"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." ---Theodore Roosevelt 1910

Friday, October 5, 2012

Tripping Over a Shed


 
 
Yesterday I went with Russell Mason hunting mule deer out on the desert. It was the last day of the muzzle loading season. I have an archery permit, so I went along to just help glass or track. We hunted where you are lucky if you see one deer a day. However, the few deer you do see down there tend to be big bucks!

These deer are mostly bucks that spend all year long out on their winter range. Later during the rut and the winter, many more does and migrating bucks show up. However, this is after hunting season. It is hard enough hunting them with a rifle in this rugged country, let alone a muzzle loader.

At dawn, we split up and were going to glass the rim rock and pinion juniper from different angles. I was not expecting to jump two bucks where I did. I got a look at them both. One of them was a really nice buck. I watched them cross a small canyon and dump into the next.

Russell and I joined up and we tracked them. He tried to stay on the high ground out in front and to the side of me. I love to track desert muleys! We ended up tracking them for 4-5 miles but never got the chance to see them again for a shot.

Along the way, the bucks walked under a small rim. They definately knew where they wanted to be. They ended up walking right on top of this shed horn and continued on around the rim. This makes me wonder if this shed was from the same buck we were tracking? I think the chances are fairly good that it is, since there are so few deer in the area. We finally lost their tracks in the rocks and raised the white flag for the day. By the time we walked back to the truck, we had logged 10 up and down miles in about 2/3rds of a day.

If the other side matched this shed, it would be a 180-185" buck about 28-30" wide.  He is not very heavy with mass, but he has some good tine length.

PS- The matching side of this buck was found by another friend of mine Kyle. It was 3/4 of a mile where I jumped the two bucks. This makes me feel pretty sure that the bigger buck that we were tracking was the previous owner of these sheds two years ago.

 


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