Tag Archives: mule deer

Zen Hunting

Letting the Buck Out of the Bag

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My Utah Superbuck Obsession

 

My 2015 obsession.
My 2015 obsession.

Finally, a year later I’m letting the buck out of the bag. Actually I never bagged this buck to begin with, so unless someone else has, he’s still out of the bag.

Either way, this amazing 200″+, Northern Utah mule deer buck haunted me every day since the 2015 season. I promised myself never to obsess over a buck again, but not a single day went by for the entire year that I didn’t think about it.

The pictures in this article were taken from a video I shot at from 200 yards away. At the time, he was surrounded by three other deer and there was no way to get closer. So I let him walk, thinking I might get a better opportunity the next day. But he had other plans and disappeared.

A sentinel buck that ran with my buck.
A sentinel buck that accompanied my buck.

Like most big bucks, he changed his routine and kept me one step behind him until the season ended.

Hoping to get a second chance in 2016, I spent nearly 20 days looking EVERYWHERE for him–high and low– but he was nowhere to be found. He’s gone.

If you happen upon this tremendous buck, please give him my regards and tell him I miss him.

A look from behind.
A look from behind.

P.S. Despite the great heartbreak and strife of my 2016 bow hunt, I was still able to score on an impressive Idaho buck. Here’s the story link  ——–>>>  https://zenbowhunter.com/a-second-chance

Zen Hunting

The Future of Hunting: Part 1

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The next two articles address the future of hunting and the changes I predict will happen to both hunters and their prey through the natural process of adaptation and evolution.

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The Future of Hunting (Part 1)

Rest assured hunting will change in the future, just as it has been changing rapidly over the last 30 years or so. The three primary factors driving these changes: a) an exploding human population, b) the development of super high-tech hunting equipment, and c) the hyper-adaptation of prey-animals which is necessary for their survival, especially concerning elk and deer.

What’s been occurring, and will continue to occur is a split–or chasm–between hunters and super-hunters. Hunters will either do what it takes to get a buck, or they will fail most of the time. Most hunters can be divided into two camps depending on their priorities. These two camps are: a) Super-hunters dedicated to the sport and willing to spend tremendous resources for trophy-class animals, and  b) Fair-weather hunters who spend little time afield, hunt mostly for fun rather than food, hunt mostly on weekends, and are happy with any deer, whether a spike or a 4-point.

A similar split is occurring between regular deer and super-deer. This means there will be isolated groups of less experienced and less pressured animals that react much like their ancestors did and get shot. The rest will adapt quickly to modern hunters, developing much more specialized bodies and evading the average hunter for life.

Here are some of the changes I predict will occur, or are already occurring, in today’s deer and elk:

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Future Changes in Deer

  • Deer will become completely nocturnal. The reason you see more deer at evening and morning is because they’re most active at night. But if left undisturbed, deer will occasionally rise and feed during the day. In the future, not so much. Deer’s eyes are already adapted to see well at night, but in the future I predict that their eyesight will become further specialized to low-light conditions. The trade-off is that their eyes will become highly light-sensitive, causing them to bed even farther into super-deep/dark timber and never emerge until it’s completely dark. I’ve already witnessed deer doing this in high-hunter pressure areas. So much for seeing deer early and late.
  • Deer will grow narrower racks. This is already the case in places like Oregon and Washington where bucks live in dense timber full time. Since the popularization of the long-range rifle, I’ve noticed that deer in the Intermountain West the previously fed in the open are now spending more time in the thick timber. And since a wider rack impedes their movement, their antlers are already becoming narrower.
  • Deer will grow longer legs, similar to elk. Deer naturally have a difficult time moving through deep snow; basically anything over 30 inches. Thus, they are forced to winter on lower elevations. The problem is that humans are developing on most winter range elevations, especially here in Utah. This makes them highly susceptible to death via highways, dogs, poachers, destruction of native forage, and other wintertime stresses that force them to burn through fat reserves. As this is a fairly recent phenomenon, deer haven’t had time to develop bigger bodies and longer limbs which would allow them to winter at much higher elevations; but they will, eventually!
  • Deer will grow bigger hooves. Until recently, deer haven’t had to live in very cliffy or rocky terrain. But they are starting to. With increased pressure, dwindling habitat and the threat of long-range rifles, deer are increasingly forced into some very unnaturally rugged terrain. My brother-in-law Josh actually found bucks living in and around caves in the unit where he hunts. Have you ever noticed how small a deer’s hooves are compared to cliff-dwelling species such as sheep or goats? As a taxidermist I’ve had the opportunity to compare various characteristics between species. Sheep and goats have approximately the same body mass as deer, but their hooves are nearly twice as big. Other than size, another interesting difference between deer and goat hooves is the foot pad. The footpad of any hooved animal is made of a softer, cartilage-like material. But the goat’s hoof is much softer than the deer’s which allows goats to grip onto rocks easier. I predict that deer will develop not only bigger hooves, but softer ones too.
  • Deer will grow bigger brains. Any trophy hunter already knows how incredibly smart today’s bucks are, but they will become smarter yet! This is a simple law of nature: survival of the fittest. As humans develop smarter hunting technology, the deer will be forced to adapt. In a previous article I wrote about the different and ingenious ways that deer have adapted to hunters in just my lifetime. Big bucks are using higher levels of intelligence to evade hunters. Some examples include using does as security buffers between open feed and tree line, moving into non-deer habitat such as caves, and using complex sentinel-based security systems.

