December Mule Deer

Jordan with his heavy-horned December buck.

Wow!

Christmas comes second. For me, the most important day of the year is the day we learn what big game tags we drew. Thankfully I have a large hunting family, so there is always something to celebrate! This year we had two crazy lucky tags. The first was my wife’s desert sheep tag. As I was scanning results for our family, I quickly realized my nephew had drawn a coveted mule deer tag. I texted him a one-word “congrats” immediately, and (God love him), he thanked me as he already knew!

Jordan drew a rare tag in Nevada. A December hunt that catches big bucks during migration. Based on my best calculations, he had about a 0.5% chance (yeah, 1 in 200!) of drawing that tag. Truly a one-time deal-io for this tag. I was a little worried, as snow and mud can quickly become a problem on any December hunt. I knew we’d make it work, no matter what it took.

Scouting and Setting Up

Fast forward six months and we find Jordan and my dad poking around in the sagebrush a few weeks before season opened. They spotted a few really nice bucks, but not all that many deer. Muddy roads were indeed a serious problem for them…this did not make me very happy. I know that there are times when weather conditions can make a hunt nearly impossible. The good news is that your hunting competition is also experiencing the same difficulty. It becomes more about out-thinking the other hunters than the deer themselves.

Because this area was so far from civilization and compounded by the winter weather, we had a problem on our hands. Jordan was able to borrow his step father’s travel trailer and get it within an hour or so of his area border. This left us with anywhere from ninety minutes to three hours of traveling at the beginning and end of each day. Ugh. I’m willing to put up my tent in the snow and cold, but not every member of our hunting party was able to roll that way.

In hindsight, we could have moved the trailer closer as the mud wasn’t that bad. We would have lost the electricity and other amenities, however. They say hindsight is 20/20. I think mine is more like 20/40, so I might as well just roll with the current plan.

Deer Camp

My wife, Dad, and I rolled into “deer camp” about 90 minutes before legal shooting light, ready to go. The thermometer was hanging out around a nice crisp 15 degrees F. Jordan had found out about auxiliary propane tanks in the middle of the night, so he was already armed with a hunting camp story when we arrived. Not as much sleep as he’d have hoped. This is how we learn!

When we ambled into legal hunting country, we immediately found a beautiful 5 by 6 buck with fairly heavy and tall horns. He wasn’t super wide, and he was standing on private land. We were pretty sure we couldn’t ethically shoot him, but nobody cared…it was opening morning. We didn’t need him, but we were encouraged. We carried on.

Know Your Area Before You Go

This is a good time to point out that pre-season scouting is important for a few reasons. Of course you want to know where the animals hang out; however, on a migration hunt like Jordan’s it just doesn’t help you that much. What is important though is getting to know the country itself. Knowledge of the roads is critical to hunt-day success. Well, apparently we hadn’t done our due diligence, and I include myself in this. We spent a lot of time grinding up crappy little brush and tree-lined roads only to arrive at nice alternative roads. Hours were wasted. Paint was lost. Nerves were frazzled. That is part of the game always, but a bit more if you aren’t super prepared.

This was a truly exciting hunt for me. I love to experience new country. I’ve never hunted mule deer in this unit, nor in any unit in December. I live for these new hunting experiences, and I was getting a double-whammy on this one. New country. Harsh weather. Good times! By the end of the first day, we’d seen a fair number of deer and several mature bucks. We hadn’t found one that spoke to Jordan, but we had seen some pretty cool antlers. The weather wasn’t too awful, and the sun came out to play from time to time. All in all, a very fun day.

Extra Help

One of the advantages of a “town camp” is the food. As in…you don’t have to cook your own. Again, with my 20/40 hindsight, I’m not sure whether that turned out to be a plus or a minus. Dinner wasn’t all that red hot, but we were excited to be in a warm place discussing plans for the next day. Our good luck was that it was cold enough to limit the muddy conditions. We did take on three or four inches of snow that night. You take the good with the bad.

Jordan’s pal Brandon joined us for day two, and his fun-loving approach added to the hunt. We attacked the unit from a different angle this time, making up for lost scouting by covering more areas. Did I mention it is a great idea to scout the roads in a new area ahead of time? Again, many hours later, we’d played connect-the-roads to some limited success and found ourselves where we’d hoped to arrive. To my wife’s everlasting credit, she immediately spotted deer about 600 yards up the mountain.

Rough Weather Nice Bucks

This was a windy, nasty day. Temperatures stuck in the low twenties, and winds stayed in the high twenties. Not that fun, but now that we’d found some more deer, I set up my scope behind the truck. My heart got to skip a beat, as the best four-point in the bunch was a legit trophy animal. I can’t say precisely under the circumstances, but definitely over 170 inches. His two pardners were also beautiful bucks, a tall 5-point and a heavy beautiful 3-point. They were hanging out with a dozen does/fawns and in a place I felt was pretty good for getting on them.

Brandon and Jordan left with some glass and the rifle to cut the distance by a couple-hundred yards to have a look and set a plan. After about 30 minutes of watching them, I grew impatient and joined them. We could still see all of the bucks and does and the three of us hatched a plan for them to sneak in. The best part of the plan was it considered the wind. The worst part of the plan was it put the two men exposed in that nasty wind. Well, too bad for them. I’d be watching from a toasty truck!

Decisions

I was confident. I told my dad I figured 60 percent or better chance the boys filled a tag here. An hour later, my confidence faltered as we could no longer see the deer or the hunters. Back out into the cold for me. For the next 90 minutes the three of us sat in the cold…them on the super windy rock, and me behind a nice juniper tree that cut the wind. I could still see the 3-point and 5-point, but I’d lost the 4-point.

As the sun was threatening to set, I heard a surprisingly loud “boom”. I recovered and saw the two bucks scrambling in the rocks, clearly scared but not sure what to do. As I watched, the big 3-point jumped and a split second later, I heard a second shot. I watched that buck run full-tilt into a rockpile and then do some truly horrendous cartwheels that made me wince. The buck kicked a few more times and then was still. Just to be sure, I watched all the remaining deer run out of the basin. I never did see the toad 4-point again after we planned the hunt earlier in the afternoon.

When I arrived at the buck, I was surprised and really pleased to see what a heavy and beautiful animal he was. Jordan had made a perfect heart shot. There was also one broken leg involved, but I was pretty sure that came in the rockpile. It may have been the result of the first shot, but when we skinned the buck it was very late and I forgot to look.

All smiles from the family. Brandon running the camera.

Redux, Great Job!

My nephew made a good decision and he both earned and owned that buck. Could he have hunted more days in hopes of a bigger deer, maybe the toad four-point? Sure, but in hunting there are no guarantees. Also, his best friend, grandpa, uncle, and aunt were there to share the moment. The hunt was tough, and he was lucky…some years snowmobiles are required for the hunt. Other years, the mud is so fierce that everyone has problems. Jordan made the classic good hunting choice.

Reflecting back, and even that very day, I know he made a great decision. It was an exceptional end to a very fun (if cold) hunt. The result was that he claimed the largest buck of his life and he made the entire hunt with his best friend. Another special hunt filled with hunting memories. What else is there?