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Day 1 - Prospects were good, especially compared to last fall, as we headed west again for the opening days of mule deer season in Texas.  It was finally that time again!  There’d been more rain this year in the Permian basin during the important antler-growing months of March and April, and an above-average rainfall meant the range would be in great shape for hunting, so I was anxious to see what affect it had on the animals.  The deer should be bouncing back from the killer drought they suffered through last winter.

We pulled through the ranch gates early in the afternoon on the day after Thanksgiving, passing a huge planted wheat field between the highway and the ranch house that had deer scattered all across it.  Several nice bucks lifted their heads as we rolled by.  I don’t know who was checking who out more intently, but it was great to see some good bucks right off the bat.  Nothing gets me more ready to hunt than that.  They looked to be in healthy too.

We couldn’t hunt there, but no matter.  It’s good to have a place like that where you can see a lot of deer and get an idea of antler growth and what kind of shape the deer herd is in.

This year was gonna be a dandy!

My dad and a few others from our group were already in camp.  There’d be ten of us in all by the time night fell, all getting ready for the opening day.

Day broke on a perfect day for jeeping, cold and clear with light wind, as we all struck out for different parts of the lease.  We didn’t know it then, but it would be almost two weeks before we’d see another good day like this. 

The group I rode with, Ed, his son Trey and my hunting buddy Bert, pulled a jeep down to the farthest section way below camp, about a half hour away.  Right away we saw deer on the side of the mountain, a few does and a little buck, as we unhooked the jeep and loaded up.  We decided to get up on the second level and skirt a hill we called ‘buck mountain’ as the sun came up and warmed up the countryside.

We spotted and bumped up a bunch of mule deer along our route, a lot of does with fawns and several good-looking young bucks.  They were all in good shape and you could see how much the wet year had helped them.  It also helped keep them hidden.  The mountain cedar brush was thicker too.

Rounding the western tip, I spotted a buck come up and disappear around the slope ahead of us.  He looked good enough for a closer look so we hurried around before he could get too far away, but when we got to where I thought he was, he was gone.  Ed parked the jeep and got out to walk to the ledge and look down to the flats below, and after not even a minute, a buck boiled up ten yards from us bounding up the mountain.  In three leaps, he disappeared into the rock & cedar.  He wasn’t gone; the buck laid down and hid.  And when they do that, they can hide like a quail in a foot of hay meadow.

Ed hurried back and cranked up the jeep.  I knew exactly where he was, I just couldn’t see him.  So we worked right up the slope to the spot I last saw him.  When we got there, though, no buck!  Up he came again, right outta the ground it seemed like.  He went straight up away from us again until he made it to another clump of cedar where he dropped outta sight.  This time, though, I could see his head and antlers looking back at me before he got down.  He was a shooter!  A shooter if someone wanted to walk up to where he was and jump him. 

Trey wanted to try him, so he climbed out, loaded up and started up while we watched and told him where to go.  When he got a little bit above where I knew the buck was, we sent Trey over toward him.  In seconds, I saw the muley spring from the bush, I saw Trey shoulder his rifle and I noticed the buck lunge when the shot cracked.  It all happened right in front of us too.  The buck kept running downhill, right toward the jeep and all we could do was watch.  When he passed in front, I could see he was hit good.  He was done!  He just didn’t know it yet.

We had our first good deer in the first hour of the season.

Last updated 257 days ago by Wheelz