The day started out at 5:30 am Saturday October 2, 2010. My alarm went off and I drug my self out of the warm bed and asked Lisa if she was going to get up too. Reluctantly as usual on early weekend mornings she replied with a drowsy sounding “ya”. We got our gear ready and had a quick bit to eat then headed out the door with bows in hand. As we climbed into my truck, my cousin who was down for a moose hunt said as usual, "Hey don't miss."  
I drove to a location about 20 minutes from town where, I had seen lots of both mule, and whitetail deer in the weeks prior. With the sun coming up our eyes were scanning the rolling crop land that is backed up to a very large block of native grasslands.  As we slowly rolled down the dirt path in a wheat field I saw the trade mark white patch of a mulie rump. I grabbed the binoculars and Lisa grabbed the spotting scope mounting it on the window.  Confirming what I had saw was just mulie does I was ready to keep moving on. Putting the truck in gear Lisa asked if I had seen the deer. I replied with "Ya just does."  
"No the ones below them" she said.
Just then I focused on three deer just 50 yards below and slightly to the left. They were heading away from us, in the same direction of the does. The deer consisted two good buck and one smaller one. I quickly decided that we would just sit and wait for the deer to bed down for the day. Looking through the optics we could see that one had a small drop tine at the end of his left beam. The other good deer was a heavy 5x5, both good candidates for an archery tag to be slapped on.  The five deer moseyed in to a area that had good cover for what I am used to hunting. A few tree rows, patches of buck brush, tall grass, and very small rolling hills. I was sure they would bed down in a row of the caragana bushes. The doe's did just that, but the bucks kept grazing through the cover and out into a harvested field.  We watched the bucks move about one mile away before they disappeared over the hills for good. Not being able to see anything for deer any more we continued to where the bucks had vanished. I parked the truck, and told Lisa that we should go for a quick walk to see if we can see them before they bed down for the day. Just over the hill we ran into a small 5x4 whitetail at 80 yards.  We starred at each other till finally the young buck quickly bounded away.  Continuing on our walk we saw nothing but a cast shed antler. As we got back into the truck Lisa suggested that possibly the deer had bedded down in an old yard not quite the size of a hectare.  This old farm stead was again good cover, a natural cut about two meters deep five meters wide and 50 meters long, that was filled with five foot tall weeds and rocks. Also was a old rotting stack of hay bails, and old dilapidated wooden shack.  We walked with one on each side of the cover, making sure to cover every foot. The deer here know how to hide and and do it well.  If they have nerves of steel you can walk right past them at 5 yards. A deer only needs two feet of cover to hide, they put there chins on the ground and don't flick a ear.  We were just about done the covering the yard just the bails and the last 20 meters of the weedy shallow cut.  Then I saw antlers sticking up about the same height as the weeds. All I could tell before I dropped to the ground was that there were four tines in the shape of a mule deer. And he was not to shabby one to at that.

Now Lisa's telling a bit of the situation.
So I'm on one side of the weeds and Travis is on the other side. He signalled to me that there is a deer in the weeds and after a few hand signals I clewed in. I stared stalking to where he was telling me to go (remember this is my first time hunting and we didn't go over what each hand signal meant). I'm 12 yards from it and Travis is still at 10 yards from the deer. But I couldn't see it for the weeds. The buck busts out of its bed and runs past Travis at 4 yards. I was going to shoot but he was also in the line of fire. So he was also hoping that I wouldn't. The deer got away and I'm like "What the hell does this mean?" doing one of his hand signals, meaning "its just there". I told him that its more like over the hill." We both have a bit of a laugh and walk back to the truck.

Now that the sun is getting higher in the sky we decided to change strategies. After a short drive south we arrived at some of our most rugged terrain.  Just after parking the truck and cresting the hill a doe came into sight. The game of staring and not moving took place for about a minute. When she could take no more she left with about six other does and fawns the same way we were headed. Thankfully they went up a smaller draw instead of the big one we were slowly manoeuvring down. I have hunted this coulee many times before and when we arrived at one particular bend, where there is a hollowed out spot where deer can bed with out being seen. Sure enough I could see antlers sticking up at about 20 yards. I motioned for Lisa to get ready and up beside me. The yearling buck jumped up out of his bed and stopped at 30 yards looking at us. Lisa watched encase a big boy was bedded with him, but it was just the young guy. Moving on further down to a patch of two foot tall buck brush (thorny bush). I had done a stalk the first day of the season on two bucks in this location. Once again at about 20 yard I could see small antlers sticking up. Lisa took note and readied her self. I grunted hoping that a good buck would rise up out of his bed in the same small patch of cover. At the sound of the grunt the fork horn bounded away by himself. All of the days experiences where very useful to a newbie hunter, and lots was being learned. As the sun was now high in the sky, we opted for a rest which turned into a mid day nap. A hour past and we started to make our way back to the truck, with Lisa having enough of walking the steep hills for now.
The strategy changed back to trying to catch deer up and feeding in the late afternoon. We targeted small blocks of tall grass and weeds, by slowly driving from one patch to an other. As we made our way past a larger block of grass maybe 7 hectares.



I spotted a deer head down feeding not 80 yards from us. I was in a bit of a panic with no where to go I just shut the truck off and lifted the binos. As its head rose up I seen antlers and a good solid set too. Lisa grabbed the spotting scope. As soon as she found him in the glass she said "I want him." I got on the phone to my cousin whose girlfriend had a draw tag which allowed her to hunt with a muzzleloader. While I was talking to my cousin, the buck finally noticed us after about two minutes. He stared at us for a bit then trotted off across the slough, and eventually to a small patch of wolf willow (a very thorny bush).  We watched him bed down and started to make a plan for a stalk. Lisa snapped a couple of pics and then we left the truck and walked about a half mile.



