I was sitting up in my blind Saturday evening with my buddy, not seeing any deer at all and I got to thinking. I need to change thigs up a bit and try something new. So we decided that we would give this whole "spot and stalk" thing a try in a different area where I know there are a lot of mule deer. This area is open to does as well as a 3 point minimum on bucks.
So I pick up my buddy at 0500 and make the drive, arriving at about 0545. It's still dark by the time we get there. I couldn't have picked a worse day to try this. It's raining, windy, and cold. But, that could work in our favor. The rain really softened the dry brush. And the wind might have the deer hunkered down.
As soon as it's light enough to see, we head out. We climb up on a small ridge and start to glass. Sure enough, my buddy spots a big muley doe about 400 yds away upwind from us, about 20 yds on the upwind side of a tree. We decide to make our first stalk. We back out back down the ridge and cross the gulley. Once across, we drop our packs, and start our apporach. We get about 50 yds from the tree and I motion to my buddy to hang back while I make the final stalk. So I nock an arrow and clip on my release, and slowly make my way toward where I think the deer is. About halfway there, I look back to my buddy. He signals me she is 20 yds past the tree. I give a nod and keep going. I get to the tree and I see her bounding away. Busted at 35 yds. Didn't even get to draw, but how exciting. Our very first stalk and we get to within bow range.
In hind sight, if I had taken a route to put me behind a mound with some grass, I could have crouched down, drawn my bow, then stood up for a possible 30 yd shot. Oh well, lesson learned.
The rest of the day we saw 6 more does and 3 bucks (none legal), but never got as close as the first one. Successful day I think.
