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My new Thompson Center Encore Pro Hunter is shooting great ready for the Utah muzzleloader mule deer season.
This little buck would have made an easy shot for me with my new TC Encore muzzleloader.
Trying to locate a coyote with a Promos Alpha Dog caller for my A-Bolt 243 WSSM to send a 105 A-Max to greet. Unfortunately, I didn't see any coyotes this time out.
With my location for archery elk scouted fairly well from using my Browning trail cameras I decided before the archery elk season started and I got wrapped up in it that I needed to hike into the area I wanted to muzzleloader mule deer hunt. The area is really a two-day trip to go in and back out, however, being crazy as I am I started hiking at 9 am and didn't get back until almost 11 pm. It was a long day but I learned a few things about the area.
I watched one decent four-point that would probably tempt me if the opportunity arose during the season. He wasn't huge just a nice four-point. I might keep an eye on him for Dallen and the rifle season if the buck makes it tell then and stays in that same area.
To help make the trip in more than just a hike I took my A-Bolt Stainless Varmint 243 WSSM rifle and a Primos electronic caller to see if I could find some coyotes. I set up a couple of times but wasn't able to find any coyotes.
On the way out climbing over a boulder field, I almost put my hand next to two rattlesnakes. Eeks! That will get the heart pumping. The one snake was pretty good-sized for a Utah rattler.
I took in three Browning Recon Force Trail cameras to watch for big muleys. I'm excited to see what they find in the area.
All in all, it was a pretty good day. I learned a few things about the area and am getting excited to hunt the area. I also have a new TC Encore muzzleloader that is shooting great so I'm hoping I can find a big one. Big for me would be 26 inches or wider and I would like it to score 160 plus. I haven't seen very many bucks that meet this criteria in my life so your average 140-inch four-point can be a real temptation for me. :)
Related Articles:
2014 Utah Muzzleloader Season - Large 3x4 Buck Out Smarts Me
A Browning Recon Force Trail Camera setup ready to find a good buck for me.
This was the best buck I found while hiking in this day to set up the trail cameras. You can get a better look at him in the video player above.
This large two-point might tempt me also. I would like him a little wider though.
Here's the two rattlesnake that scared the crap out of me.
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With a week before the archery elk opener, I needed to take another trip up the mountain for some final preparation.
After studying the trail cameras from this year and last I have found that the elk can be in the area but they aren't there all the time. I have learned some general areas that would have a higher probability of finding elk.
One area that I like, I have found a tree that I would like to put a tree stand in. I think my chances will be much greater at getting an elk if I can get up in a tree.
On this trip in I hauled in a metal tree stand and a Tree Saddle. I wasn't sure which would be the best to use out of the tree I wanted to hunt out of. With a Tree Saddle I can hunt from just about any tree. With my metal stand I need a good straight tree to strap it to. The tree I wanted to place a tree stand in is more of cluster of trees so I wasn't sure if a traditional tree stand would work.
I also like using the Tree saddle as a harness system when hanging my tree stand to free up my hands to hang the tree stand.
The last time I went in to check my trail cameras the camera watching the spring had been messed up again. This time I decided to take the camera off the Browning Tree Mount and strap the camera directly to the bundled brush. I like the Browning Tree Mounts because to can easily point the camera in the direction you need but it also makes the camera a lot more vulnerable to having critters (bears and elk in my case) bump and pull the camera off or out of position. This appeared like it would work except the strap I placed around the camera angled up in the back and an elk bumped the camera and the strap slipped up and over the lens. Dang it! Well and least the camera wasn't on the ground this time. :)
I like wrapping the camera with the strap so this time I placed the strap around the tree with the strap angling downward so if it does gets bumped the strap would likely slide downward in the front and not over the lens. We'll see how this goes.
Being about a week away from the opener and reviewing the trail camera footage it is showing that the elk have pretty much vacated the area by the end of August. They did the same thing last year.
Through July the two largest bulls (4x5 and 5x5) I have seen have been pretty regulars to the area. Incidentally, both of these bulls have matching down turned G1 brow tines. for the past few weeks, they have been gone. Hopefully, they return during the archery season. I would love to get one of them but I'm not picky when it comes to elk. I like the meat so if I do get a chance at any bull I'm going to take it.
The two 5x6 bulls that were in the area last year have never showed up this year. I wonder if they made it through the hunting seasons last year.
There is a good amount of elk activity during the first of July in the area. Hopefully, they start coming back in the end of August and into September. The video on the page shows some of the elk in the area.
