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It just struck me a few minutes ago that while I can tell you every minute of my first successful mule deer hunt, and the week or so of anticipation leading up to it, I can't remember anything about the 2nd. What stands out in my mind are unique hunts; such as difficult hunts, big deer, the gun, great shots, beautiful surroundings, interesting people, great stalks, tricky deer, etc. Apparently that 2nd mule deer didn't meet that criteria, even though it was the 1st mule deer shot with a rifle I bought with my own money. I thought as a teenager I would remember every hunt, every kill. After 50 years of hunting; not so apparently. Maybe that's a good reason to keep a log.....which I don't do. I would like to honor that 2nd buck by at least remembering the events, but can't. I thought the 2nd buck would stand out because it was confirmaion that the 1st one wasn't just a fluke; that I really was going to be a good deer hunter. I'm sure that meant a great deal to me at the time. | ||
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That's the reason to start a log. Now when i look at my log book it brings back memories that i'd forgotten,and with my mind i need all the help i can get. | |||
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I remember my second mulie buck as well as the first. It was a Wyoming 4x4. I was on a DIY hunt. Killed my pronghorn the day I arrived, and the mulie the day I left for Colorado to fill my tag there. I shot the buck in a dried up creek bed while I was leaving the property to head to CO. I had to stay an extra 40 minutes to take care of the buck but at least I filled my tag. I shot him with my 30.06, 168 Barnes TSX over 55.0 H4350. The shot was freehand at 165 yards. I shot, he disappeared, and 3 or 4 other deer bounded away. I figured I missed. Walked up to the spot and he was dead on the other side of a fallen tree. It pays to have a 1 pound trigger. It broke when I had the crosshairs on his front shoulder as he was slightly quartering to me. The bullet hit right where I wanted it to. Great memory. Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my guns | |||
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opening day,i was 15 yrs old,riding up the mt.road with my grandad. spotted a buck laying on a hillside,made a run on him with a savage 243. walked up to a 3pt just dying from a shot in the throat/jugular,and i hadn't fired a shot. knew the buck had gotten away from someone and would waste if i didn't tag it. i walked around that buck for a long time, i wanted to shoot my own deer but i couldn't waste that deer and punched my tag. never told my grandpa, don't know why..... | |||
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It got me thinking of the second deer I taken. I don't think I can remember. I do remember all the bucks that meant something to me. I know the second deer was a buck though. And I shot him with a 30-30 that my dad bought me. That winchester dropped alotta deer. A log book does sound like a great idea, it not to late to start. | |||
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Shoot I'm still looking forward to the first one! | |||
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I can remember my 2d one well. 1st one was a doe (legal back then) taken w/ a Mod 14 Rem in 30 Rem. My 2d was a buck but not very big taken w/ a real rifle, my Granddads sporterized A303 in 300 H&H. Shot him at about 150 yds right thru the eye and he went down on the spot. I was about 14 yrs old and was real proud of myself as we'd hunted hard for several days and this was the only buck I'd seen. Why did I try for a head shot you ask? Well, as I recall, I had a perfect rest, the deer was looking at something down the hill, perfectly motionless, and the head shot just seemed the thing to do. I tried that trick a couple of times after that until I learned that the head is a really easy target to miss. Been shootin em on the shoulder for the past 30 odd years. Pancho LTC, USA, RET "Participating in a gun buy-back program because you think that criminals have too many guns is like having yourself castrated because you think your neighbors have too many kids." Clint Eastwood Give me Liberty or give me Corona. | |||
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I have never killed a Mule deer however I am close to 40 dead whitetails and I do remember all of them even my first a 7 point buck in 88 when I was 19. I sometimes replay in my mind some of the more special ones, but everything I have killed brings back good memories and a smile. ________________________________________________ Maker of The Frankenstud Sling Keeper Proudly made in the USA Acepting all forms of payment | |||
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my second mule deer  Mike Never under estimate the internet community's ability to reply to your post with their personal rant about their tangentially related, single occurrence issue.  What I have learned on AR, since 2001: 1. The proper answer to: Where is the best place in town to get a steak dinner? is…You should go to Mel's Diner and get the fried chicken. 2. Big game animals can tell the difference between .015 of an inch in diameter, 15 grains of bullet weight, and 150 fps. 3. There is a difference in the performance of two identical projectiles launched at the same velocity if they came from different cartridges. 4. While a double rifle is the perfect DGR, every 375HH bolt gun needs to be modified to carry at least 5 down. 5. While a floor plate and detachable box magazine both use a mechanical latch, only the floor plate latch is reliable. Disregard the fact that every modern military rifle uses a detachable box magazine. 6. The Remington 700 is unreliable regardless of the fact it is the basis of the USMC M40 sniper rifle for 40+ years with no changes to the receiver or extractor and is the choice of more military and law enforcement sniper units than any other rifle. 7. PF actions are not suitable for a DGR and it is irrelevant that the M1, M14, M16, & AK47 which were designed for hunting men that can shoot back are all PF actions. 8. 95 deg F in Africa is different than 95 deg F in TX or CA and that is why you must worry about ammunition temperature in Africa (even though most safaris take place in winter) but not in TX or in CA. 9. The size of a ding in a gun's finish doesn't matter, what matters is whether it’s a safe ding or not. 10. 1 in a row is a trend, 2 in a row is statistically significant, and 3 in a row is an irrefutable fact. 11. Never buy a WSM or RCM cartridge for a safari rifle or your go to rifle in the USA because if they lose your ammo you can't find replacement ammo but don't worry 280 Rem, 338-06, 35 Whelen, and all Weatherby cartridges abound in Africa and back country stores. 12. A well hit animal can run 75 yds. in the open and suddenly drop with no initial blood trail, but the one I shot from 200 yds. away that ran 10 yds. and disappeared into a thicket and was not found was lost because the bullet penciled thru. I am 100% certain of this even though I have no physical evidence. 13. A 300 Win Mag is a 500 yard elk cartridge but a 308 Win is not a 300 yard elk cartridge even though the same bullet is travelling at the same velocity at those respective distances. | |||
