Earlier in the year I decided to go back out to the Trans-Pecos for desert mule deer after a 2 year hiatus. I started hunting this property in 2014 after a fellow THF member turned me on to the ranch. Being totally green at mule deer hunting, I ended up taking a fairly decent buck after a few days of playing cat and mouse with him. I was hooked and made plans to come back and hunt every year.

Well, due to a combination of work schedules, family commitments and some tough luck, I was not able to connect on a decent buck on any of the subsequent years. 2015 I didn’t get to hunt much due to work commitments, only 3-4 days,

In 2016 I had located and stalked a nice buck only to have him get away and was killed by another hunter a few days later while he was joy riding in the pasture. I ended up taking a giant fork horn after sighting him well over a mile away. The next year I tried to put my wife on a buck and we located a nice one right at dusk, and she was not able to find it in the scope and it ended up getting nervous and ran away after several minutes. The following year ( 2018 season ) I spotted a buck and let my hunting partner kill him, thinking that early in the season I’d be able to find another buck like him or at least pretty close. Well, after that we did not see another mature deer in 10 days of hunting. After that I decided to give the ranch a rest and instead focused my energy on hunting other areas/animals.

Well, after a couple season I began to miss the place and when an opening came available I jumped on the chance to go try again to connect on a deer...

Good luck to you!

After several of my hunting trips pushed off due to continued covid restrictions, I was really glad I decided to do this hunt. I began counting the days, making the prep and after a early thanksgiving dinner, hit the road around noon that day to go to my place to load up the can am and a few other remaining items and then continue on to the ranch. After a pleasant but uneventful trip I hit the gate around 5 pm and made the 30 min trip to the headquarters located in the center of the ranch were we would be staying.

I have a few favorite pastures on this ranch that have always held deer in the past. I usually planned which pasture to hunt based on where I was staying ( I’ve camped in both the North and South end of the ranch ) and made the decision to hunt the north east part of the ranch where I had seen good numbers of deer back in 2018. Friday morning comes and I make the drive over there and get in position. Pretty cold morning and I caught a bit of a chill in the ride out. The darkness turns to light and I begin to start glassing as the sun peaks over the hills to the east...

I glassed from 6:45 am until 8:30 with our seeing any movement. I took a few strolls to glass a few areas and still nothing. Took a ride around the pasture and failed to turn up even one four legged creature that wasn’t bovine.

Around 10 am I decided to go to the north westernmost pasture ( another pasture I really like but has not paid off in a lot of deer sightings for me ) to check things out as a couple of nice bucks were pulled out of there last season.

Well, after driving, walking and lots of looking I failed to turn up any deer sign whatsoever in that pasture. I had lunch and around 1 pm tried to re-group and form a game plan;

I have another favorite pasture on the complete opposite side of the ranch, from where I was at it would take me a good hour and a half to over there so I load up and start to book it. I was on my way in a pasture located near the center of the ranch, rolling along at a nice clip when I see a few deer standing on a hill about 500 yards away. I park the buggy and go over to a vantage point to take a better look. I watch the group of 10 deer for a big and once I confirm no shooter bucks are in the group, I continue on my way to my evening hunting spot.....

Awesome photo!

Really nice

Great photo and story.......thanks for sharing.

So I continue on once I look over the deer herd. I get into the pasture about 4:15 and set up. Nothing.

About 5:15 I make my way over to another ridge and glass for 30 min and again nothing....so I decided to move once more and glass another canyon before I ran out of daylight. Made it to my vantage point and enjoyed a beautiful sunset, but did not spot any deer and saw very little deer sign.





On the way back to camp I decided I would go hunt the pasture where I saw the small group of deer, would be good to see some new country and I knew at least there was some deer there. I hadn’t been in that pasture other than passing thru since 2016 but I would occasionally see deer in there going to and fro and some nice deer have been pulled out of there in years past so I would give it a go the following morning.


The following morning ( Saturday ) finds me up on a ridge overlooking some gravel ridges on both the north and south. A south west wind is brisk and the cloud cover is breaking a little providing some good glassing light.

Man I am jealous.

Sun breaks and I start glassing and immediately see deer. I saw the same group I saw the previous day, a few deer that were off in the distance and to the north I saw a lone deer about 700 yards away. I study the deer and can see a rack, i decide to go in for a closer look.

Wind is in my favor, I grab the rifle and sticks and make my way down towards him. I get about 250 yards from him and give him a good study, but he is a 4 year old 3x3.....nothing I am interested in. I study him for a bit before he knocks me off and disappears over the ridge. I go back to the can am and continue glassing, before long all the deer have bedded down.

I fire up the buggy and make my way along the ridge top stopping and glassing at every lookout. I end up at the end of the ridge overlooking a box canyon and a nice drainage. I'm getting hungry so i hunker down and make lunch




always nice to find these little suprises...

type faster so I can say….

Can’t believe you arent hanging out to get my autograph

So you busted the slump and got one or just got to go?