This is how I found my bear and elk attacking camera this time out with the strap covering the lens. The bears and elk have really raised havoc on this camera location moving it out of position and tearing it down, so a few weeks prior I moved the trail camera off the Tree Mount and ran an extra loop of the strap around the front of the camera. I did this to the camera to really secure it to the brush. It was secure but an elk bumped the camera and the strap slid up over the lens.
This time I placed the extra strap around the camera but did it with the strap angling lower in the back of the brush so that it wouldn't slide up and over the lens if a critter messed with the camera.
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Dallen watching for mule deer from some cliffs opening day. Setup using my X-Bolt 270 WSM on his favorite shooting sticks, Stoney Point Magnum Steady Stix... except they are now Primos Magnum Pole Cat Steady Stix Magnum.
Waking up on the cliffs we slept on deer hunting.
Dallen smacked this coyote at just over 300 yards on the opening day of the rifle deer hunt.
Dallen and me on opening day of the deer hunt.
Using the Vortex Razor HD spotting scope to find deer hiding in the brush. Holding my camera up to the scope is a little of a trick. I need to get a camera adapter.
Weston glassing for mule deer with the Vortex Razor HD spotting scope.
This photo was taken of the buck Dallen named Whitey on Tuesday morning.
This is a small four point buck Weston and I found that some other hunters found and later took on Thursday morning.
This year I decided to hunt mule deer in Utah with a rifle. I have generally been getting a muzzleloader tag because I like wearing camo and seeing far fewer hunters. This year I wanted to test out my new Vortex Viper HSLR scope and I wanted to hunt and scout along with my oldest son Dallen.
Over the last several months I have worked up a handload for my 270 WSM X-Bolt and Model 1885 with the new 150 Gr. Accubond Long Range bullet. That along with getting new Vortex rifles scopes on my rifles had me pretty excited to test them out this fall.
The night before the opener Dallen and I packed in a couple of miles to spend the night. We decided to sleep right on the edge of the cliff we wanted to hunt and glass from. It's a good 200-foot drop just two feet away from the small spot to sleep on. We placed a row of rocks along the side of our sleeping bags to prevent us from rolling off the cliff in the middle of the night. We decided to sleep on the cliff because the year before we slept just over the ridge from the cliff and two hunters went right past us just before light and got on the cliff before us. That wasn't going to happen this year.
That evening we glassed a couple of small bucks and several does below us for an hour or so before dark. Nothing big but it still got us excited for what we might see in the morning. Just before light we rolled out of our sleeping bags and were waiting on the cliff watching the canyon waiting for it to get light. Just as it got light two hunters popped up behind us wanting to hunt from the cliff we were on and one hunter spent the morning sitting 30 yards to our left and the other 200 yards across a saddle from us. Public land during the rifle hunt in Northern Utah is very crowded.
We spent the entire day watching the canyon. We watched five or six small bucks off and on all day below us but nothing to get us excited or even tempt us to shoot. Although, while we were watching a group of deer late in the afternoon we noticed that they were looking at something to the left. Glassing around a little more and I found a coyote working it's way up the canyon. As the coyote approached the 300-yard mark Dallen sent a 150 Gr. Accubond LR from my X-Bolt 270 WSM down to greet him. This sent the coyote into a typical death spiral they like to do when shot a little too far back.
Using a quick MOA reference card I made for the rifle it is really nice to dial in the exact range on the Vortex Viper HSLR scope and hold dead-on as Dallen did to take the shot on this coyote.
With Dallen needing to get back in school and church we headed off the mountain Saturday. I would watch for him a buck during the week that we might be able to get him in on come the following Friday and Saturday.
Early Tuesday I was headed back up the mountain with my brother Weston. From first light until around midday we slowly hiked along the mountain stopping frequently to glass for deer. We found quite a few deer along the way and two four-point bucks that we took a second look at. We decided that we could find better and that I would try and get Dallen in on one of those bucks on the upcoming weekend. I texted Dallen a photo of the larger of the two four-point bucks and Dallen wanted him. He also named the buck "Whitey."
Weston and I hunted through the next two canyons through Wednesday and Thursday. It was pretty cool to get into areas that very few foot hunters go. We were in horse hunter range from the truck.
