you know to me and my family hunting high country mule deer is kind of like the holy grail of mule
deer hunting it is really special to take one of those big bucks up in that high country
just because of how tough it is and how those bucks live and survive the winters and migrate
it's really special last year i went on an elk hunt up in that country and we
saw some great bucks well this year i went back with tim crafton at trevor outfitters
we went on horseback back into that same country and hunted high mountain mule of year in september
a lot of fun great weather and great hunt
saw a lot of bucks so let's go take a look at that footage in that hunt and see how it turned out
first morning of the hunt finds tim and i at the top of this ridge overlooking this high mountain
basin these bucks live clear at the tops of these peaks and these basins that are straight up and
straight down genetically this country produces some of the finest trophy mule deer in all of
north america there's a small group of hunters that hunt just this type of high rough country
they consider it to be one of the toughest hunts in all of north america and i'd have to agree
with them this country is steep rocky and rough we look below us and here come two does and two fawns
just watered that morning and we're headed up over the top to bed down for the day
i sure love hunting these big bucks up here these deer have a tough life they have to migrate over
two mountain ranges and cross a major river to get to their winter range which is over 70 miles south
of here this is how tim and i like to hunt this country find a lookout point where we can overlook
a couple different basins off a knife ridge inside the cover and it produced for us this morning
out of this scrub pine patch comes this 170 mule deer he's moving across this basin he's going to
bed down over in the timber to the left here tim knows better than trying to make a stalk on a buck
that's moving like this so we decide to sit and just wait him out see if we can tell where he lays
down for the day and try to put a stalk on him most difficult part for us is to figure out which
patch of timber this buck's going to lay down in and then see if we can get in on him for a stalk
these high mountain bucks have lived up here for seven or eight years they get smart really smart
they know where just where to lay where you can't get in on them very easily for a shot
tim and i just decided to wait this buck out
see if we can figure out where he's gonna bed down for the day
we never did see where that buck bedded down tim and i decided to
head to the top back to the horses eat some lunch
wait for the evening hunt this country is straight up and straight down let me tell you
camera tends to flatten it out it's even steeper than it looks here rocky too real rocky
can't really see but to the right of me it's straight down to the bottom of that basin
that heavy pack with all my camera gear on it's a little difficult
tim looks at me says we'll go to an easier spot tonight i promise
we get a little cliffed out here on this ridge i said to tim tim next time we come down here why
don't we bring a ladder with us he looked at me and laughed and said come on eastman get up that
hill i'm hungry we ate our lunch and set up and watched that basin all evening until dark and
that big buck never did show up again you know that's part of mule deer hunting and we find a
big buck in this country like this we hunt him and him alone and tim and i both know we can't go down
in there and try to roust him out that will not work in this country these bucks have multiple
escape routes to get away from almost anything in these basins and you just can't go down in there
after them so we have to be patient it's only the first day of the hunt in the morning we saw quite
a few bucks tomorrow's a new day and we're gonna hunt this buck every day until we get a shot at him
that is true trophy mule deer hunting second morning the hunt started off with instant action
tim spotted some bucks in a shady pocket across the other side of this basin
are they the ones we're looking for is that big buck in with them
gets a better look says no those that's my junior varsity over there those are my big
bucks in training there were seven bucks in that little pocket feeding together they were all
two to three years old they're all about the same age forking horns and three points
someday those bucks are going to be something they're going to move up
higher in these basins and be some true trophy mule deer they're not the bucks
we're looking for so tim and i start moving up the ridge and checking out
some other basins and pockets that he thinks the buck might be held up
later on that morning after what tim calls prime time which is usually about the first
hour or two of morning he likes to set up and just glass these basins and really pick them
apart with a spotting scope you know that produced for us that morning also you'll
see here a buck in these scrub pines now he's starting to feed his way to his bed
he is very difficult to see he's right in the middle of the screen once he starts moving you
can see him these bucks can be really difficult to pick out in this country
he's been feeding in that little pocket he's going to move his way up behind this ridge bed
down under one of these small trees we know he's in one of these timber patches he hasn't gone far
now it's ike's turn to shoot today he and i are taking turns shooting and filming
we move down the ridge into one of these basins where we get a little better look out
on one of these little benches tim starts picking apart this basin again tim and ike both
tim had him glass for 20 minutes and he picked up a buck laying down is that the buck we're
looking for tim ike's frantically searching trying to find the buck
him points him out i get the camera on him you see embedded right in the center of the screen
he's in this jack pine just like i told you earlier where these bucks like to lay
ike gets the spotting scope on him he's the buck we've been looking for he's the buck from the
first morning well we might as well put a stalk and see what happens if we can't cut the distance
a couple hundred yards
just gotta go down this ridge swoop down to these trees
then just go down
once we get down to those trees we should be out of sight
then we'll slip around
get to those three dead snags
that's probably where we're gonna have to shoot him from
should be 200 yards
easy
