I'm Brian Barney the host of Eastmans' elevated podcast I'm bowhunting high
country mule deer back in this country is just as tough as it gets it's real
you got to carry everything you own on your back and camp back in here you're
climbing all the time
you work so hard back here to get an opportunity to be able to put a good
arrow into a buck
well let's scout in here in Wyoming it's my third trip I've got seven days in the
scouting I found a pretty good spot here gosh I've seen 30-some bucks and seen
some pretty good ones here so Saturday today I got to come out tomorrow but I'm
gonna cover country today and keep glassing and see if I could find some
more good spots but I'm definitely going to be back in this pot in two weeks so
should be good here just puttin in my time okay a 2016 Wyoming mule deer hunt
here we're just headed in this is where the rubber meets the road so we'll hit
this trail up here we got six eight miles and got to fill up our water a few
trucks in the parking lot but that's to be expected that's public land so
there's been a big fire in this area so it we aren't in any danger or anything
like that but it is burning in a few different spots so we got some smoke to
deal with and so hopefully we get the wind in the right direction here and get
clear looking in clear glass and for these muleys
yep so we're doing the tough work now we're just getting our camp in here we
got six eight miles we're making it in and all the elevation we've got a game
but we've got a sweet spot on the back side of the ridge where we're going to
set our camp and and then from there we can go four miles in one direction or
four miles in the other direction and come back to our camp every night locate
buck so we're setting ourselves up right we're just doing the tough work now and
getting in there and getting camp set up
alright we made it to the top here it's a grind with all our weight but the
hard works paying off we got up here and we found a buck ride as we got up here
and he's a nice holder buck but he's just got kind of crab claws on him so
he's not a shooter for us but definitely an older deer so it's a good sign
anyways but we're gonna go over the top here and and grab a good vantage point
here and try to look for some of these bucks that that I found during scouting
and see if we can put our eyes on some of these bigger ones so jacked to make it
up here this is just where we need to be
well it's too bad it's just the way it is muley huntin this buck's just feeding
at the buck has no idea he's there for right now so we got over the ridge here
and there's a couple guys over here we got a guy on a vantage point a guy
making a stalk on a buck but it's it's to be even you know you expected in here
I mean it's just good public land but we do have four bucks behind us that
nobody's on or nobody sees and we're gonna get after him tomorrow and get a
play on one of these bucks we'll see what these guys do on this buck and try
to find our own spot to hunt here but so far so good seeing a few bucks couple
guys but to be expected
yeah we're just climbing up here this morning kind of getting a vantage point
the sun's coming up there's bucks all over around us here we're seeing some decent
ones but not seeing anything next level but we're gonna get up a little bit
higher and find a master vantage point and then try to bed down a buck and get
a stalk okay so we made it up to this master vantage point it's just a sick
view we can just see everything and so we've been picking out bucks the whole way
up and we got up here and found a big group of bucks like seven eight bucks in
there and there's one that's a shooter in there so we're gonna keep our eyes on
them here and try to put them to bed and try to make a play on them
well it was a good morning we saw over 20 bucks this morning with some good
shooters in it we don't have any real slam-dunk plays we've got a few bedded
over here that we can kind of position ourselves above and it's all thick cover
they're disappearing into so we just have to wait for them to get up and then
try to make our play from there but so as we get in here at September 2nd today
these Bucks are starting to move to secondary living I scouted it a couple
weeks ago and all the Bucks were up on the tops and now we're starting to
see Bucks that have shed their velvet and they're starting to move down and
they're kind of just in the gnarlier lower country feeding in the green
shoots in bed and down there so it adds a degree of difficulty but at least
we're seeing bucks and still finding them so we'll be able to get some plays
alright we just bedded this nice buck up and through here they got back up and
kind of fed out we're gonna make a play on him here he's kind of bedded in this
lower timber patch and we're gonna try to sneak to the higher timber patch
there's quite a few bucks in there but I think we can slip in there and wait for
him so just jacked this is this is what we do it for us right now being able to get
a stock and all the hard work is for and hiking up here and setting our camp and
finding this buck so we're pumped we're gonna go get set up and see if we can
make a play on this thing
we were getting pretty close to this buck and some kid shot a buck down below
us in the valley down there they started whooping and hollering and he spooked
this whole Valley out of here there was Bucks that went that way Bucks that went
this way and we were close on some bucks coming up to us but they were too quick
and spooked we didn't get a chance at him we just relocated them up on the
ridge there so just more guys moving in here all the time we saw guys coming up
on the trail today's Friday so local guys have the weekend off and you're
making trips in here and they kind of use this bow season as scouting but yeah
it's a long ways in here but it's just a little too easy to get to there's a
trail that leads over the saddle and so guys know there's deer here so we're
gonna make a play on these tonight and if it doesn't happen we're gonna go to
more rugged remote country and try to find some deer that we can hunt
ourselves
bigger bucks with betted right there
and we were perfect right in range we could only see the two two points the
two bigger bucks were right there with them we were inside 40 yards the one to
point he must have seen something and got a little nervous we just didn't pan
out that's how it goes when you're muley huntin'
okay so we just got done with this stalk over the hill on these bucks and we blew
him out and came back over to put our shoes on we just spotted a nice buck in
the bottom he's by himself feeding in a little green depression I think we can
get right up on and we're gonna get our stuff on here and see if we can't make
something happen on this buck
I got him he's hit back but he was bleeding really good
I don't know how I hit back I saw a bunch of blood coming out maybe that was
the exit going that way I think I hit him better when he was facing this way
and he went through he's a done deal he's bleeding good right at all I dude Oh
so killer we just messed up the stalk of the hill and then get it right on that
one
I've got good red blood we got bubbles in it had to get alum going in and just
quartered all the way through him so that broadhead did its work and it's
this buck's bleeding really good going through here so we haven't found the the
arrow yet but we found good blood going in so this buck isn't gonna make it too
far right there right as I say that there's the arrow
crazy yep air looks great total pass-through and
we're just gonna give them a little bit more time and then we're gonna get on
the blood trail and track them down so just jacked couldn't be any better
yeah he didn't go far at all he's right here
gosh hardly he had to be dead 30 seconds from when we shot him he ran right
through here and done deal
here he is 2016 buck he didn't go too far that gravedigger did its job but I'm
just thrilled to death I mean back in this extreme country to put down a buck
like this with your bow you got to work so hard at it you're
constantly putting on miles and if you count all my scouting days in here and
miles I have in here it's probably close to a hundred if not more I'm just
thrilled to get them done we had messed up a stalk on another buck up on top
there and we were on the highest peak up there the things got to sit 10 a 8 or 10
9 or something like that and went back to put on our shoes and glass down and
and saw this buck down here feeding by himself so we're just thrilled in this
backcountry to be able to take a buck like this doesn't get any better