“Luckie” the dog and migrating mulies

[AT Hiker]

As the thread implies, assuming you followed along on the pronghorn thread, we still have the Aussie we picked up in the high desert. Fortunately, she still had some good mojo to share back in November

Before "Luckie" even came into our lives we had a good string of luck come into our house, well at least my wife did as far as mule deer tags go. She and I put in separate apps for a late season tag, she drew and I didn't.

This is a cool tag to have, low quota numbers so hunter pressure is next to none once you leave the road. It runs into mid Nov so the chances of finding rutting deer increases and if the snow comes it kicks the migration into gear. The coolest part, these deer migrate out of a national park through the most remote country in the lower 48. To have the chance to hunt such a magnificent creature that has spent his life surviving brutal winters, grizzly bears and wolves is something very few get to do, humble pie when you put it into perspective.

We decided to hunt the last 5 days of season. Hoping to use the migration and rut to our advantage. However, it was a full moon and the fresh snow really brightened things up. No worries, she still had a tag of a lifetime in her pocket and the snow was really starting to pile up in the high country.

A view of the high country from 30 miles away, the day we left out.

We decided a hotel based hunt was best. Me, my daughter, wife and two mutts was a truck full and even more of a hotel full. That was an adventure in its own.
Anyways, we arrived at the hotel on night one close to midnight. It was slow going because we hit blizzard like conditions. Decided to sleep in because when I got up before day break to take the mutts out the snow had fallen even more.

Figured we would give it time to warm up a bit and for the plows to hit the county roads.

After breakfast we headed out, slowly. Once we got into the unit the sun broke out and the critters were in the move.

Small forky off the road.

Big Horn ewes have starting making there way down. Good sign for us.

 

[AT Hiker]

We did the quick drive tour of the unit. I wanted to come and scout before hand but just couldn't make it, except for one drive we took in August which was cut short due to sunset.

A truck/camp was at our number one spot. We passed maybe 3-4 other road hunters but didn't venture off the main road. The two tracks look to be drifted in and the temp was rising so we didn't want to risk getting stuck.

The lack of deer seen from the road crushed any hopes of having an easy hunt, which we didn't necessarily want but at the same time probably wouldn't have turned down either. Being that this is thick grizz country and we had our daughter with us, an easy nature road deer would have been tempting.

I head back to plan a, even with the camp at the trailhead it's still huge country. Access to millions of acres to be exact and just two miles away to a ridge that overlooks a known migration route.

So, we let the mutts out to stretch, packed our gear up and headed up the mountain.

My daughter loaded up with snacks and bear spray. She didn't know we were going into grizz country, so the look on her face was priceless when I handed her the can of spray.

We headed up and 2 mins into the hike we seen the hunter breaking his camp. He had only seen two does and a small buck. It is what it is at this point, he wished us luck and we returned the gesture.
We followed his tracks and he was the only one in since the snow. I presumed he went to the same ridge we had planned to go to so I was thankful for him blazing the trail. Uphill in the snow with packs on wasn't easy but our daughter was a trooper. My wife on the other hand, hanger had set in. I offered some trail mix I had from elk camp nearly 2 months ago. She was excited for treat, until I handed it to her and she discovered a mouse had eaten a hole in the bag. She was really hangery because she cussed me while eating the mix
A few minutes later the devil, I mean my wife, was as back to normal.

Hanger can only last so long in absolutely breathtaking country

 

[AT Hiker]

About a mile up we cut our first tracks. The rolling country made this area impossible to glass from the road and the fresh tracks just assured we needed to keep our eyes open.
Plenty of deer rocks were found but no real deer. We could see the ridge that overlooked the migration route, if we get there and hunt till 1hr before dark we should be good. Plenty of time to get back to the trailhead, it's all downhill and so far no grizz tracks. That should give us a plan for the next day. That became our plan anyways.

As the trail split I scanned hard to East. "Buck" I loudly whispered out. My wife said "seriously" then my daughter said "I can see his antlers". I ranged the ridge at the closet range I could get, which was down low, was 700 yards. Closer than I thought but still way out of range. If we continued the route it would put us on his same elevation. We would just follow the ridge and it appeared we could cut the distance to sub 400. Wind would be perfect and no worry about thermals.

We got to his elevation but the distance was still out of range. The rolling country just doesn't show up very well on maps.
My wife getting set up to see if she was comfortable with the shot in case he moved down the ridge. Too far, the buck was sky lined anyways so it was time to make another move.

Here is a zoomed in pic of the bedded buck. Laid up in a saddle like a seasoned pro who had survived a year
or two.

I let her borrow my binocs to glass up the buck. She decided he was big enough to make a move on after several minutes of contemplation, damn trophy hunter.

 

[AT Hiker]

We made our away around and ran the main ridge more to the east. Gained a lot more elevation too.
As we were hiking the ridge we looked down into the migration route. Unbelievable and of course I didn't take a picture. Surrounded by mountains on each side it dropped 500 feet down into a well known river. Probably 122 mile wide and glassable for miles up into the drainage. "We will be here at first lite tomorrow if we have to", my wife agreed.

