This show will air tomorrow (Thursday Feb 24) at 7:30 am and 7:30 pm central time. Show is called Tecomate Whitetail Nation on the Outdoor Chanel. This show will have Aaron Neilson guiding David Shashy to a Whitetail and me to the Mule Deer on this report. It is a good show. I saw it on Monday when it aired.

Outfitter: Royal Mountain Adventures, Shawn Sander
Booking Agent: Aaron Neilson
Area: Eastern Colorado
Guide(s): Aaron Neilson, Shawn Sander, Drummond Lindsay
Game Hunted: Mule Deer

First, I want to thank Aaron Neilson for putting this hunt together for me. Aaron and I work together on a few hunts and I have been interested in this area for a long time. He set me up on this hunt, and I had a great time.

For anyone who may be interested, this hunt will air on Bucks of Tecomate in the first quarter of 2011. You can also catch last years hunt on the same ranch this Friday on Versus. Search for "Bucks of Tecomate".

Drummond Lindsay and I have been friends for about 8 years or so. Drummond started guiding here last year, however, he has a lot of experience with Mule Deer. Drum has guided 22 hunters to Mule Deer bucks over 200". Very few people will have the opportunity to even see one Mule Deer over 200" much less successfully guide 22 hunters to one. Needless to say, he knows big Mule Deer.

My hunt was to start on 23rd of October, but I arrived a few days early. Drummond picked me up in Denver and we drove immediately to one of the ranches where Lee and Tiffany Lakoski were hunting. Lee had been on a huge Mule Deer for a few days, but was unable to close the distance and get a good shot. When we arrived, we glassed for a short while and found the buck bedded. This is the biggest Mule Deer I have ever seen in my life, and probably the biggest I will ever see. He was incredible.

I was fortunate enough to watch Lee and Drummond stalk this huge deer. In the end, it wasn't to be as the distance was too much and the Deer had a buddy (who was also no slouch!) who would keep a sharp eye out. Made stalking him difficult.

In the end, we got to spend a few days with Lee and Tiffany, who are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. I had never met them before, but Drummond has known them for a while and is good friends with them.

I also watched another one of their clients stalk this deer below. (Cell phone photo in a spotting scope) this deer was about a mile away from me. (top edge of the Milo field centered. There are two bucks there.) They got about 35 yards from him and he bolted as soon as he got up and saw them. They actually stalked another buck from where they were after they busted this one.



After a few days of watching others bow hunt, I went on to the ranch house where we met up with David Morris and David Shashy. Another hunter from Colorado was hunting and he was "up" first. He shot this Mulie bedded in this exact spot. Bedded in the corral of an old abandoned ranch house. Pat's buck scored 193 B&C. A beautiful buck with long main beams, extra points, big bases, trash on the bases and deep forks. He had it all. What a great deer!



My hunt was for a "Management Deer" I find that term kind of funny as their management hunts are better than some trophy hunts I have been on!

Earlier in the year, when I told Drummond that I was on a management hunt at the ranch house, he said, I am going to hang up and send you a picture! Call me back when you get it!

He had seen two big management Mulies last year that were true trophies. They were either 3x3, 3x4 or 4x4's with very shallow front forks.

Here is the photo he sent me. A big, old, heavy, 3x3 with long beams. Over the course of the hunt, I started referring to him has 3x, which turned into "Tripple X".

"Did you guys see Triple X today?", "Where is Triple X" etc.




Everyone who had seen this deer told me he was a good one to consider. I had the option of shooting a big heavy 8pt Whitetail (in the 150's) or one of the Mule Deer that they call Management. Since I had plenty of Whitetail opportunities, I wanted to go after one of these management Mulies.

We found this deer one morning and watched him bed, he has run across the road in front of us and ran for about 3/4 of a mile. We circled around, downwind of him and located him. He was bedded in the middle of a cut wheat field. So there is wheat stubble that is thick and stands about 16" tall. So, all you could see was his rack standing above the wheat.

We stalked up to about 80 yards from him and set up the sticks and camera tripod. (By the way, you probably could have killed this deer with a bow, or at least stalked close enough for an opportunity.) The wind was blowing hard. 25-30 mph. Once we set up it didn't take long for him to sense something was wrong and stand, when he did stand, his butt was toward me and he was looking to his left, he soon saw us and swung his head around to look at us behind him. 3 guys, one in bright orange, including a cameraman and he did not stick around long.

