Nevada Muzzleloader Mule Deer Hunt

Well the 2018 General season was primarily over however December brought a coveted tag for myself that I had been waiting 10 years to draw. The weather was perfect, cold....well freezing! and a fresh blanket of snow which made the mule deer stand out on the vast open mountains.

The tag dates for this hunt run in December. The deer are primarily focused on feeding and resting after a strenuous migration and rut. The deer I decided to target were in a range that they reside in year round. This range is extremely steep and peaks out at 8,300 feet with limited vegetation.

During scouting I was able to turn up two bucks that i wanted. One was a nice 160-170 inch main fraim 4x4 and the other was a super wide heavy old buck. I am not a trophy hunter but I knew I wanted a older age class deer.

The muzzleloader I was using was a Remington Model 700 with williamson sights. I was shooting a 250 grain bullet and was consistently hitting a gallon milk jug at 200 yards.

Opening day found myself and my fields looking for the typical 4x4. The icy fog rolled in and we had zero viability for about 5 hours. We decided to stick it out and started a small warming fire with some mountain mahogany. Once the clouds cleared we started to spot bucks. We saw over 20 bucks and over 100 deer, however no big mature bucks. We headed back to camp and readied ourselves for the next day. The next day we decided to look at some new country and found numerous bucks including one nice 4x4 however I just wants ready to pull the trigger. I wanted to see if we could find the heavy old buck.

That evening we decided to glassed a basin where we had seen him a few weeks earlier. After about 2 hours he emerged with 4 other bucks. We put him to bed and made our plan for the next morning.

Day 3 took us to the same glassing point from the evening before. We found all of the bucks he was with but he was no where to be found. While two of my friends stayed back glassing myself, Emily and good friend John went up the mountain to see if we could find him from the top. After a good mile into the hike we started spotting deer. Numerous bucks but the wide old buck was missing. We went a few more ridges and found a group of 25 deer and there we was right in the middle of them. I took off to a rock pinnacle and got set up. The buck was exactly 200 yards. I steadied the sights and let smoke fly. The shot was back in the liver causing the buck to hunch up and go down. After a finishing shot, I made my way down to him.

He was an incredible animal, nearly 200lbs, white face with a scarred roman nose and sported a heavy 32 5/8 inch outside spread. He was an old warrior and I couldn't have asked for a better buck. He would probably barely score 140 but still a true one of a kind trophy.

It took us about 3 hours to cut him up and make the brutal 3 mile hike back to the truck. Even though it was only 3 miles its was straight up and covered in a wet layer of slick snow.

Back at camp we celebrated and shared the story. It seems like a common theme on my hunts but I truley have a great network of friend that love the outdoors and are willing to take time off to help me out. I am a lucky man!

2016 California Big Game Wrap up

2016 was a great year for us in our home state. We were able to get out at least once a month from July through October, experience some great places and put some awesome animals in the freezers.

July brought A zone archery deer and pigs. We were able to hunt two different ranches and put numerous stalks on some nice bucks and even get some shots. The deer didn't work out but Emily was able to connect on a nice 70 lb boar. She was all smiles.

August and September brought another A zone and a B zone deer hunt with our bows. We saw some nice bucks in both zones but were again not able to connect. The pigs however cooperated great! Emily was able to put down another great meat hog and I was able to take two great tuskers. All three pigs with our bows! That's 4 great hogs for 2016!!!

 

October brought cooler weather and a B zone and X zone hunt. The B zone hunt was in the eye of the storm, we hunted for 3 days in the rain and wind and saw over 30 deer before finding a decent fork. One shot at 150 yards did the trick.

Emily's X zone hunt was a blast! It was warmer weather than we wanted but we were able to get on some great bucks and by day 7 Emily connected with a nice 4x3.

 

Emily's Buck before the shot.

That wraps up California Big Game season for us. I still have a bear tag however with an Idaho deer hunt still on schedule I think I will pass on the bear hunting. 4 pigs and 2 bucks made 2016 California another blessed year for stories and the freezers.

Gear Review- Federal Premium® Trophy Copper Muzzleloader Bullets

So I’ll start this off by stating that I am by no means a muzzle loading expert. I have drawn two mule deer tags for a smoke-pole and that is the extent of my experience. However on both hunts I took my T/C Triumph 50 cal. out to the range and put numerous holes through the paper with many types of bullets and was also successful in taking two beautiful Mule Deer, not an expert but some knowledge!

Fist Mule Deer Taken with the Muzzleloader

For the first tag I drew, I was hell bent on trying them all. I tried at least 5 kinds of bullets with various powder charges.  The bullet I decided to go with was the Powerbelt brand. I decided to go with this brand since they grouped nice and loaded fairly easy, especially after a few shots and a fouled barrel. The hunt went great and I was able to take a great buck at 175 yards. The Copper jacketed lead bullet performed well and I couldn’t be happier.
Tag number two that came to me this past year left me in a predicament. California, where I drew the tag recently outlawed the use of lead ammunition for hunting. Well that narrowed the game as far as bullet selection went. After much research I found that there were two different bullets on the market that I could use with my gun….And they were pricey. Around $25-$35 per 15 bullets. I decided that I would choose one and adjust my powder to make sure everything grouped well.

 

The bullet I decided to purchase was the Federal Premium Trophy Copper bullets.  These bullets were new to the market and claim 200 yard accuracy. Well with open sights I wasn’t going to be shooting 200 yards but they seemed to be a worthy bullet.