We cut east at the overlook and busted off trail through 1 foot snow drifts. Found a saddle to come out in that looked like it would put us north of the buck.
We made it up and immediately found him. He was sub 300, maybe 100' elevation above him and perfectly broadside. Wind was perfect and the thermals were still not an issue

My wife took one last look then proceeded to get set up. Her position was about as good as you would want. She was able to take her time, get her ear protection in and even dry fire.
That's the secret to women who hunt and who are projectionist, they take their time and make sure that hunts are good. Me, it's "pow, pow, pow" did I get him kinda thing more often than not.

A view of the saddle where the buck is bedded. We had to move around some more for a better shot.

She settled and said it was go time. I plugged my ears and she squeezed. "You hit him" I said and told her to rack another in and try to shoot him again if she could. Grizz country and steep, you can't kill em enough in here.
"Pop" another one hit and this time I could see the first blood starting to cover the snow. He flipped over on his side and did a 300 yard tumble down the hill.

Our daughter ran up and we hugged, discussed the quick hunt that just unfolded and ignored the work ahead of us.

A view from the last shot where he stood. You can't kill em see the blood and how steep the ridge was he tumbled down. Not only do we gotta go down but we also gotta come up.

Me looking up towards my family.

My daughter was the most excited. Not only did she get to skip school for two days, now the two days she is skipping will be spent in town "doing stuff" vs having to "come back and hike in the cold snowy mountains"

 

[AT Hiker]

I videoed my wife's reaction on my phone e when she walked up to the deer. His rack was buried in the sage so I couldn't tell. My daughter kept saying "good job mom, nice shooting" and they even high fived. So cool to watch that and I'm very blessed that my family enjoys the outdoors. I just soaked it all in.

She grabbed him out of the sage and Wowzers! A true dark antlered mountain buck that just traveled up to 50 miles where he used to spend the majority of the year as far away from human presence as one can get, literally.

Where he lay. It's hard to beat such a beautiful backdrop.

This makes two kills over 250 yards for her with the .243 103gr eldx. Shoot ability and bullet design trump everything.

 

[AT Hiker]

After the celebration it was time to get to work. I had my daughter help me break the deer down and keep bear watch while my wife got our packs emptied and game bags out. I had to work quick to beat the bears and dark. My with rang the .243 dinner bell twice so we weren't messing around.

Packs loaded down. My wife had a front quarter and our loose gear. My daughter grabbed the good stuff(tenderloins and blackstrap) as she would tell you.
I grabbed the rest. Hate to admit but we only got what was legal for the state. I choose my family's safety over neck roast and rib meat. Packs were still heavy but at least we got out pretty quick.

We cut trail down and back to the main trail. It was nasty but downhill.
Here my wife is pointing to the saddle from the first spot we seen him from.

We spent a lot of the summer hiking into the high country and fly fishing. My daughter does a pretty dang good job. She would hike the whole CDT trail if she could stop and fish every mile. The cold and snow I was worried about a little. I know she can handle it but didn't want to push her either. However, she was a trooper and is now one of only a very limited number of girls who can say they packed out a mountain muley at 10 yrs old.

 

[AT Hiker]

The hunt was over a decade in the making but lasted only a 1/2 day. I suppose it was meant to be that way and I wouldn't change a thing. We still talk about it and now my daughter wants to kill one bigger than her moms. She is a competitive little sucker.

We had to take a pic with the mutts at the pickup. After all, Luckie spared some good mojo and our dumbas lab didn't destroy the pickup. Win win!

Full moon getting ready to brighten the valley up!

From this point, all you have to do is hike 19 miles and gain 5,500 of elevation to leave the 99.9% of the people behind. A surreal trailhead, imo.

Driving out we seen some decent bucks on private. The full moon lit them up for us.

My kind of nature hike

 

[AT Hiker]

Such a spectacular fall we have had. Freezers full of some delicious wild game and some new wall decor to provide memories for when the meat is all gone.

Good thing we didn't have to stay the whole time. The mutts decided they would fight one morning in the hall way, enough of a ruckus the manager said something to us.

She decided on a skull mount. She plans to kill one bigger
Dark antlered mountain bucks are what I dream of. I'm envious but glad I got to experience it with her.

Best part to wrap up this season is my daughter just passed WY Hunter safety. Just in time for mountain merriams and a chance to put her name in the hat for one of these magnificent mountain monarchs.

*Since it appears the Aussie pup is here to stay, my daughter has officially given her the name and spells it "Luckie".

 

[PossumSlayer]

Excellent!

 

[Buzzard Breath]

Another awesome hunt. Congrats again bud.

 

[Tn Joe]

Yall are having to much fun out there! Congrats again!

 

[tellico4x4]

Great hunt & wonderful memories with the family. Congrats to wife on an awesome buck!

 

[TN Larry]

Awesome hunt and even better story! What a blessing to spend it with your family. Super congrats!