So, I've hunted a lot of westside blacktails and westside elk. My buddy from the east side and I decided to give muleys over there a shot this year after an unsuccessful eastside whitetail hunt last year. I told him A) that I've never been part of a deer that's taken on opening day and B) that there is no way aside from ridiculous luck and slop that we'd ever find a legal (3 pt. or better) muley opening morning. Turns out I was wrong. We were walking along, stopped for pictures (I figured for as much hunting as we do, we have so few pictures of us actually out in the field). 50 yards further along our walk I still had my camera in my pocket. A 3x2 jumped up from the ravine in front of us and ran up the hill. We ID'd the 3rd point and my buddy took him. I took a picture of him excited, he took one of me excited, and I still had time to take 2-3 pics of the buck rolling down the intense hill it was on (action roll shots). We were trying to figure out how excited we should be as this was our first one. The only mule deer we've ever seen taken have been on TV, which we know isn't real. Is this an average mule deer, small? large? The body seemed HUGE to me, but maybe that's just compared to blacktails. Fun hunt, terrible pack. He had to go to work and I had to pack it out alone. 2.5 miles, 1500 ft elevation, 2 trips and all the cleaning. 8:30am buck down, 4:00pm I left the area. Long day. We both feel pretty accomplished though. Check out the roll trail on one of the pics.