Price: I could only find them online at Cabelas and Midway and they ran about $25 per package of 15 bullets.

Loading: This was where the rubber met the road for me. How easy would it be for this bullet to be loaded after 2-3 shots and a fouled barrel….Well this bullet is by far the easiest bullet I have ever loaded. From the first shot to the 4^th, the bullet would go down with ease and always seat perfectly.

Grouping: So with open sights, you have to take my groupings with a grain of salt. I started at 50 yards and shot a consistent 3 inch group. When I moved back to 100 yards, the grouping expanded to 6-7 inches. All within the kill zone, however with open sights I was pleased. Not like shooting a high powered rifle where if your not in a 2 inch circle at 200 yards, your not happy!

Performance: Well the proof is in the pictures. As you can see the bullet did just want it said it would. The shot was at 90 yards and put a substantial hole in the deer. The petals on the mushroomed bullet stayed intact and the 270 grain bullet retained its weight to a 250 grains. Talk about weight retention!  The bullet broke both shoulders and was lodged just under the skin on the deer.

This bullet is a breakthrough in engineering however I am no engineer, all I know is the bullet performed flawless.

 

I was more than pleased not only because I was able to take a nice buck, but was able to see the bullets performance from start to finish. I would highly recommend this bullet for anyone and will continue to use them for future tags that I get!

Final Tag of the 2015 Season

 

In June I was lucky enough to read my name on the successful list for drawing a premium tag for California Mule Deer. I drew this same tag in 2012 so to draw it again in the random pool was extremely lucky!

The season started in late October, after the archery and general season, so the deer had been hunted quite a bit making them difficult to pin-point and pattern. I spent nearly 10 days, pre-season scouting and really focused the entire week prior to the opener, finding the deer concentrations. I found some great areas which held good deer numbers. With bad drought conditions, the deer were really concentrating still on feeding areas near reliable water sources. The deer were hammering the bitterbrush flats.

 

The first 4 days of the season found myself with a whole entourage of followers. I had my wife, her dad, my best friend J.P., as well as a master student conducting research for his thesis on hunting. Those 4 days were amazing. We were seeing 20-30+ does and bucks everyday as well as 1-2 mature bucks including one 4x4 that was around 22” wide with deep forks. It was a great buck but I decided to pass.

 It was one of the hardest hunts to be on since I felt the constant stress to take one of these great bucks. Not from anyone on the hunt but from my internal self, since I was used to just taking the first legal or nice buck I could find. I am a meat hunter! The main thing keeping me from pulling the trigger was that I wanted to keep hunting. This isn't a tag I can draw every year, this is my last deer hunt for the year, and I wanted to see what each day would bring. I knew that with every day the season grew older, the bucks got closer to rutting. I personally don’t care about score or width but I was looking for a buck that when I looked through the binoculars I had no hesitations about going after. I was looking for a buck that turned me on!

 

After Day 4, the masters student and J.P. had to go home, however my father came up to join the party. Day 5 was uneventful, seeing the same bucks from previous days. Day 6 brought us to an area where we had been seeing a large group of does and younger bucks. At first light we spotted a great 5x2 that had great mass, I mean lots of MASS! His points were rounded they were so heavy. He was the first buck of the season that there was no question whether I was making a stalk. I made the stalk however he gave me the slip when I was within 75 yards. I was only able to see his massive rounded antler tips as he trotted off. After the failed stalk, I did some more glassing and turned up two other great bucks. A 24” 3x3 with a 5-6” cheater on one side and a wide 28-30” 3x3 with great eye guards. Both bucks were in impossible areas so they had to be passed until the next morning. Three shooter bucks in one day, this is what I was waiting for!

 

 

Day 7 took us to the same spot. We started to pick apart the basin with our optics and turned up a group of does and a couple young bucks that were really going at it. We watched them spar for about 15 minutes until my dad said, “Big Buck”. The big wide 3x3 stepped out behind a pine tree and started to push one of the does. After watching him for 15 minutes, I started my stalk. Long story short I was able to get within 110 yards of the giant, rested my sights right behind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger, after the smoke cleared the buck was bounding off, unscathed and healthy to live another day. After checking his tracks for blood, it all sank in that I just missed my opportunity at a big one.

Sad and a little depressed we regrouped and made our plan for the evening hunt. We decided we would hunt the same area however, split up and go in three different directions to cover more ground. I sat down at my glassing post for the next few hours and immediately saw some does munching on a small oak tree about 90 yards away. I continued to glass until I heard some more rustling near the does. I peeked over to catch sight of a heavy 4x3 joining the does evening meal. I did a quick 2 second look through my binos to confirm that I wanted to take that buck and got set up. It was about 2-3 minutes before the buck presented a quartering away shot and I squeezed the trigger. The air filled with smoke and I could barely catch a glimpse of the buck scrambling downhill into a deep drainage. After reloading I ran down the hill to see him piled up at the bottom.

The buck was one of my best yet. A beautiful heavy 3x4 with eye guards. I sat down next to the buck, had a moment of silence, soaking it all in and thanking nature for its bounty. I had taken a great 4x4 three years earlier only a half mile away from where this buck fell. I felt so lucky and privileged to be able to hunt this mountain again and to have a group of family and friends that were willing to take time off to help me with this hunt. A great hunt to go in the books and a great way to end the 2015 Big Game season!