Here in Washington state, Early Archery Deer opened Sept. 1, Early Archery Elk opened Sept. 2. I wasn't able to hunt either opening days. Wednesday, early afternoon, I finally hooked up the travel trailer and headed to the mountains, in the rain. I pulled into my location, still raining, and set up camp by about 3:00pm. I was SOAKED! Deciding I'd change clothes and dry off, hitting elk hunting the next morning. About 5:00pm the sun came out. About 50 yards behind my camp was a several year old clear cut, about 5 acres in size. I decided to take a stroll through it. Seeing a little bit of elk sign and lots of deer sign, I decided "what the heck, I'll give it an evening try." I decided to pack my pop up blind about 100 yards and set it up inside the tree line, about 30 yards from a well used game trail. I went back to camp, made a sandwich and changed into my hunting clothes. As soon as I got settled in the blind, I ate my sandwich. Not 10 minutes later, I noticed a pair of ears making it's way up the trail. Having the Multi Season Deer Permit, when I noticed it was a 3X2 Mule Deer, I decided I'd let it walk on by. Well, then I also took into account that I have a Second Deer tag, AND I'd never shot a Mule Deer, so changed my mind. (This is in an area that holds Whitetail and Mule Deer). So, 30 minutes into the first hunt of the season, I'd filled my deer tag at 37 yards. Perfect broadside presentation. My arrow busted in half as it entered the deer. No exit but a very clear blood trail. He went about 60 yards and died. My arrow entered his lungs, may have hit a rib, and strangely the front half of the arrow turned rearward. I found the front half, along with the broadhead, in his rear thigh! No idea how it ended up there!! In the photos, it's a bit difficult to see the 3rd point, on his right side, but it's there...I promise! HAHA. (This is important as we have a 3 point minimum rule for Mule Deer, here in Washington state). The antlers are currently in the freezer. I need to get them out and get a more clear photo of them. I apologize for the crappy photo quality. Busted arrow I won't bore you with every area of blood, even though I did photograph most of them...lol. This is the first time I've ever had to follow a blood trail so I went very slowly and carefully. There was blood about every 3 feet. It was starting to get dark. From my blind, I lost sight of the deer running so wasn't entirely sure how far he'd went or which direction. I'd not heard him crash so was careful to not loose the blood trail. Spent most the next 2 weeks putting lots of miles on, hearing only a couple bugles and seeing absolutely no elk. I did have a cougar about 200 yards away for awhile. A neighboring camper had a very close cougar encounter at 8 yards! His encounter turned into a staring contest for several minutes before the cougar took off. Thursday, Sept. 11, I finally packed up camp and headed to lower elevations. Saturday morning, the day before early elk season ended, I finally found myself 35 yards from a nice 4X5, maybe 5X6 bull, in heavy brush, at about 7:15AM. At full draw, giving a couple cow calls, the bull would come out in the open pacing in circles, but wouldn't stop. Then he'd head back into the heavy brush and stand there. I'd let down my draw and wait awhile, cow call again and out he'd come again. He was nervous and would never stop moving in the open, then back to the brush he'd go. This went on for about 15 minutes so I decided to give a short bugle. As soon as I did that, he trotted up a hill and out of sight. Sat down and cow called off and on for another 45 minutes but he never came back in. GRRR. This all took place about 1/4 mile from a paved road, behind a gated state lands road. The following morning I decided to set up in the same area, but in a way that would give me a shot as the bull walked into the same area. I'd identified the trail he'd used, after my bugle scared him off. I was set up 2 hours before daylight. At about 6:30 I started hearing sounds of something walking in but still a ways off. At 7:10 a jeep came driving down the gated road and up a fork! I wasn't giving up yet though. I continued cow calling, hoping the bull would come in. At 7:40, the rig headed back out the gated road. 20 minutes later, I packed up and headed out. Instead of walking back to the road and out to the pavement, I decided to follow the game trail, cow calling. 100 yards into the trail I heard a stump being tore up. As soon as my brain registered that it was probably a bear, I heard three "HUFF, HUFF HUFFs," and turned to my right in time to see a very large BUTT quickly heading away from me at about 15 yards...lol So, now I wait until Late Archery Elk season.
It's been brought up that it may not be a Mule Deer, which I actually questioned at first also. I originally thought it was a whitetail, until I saw that the tail had a large amount of black on it. The tip of the tail is black, along with a wide black stripe, the length of the tail. So, at this point, I'm not 100% sure it's a Mule Deer. I've never seen that amount of black on a whitetail's tail before.