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Future Changes in Elk

Now let’s look at future changes in elk:

  • Elk will become mostly silent, like deer! After just a few decades of calling to them, big bulls are becoming increasingly less vocal. This is the basis of the relatively recent “silent calling” technique, wherein modern bulls often approach a caller without calling back. Thirty years ago it was easy to bugle up a bull. Now that bulls have wizened up to bugling techniques, we’ve switched over to primarily cow calling. But even this technique is becoming increasingly ineffective. Smart bulls now distrust any calling and rely instead on wind and scent before coming to a call. Simultaneously archery equipment has become far more efficient, forcing bulls to hang up farther and farther back. Now I predict a time when elk are completely silent and use scent and wind direction to rut around, just like deer already do.
  • Elk will grow narrower and smaller racks. Just like deer, elk will move deeper and deeper into thick timber and will therefore be forced to grow narrower racks for easier travel through dense timber.
  • Elk will grow bigger ears. Relative to their body, elk ears are fairly small, albeit efficient. But just like their mule deer cousins, there’ always room for bigger ears. Since elk will become more timber-dwelling, and since sound doesn’t travel nearly as far in thick forests, elk will need bigger ears to locate both danger and other elk.
  • Elk will develop better vision. Elk and deer eyes are practically the same: good night vision, wide field of vision, and sensitive to movement. But deer species’ eyes have two major weaknesses: a) they can’t see the color red, and b) they can’t see fine detail. This is why an elk can’t see you standing five feet away, unless you move. Of course they use their noses to make up for this shortcoming, but their eyesight has room for improvement. In the future I predict elk and deer will either develop the ability to see a broader color spectrum, and/or their eyes will evolve to see better detail.
  • Elk will have smaller bodies. During the last ice age, animals had much bigger bodies which allowed them to survive better in low temps, move through deep snow, and evade larger predators like the saber-toothed tigers. After the ice age, animals got smaller. Today’s elk are much larger than most other western big game animals. This is advantageous during winter, but for the rest of the year it hinders them in two ways: a) they need to water more frequently, and b) they need to eat more food more often. As any predator knows, it’s much easier to ambush an animal that’s feeding and watering. Unlike deer, this makes hunting elk over water a viable option. Also, because elk are grazers rather than foragers, it’s easier to predict food sources and travel routes. In the future, smaller elk won’t need to water as often and will likely adapt their stomachs to include browse-type foods such as forbs/shrubs/etc. As a result, they will bed earlier, rise later and probably become completely nocturnal as well.
  • Elk will grow smarter. I suppose they’re already kinda smart, but they’re getting smarter yet. Last year, while hunting with my wife, we called up a herd bull by using an estrus call. The bull came stomping in, and then, just before showing himself, pushed two cows right through us. When the cows passed the shooter they picked up her scent and bolted taking the bull with them. This well-thought-out security measure worked perfectly. In the future I predict elk will develop even more sophisticated security techniques to avoid hunters.