ike decides to shed his pack and his coat all the stuff he's not going to need for the final stalk
they just have another 50 yards to go and it'll be just a short 200 yard shot at that buck in his bed
this is public land up here these bucks live in these basins get bumped around by hunters all
the time and they have a sixth sense about them he's not going to tolerate ike and tim getting
their stuff situated he moves off he doesn't see him i don't know if he heard him or smelled him
but he knows they're there rather than blow out of their full blast down that basin
you just tip toes around the corner and out of sight into that next slide these bucks are smart
but when they have one of these basins they call home they don't want to leave it
he knows every escape route on that whole mountain
we're gonna have to sit up here every day find that buck again and pattern him and try to get
another shot at him wasn't meant to be today tomorrow be persistent last some more pattern this
buck try to get another shot at him he'll make a mistake sooner or later today was hunter zero
buck one but tomorrow's a new day we'll be back up here after this buck after a long ride back to
camp and then back up the mountain in the morning found us right back where we left off glassing
these basins that morning started off with a bang we found five bucks across this basin feeding
first thing in the morning when the light none of them were the buck we were looking for they
were all younger bucks three and four points under 150 a couple years they're gonna be nice bucks we
moved around to the other side started glassing inward we'd seen him last the night before
we decided to start calling this buck puff he's like a puff of smoke he shows just long
enough for us to get a look at him and then he disappears he just vanishes into these basins
right below us that afternoon fed out of half a dozen smaller bucks these are all young bucks
they'll get smart someday they'll be like puff disappear in here disappear in there gone one
day here the next these old mature bucks like puff got five or six years under their belt up in this
public land country being hunted they get really smart they turn nocturnal he'll only come out
just before dark just after it gets light and he disappears into this timber he knows how to work
every crease and nook and cranny patch of timber to his advantage in this country
puff right there we found him finally on the top of this bench laying there under that tree
that evening sun started to get lower in the sky changed the light just enough that it popped him
right out of that landscape he'd always been there he's laying right there but the sun changed enough
that it just shined on him and he stuck out sore thumb just for a few minutes and he knew he was
exposed that's why he gets up here stands up out of his bed stretches he's gonna move
you know a huge part of trophy mule deer hunting up in this country is being patient
when you're glassing along just keep going over the same country over and over because
that sun starts to set starts to come up in the morning it starts to change the
light all of a sudden things will just pop out and that's what happens here
you really are at a disadvantage as a hunter trying to hunt one of these bucks that's why
they're so special to me that's why i come back year after year to hunt these big bucks in the
high country this buck was born in this basin he's lived here for six years within a three mile radius
he just moves around in circles around in this basin about every five days he's back
to where he started just kind of makes his routine round and around on this ridge and in this basin
tim looks at him i'd get a look at him we're trying to put together a plan how to get down on
this buck he's getting up to feed for the evening so tim and i decide we're just going to wait him
out see what he does he going to come on this side or is he going to go on the other side he's kind
of on a bench on a knife ridge here buck eases off to feed off the other side so we have to ease off
down to the next ridge and get above him sure enough if he's right out underneath us
this is a real chess game puff has made a mistake that favors us he's right below us on that bench
feeding he has no idea we're there just then he feeds back into the timber unbelievable
after a lot of work with the glasses tim and i were able to finally pick him up laying in the timber
bedded right below us about 300 yards in the middle of that timber patch
nice shot
ya hit him?
good shooting buddy nice job
tim was watching through the glasses and thinks i hit him right through the lungs we can see all four sides of this timber
patch and so we waited him out to 10 or 15 minutes he never came out
pretty confident the buck's down in that timber somewhere
nice trophy high mountain mule deer you know he's a nice representative of what the western wyoming
mountains have to offer right not very many places in the world that you can come and find bucks like
like what we found right we've looked at almost 100 bucks this week and
he's the best one we've seen of course you've seen a lot bigger in here but
it's been unseasonably warm in the 70s you know just for the end of october that's almost unheard
of up here the full moon that's been playing against us yep but we got the job done and
we played a little chess game up in these high mountain basins and that's what big buck
hunting up here is all about that's right i guess checkmate belongs to us today thanks tim thank you
what a buck oh great buck
nice job thank you congratulations you got a great deer what a trophy high mountain mule
deer this buck we hunted him for three days up here in these high basins here in western wyoming
with trevor and outfitters and uh what a hunt it's been huh tim oh it's been a it's been a tough hunt
it's been uh hot dry and a full moon hasn't made for ideal conditions this week right but
hard work pays off well this guy's a trophy in my book he's just a smart old high mountain
mule deer he's been living in these basins probably for five or six years now and and uh
took us two days to finally get on him and get a shot
it was pretty rough coming up out of there with that buck on the horses sure was worth it
four days of persistence he stayed on one mule deer patterned him was able to take
him that's really special to me that's the way you hunt high mountain mule deer i'll
leave here with memories that'll last me a lifetime and a trophy buck to boot