me). So I drove up there opening morning and found a nice little null that I could glass from. I sat there and glassed for a while with no luck so I decided to move to a new location. I found a new null that looked equally as promising as the first, however, when I got up there and set up all I could find in the binos were other hunters. I decided I would try the other side of the ridge, and right after setting up I found this guy strolling through the brush, occasionally stopping to rub his antlers on the trees. I watched him for about fifteen minutes hoping he would bed down to no avail. He walked out of my sight behind a small ridged, and I decided if I was going to get a chance at him I had better get down there and find him. I hiked down to a small ravine that I thought he might come through and started moving pretty slowly just in case he was there. Suddenly, I heard a crack and I looked up the ridge and there he was. He was looking for me as well, apparently I wasn’t as quiet as I thought I was. Fortunately he was not able to locate me, and after a several minute standoff he decided that I was a perhaps a doe. He walked up the ridge away from me a couple of steps and behind some brush, while he was moving I took my opportunity of hiding behind a nice little Palo Verde. While I was moving I made some noise, and he was able to see where I was. In the meantime a second buck (a forked horn) came over to join his bigger buddy, he too decided that I was perhaps a doe and wanted to get a closer look at me. So the two of them turned around and slowly (took about 1o minutes) came down the ridge to look at me. The smaller one stepped out into a clearing about twenty yards away and looked right at me. I could have shot him, but decided I would try my luck (and I am lucky) to see if big brother would follow suit. Sure enough about a minute later big brother decided he just couldn’t do without his own look at me. When he got the front half of his body out in the clearing far enough I put the pin on his vitals and let one fly. The arrow flew true, but to my dismay it hit a little Palo Verde tree branch right in front of him and deflected the arrow. The arrow deflected right up and through his throat. The buck jumped and bucked, then ran about 80 yards to stop and look at me. I just sagged my head and looked at him and thought to myself “crap, I just wounded this fine deer, and now he is going to be wounded for the rest of the rut”. Just then the bucks’ knees started to wobble and he turned around to face uphill, when he tried to jump up the ridge he fell backwards and piled up. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. I waited for a while to make sure he wasn’t getting up, and when I finally had a chance to go check him out I noticed the arrow had cut right through the jugular.

 

After that I phoned my brother-in-law who had just arrived at my pickup by the road, and let him know what had happened. He was pretty elated as well, however, he didn’t believe me for quite a while. Anyway, I walked back to the truck and emptied my pack so I could go back for the deer with an empty bag. My brother-in-law had brought his kids along, and I showed them where I shot the buck and let them blood trail it, they were very excited when they finally found it.

 

I am normally a Coues deer hunter; I only hunt the Mules with my bow, and I thought some of you might enjoy the story and the photos.

 

P.S. I am heading back out to see if I can stick me a stink pig soon.

 

[CouesWhitetail]

Congratulations on your mulie!

 

Amanda

 

[Ernesto C]

Very nice not bad at all!! Thanks for sharing and that 2nd picture is awesome! Congratulations.

 

Ernesto C

[AZbowhntr]

Neil, awesome buck. And congrats again. Let us know when you head back out for the pigs and if I can swing it I would love to come do a little glassing. It's kind of nice being on the glassing side once in a while.

[mattys281]

Another great looking buck hit's the ground. Cograts!

[Coues Sniper]

Nice buck . You are pretty lucky.

[Coues Archer]

Awesome buck great job.

[Simple Hunter]

Nice Desert Mulie! Congrats!

[bwhntr]

Congrats! Nice Job!

 

[Knifeboy]

The photos above dont do him much justice. I am not very good at using the camera to show off the antlers like a lot of you are.

Here is one more photo of where he lay. It shows his forks a little better.

By the way, what do you think he will score? He is very symmetrical (almost identical on both sides).