Conclusion

For all of evolution, both predator and prey were forced to adapt to each other to survive. In today’s world, finding and harvesting a trophy animal is getting increasingly more difficult each year. Today’s deer are ingenious survivors capable of adapting to us and evading us no matter what we throw at them. It just proves that technology isn’t the answer.

On the flip side, we should be thankful that our beloved deer are such brilliant survivors. Otherwise there wouldn’t be anything left to hunt.

Stay tuned for the next article where we analyze the future of hunting and the division between hunting camps. I think you’re gonna like it.

The Future of Hunting Part 2

Zen Hunting

Deer Hunting: Five Levels of Alertness

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Deer Hunting: Five Levels of Alertness

Novice hunters think there are two kinds of deer: spooked deer and un-spooked deer. What they learn over time is that there are many different levels of alertness.

If you get a chance to watch a relaxed deer in his summertime routine, you’ll notice that his ears are low, his eyes are calm and staring straight ahead, and he holds his head in a low and relaxed fashion. An alert buck is the opposite: his eyes are wide, his ears are forward and his head is erect and staring. Now, somewhere between these two opposites is where bucks reside most of the time.

As opening day rolls around, the majority of bucks already know it before the first shot is fired. They’ve heard the trucks and ATVs rolling in and can smell the campfires. Even before hunting season, a buck’s internal clock alerts him to impending danger of upcoming hunting season just by the angle of the sun. Any buck who has survived a few hunts knows that danger starts showing up at the beginning of autumn. Even worse, if there are lots of natural predators around—like cougars and coyotes—then a buck is already living in a state of high alertness at all times. This makes them even more difficult to hunt.

On high-pressured public lands, big bucks live full-time on a heightened level of alertness. Therefore, an accurate assessment your target buck’s alertness level will dictate your approach. For example, if a buck is bedded and alert, then you must be more cautious than when he is dozing off.

Over the years I’ve developed a rating system for assessing a buck’s different levels of alertness. A level 0 means the buck is carefree and happy with no pressure from predators. A level 5 means he’s turned inside out and running for his life. Your job is to figure out what level the buck is on, and adjust your approach accordingly. The following is my alertness level assessment system:

Levels of Alertness in Deer

Level 0

Level 0 is very rare, and basically means the buck isn’t alert at all. This only occurs in totally unpressured areas—such as unhunted private property or very remote country. It can also occur pre- or post-hunting seasons after the buck has calmed down and is in a relaxed routine. Level 0 also assumes that there are very minimal natural predators in the area.

Level 1

The hunting season has begun, but the buck is bedded in a far-away, secure area with the wind at his back. His eyes are closed, ears are pinned back, and he’s chewing his cud. Or maybe he’s sleeping with his chin flat on the ground. Otherwise, he’s up and feeding with a small group (for security). His head remains buried in the bush for long periods of time and he expects little or no threat of danger. Or perhaps he’s completely pre-occupied while rubbing a tree or sparring with another deer in a pre-rut state and doesn’t bother to look around for danger. This is an ideal situation for a stalk.

Level 2

The buck is bedded but his head is up and watching for danger. He may have heard or smelled something, but he’s not 100% sure. Maybe there are predators in the area. Or maybe he’s feeding sporadically and lifts his head frequently to scan for danger. Also, any buck that’s on the move–like when he’s traveling to a bed or feed—will be on a level 2 (or above) because deer are always alert when traveling.

Level 3

This is an alert buck scanning for danger. The buck heard, smelled, or saw something out of the ordinary. He’s staring in a particular direction for a prolonged period of time. This is often the case when a squirrel fires up, when forest birds go silent, or when there’s increased road noise in the area. He might be standing up in his bed to have a look around. His head is high and his muscles are tense. In the back of his mind he’s planning the safest possible escape route. However, if the threat doesn’t materialize he’ll likely go back to bed or feed.

