Well I am absolutely floating on cloud 9 after my successful mule deer hunt on my new farm in Kansas!
I didn't have any real experience hunting mule deer other than I had my muzzle loader with me during corn silage harvest down there as the muzzle loader season opened a couple days after we started harvest. I had been down to the Rockin G hunting doves the weekend before and then getting 2 crews going with harvest, I did not have a chance to do any pre scouting. In fact I did not get a chance to hunt opening morning either but had the gun in the truck as I was checking fields, of course did not have a primer in and it was cased. So as luck would have it, I came around a big sand dune/hill and there was the best mule deer I could imagine! Absolute monster rack on his head. What I should have done is casually kept driving right on past, got set and stalked back.... But to be honest, I got hit by some buck fever and just stopped and stared a second, I'm sure with my mouth hanging open. So he stared back and then causally turned and hopped the fence to the neighbors and land and did that mule deer hope over to the neighbors hilltop a good half mile away, and stood there ignoring me while he watched my crew chopping corn.
So I set up a ground blind the next hill over from where I spotted him and was in the next several morning s and evenings, but never saw him again. I did stalk up on a very nice tall 3x3 but just could not get myself to take him knowing that bigger buck was there and that this guy would mature into a much better deer. Jumped another 3x3 in another part of the farm, and spotted deer every day but mostly does, a spike and those 3x3's. And I had very little time to hunt and there was a lot of activity in the fields getting the corn all off and seeding winter wheat right behind. I had been back down a couple days the end of October and the wheat was up nicely, plus we have some alfalfa, but I was very busy with work plus wanted to get home for the rifle whitetail season. So no time to scout.
Well I had a full two days of business meetings lined up before the KS rifle season opened, plus just the regular stuff to do this trip but I let everyone know I would be hunting mornings and evenings and available only mid day and after dark, unless I got a deer. My partner and on site manager is not a hunter, in fact he had explained to me how the deer down there where bigger bodied, with huge ears and they "run funny". But he knows I want to hunt and gave me the Intel he had on where he had seen deer. We did need to go check a field together so he drove his work truck out the night before season and we spotted 14 deer in that field and 2 on the horizon at the property line. I did not have binos with but could see by the posture there were a couple dominant bucks, including the one with a does on the horizon.
This is pure SW Kansas sand hill country so we do not farm the corners where the irrigation pivots miss, plus there are bigger marginal areas we can't farm as the hills are too big. So some great habitat covered in native plants, sage, tumble weeds, tall grass, etc. Seems to be great habitat for the mule deer with our crops to feed them. Out of almost 1800 acres, we farm about 1300. The areas not farmed are tough going, full of critter burrows and snags. A 4 wheel drive pick will get stuck in the loose sand. Lots of jack rabbits, kangaroo rats or some other burrowing critters that seem to mostly come out at night, rattle snakes and coyotes.
So the next morning I got out there in the dark and just hid behind the pivot point of the irrigation system on that field. As the sun came out, I slowly picked out 10 deer that included 2 bucks but I just could not make out the antlers real well other than I was pretty certain one was a younger buck I did not want to take.... But I only had 3 days before I had to leave to head home to Minnesota. At one point a buck got within 200 yards and I was tempted to take him as he was tall, but not much width and as I was looking into the sun, it was tough making out details. Those deer made their way into the edge of the field and I figured if I left them be, they would bed down. So I sneaked out and back to my pickup and went to glass several other areas but as I came around the far side of the farm, something was going on and a gas company truck was on the corner and told me an ambulance was on the way! A Sheriffs truck pulled and I moved over to let him by and followed down to find a neighbor had climbed up to fix a pipe on one of his pivots and fell at least 12 feet! He was moving his legs so that was a good sign and First Responders where there as was his family... Soon the ambulance arrived and got him strapped to back board and we all grabbed on and loaded him up. Broken ribs, collar bone, shoulder busted up and his back is messed up... So we are all praying for him.
So that ended my morning hunt. That afternoon I got out and walked some of the hills and spotted those deer bedded down but a doe was standing sentry, head and ears on a swivel. I almost shot a coyote but he ducked behind some sage and disappeared right before I pulled the trigger and then I spotted the doe after I topped the hill. Had my spotting scope with so set up and picked out several more deer bedded but did not see a buck. So made my way back to the pivot on field one and as it goes, that evening the deer decided to go to field # 3
However right at last light, a nicer buck came out with a couple does way behind the usual group... So hopes where high for the second morning.
Got back out, no deer in field one, I really felt a bit stuck as this was the easiest place to sneak in below the rise in the field, I really wanted to get in between fields one and three but had no good approach planned out. I had brought my spotting scope along got it set and actually spotted deer spread out all to the Southeast, South and Southwest of me. But all over 500 yards away. As the first rays of light turned into a general ability to actually see details, there was that young but seemingly somewhat dominant buck closest to me (he got to within 450 yards), but the better buck was more to the SW. And all the deer were already moving off into the edges. I thought I was about done here for the morning but made a plan to go back out the North end of the field, then cut West and then South through the sand dunes between the field and the fence line. I thought I might just find enough cover to get into an ambush position if they kept moving slowly West, and if they bedded down, the better buck was to that side and I might have a chance to stalk close enough before a doe spotted me. So I move a little faster than my body liked and was out of breath by the time I got to a big hill I wanted to look over. Sat for a minute and then slid up to the top and saw that bucks horns and ears and a doe in full view, which I was able to range the doe at 378 yards. So backed down and worked my way, duck walking, crawling and skidding along to get two more hill closer. I crawled up behind a big tumbleweed and glassed through it and that buck and doe knew I was there. The buck was coming closer! He must have been curious what the orange coyote in the weeds was up to. I saw his drop tine but he was framed in brush and I not sure it was antlers until he moved and those tines came with
I decided to try and take him and he obliged by taking another step closer and being in full view at well under 100 yards, I did not attempt to range him as this point as I knew that with my Ruger Express in 300 Win Mg, it was a point blank shot no matter what the details were now. I was kneeling like in Church and not as stable as I would have liked but when he turned quartering a bit, I side stepped on my knees a couple feet to the edge of the bush, aimed for the point of the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. I heard that satisfying "thwack" and he turned to run, I was reloaded and on my feet running up the sand hill but he had gone over the hill so I only saw the top of his backside, just then he turned broadside and I threw the gun up only to him lay down. Got over there and he was kicking his last.
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