I probably had 5 seconds to shoot him, and probably could have in the first couple seconds, but, I waited for 2-3 seconds to let the camera man get a few seconds of footage, then tried to shoot. A wind gust blew me off and by the time I was back on him, it was over. He was gone. I didn't get a shot with him standing.

So, I led him, a little too much, and missed, chambered another round and shot again as he reached about 180 yds.

He literally died in mid air, went headfirst into the ground. When he landed he landed head first and broke off about 9" of his main beam. No problem, we found it and taped it back on.

Great footage of the entire thing. Matthew did a great job considering the conditions.

David and David came up and we filmed the "behind the deer interview" went back to the house and taped the post hunt interview in front of the barn and it was over, we had a show. It will air with my friend David Shashy's hunt in the first quarter of next year on "Bucks of Tecomate".

Pictures do not do this Deer justice. Between all of the pics you can get an idea of the size of this monster. Look at his face. I have never had a deer's cape be as much of the trophy as this one is. What an old warrior. Jerry Huffaker will do his life justice with a good mount.

He scored 171 as a clean 3x3. Main beams were 26"/27" long and he has mass throughout. The rancher had found both sides of his sheds from last year. We came to an agreement and I bought the sheds from him. I will have them mounted and displayed close to the shoulder mount of the deer.





Here he is in the tree. Look at his body. This deer is 350+ lbs. I have seen a number of 250lb Whitetail, on a real scale, (not just guessing) and this deer eclipses them. His neck is as big as some Whitetail bodies I have seen killed!

Aaron Neilson caping the deer.



Here is my friend David Shashy holding both bucks. Mine is on the left, the 193 is on the right. That 193 was an incredible deer. If those two deer were standing together I am not sure which one I would choose!



David called Jeff Foxworthy and told him all about my deer. Jeff said he wished he could have been there to see it. Jeff loves big Mule Deer.

Lee Lakoski had hunted this Deer last year and was familiar with "Tripple X" So, Drummond sent the picture of the deer to Lee and Tiffany. Drummond sent me a text back saying "Lee and Tiffany wanted me to tell you that they are excited for you and to tell you congratulations."

I am still trying to recover from an old horse wreck injury, and everyone in camp helped this busted up boy out. I proved that this is a hunt that can be done by just about anyone. If I can do it, so can you! If you can ride in the truck and glass and make a stalk on flat land, you can do this hunt.

This was truly a great hunt and I was lucky to be a part of it.

Congrats Wendell!

dang! the neck on that one buck is HUGE

That's a beaut, Wendell.

Great Buck Wendell!
Both Deer are real nice, Aaron did a great job getting you guys on some good property.

AWESOME buck Wendell!! I would take the "management" buck you shot any day of the week over that 193" buck. Yours is just magnificent looking!! Great mass and unbelievable body size.....

Is this a hunt you will be offering?? If so, can you PM me with some details (including prices)? Thank you.

quote:

Originally posted by Eland Slayer:
Is this a hunt you will be offering?

Yes, the purpose of the trip was to see the operation, the ranches, to experience the bow hunts and the rifle hunts as well.

I spent a couple days behind a spotting scope watching guys stalk these Deer on the plains with a bow. That was quite an experience.

Will PM you info.

Wow, that's a great buck Wendell! Is this a draw or over the counter tag?

That's frickin' awesome Wendell! I'm reluctant to post my muley now... Great deer, congrats.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that ol' boy!!!

Congrats on a great buck!!!

Wendell,

What a great buck! I knew he was big but didnt realize that he was quite as big as he was due to the size of his body! What a GIANT bud! Congratulations on a great deer!

I'll never forget that week bud, we saw some amazing animals and I hope we can do it again soon!

Drummond

And I would encourage everybody to watch that Bucks of Tecomate episode, some big deer hit the dirt and Wendells shot was pretty awesome! Folded him like a lawn chair mid stride!

nice work !

Congrats Wendell!

Congrats on a great hunt Wendell!!

Too bad they made you hang out with Drummond.

I know it had to be a fun camp.

Good Hunting,

Bob

Wendell..Hell of a buck man!!!
congratulations!

quote:

Originally posted by JA:
Wow, that's a great buck Wendell! Is this a draw or over the counter tag?