Level 4

The buck is tense and ready to bolt. His eyes are wide, head is high, and his ears are pinned forward. A hunter who has sky-lined himself—even at a great distance—almost always triggers a level 4 response. Or maybe he caught your movement or scent, or heard an un-natural sound nearby, like the clanking of an arrow or a breaking twig. Either way he’s not sticking around. The hunter is pinned down and unable to move. If you can’t get a shot soon, he’s gone.

Level 5

The buck explodes from his bed at close range, scaring you half to death. It’s all over; dust and butts are all you see. The buck saw or smelled you and confirmed the danger. He probably hunkered down in terror at first—until you were almost on top of him—his nose twitching, eyes watering—then blasted out of bed. He’ll likely run non-stop for a mile and you won’t see the buck again this season.

Final Assessment

In the future I urge you to practice assigning levels of alertness to the bucks you encounter. It’s fun and can be a handy tool in judging a situation ahead of a stalk. When watching deer with my wife, I’ll frequently assess a deer’s current level of alertness. She probably thinks I’m some kind of obsessive buck-nut, but I find it helpful nonetheless.

Zen Hunting

Trophy Hunting: Good or Bad?

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The Ethics of Trophy Hunting

I’m a trophy hunter. On average I spend around 25 days per year beating myself up in the mountains just for a shot at a giant trophy buck. Most years I come home empty-handed, but what can I say; I just love hunting giant bucks! In this article we’ll explore the pros and cons of trophy hunting.

Trophy hunters sometimes get a bad rap, especially from non-hunters who sometimes refer to us as “head hunters.” Their assumption is that we hunt down and kill these majestic critters in cold blood, and then saw their head off and go home. This might be the case for a misguided few, but the hunters I know value the meat as much as the head.

This negative attitude isn’t just held by ignorant anti-hunters, but by other hunters as well. I was conversing with a fellow hunter once about the decline of big bucks over the years. Knowing that I was a trophy hunter he said, “Well, if people wouldn’t shoot all the big ones, there would be more around.” At first I thought he was kidding, but he wasn’t. I responded, “Isn’t that the point? To take the biggest buck you can?” I don’t remember his ignorant response.

A Case for Trophy Hunting

Aside from the large quantity of meat that trophy bucks provide, I don’t think there is anything more beautiful and majestic as a trophy mule deer buck with a massive rack. And since I only get to hunt one deer each year, why not make it something special?

But the best part of chasing trophy bucks with a bow is the extreme challenge it offers. Nothing tests a hunter’s skills like chasing trophy bucks on public land. The reward is so great that I won’t even think about pulling an arrow until I’ve verified a genuine superbuck. Each year my mantra is “One tag, one year, one superbuck.”

A while back I began pondering the ethics of trophy hunting. What were the pros and cons of trophy hunting? Is it more helpful or harmful to target trophies? As it turns out, trophy hunting is very beneficial, not only to deer herds in general, but to non-trophy hunters as well. Here’s what I discovered.

Trophy hunting does the following:

  • Provides more meat to fill the freezer and feed the family. Trophy heads come with trophy bodies and that means lots of venison. A mature buck weighs twice as much as a yearling.
  • Removes old, declining, and territorial bucks from the herd. This in turn allows more opportunities for young buck to reach maturity.
  • 80% of bucks five years and older will die of old age, not hunter harvest. Since these bucks are essentially unhuntable for the average hunter, then the trophy hunter doesn’t compete directly with non-trophy hunters.
  • Even veteran trophy hunters fail to harvest a trophy buck more often than not. Because trophy hunters aren’t shooting as many deer, it leaves more animals in the field which in turn provides greater opportunities for other hunters.
  • Trophy hunters spend more days afield than the average hunter. This equates to a richer hunting experience, in my opinion. This is probably the best part of being a trophy hunter.
  • Don’t be a “baby killer!” Being a trophy hunter means you’re not killing yearling or two -year-old bucks. Unlike older bucks, young bucks haven’t learned the art of evasion, so killing them isn’t really “fair chase” in my opinion. Several years ago there was a kill-anything mentality around our elk camp. On the last day of the season I had a young elk calf walk by at 20 yards. I drew my bow, but after looking at his cute, fuzzy face I just couldn’t bring myself to release my arrow. I got some razzing back at camp since “calves have better meat,” but shooting babies doesn’t seem fair to me.
  • Let’s not forget the greatest benefit of trophy hunting: A big, beautiful rack displayed on the wall in magnificent glory to serve as a life-long reminder of an unforgettable hunt! Nature really makes the best art.

