We all met at the lodge for a
5:00 AM Danish and we were on the road by 5:30. Dave Canfield
and myself were hunting with guide Parker Moore, Frank's brother.
Parker is a character and I knew quickly that we were going to
have fun. We headed out to a far ridge and started looking for
mulies. But it was slow for most of the morning. By noon we looked
over a small 2 and 3 point buck ( too small to stalk ). The antelope
were everywhere and we spotted many enormous pronghorn bucks
by 9:00 AM.
View
Video of Antelope (1.2mb)
We came back to the lodge for
lunch and headed to another area for the afternoon hunt. Parker
wanted one of us to still hunt a draw since one of the other
guides had seen a big 4x4 in there. Dave and I flipped and I
won the toss. The wind was perfect as I set up for my still hunt.
I moved quietly up the draw, checking each overhanging cliff
and small tree for a bedded buck. Halfway up the draw a movement
caught my eye. It was a rack! I moved closer and got a good look.
It was a decent buck, a 3x3, but a little smaller than what I
was looking for. Still I decided to stalk it to see how close
I could get. Frank had told me stories of how close a hunter
could get to the deer, and I had to see if he was "exaggerating."
I moved quietly down towards the buck until I was 2 yards from
him. I drew my longbow on the unsuspecting deer, looking away
crosswind. But as I was playing with this buck, I spotted a long
velvet tine - there was a second buck that I had not seen. I
moved around to get a better look and it was a very tall 2x2.
I drew on him too until they both figured out something was wrong
and took off. They stopped at 25 yards and walked a little closer.
I drew a couple more times on them until they blew out next to
Parker who had my camera. (see the picture below). I guess Frank
was right!
We continued into another area
and the mulies began to come out of the woodwork. We spotted
a nice 3x3 moving along a draw and then saw 2 bucks with a doe
bedded in a perfect position for a stalk. It was Dave's turn
to hunt and my turn to wait. After a half hour, Dave returned.
The mulies were never found and we figured they got up and fed
up the draw before Dave got in position.
By the end of the day we had
seen close to 20 good bucks and 10 times that amount in pronghorns.
We returned to camp to find that Fred and Jim had both shot pronghorns
and Jim Caldwell had shot a dandy Mule Deer. This hunt was going
to be hot!!
View
Video of this Mule Deer Buck (216k)
Jim Caldwell, MI (Werner Pasture)
Jim Kline, IL (World's Worst Blind)
Fred Biasiello, IL (Windbreak Blind)
