Well folks, made the long drive up from Louisiana to start the first of two mule deer hunts the first one starting outside of Rifle, Colorado on the 8th and the second in Broadus Montana on the 17th. Wonderful drive and a great chance to see more of the country from the road. (1478 miles to be exact) with another 1750 drive to get back home....... Seemed longer once I got to South Dakota......

 

Getting back up in the mountains and high altitude after being at sea level made it all the more a challenge for the first few days. First day stayed up on the peak glassing the entire day and the game was just not ready to move. Day two we had a good cold front that got things moving everywhere. With each day growing colder, I saw more and more deer and elk. Spotted a great 170+ class dark horned 4x4 at the base of the mountain, but figure I would hold out knowing this area held some true monsters. (Hard to pass on a solid buck that size, but hey, it was only the second day......) guess a guy should never pass on a buck that he would shoot on the last day.... but with 2 other deer over 200 inches being killed withing a few miles, I was going to hold out....... (or so I had planned)

 

On the morning of day 3 saw the monster I was holding out for that would push at least 190 and decided to make the shot.

Folks I can not remember the last time I have missed a shot at anything, and hate to report that I now remember how it feels.... (buck fever)  And if you hunt long enough it is going to happen sooner or later. Truth be told it just makes you remember why they call it hunting and that regardless of how much you shoot, a miss will happen. With that said I rather have a clean miss than  have to track a wounded critter..... It is just a bitter pill to swallow for anyone that takes pride in their marksmanship.......

After making a few adjustments to my scope, (can't say that was the reason for the miss) watched some great bucks on day 4, but knew that the tall dark horned buck and a few more monsters were in the area and coming off the mountains everyday.

Day five came fast and after glassing from the same mountain, saw what I thought was the big dark horned buck from day 2 come in and square off with a smaller buck.... Knowing this was the last day of the hunt and knowing the dark horned buck was a shooter the "fever" set in. With a miss to make up for and the excitement of seeing what I felt certain at that time was the dark horned buck again, I did not bother to spend the extra time to look at him through the glasses and went to the rifle.  Found the vitals, squeezed off the shot and watched the buck roll down the hill.

My guide came in and it was an easy recovery so did not have to pack a big deer out of the mountains.... Then the hard truth set in as I saw the dark horns. Albeit it is a nice buck that would be a shooter in 95% of peoples book, it was NOT the same dark horned buck as I saw on day 2. A good deer, but not the one I though it was. Yet again another error due to the "fever" 

Went to visit family in Wyoming and tried hard to find a Mt. Lion's tracks, That was hard to do with the lack of good snow and hard  blowing winds..... Good news was my cousin called last night to tell me about a great 186 pound Tom they killed yesterday... great cat and I will post his pictures as soon as he sends them. .

Left out of Rawlins to make the drive to Broadus Montana and found theLion hunting snow I had been looking for in Wyoming and some nasty driving conditions. The real trick was the GPS would not tell me how to get to the  ranch, so considering Bud is a life long  rancher, figured that any local tack and feed should be able to put me on track.
BINGO... sure enough I was headed in to Lake Creek Ranch and hoped the ranch road I was on was leading to some place other than the tullies.... Decided it was time to slip into high 4 as the ranch road was getting a bit nasty and just as I started to question if i took the right ranch road, topped the hill and was at the door of Big Sky outfitters.
Walked into the lodge and the first group of 5 were already in with rifles out... At first I though I had stepped into a sniper training school seeing the groups 19 pound customs with barrels as big as a 10 guage, but soon found out the group were custom gun builders from the North east. (I can joke about their guns and their long shots, but all said they were a great bunch of guys all after whitetail)
Morning 1 found the outfitters son (my guide Taylor) and I driving through the family ranch trying to beat the blizzard..... fat chance. Ended up sticking the F-350 in a snow bank after sliding sideways down a hill and figured since we could not get a signal on the cell phones to get pulled out, might as well hunt. Saw several great bucks on the ridges but not the one I was after. Taylor got a signal on one of the hills and help was on the way via farm tractor.... Sure did not look forward to a 9 mile snow march after running and glassing the hills......
I had said I was glad to be out of the mountains and hunting these hills at 3700 feet as opposed to mountains at 9600, but changed my mind after trying to keep up with the pace of my 22 year old guide in 16 inches of powder...
Anyway it was a great reminder of why I still need to go to the gym in the off season as 43 does not sound old, but it is a far cry from 22.....

The evening hunt found us on a second ranch on the Powder River and the whitetail were chasing does harder than the muley's but the area did not lack mule deer.  Saw several solid 150 class whitetail, but when in muley country it is time to put the ways of the whitetail to the back of the mind... Hard to do but hey, I am on a mule deer mission.....
After glassing and passing on several good bucks, we decided to try the lower end of the ranch. We spotted a good deer bedded in the river bottom that was worth a stalk. As we closed the distance, it was clear that this was a good buck, but not a monster. Within 400 yards of the bedded buck, we watched the bottom as the snow started in harder and light was fading faster than time as I forgot about the time change.

I saw movement and to the right of the bedded buck and motioned to Taylor as the bedded buck jumped up to face this second deer. As the second buck cleared the brush, it was clear that he was not only bigger, but was the boss and about to run the bedded deer out of this part of the world. 
Taylot said,  that one is a shooter and called the range at 388 yards. After looking at the second buck asked Taylor what he thought about this buck as compared to others they had saw and commented that It is only the first day!!!. His reasonse was, "Mark, I will be perfectly honest with you and say we do have bigger bucks around, but we could hunt the rest of the week and not find one as good as this one"
With that response I asked the range again and with the response of 384 said I am going to take him. Squeezed off the trigger and saw the buck hunch up with the smack of the 140 gr. Barnes TSX. Folks i have never been a person to brag on a product, but have NOTHING but great things to say about the Barnes TSX bullet. It packs a punch..... The buck took two steps and crashed in the snow like a sack of bricks.
After checking out my Montana buck I was happy with the decision to make the shot to blessed to take such a great trophy. Although I had planned to hunt the full 5 days, knew this gave me the chance to drive home a bit earlier and spend Thanksgiving with the family for the first time in 6 years.. 
All in all it was worth the years wait and looking forward to the 2011 mule deer madness. The drive home was a lone lonely one and the highlight was visiting Mt. Rushmore, but that is a story for another day.......

Happy Holidays.
Mark