Conclusion

In the end I can’t think of a single disadvantage to trophy hunting, well, aside from frequent failure. But oft-found failure is easily overshadowed by the occasional harvest of true monster-buck.

Happy trophy hunting this year!

Zen Hunting

Deer are NOT Where You Find Them

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muledeer_013
Mule deer buck. Photo courtesy of Utah DWR.

Deer are NOT Where You Find Them

Has anyone ever told you, “Deer are where you find them?”

Maybe it’s a Utah thing, but I’ve heard that:

  • Deer are where you find them…
  • Gold is where you find it…
  • Fish are where you find them…

While scouting last weekend I found a group of big, blocky buck tracks in an unassuming area. Why were the bucks here?, I wondered. Were they moving from bed to feed, or vice-versa? Were they just migrating through? Was there low spot on the mountain that funneled them through here? I’m not sure, but I have my theories. If I can figure out why, then maybe I can intercept them during the hunt.

What does this have to do with hunting? Because wherever a deer is, he has a good reason for being there. Deer don’t take vacations, they don’t explore randomly, and they never wander aimlessly. If a deer is moving, he’s moving for a reason. Maybe he’s coming from feed or bed; maybe he’s trolling for a doe; maybe he was spooked by a predator and is following an escape route. Or maybe–God-forbid–he’s making random tracks just to throw you off! There are many reasons for a buck to move, and it’s your job as a bowhunting detective to figure out why.

Big buck tracks aren’t just pretty; they also hold valuable clues. For instance, if the tracks are meandering around vegetation, then it’s a feeding area. If the tracks are dug in, far apart, or appear to be running, then maybe it’s an escape route.

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If the tracks are deep or appear to be dragging, then it’s probably a big, heavy, old buck. Maybe the tracks are old with debris accumulated in them, or new with sharp edges. You can pretty easily guess the age with a little practice. Also, what direction are the tracks pointing? Kinda important to know whether the buck is coming from or going to a certain area.

If I learned anything about deer over the years, it’s that they take things very serious–which makes them very un-human by the way. Everything a deer does, it does deliberately and purposefully. We can use this to our advantage. The important thing is that you get in the habit of asking questions, making logical theories, deductions, postulations, or just plain guesses. It’s better to wonder why a buck is somewhere than to wonder why he’s not. At least you have a starting point for the opener.

Nowadays when I hear someone say that things are where you find them, I cringe. It’s the ultimate cop-out. What I really hear is, “My brain is where I left it.” It means they’ve given up. They rely on sheer luck; no more thinking, no deducing, no more trying. Maybe they’ll stumble upon a big buck, but if not, oh well. It’s out of their hands anyway.

No one knows what really goes on in a buck’s head, but we can make some pretty good guesses which will lead to more success and more venison in the freezer. Feed, bed, water, migration routes, escape routes–all of these things should be running through your head. The next time you run across some big buck tracks, do yourself a favor and start asking questions. Lots of questions.

Zen Hunting

Big Buck’s Highest Priority

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Big Buck’s Highest Priority

What is a big buck’s highest priority, Food or Safety?

The answer is SAFETY!

In the first edition of my book, Zen Hunting, there’s a slight discrepancy. In one chapter I say the buck’s highest priority is food, and in another chapter it’s safety (or survival). The 2nd edition attempts to separate the two, but it’s really impossible.

The problem comes from real-life observation and experience.

First, a buck can’t survive without daily food intake. I cited David Long’s observation that bucks can’t even stay bedded for the entire day without occasionally getting up to feed. However, while hunting the Utah-Cache unit for three years in a row, I observed that big bucks never up and feeding during daylight hours. As an example, the four times I busted the infamous Droptine buck, he was bedded. Never was he on his feet during daylight hours.

What it comes down to is hunting pressure. As soon as hunters file into the woods, the bucks become completely nocturnal. You’ll still find plenty of tracks and sign because they are indeed feeding at night, but nowhere is a buck found feeding during the day. Bucks simply adapt to a nocturnal lifestyle that negates daytime feeding.