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I remember my 2nd mulie very well. I took the first when I was 14, which at the time was the earliest legal big game hunting age in Colorado, with my father at my side. Took #2 the next season. That year, deer were very scarce due to bad winter kill the previous winter. It was the first time I hunted big game all on my own. I tracked the buck down in heavy scrub oak after an early morning snow storm north of Rifle, Colorado. After a couple hours of tracking, I jumped the buck out of his bed and pulled off what has proven to be one of the best shots I've ever made. I hit the buck perfectly between the ears as he ran straight away with a 7mm Mag at about 75 yards. He was over 2 miles from camp and not only did I track and kill him alone, but I also field dressed and drug him out over 2 rugged ridges, without assistance. I was only a skinny 15 year old at the time. That little 2 pt buck was the only deer taken that season in our camp. And to me, he was the best buck killed in all of Colorado that year, which was 1978. I'd have fought the biggest man in the room that would have tried to say otherwise.  | |||
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Still waiting to kill my second one. First one was in 1978 in Palo Dura Canyon in the pan handle of Texas. Someday I will put another one down. Founding member of the 7MM STW club Member of the Texas Cull Hunters Association | |||
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I remember my second Mule Deer like it was yesterday. In 1999 I had been to Alaska in the Farewell Burn and taken a huge Alaskan Yukon Moose (222 6/8th Boone & Crockett) with my .340 Wby. My Moose load was a 250 grain Nosler Partition Combined Technology bullet at 2950 fps. On the first day of the combined Elk and Deer season in Colorado on Thornburg Mountain I had a nice 5 X 5 Mule Deer point me like a bird dog at 100 yards, and he happened to be right in the middle of my main Elk thourghfare. He stood stock still for 45 minutes looking right at me. I wanted a Deer, but normally don't bother with the Deer until I fill my Elk license. When he refused to move I said OK, Mr. Muley, you first. I hit him in between the shoulder and neck, head-on. That big bullet nearly eviserated the Deer. The next day I took a very nice 5 X 5 Bull Elk within 50 yards of the Deer with the same load. I mounted the Deer and Elk rack on the same plack, and it hangs near the Moose on the Fireplace. That is the reason I will always remember my 2nd Mule Deer. Good shooting. phurley | |||
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I remember my second mule deer well. It was a 175 class animal. I wrote an article about the hunt for Bowhunter Magazine and that article opened up all kinds of doors for great trips, meeting wonderful people and I was able to make fair bit of money writing about stuff I love to do. JudgeG ... just counting time 'til I am again finding balm in Gilead chilled out somewhere in the Selous. | |||
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A doe engaged at way too far with a Marlin 30-30 was number one. Number two was at 15 years old and I was hunting with my friend and his dad because mine had passed away the prior year. I was taking a nap in the sunshine on a SW Colorado canyon side and awoke to the sight of a huge buck walking up the other side of the canyon. I raised up and put a 30 twice slug behind his ear at about 125 yards. He was in full velvet and was a 4x4 stag. The cowboys in that area would sometimes rope and castrate fawns because they said they would stay around that area and make good camp meat. The Stag was indeed hog fat and a huge rack. Probably the best one I ever killed and I killed a few good ones. I gave it to my dad's cousin because he wanted it and he hung it on his wall in Fort Carson and then in Georgia where it was hanging when he passed away a few years ago. We, my family, did not save racks in those days...sure wished I had that one back. "The liberty enjoyed by the people of these states of worshiping Almighty God agreeably to their conscience, is not only among the choicest of their blessings, but also of their rights." ~George Washington - 1789 | |||
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Remembering the hunt/experience is a great reason to get the animals mounted. The memories come back everytime I see the mounts.  My second mulie was a 5x6 taken in the open country of western Kansas with an open sighted muzzleloader and conical 385gr. bullets. I can still feel the thorns in my hands and knees from the half day of crawling to get within range. Good times! ___________________________ www.boaring.com I'm so old that I still have some skills even without an internet connection or electricity. ___________________________ | |||
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Having only shot two mulies I can remember them both quite well. The second one I will never forget because I hit it badly (turned out the scope was way off-- really!) and tracked it for about eight hours. The blood trail was quite sparse and I lost it completely for about three hours before I picked it up again and finally finished him off. Packing him out was an adventure as well. A lot of work, but I learned a few lessons (among them, never give up on a blood trail if you can help it) and he was excellent eating. | |||
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My second buck was very memorable. We were walking through some junipers and pinion, up and down through short little draws. I kicked the buck out of his bed, put the scope on him and saw weird horns, shot him in the back of the neck. The body was huge. It took three of us to lift him up to be skinned. He had no nuts, he had been castrated by a sheepherder or lost them on a fence. The weird horns had very heavy bases, were about 16 inches tall, and had little 1-3 inch spikes coming out all over the top of them. The bases were in old dried up velvet. Dressed he was over 250 pounds. I have seen two others killed that were also steer deer and both of them were big also. Who could forget that one. DW | |||
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There are some monsters in that canyon and it's breaks! I grew up in Canyon, TX and have spent days and days just hiking and exploring along the Prairie Dog Town fork of the Red River! Good hunting, Andy ----------------------------- Thomas Jefferson: “To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” | |||
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