We are not a patient crowd. LOL

so i have a soup and a sandwich, and continue glassing. Sun is up and its just warm enough to make me sleepy. Its around 1:30 and I start to doze off. i spread out as well as i can and shut my eyes. I wake up right at 4 pm and start glassing. around 4:30 i pick up a group of does about 900 yards away across the draw. There does not appear to be a buck with them so I keep on looking. I glass for another 30 min but not seeing anything I drive back over to where I started that morning. I pick up several does and the 3x3 buck, who has moved about 3/4 of a mile from where I saw him earlier. Off to the north I spot a lone deer feeding on a gravel ridge. It is about a mile in the distance and I cannot make out a rack, but his body size and lone nature is indicative of a buck. I set a mark, grab the rifle, sticks and start walking. Around 800 yards away I lose him. I walk to a knoll and start glassing, but here is no where to be seen. The sun is going down and the shadows getting long, but he does not reappear. I sit on the know until dark and them make my way back to the UTV

"Its around 1:30 and I start to doze off. i spread out as well as i can and shut my eyes. I wake up right at 4 pm"

dang good nappins there

The next morning I was on the same ridge at 6:30. Sun came up and I start glassing. These deer can move quite a ways or even completely out of the area so I'm having to search a pretty wide area both north, west and south. Right after sun up I see the previous group of does around 2 miles out. Then around 300 yards 8 does/fawns and two younger deer come up over the ridge right in front of me, about 200 yards south of them another group of 6 does. I start looking for the buck, end up spotting the 3x3 from the previous morning and around 9am I see the lone deer on the edge of a draw along a grass flat. I decide to creep up on him in the UTV to save some time, but I came upon a brush draw I could not cross in the UTV so i had to re-route; when I got up to the knoll around 800 yards out he was gone. Due to where he was at, I knew the only way he could have disappeared was for him to bed down. Not going to let him slip away, I went to a little high spot to glass for him. I have not gotten a good look at his rack....up to this point i just know its a buck, but have no idea of age or size of his rack. Another hunter texts me to check in, and he ends up joining me. We end up moving to a different knoll a few hundred yards away overlooking the same draw and sit and wait. Another hour goes by and another hunter comes by to chat with us. Around 1 pm they decided to go back to camp, one of the guys leaves me his spotting scope, an old Leupold Fixed 20x attached to a rifle like stock. Really helpful tool to have, I sit and wait. Around 1:30 i make lunch and by 2pm I start to doze off. I wake up at 3:00 and get my head back in the game

I'm glassing and I see a few deer....the 3x3 is back again but this time well away from the area. Around 4:30 I glass a gravel ridge and there he is, feeding right on the edge of it. I bust out the spotting scope and confirm he is a buck that appears to have a decent rack, but can't see much beyond that ( he got up further than I expected, he was about 1000 yards out at this point ).

I fire up the buggy and start my way towards him, he is feeding up the ridge in some wide open country and the wind was in my favor, so I'm confident he can't hear or smell me. after a few min ride I get to where he is and turns out he is in the wide open. I turn the buggy north and make it to the edge of the draw about 400ish yards out from him. I get the rifle and sticks and bail out. I get to the other edge of the draw and make an assessment; He isn't the biggest buck on the ranch by any stretch, judging by his body he was either a 4 year old or a post mature buck, he wasn't showing me enough to think he was on the 4 year old side so I deemed him a shooter age wise. He was symmetrical and had both front and back forks ( which is what i'm looking for ) with some velvet hanging off his G2. He was in the wide open and should make for a fairly easy stalk and it was early in the day so light is not a problem. I ended up making the call to go ahead and get on him. I sneak thru the draw keeping an close eye on him while trying not to get hung up in the brush. He is completely unware of my presence and as I reach the edge of the grass/start of the gravel ridge I look at him for the final time. He has a respectable rack and due to all the aspects that come with mule deer hunting, my past experiences and my schedule, I decide this opportunity is too good to pass up.

I take a few steps to my left and we are both exposed now.....I range him at 145 yards and get the rifle on the sticks. This whole time he had been feeding away from me going up the ridge, and as soon as i get set up, he turns perfectly broadside and starts nibbling on a greasewood bush. I have to admit I'm a little bit excited as thus far this stalk has worked out perfectly. I turn the scope to 12x, flip the safety off and settle the crosshairs as steady as i can on his vitals. I press the trigger and the big weatherby roars, sending a 180 grain accubond thru his heart. He rises up on his back legs and falls over, never moving again.

I chamber another round and stay on him for a minute, but its apparent his time on earth is done. I unload and walk over to him...

I get over to him and have a look see. Compared to some of the other deer we have killed, he is incredibly small bodied, but his rack is nice and tall and I'm grateful to have been able to take him.

OMG! Would you post the pic of him already!!!

I survived 7 years of reading this! Just kidding, congrats on a nice deer.

It looks so desolate out there...it makes you wonder how the deer survive in that environment, but they do.

Really nice Buck!

Take him back to camp and weight him...he dressed out at only 138 lbs. A quick look at his teeth showed they were very worn down....when I took him to the taxidermist he aged him at a minimum of 8 years old. Long time to be in the desert scratching out a living in greasewood flats.




Was a short but good hunt. Had a nice refresher and very glad to take a nice buck after struggling for several years.