Live Hunts - Alberta Mule Deer Archery Hunt - October 19

Live Hunts - Alberta Mule Deer Archery Hunt - October 19 - Day 4

Thursday - October 19 - Day 4
Alberta Mule Deer Archery Hunt

Thursday A.M.
This morning I hunted a water hole Jeff has been seeing several good bucks at. I was hunting in a pit blind. No deer showed at the water hole. At about 9 a.m. I decided to do some still-hunting down a big draw across from the pond. Within 10 minutes I came upon 2 does, a fawn and a spike bedded down. I circled around them to get further down the draw to find more deer. Presently I saw a group of 4 bucks bedded down, including a nice one. I circled back around the group of does to try and come in above where the bucks were bedded. When I got over there they were up and moving around, so I followed their progress. Shortly the 3 smaller bucks peeled off together, and I saw the biggest buck walking by himself. I saw him at about 100 yards while I was on the rim of the canyon and he was just below. From that distance I could see that he was a 4x5, and nice! I found a side canyon that cut into the main canyon, and determined to try and find them again and stalk up on the buck from the side canyon.

I got down in the canyon and was just getting out to where it converged with the big canyon, when some does a few hundred yards away saw me moving. So, I sat down for a few minutes, and then all of a sudden here come the 3 smaller bucks. Each one of them waltzed by me at 35 yards, but I didn't see the big buck. I didn't know whether he had crossed before them or was still by himself up further. So, I decided to be conservative and assume he was still by himself further up. I went up there to see if I could find him, and when I got up there on a vantage point I saw him - he WAS ahead of the 3 smaller bucks. He must have come through there just a few minutes before I got there and got pegged down by the distant does. When I saw him this time he was peeling off by himself, and went over the edge of a deep creek bottom. I didn't see him come out the other side, so I thought maybe he was still down there. I snuck over there, knocked an arrow, and crept up to the rim of the bank. I looked slowly up and down and didn't see him, then all of a sudden he stands up out of the shadows on the left side under the bank. He had been bedded already, and was in deep shadow until he stood up. At this point he was about 40 feet below me, and a 40 yard shot. Problem was, he was looking right at me. I went ahead and drew my bow, in the hope that he would turn to the side momentarily and give me a shot, but when he turned he did it in one fluid motion and started jumping, so I had to let down and admit defeat on this one. What fun though! To me, a successful stalk is getting in range of your target. Getting the kill is super icing on the cake. Maybe tomorrow. That was the end of my morning hunt.

these deer are part of a group that hangs out
in an old abandoned farmyard. Included in the
group are 5 bucks, 2 of which are huge 6x5 bucks

Thursday P.M. Hunt
This evening I still-hunted another draw where Jeff had seen some good bucks in the past week. The situation wasn't ideal, as the sun was directly in my eyes because of the way I was working down the draw, into the wind. At about 5:00 p.m. I saw movement and saw deer coming out of whawt looked like not much more than a ditch, about 3/4 mile away. I looked through my binos and immediately identified at least 2 bucks, one of which was huge. When they look huge at that distance you know they're big! They must have smelled me or something because they were running. I decided against trying to stalk them. I continued on down the draw, and presently saw a deer about 150 yards away, but it had already seen me. As luck would have it the deer was a really nice 4x4. He didn't stick around, though. I saw a few more deer right at dark, and that was the end of the day. Tomorrow morning I'm going to head back to where I stalked that buck this morning. It's a real big, long series of canyons, and I could stalk in there all day if I wanted to.

Check back tomorrow!

This was the ditch the huge buck jumped out of

Go to Day 5

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