We found ample supply of first-year bucks and a couple of second-year bucks sporting the 16 inch three-point variety of antlers. We just could never find any of the big boys that we knew were on the mountain. The weather was fairly nice all week with a bright moon and this wasn't helping to bring the big bucks out. In fact, we even noticed that small two-point bucks were bedded before daylight in one canyon.
Thursday night we hiked our way back off the mountain and back to a soft bed for one night.
Friday afternoon Dallen and I headed back up the mountain looking for Whitey. Whitey was not horribly far from the end of the road so we planned on making day hikes in to try and find him. As we were slipping our way around the ridges we noticed a doe bedded, hiding in the chaparral. This really made us really keep a keen watch for other deer that might be hiding near us.
After we made it down to a small rock outcropping we laid or packs on the cliff and I had Dallen practice quickly getting into position to make a shot in this direction and then in that direction while resting the X-Bolt rifle over a pack. Dallen loves to shoot from Steady Stix and I'm trying to get him to be just as comfortable from other shooting positions.
After sitting in the rocks for a few minutes I told Dallen to watch from 12 o'clock back to 6 o'clock and I would watch from 12 o'clock forward to 6 o'clock. No sooner had I said this and made my first pan looking across my section I quickly noticed a four-point buck's head sticking out over the tall chaparral brush. The buck was looking away from us. I quickly told Dallen to dial the Vortex Viper HSLR scope to zero as the horizontal distance was 125 yards with the actual distance probably near 150 yards with the steep angle of the shot. I also set my Vortex Viper HSLR to zero and had the buck in the scope ready to fire if the need arose.
Dallen then sent a 150 Gr. Accubond LR from my X-Bolt 270 WSM down to take out his spine and that he did. The buck disappeared into the chaparral with a whop. We watched for a few minutes to make sure he didn't get back up then headed down to find him.
We weren't sure if the buck was Whitey or not until we got to him. Sure enough, it was. A very nice mature buck with awesome heavy burly bases. The buck was in a "super bed" dug out under the chaparral for maybe decades. The buck had stood up out of the bed and Dallen dropped him off the front edge of his bed.
Recovered 150 Gr. Accubond Long Range bullet. With a muzzle velocity of 3034 FPS from my 270 WSM X-Bolt this 150 Gr. Bullet is reduced to 58 grains after the 150 yard shot into the neck of Dallen's mule deer.
The 150 Gr. Accubond LR bullet made a small round hole going in and it penetrated around 8 inches breaking the buck's neck. We spent probably an hour in the middle of the night trying to find what was left of the bullet. It appeared to vaporize within just a few inches. We could only find a few very small lead flakes and a small lead bonded to the copper piece that weighs 4.9 grains... However a couple of days after returning home while cleaning off the skull I found the mushroomed bullet remains in the muscle near the back of the tongue. The lead was bonded to the copper this time unlike it did with Dallen's bull elk from the month previous and the bullet weighs 58 grains. Even though this bullet expands rapidly I was quite surprised that it didn't pass through the deer's neck.
Unfortunately the day I went back with Dallen to hunt I forgot my FujiFilm HS50exr camera. I wish I would have had it to take photos when Dallen shot the buck he calls Whitey. I did at least have my Samsung S3 phone with me and was able to at least get a few pretty decent photos of the hunt and his 2013 Utah mule deer. The camera in the S3 isn't too bad for a phone camera. I do however love the photos I get with the HS50exr.
No mule deer for me this year. It's been a few years for me now. I'll be itching to get one next year.
Dallen has had a pretty darn good year shooting Charlie One Horn and now Whitey. Good job Dallen!
Dallen with his 2013 mule deer he named "Whitey."
Dallen hauling his mule deer head caped out on a frame pack. While I packed out the meat.
Location where Dallen shot Whitey from with my X-Bolt 270 WSM and a 150 Gr. Accubond LR bullet.
When Dallen is hunting with my X-Bolt I fall back to my favorite rifle, a Model 1885. I would hunt with 1885's all the time if they were as light as my X-Bolt.
Whitey caped out ready to be tied on the frame pack.
View of "Whitey" Dallen's 2013 mule deer buck from the side.
Dallen glassing for mule deer.
Dallen got a surprise for Christmas in 2014 with his deer back from the taxidermist. Alan Cox did the mount for us and did an incredible job.
Alan put a lot of time in to give it life like qualities, like the tension in the throat, the shape of the face, the contour of the brisket area. I love that it also angles out of the wall subtly to the right and is looking left.
My father (Dallen's grandfather) summed up the looks of the mount when he stated that "it just looks like it is alive."