For the first time in 16 years of hunting this property, I personally did not find a mule deer buck to kill. I'm going to chalk it up to mid Summer rains that produced 4 ft high weeds and dense brush, or maybe it was that I wasn't in the right place at the right time, or most likely I pretty much sucked. Actually I battled some health issues and didn't hunt near as much as I usually do. Oh well, still had a blast chasing those desert dwelling bucks here in West Texas.

I got to take a friend of mine on a quest for his first mule deer buck. To make a long story short I sat in the same place glassing for 4 hours, and about 1:30pm got lucky to spot a doe up feeding, followed by a buck, at about 1200 yards. By the time we got somewhat close to where we had last seen them we assumed they were gone. After another 30-45 minutes of us standing there looking, the doe came into view, followed by this very old buck. I guessed him at 7.5-8.5 years old. My buddy was ecstatic, and so was I.



I always enjoy taking the landowner's son hunting. He absolutely loves it, and he's getting good at it, in fact very good at it. He actually spotted this buck late one evening and got it killed right at dusk with his .243 Ruger and 95gr BT's. This is the best pic I got because it was cold, and getting late. We were a long way from the any road. Figured this buck as 7.5 as well.



This was one of my favorite mule deer hunts ever, with a very good friend from PA. We spotted this buck about a mile away with a doe in mesquites, tall grass and weeds. We were on top of a 10ft sandhill. The area he was in was very flat, and we couldn't see squat once we got close to where we guessed he was. To avoid jump shooting, scaring him off, etc I decided to set my buddy up on the sticks, and I started blowing my deer call. It wasn't 10 seconds after squawling on that call that the doe came hauling [censored] at us about 500 yards away, with the buck following. She'd stop, look, I'd hit the call, she'd come hauling [censored] again. Repeated that about 3 times until they were 150 yards away, and my buddy knocked him down with the first shot, stone cold dead. Another very old buck.

It was a very tough year for hunters hunting mule deer, but it was a very good deer for a lot of good mule deer getting to age another year. From what I have heard, the hunting for mule deer was off statewide this year. Some great deer killed but not nearly as many as was expected.

Great buck!

Neat stuff JG and some bomber bucks.

Great pictures and great bucks! The background of the first pic really shows how tough it must have been. I've only hunted that kind of country a couple of times, but never with that height of weeds!

Good stuff thanks for sharing

If you saw these antlers on a Euro mount a lot of folks including me would think it was a Whitetail buck based off the brow tines and basket type rack.

Congrats. Good looking bucks and good stories.

Thanks for posting, four great bucks. It must have been real satisfying as I know you have a long time passion for Mulies, thanks again

Nice!

Beautiful

Thanks for sharing!

Wow
Fantastic bucks.....all of them!

Awesome! Congrats

Dang nice bucks Congrats to all the lucky hunters