USA: Rph Princess's Mule Deer Graduation Hunt

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My daughter, Kellie, graduated from college this summer and her present from me is a hunt anywhere in the world for any animal(s) where the trip(s) would match in price her brother's graduation safari with KMG a few years ago.
She chose to go hunt Mule Deer and another trip to be determined later, Likely a large whitetail hunt out west.

So, we just got back from our mule deer hunt.
How did it go?

Well, it started with 13 hours of driving. We left after supper last Wednesday night and drove till we were really sleepy, got a hotel, and continued on the next morning. Our hunt was to begin on Friday morning. We arrived late Thursday a few hours before dark. They asked if we wanted to get started so we headed out. We had about 1.5 hours. We saw a small buck and 2 doe. But, at dark we glassed a half mile away and could see deer in an agricultural field. Plan for the next morning was to arrive back and set up and watch them as they left the field. There were many canyons leading from the field.
We picked one and set up on a little draw that fed into the canyon. If they came down the canyon it would be about a 150 yd shot. Instead, though, we saw this buck right behind a doe and she turned and came up the draw as if she was telling Kellie to get this guy off my tail. she passes at 50 yards and stops a little way past us. The buck stopped like we had said "Cue the deer" at about 45 yards. Kellie shifted and shot him and he shuddered and arched his back and turned around so she could shoot him again from the other side. He was obviously dead from the first shot, but insurance is good to have. He walked about 15 yards and fell down.
K-J mule deer.JPG

After lunch, we looked for me a deer. We ended up looking at this guy from 330 yards and started to set up. He moved on us and finally stopped at 416 yards. I'm not used to shooting that far but felt confident.
Hit him hard and he went down in about 20 steps.
Kellie Mule Deer.JPG
Jerry Mule Deer.JPG
J-K Mule Deer.JPG
 
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Her deer had a really tall rack and was 18 inches wide. the head was tilted back in the picture of her deer so the height doesn't show up accurately.
I was laughing in her picture because she could barely hold its head up.

My deer was 23 inches wide and heavier, but not quite as tall. it was an older deer that was declining.
I'm not laughing in this pic because I could barely hold its head up.
We had a ball on this hunt.
J-K Mule Deer.JPG
 
Fantastic way to spend time with your daughter. Good shooting and congrats. Where did you hunt? Bruce
 
Congrats on the great hunt! Both of you shot great Mule Deer.
 
Great graduation present.

Nothings better than hunting with family.(y)

All the best.
 
Congrats! I'm glad you had a good time.
 
Pretty hard to hold off when the deer attack!
Good shooting all round.

Congrats to you and the Magnus Scolaris!
 
Gee Whiz Jerry! Thank goodness she's as beautiful and looks like her mother!;)

:D:D:D

BIG congratulations to your princess. You've been speaking about this since your first trip with Matt in 2012 with me. So happy that this came to fruit.
Please send my best to Lana and tell Kellie great job!
 
Great stuff all round. Thanks for posting
 
Fantastic way to spend time with your daughter. Good shooting and congrats. Where did you hunt? Bruce
It was on the New Mexico/Texas line northwest of Amarillo in the panhandle. My guide had ranches on either side of the state line to choose from. He said the hunts would be the same (only a few miles apart) but if we hunted on the Texas side of the line our licenses would be cheaper and we would have more options to hunt other stuff if we got our mule deer quickly. We hunted 2 adjoining ranches that, together, was about 35,000 acres.
After the mule deer hunt only lasting the better part of the day. We were invited on a pheasant hunt up near the point where New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma meet. I've never done this, and Kellie and I volunteered to be blockers instead of walkers. She didn't want to walk thru chest high cover that had thorns all over it
Jerry Pheasant.JPG
. I managed to shoot one of them feathered critters. Very pretty birds.

Kellie's other part of her graduation hunt will likely be with the guy we pheasant hunted with. He has a whitetail lease in the panhandle and we may go hunt there with our bows next fall and also hunt bobcats and coyotes. Another pic of the coyote. The hide ended up blown to pieces. Her first shot caught it at the last rib and went thru to blow off the right hind leg.
He got up to run and our guide shot it thru the guts. It stood there turning in circles and we put up the sticks. Kellie's next shot went just behind the right ear and thru the neck into the body where it tore up more hide. It was shot to pieces so we just cut the tail off. Would have saved the skull too, but the 3rd shot pretty much destroyed it.
K-J coyote.JPG
 
I was just looking at the pic and thinking "poor coyote".
Left front leg shot, left back leg shot, right back leg blown off, 2 shots passed thru the guts, and the back of the skull exploded.
Kellie, though very much a hunter, is like her mother, and looked away after the kill.

Hey, Marius, remember Lana shooting that caracal in the tree and then turned and faced the other way as we waited for it to fall out?
I guess Kellie is like her Mom.

If there was any way for me to get back over there this Spring, I'd love to go hunt some yotes, prairie dogs, and bobcats.
 
"Poor coyote" my a## !!!! I've seen them hamstring a whitetail fawn just to give their young practice taking down an animal. The only bad part about shooting a coyote multiple times is the cost of ammunition. Not that my opinion matters at all, just good job on the coyote, great deer and congrats for spending time with family.
 
Very good mule deers for both.....congratulations for the proud father and his beautiful doughter.....well done......(y)
 
Congrats to both of you, and good job Kellie! Way to make your old Pop proud :D Best of luck on part two of the hunt (y)
 
Congratulations to both of you! Dam fine job raising your kids with a passion for hunting! When my oldest son asked for a Nintendo for Christmas I bought him a model 7 and taught him to use it, he would rather go to the range any day now. Keep up the good work and looking forward to Seeing her whitetail next year!
 
First of all congrats to Kellie on graduating college, a big first step, and on taking a nice deer. Being together in the outdoors together is one of the greatest experiences one can have with family. Thanks for doing this for your children. Look forward to reading a report about Kellie's other hunt. Congrats to you both.
 
Awesome, greatest grad present ever. Good job Dad!!!!!
 
"Poor coyote" my a## !!!! I've seen them hamstring a whitetail fawn just to give their young practice taking down an animal. The only bad part about shooting a coyote multiple times is the cost of ammunition. Not that my opinion matters at all, just good job on the coyote, great deer and congrats for spending time with family.
that's what we both told Kellie. She said it looked like her dog "Sadie" at home though.
Now, Coyote was the 3rd animal on her list of what she wanted to hunt. 2nd was bobcat, but we didn't get one of those.
she was ecstatic that she killed it, just didn't enjoy watching it pull its own intestines out.
 
Congrats! on part one can't wait to see part two good shooting.
 

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