2019 Monster Muzzleloader Mule Deer

[Coues Archer]

Hunted this buck for 8 strait days. I seen him scouting 1 time before my hunt. Never to see him again for 2 strait weeks. The times I did see him he was way out in a completely different location miles away. The buck was always on the move... For the few seconds I did have to see this buck I could tell he was an awesome deer; Deep forks, great mass and height! I called this deer “Ghost” he was unpatternable.. The buck never stayed in a certain area like almost all bucks do. This buck knew that staying in any given area for too long was bad news for him. Super smart deer! To make things even more difficult he was the only buck in the dam area not chasing does😂 Including scouting and my hunt I only seen this deer 3 times and the only time I seen him was at the last 10 minutes of shooting light; completely nocturnal animal. Below is the story on how it went down...

 

I spotted a buck at 1 mile at dawn. When I put the spotting scope on him I could tell it was a shooter buck(not ghost). The buck was herding and rutting these does hardcore. It didn't take me long to pack up all my gear and start closing the distance on them. I get to a half mile of them and these deer rutted over the top of this hill away from me. I didn't wanna run right into them and spook them so I gave It about 30 minutes and just glassed the two drainages that came out from where they dropped into. I did this to make sure that they didn’t escape out of this pocket when I ventured into it. They never did so I headed over to the deer trail and started track them to where they went, I pursued them extremely slow because I knew I could get really close hunting this method. I tracked them for half a mile when I noticed ears walking towards me 100 yards away. I get down on my belly and just watch these deer get 20 yards to me and feed right around me lol they had no clue I was there. So then I see a 3x3 buck about 150 yards away and I grunted at him to try and pull him closer. He came in 20 yards and had a stand off with me and had no clue where the grunting had come from. He was looking around for 10 minutes right in front of me. The buck then started grazing and eventually met up with the does that were right in front of me. It was at that moment that I started hearing grunting and trampling like a stampede lol I just got ready on my belly cuz I knew something was lurking in front of me lol. I pulled my muzzleloader and have it on my side as I'm laying in my back. I then see about 25 deer within 30 yards of me. All I could see was little heads pop up out of nowhere. Then behind the does herding them up is a different buck than what I had seen this morning. An even bigger buck had pushed the big buck I seen this morning out of the group in the span of like an hour. This buck happened to be my target buck. "Ghost" I called this buck ghost because this buck I tried hunting for 7 days with no success. The smartest creature I have hunted lol. He had no pattern to hunt and never showed himself. He was nocturnal. But anyways this buck was pushing the does, nudging them in the rump and grunting like a mad man😂 I got on my knees as he got 50 yards from me and I let him have it. It took me 3 shots to bring that bad boy down. Here he is fellas, an awesome desert mule deer with a muzzleloader🤙🏽

[PRDATR]

Nice and tall.

[Couzer]

Awesome buck, some nice deep forks!

[lancetkenyon]

Beautiful buck!  Way to stick it out.

[mattys281]

Dang!  Nice one!  Congrats.

[Heat]

Right on man that is a great buck!  Way to get it done.

[Outdoor Writer]

Love those tall racks. Well done. 👍

[longshooter]

That’s a cool buck with some great forks 

[Coach]

Great looking buck! Awesome how it all came together. 

 

[azbirdhunter88]

Very nice. Way to go. 

[trophyseeker]

Nice buck. Congrats. 

[Flatlander]

Dude... nice!

[Red Dirt]

Awesome buck! Congrats

[wildwoody]

Good buck..

[oilcan]

Very nice Buck