Well I pulled a Mulie Buck tag in the 160's this year. My Dad and I hadn't been to the prairies for mulies since a hunt in the 150's 6 years ago, so we were very excited for this trip. I had planned to hold out for something big, but my trigger finger overpowered my brain! ha ha
So, over 6 days of hunting we saw on average 30+ does/ day and anywhere from 8-20 bucks a day. We thought it was great. There were two fantastic bucks that I could not get in close enough too. Both were easily going to get mounted had I closed the deal. Unfortunately they busted on me and I wasn't able to catch up to them again (you can watch deer run a long ways in that country!).
As for the buck I shot. It was about 3:30 on Friday when I was glassing from a high point and spotted a dozen does heading out to feed. A couple hundred yards to their east was 3 spike bucks prancing around and then in a little shrub patch just beside the spikers I could see antlers swaying back and forth. I thought he was just average, but also thought, maybe a bigger one is bedded beside him. I was about 1.5km away so I started a slow walk to within 500yards around the knolls and hills. At this point I could see the original buck but nothing else. I decided to sneak right in (more practice I thought). The next couple hundred yards were easy just by hunching over. From about 250yards he still wasn't looking my way, so I started to crawl on all fours. At about 100 yards I could see the tops of his antlers walking towards me. I bellied another few paces and set up where I thought he would cross. 5 minutes later he casually strolled by and stood broadside at about 40 yards.
This is where I debated. I had the crosshairs on him and he looked at me, then looked off in the distance. I just watched him for a full 2 minutes through the scope. I thought "good work Travis, you got this close, nows the test to see if you can just leave him and wait for a bigger one"... I actually thought that... then 30 seconds passed "hmmm, you know, you could take him and then focus on whitetails".... "but you waited years for this tag".... "but it was a great stalk, maybe just take him".... and then .... boom. He dropped after taking 2 steps and snorting out a jetstream of blood, 7mm 150grain took out both lungs.
I walked up to him, and I was happy with the stalk and the shot. Sure he's not the trophy I was looking for, but I thoroughly enjoyed the hunt which is priority one.
Last comment. The landowners were fantastic, and one in particular was top notch. The amount of game and quality were pretty good if you ask this northern bush hunter, but then again I didn't hunt this area pre-CWD.
Thanks for reading.
Mulie Buck
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