This makes perfect sense. The bucks of Monte Cristo are the smartest I’ve seen. If it comes down to eating or starving to death, the bucks will gladly starve to death. But they don’t really have to because they’re feed at night, and only at night. In this example safety far outweighs eating.

The hunting pressure on Monte is ridiculous and has been for decades, yet there are still trophies haunting the woods (and my nightmares). As I put it in my book, “These are the neurotic decedents of lone survivors.” It’s simple adaptation; survival of the fittest. The bucks that feed during the day get shot!

I’m certain that there are plenty of other areas where big bucks wander around, stuffing their faces with vegetation during the day. I’ve even seen it in Central Utah, but not up north.

Since I’ll be hunting Monte again this year, it’s my job to figure out how to approach these deer differently to beat the odds. I’ve done it before, and here’s how I’ll do it again:

  1. Hunt the opener. In my book I have a whole sub-chapter entitled Never Hunt the Opener! My thinking has changed a little since then. It’s true that on opening day most bucks have already noticed the increased traffic/ATV noise and bailed onto secondary ridges or deep, dark, holes. But I realize now that there are always a brave or stupid few that will wait until they actually see a camo-clad dude before bailing out. These bucks are still in their summer routine and therefore huntable. My best chance is to catch them on the opener.
  2. Hunt mid-week and late in the season. After opening day, my plans change. Since I work most weekends, I can schedule my hunts between Tuesday and Friday. I’ve found that the best day to hunt is Thursday. After the weekenders terrorize the deer, it takes half a week for them to calm down. By Thursday they feel more secure and let their guard down. Therefore your best odds are Thursday and into Friday before the weekend warriors come smashing back into the hills. Also, the hunting pressure falls off dramatically during the last couple weeks of the bowhunt, making September the best time to be out.
  3. Hunt the Beds. The most difficult thing in the world is hunting big bucks in their beds. First you have to find their beds, preferable while pre-season scouting. Big bucks use multiple beds, so you’re not just looking for one bed. Second, these beds are generally found in deep and steep cover and perfectly situated to detect predators from a distance using wind and terrain. It is possible to hunt deer in their beds using ambush techniques or a super-stealthy still-hunting approach, it’s just not probable.
  4. Hunt the Secondary Ridges:  After opening day I will bail off the top and start hunting secondary ridges and deep, steep areas. By then I’ll have multiple backup areas that I’ve cataloged from my diligent scouting trips. It sucks dragging a deer up miles of vertical slope, but there’s no other option.

The methods you use to hunt big bucks is relative to the amount of hunting pressure the area gets. Once again, you must understand the nuances of your prey and adapt yourself as a predator. In high-pressure areas remember, Safety First! Big bucks only care about surviving.

That’s all there is to hunting high-pressure trophy mule deer. Well, that and a ton of luck.

Good luck!

Zen Hunting

Second Scouting Trip: June 2015

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Early Scouting Trip 2015

Okay, less words, more photos:

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Esther and I hit the top of Monte Cristo over the weekend. The snow subsided enough to get above 8000 feet. We spent the first day beating the mountain to death and exploring a promising new area completely devoid of deer. Driving back to camp we spotted these bucks on a hillside.

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It’s still early, but the monsoons of May have the bucks growing promising antlers. The two bucks on the left are likely two-year-olds, and the buck on the right is a mature buck with a potential outside spread of 22 inches or more.

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The bucks didn’t stick around long for pictures, but that’s okay. Just seeing bucks in the Cache unit made us hopeful.

Here’s the lessons we learned on this trip:

  1. The Cache-Monte unit still sucks.
  2. The biggest bucks are still on lower elevations. Although we found signs of large migrating bucks, most are still lower on the mountain and following green-up up. They won’t be high until the heat and mosquitoes push them up.
  3. Promising new areas weren’t as promising as we hoped, even far off the dirt road. You have to cover many miles of empty woods just to locate a few small patches that regularly hold deer.