It is a draw, the Mule Deer tag can be drawn with 0-1 points. The Whitetail only tag is very easy to draw.

There are also landowner vouchers that can be purchased.

EASTERN COLORADO TROPHY DEER HUNTS - 2010!!

Guys - So far we have shot 9 whitetails, with the following scores. 147, 157, 172, 172, 176, 177, 178, 188, 200. That is a 174.1 average!!!

Mule deer - So far we have killed 6 mulies, with the following scores. 172, 173, 188, 192, 193, 204. That is a 187" average!!!

The season is only 50% completed! We started the bow hunts yesterday, and we also have roughly 6 clients on the December rifle hunt still to come. We certainly should bang a few more great bucks! As you can see, and like we have been telling folks for years. Eastern Colorado is the deer MECCA of North America! Once we have all the pictures, I will post them as well!

If you have any questions about the hunts, contact myself or Wendell. I have been guiding in eastern Colorado for 16 years, and the deer hunting just keeps getting better and better. Right now we lease just over 200,000 acres, with some of the best deer habitat that eastern Colorado has to offer. Archery, muzzleloader and rifle hunts are available. Archery & muzzleloader permits are very easy to get, some of the rifle permits can take 1-4 pref points to draw, expect for the whitetail ONLY rifle permits, which are pretty easy to get each year too!

Below are just a couple 2010 pics, will post ALL of them in a few days.

Great stuff guys, congrats on great deer. I sure hope I can draw that tag next year...

Wow! What a great deer. I'm excited for you.

GREAT buck Wendell!!!

Aaron,

Sounds like you boys are having a great year! Pat and Eric were pretty excited about it, had a good feeling this year would produce some monsters.

Nice Bucks!!! What are the measurements of the 3 Point?

Well done gentlemen.

quote:

Originally posted by Slider:
Nice Bucks!!! What are the measurements of the 3 Point?

173

Nicely done Wendell. I'm still looking for a trophy whitetail hunt, maybe next year.

I was looking for the Tine length and girth measurements. Is it 173 gross and 171 net?

This show will air tomorrow (Thursday Feb 24) at 7:30 am and 7:30 pm central time. Show is called Tecomate Whitetail Nation on the Outdoor Chanel.

This show will have Aaron Neilson guiding David Shashy to a Whitetail and me to the Mule Deer on this report.

It is a good show. I saw it on Monday when it aired.

Wendell - I too plan to watch it again, thanks for posting.

Thanks for the notification, I will be watching tonight.

quote:

Originally posted by Wendell Reich:
This show will air tomorrow (Thursday Feb 24) at 7:30 am and 7:30 pm central time. Show is called Tecomate Whitetail Nation on the Outdoor Chanel.

This show will have Aaron Neilson guiding David Shashy to a Whitetail and me to the Mule Deer on this report.

It is a good show. I saw it on Monday when it aired.

Was is a solid beep after the miss or did they just beep portions of the words?

I set it to tape this evening, I'll watch it when I get home

Drum

Is this on the Outdoor Channel?

quote:

Originally posted by 505 gibbs:
Is this on the Outdoor Channel?

YES!!

Just saw it...good job guys...nice shot Wendell!
Wish I had been there...

BTW...right after...there are a couple good deer that get hammered on Nosler's Magnum TV

Tim:

I am watching those big bucks right now. That Sask buck,OMG!

Wendell,

Man, you need to star in remake of "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer." I think you know who you will "play."

Wendell,

I watched show. When the deer stood up I was screaming at the TV "Shoot, shoot, f!@#$%^& shoot". You did redeem yourself nicely though. Your 3x3 in my mind is a much better deer than that 4x4 that Shashy shot.

Aaron,

Fantastic B&C averages on those deer.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
Wendell,

Man, you need to star in remake of "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer." I think you know who you will "play."

I missed this show, does anyone know if it will re-air anytime soon.
Thanks!

Wendell, can you tell me about the rifle you used? It looked like a Tecomate A7.Caliber, likes, and gripes. Thanks, Lee

Wendell,
I was sitting in a hotel room with some other guys when it came on and I said, I know those guys, kinda, sorta. Enjoyed the show. Congrats all around.
Jeff