 The other two seen us and we met up a half mile from where we last saw the bedded buck. The four of us proceeded to do a large circle to have both the wind and cover in our favour for the stalk. The mulie had bedded on the east side of some wolf willow and the wind was blowing from the south. Our plan was to come from the west side of the bluff and skirt around it hoping a shot could be made when he was still bedded, or wishful thinking that he may just rise and stand. The other two would wait at likely escape rout. Lisa and I stalked up to where we thought the deer was bedded, and the others waited about 75 yards away. Lisa took a pic of the bluff we thought he was at in the stalk.



I kept glassing this bluff but also and more frequently started to glass one more bluff of around ten of these small clumps of cover. I soon realized we had picked the wrong bluff, but with further careful stalking and glassing I spotted antlers 40 yards from where we though he had bedded.  I signalled Lisa to head back the way we came from and then come up on that one. She slowly and quietly did so, I just stayed put, and watched the both of them. Then I belly crawled out of sight from the deer. When I got in a depression I quickly made my way to a bluff of wolf willow and waited with no vision of the deer or hunters.  Most of the small bluffs where within 20 yards of the south half of the slough. I was quit certain that he would make his break near the shore line in my general direction. Not long after hiding on the edge of cover antlers appeared heading right for me at a walking pace. As he slipped behind a very small bush I drew my bow back and waited for him to keep coming. At about 35 yards he saw me and stopped. I just held my bow hoping he would turn or come closer. Eventually I could no longer hold at full draw, and released the arrow. He didn't even blink, nothing just continued to hold his pose. Slowly and smoothly I removed an arrow from my quiver and clipped it onto the string, then drew back again. As I settled the pin just off from centre of the base of the neck he turned and looked over his shoulder. Looking back at me I touched the trigger and heard that trade mark sound of impact. But still no reaction at all from the buck, not even the flick of a ear. 10 seconds after I shot the second arrow he turned and went back from where he came from. I stood and was able to see Lisa and motioned with hand signals he was coming back to them.  Then I saw the buck again this time looking badly wounded and walking out into the water headed for the island.  I watched him slowly walk in the water and once he hit the reeds on the island he bedded down mortally wounded. I meet up with Lisa and the other two and was about to say I hit him, good blood back there, but Lisa said she "I hit him".

Lisa telling what happened after we split on the stalk.
So when Travis told me to go back around to the other bluff I did. Slowly I made my way up to the other bluff, the hole time hearing Travis in my head, saying "go slower, get lower". I kept looking around to see if he was there giving me hand signals, but he wasn't. I stopped a couple of times to see what my distance was. I was at 20 yards when I last took my distance with the rangefinder. I took a coupe of more steps and I was thinking I was at about 16 yards. I was scanning the bushes for antlers and then I saw them. Man my heart was racing. So with seeing the antlers I drew back thinking I don't think I'm going to get much closer. Then up he pops, and runs out of his bed stops and looks at me. I let that arrow fly, hitting him a bit far back. As he ran I thought I could see my arrow had come out the side. The deer went off around the clump of bush that I thought Travis was behind. I'm thinking to myself Travis shoot him again. I so badly wanted to yell out to Travis and say that I hit him but if he could, he should shot him again. Then the deer came walking back around and then he started walking across the slough. Travis' cousin walked up to me and asked me if I hit him. I'm like "yeh, I did his guts are hanging out". We are standing on the edge of the slough, watching the deer walking to the centre of the slough. I asked if I should i try and hit him again. We decided he was hit hard enough so I didn't.



Travis came walking around from where he was and I said "I hit him, his guts are hanging out!" I was just buzzing. Travis said he hit it twice and is telling us what had happened when the deer had ran around to him.


The conversation quickly changed from telling stories, and asking questions, to trying to figure out how to get to him. We decided not to leave him out over night or try to get him in the dark. So myself and cousin dropped trow and walked across the cold water, trying not to get our balls wet. Once we retched him we floated him back across and took some pics then gutted him. As soon as the sun started to set the mosquitoes came out in full force, it was quite unpleasant, and could not use the flash on the camera or this would happen.



Pics without the flash





By the time we was in the back of the truck it was completely dark. We hung him up and skinned him out.



This deer was very old I want to get a wildlife biologist to age the jaw.

Lisa said that she and I are going to try and do a shoulder mount. And one day she hopes to take it back home to Western Australia. If it wasn't for Lisa I would have never even found this sight, talked or met any of you blokes. We are headed back to WA this mid December, so far the hunting season has been one to remember.

Cheers Travis

WONDERFUL!!!!!!

A firm handshake to you for a hunt well done!!

well done, congrats.

Fairly nice buck.

Just kidding, wonderful buck, congratulations.

Great buck and great stories...

WOW, I know jack shit about mule deer, but that looks like a great buck too me

Congrats!

Thanks guys

Congratulations on the nice deer. I just had my first Saskatchewan hunting experience this year. It was during the nonresident rifle season. You do have some great Mule deer and I was able to stop in at APA's shop in Bigger. My first question to Al was do you have a bow that shoots 450 yards because all the Mule deer we saw were running at 400 yards . It's too bad they don't have the archery season open to non residents. I would show up for sure. Thanks for the hunt details and good luck next season.
Take good care
Dave

Thats a great looking buck, great job!

Peter