Just one word of caution: The high elevation roads still have patches of snow and deep mud, and we almost got stuck a couple times. Not far from camp we ran into this abandoned Hummer-in-a-bog, sunk up to the axles. The poor fellas were able to winch it out the next day, but it just goes to show you that no vehicle is safe from the muddy clutches of the mountain.

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More scouting to come!

Zen Hunting

First Scouting Trip: May 2015

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First Deer Scouting Trip 2015

The Big Game Draw results are in:  unsuccessful for Mountain Goat and limited entry Deer, but successful for general Buck Deer…in my 5th choice unit.

After arrowing the infamous Droptine buck in 2010, I vowed never to hunt the Cache unit (Monte Cristo/Unit #2) again. There are simply too few bucks and hardly any trophies. But with so many hunters in Utah now, I can no longer hunt where I want to, even with a bow. For a guaranteed tag, I always put Cache as my last choice. Since no one in their right mind actually wants to hunt the Cache unit, it’s a guaranteed draw.

Well, I’ll make the most of it. And when it’s all over, I know I will be standing over a huge Pope & Young buck, but man, it’s gonna take some work. In order to succeed, I’ve already begun scouting. I’ll continue scouting this bleak unit every chance I get until opening day in mid-August.

The Cache unit is relatively HUGE. What it lacks in quality deer, it makes up for in quantity area–miles and miles of pristine forest and mountains, mostly devoid of wildlife. It takes a lot of time and effort to thoroughly scout an area this big.

A couple weeks ago, when the higher elevations were still snowed in, Esther and I scouted some obscure lower elevations. I quickly learned that you had to get at least a mile away from the dirt road to find any deer. We finally found a pod of eight deer in a steep feeding swathe between aspens.  It was too early to see antlers, but it looked like a promising new area.

Pre-season scouting doesn’t require actually seeing deer. It’s more important to look for sign:  large tracks, tree rubbings, and especially good feeding areas. Remember the old adage:  Where you find the best feed, you’ll find the best bucks. Grab a topo map and locate potential feeding areas on the east and south-east facing slopes near steep, timbered bedding areas. Bucks love to bed near feed, especially early in the year when there’s little pressure.

Successful scouting means continually seeking out new areas. Hunting pressure quickly pushes bucks out of prime areas, so you’ll need multiple backup areas. Be sure to scout the secondary ridges. These are the lower or middle ridges where bucks feel safe. On Monte Cristo the main roads follow the top and bottom of the mountain. But in the deep, dark interior, bucks feel safe.

Although I wasn’t inspired to pull out my camera and document our first antlerless deer sighting, I considered this trip a good learning experience. The biggest lesson was how much more area I still needed to cover. A second scouting trip was quickly planned and executed (see tomorrows post with pictures!)

Good luck on your own scouting adventures.

Zen Hunting

Backyard Bucks: May 28, 2015

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Backyard Bucks

Have I mentioned that I love deer?  Have I mentioned that I love living out in the country?  Yes I have, and I’m doing it again. Check out these photos I caught just before dark last night:

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With all the recent rain, my garden is even growing bucks! I call this buck Henry. Last year he ate most of our ripe tomatoes. I told my wife, if he keeps eating our garden, I’m going to eat him!

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Here’s Henry laughing at me because he knows the hunt doesn’t start for another three months.

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Here’s a group of bucks in the adjacent lot, only 35 yards away. And yes, they are all bucks, mostly young ones. Their antlers are just starting to grow velvet nubs. Cool!

I hope you enjoyed viewing these pics as much as I enjoyed taking them.  Happy hunting this year!

Hunting Stories

One Giant Antler

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Deer Hunting Story:  One Giant Antler

There is an image, not unlike the one above, that still haunts me today.

It was the muzzleloader hunt of 2001. I was still getting used to my new hunting area near Fairview, Utah. I knew the hunting pressure would keep the big bucks in the thick timber, so that’s where I spent my days. I’d never gotten a real trophy-size buck before, and up until then, I’d only seen a few true trophies in all my years of hunting. But I’d seen enough in this unit to know it was possible. These were the bucks I daydreamed about.

