11 December 2009, 22:46
Cazador humildeTrans Pecos muley
I shot this deer two days ago in the north edge of Loving County, Texas, about 150 yards from the New Mexico fence. It was a solo hunt, so he was a chore getting back out of the brush, but it was one of the best hunting days of my life - one of those rare times when you walk up to a buck and realize he is a lot bigger than you thought when you pulled the trigger. I know he's no Rocky Mountain monster, but that sand country grows very large deer, and for a Texas muley, I thought he was respectable. The deer out there aren't under every bush, like the whitetails here in the hill country, so you fight getting discouraged looking at a whole lot of ugly scrub brush and oil field equipment and not seeing anything. But when you find a few of them, it is exciting. I walked up on him after spotting him from a long ways off. I stepped around a bush and he was standing broad side looking at me. I knew I had about 3 seconds to do something so I put the sticks up, looked at him through the scope, saw that he was outside his ears and looked to be a mature deer, and pulled the trigger. The thump of a 180 gr. 30-06 is pretty loud at 45 yards, but I still waited 20 minutes before I approached where I saw where I thought he'd "nosed in"; I'm glad I did, because he had his head up and a broken front shoulder. One more round behind the shoulder put this proud ol' boy out of his misery and I was one happy hunter. 