On opening morning our camp dispersed across the land. I dropped into the deep and steep pine forest below camp. The deadfall was so thick I had to hop from log to log, not touching the ground for a hundred yards or so. Eventually it opened up with aspens and narrow feeding swathes. Judging by the sign—and I was no expert back then—there were plenty of deer around, but where they went during the day, no one knew.

I’d grown accustom to blowing stalks on large deer, and as you’ll see, my confidence was way down. I knew there were big deer in this unit, attested to by an occasional flash of antler, a loud snort, and the sound of heavy hooves smashing away through the dense woods. I pressed on, but really, I’d already given up.

Judging by the high sun, it must have been close to noon.  I knew the deer wouldn’t be up on their feet at midday, but I wouldn’t allow myself to return to camp and make excuses for my failure; blaming the lack of deer on the area and then bedding down for the day myself. That would be submission. No, I would continue my quest, beating the pine-needled forest floor to death with my stinky old boots.

I was still-hunting along on a steep and rocky slope. The timber was less dense at the edge of the pines where interspersed aspens and deer brush heedlessly  begged for a more sun. My predator eyes suddenly and haphazardly caught the slightest bit movement a hundred yards below me in some tall brush. My cheap, murky binos came up and locked on. ANTLERS! Little bits of tines bounced and bobbed through the tall brush. What they were attached to I could not tell in the thick brush; no fur nor face nor hide nor hair, just bits of antlers appearing and disappearing. How big was he, I wondered? A two-point? A four-point? No way to tell and no shot; I needed to get closer.

Here’s where my lack of confidence shines brightest. Based on previous buck encounters, I told myself this would never work out. I didn’t really believe I could get close enough for a shot, but I had to try—I desperately had to try!

It’s different these days, here in the future. Today, I would just sit tight. The wind was most likely rising from late-morning thermals. I would sit and wait for the buck to feed into the open, even if it took all day. 100 yards is an easy shot with a gun. Woulda-coulda-shoulda. But this is how we learn…

I dropped to my butt and began my slow-motion descent. The pine needles were dry and loud, and the terrain was terribly steep. I used the wind and forest sounds to cover my approach. For twenty minutes I slid, scooted, and crab-crawled down the hill, drawing closer and closer to the sighting. Minutes felt like hours.

The buck eventually moved out of sight, swallowed up by the forest. Unable to keep tabs on him, I became increasingly skeptical.  Did he bed down? Did he sense me and move off? Gotta get closer! I crept closer and closer until I was within a few yards of where I first saw him. All was quiet. Now what?

He’s gone! I must have busted him out. I knew this would happen. Oh well… I would’ve been a little upset if I ever truly believed I had a chance at this buck.

I stood up, slung the gun on my shoulder, and dug my GPS unit out of my pocket. I stared blankly at the screen as it tracked and tracked and tracked for satellites. There’s nothing more tedious than waiting for the GPS to track in thick timber. My eyes lifted and floated around the forest. What direction did he go, I wondered.

As my gaze drifted to the right, my lethargic eyelids suddenly flashed wide-open; my heart stopped. Fifteen yards away, a massive, tall, sweeping, 4-point antler stuck directly out from behind a large tree trunk. On the other side, the long gray line of a deer’s back extended outward.

No thoughts, just action.

In one motion my left hand opened and the GPS went into free-fall. My hand flashed to the butt of my gun. The GPS was halfway to the ground as my gun twirled like a baton in front of me. My right hand caught the gunstock and lifted it to my shoulder. The GPS bounced inaudibly as the gun’s muzzle swung towards the buck.

Too late. Heavy hooves dug into the ground with a loud thud and every trace of that monster buck instantly vanished into the woods. Frantically I aimed at the crashing and snorting of my invisible foe, but he was gone.

And that was that. Nothing left but a haunting technicolor image of a huge antler sticking straight out of a tree trunk, burned forever in the forefront of my long-term memory. For the duration of the hunt I beat myself up for my failure.

I am tempted to leave the story right there, but habit forces me find the good in the bad. I knew then, as I know now, that my biggest mistake was over-estimating the buck, and under-estimating myself. I failed because I accepted failure from the start. I had him in my hands, if only I’d been patient. If only I had believed this one burning truth: that he was “just a deer” and not an impossible phantom.

The End.