Massive diamond mule deer right before TruRACS

[niccolas.miller]

If you enjoy hunting stories continue reading, if not just skip to the bottom for the pictures. :)

So last week I had done my first hunt on Silver Ridge Peaks and shortly after unlocking the Wild Turkey Outpost I saw a lvl-5 mule deer buck across the lake from it (at first I thought it was an elk because of how big its antlers were). It was just about ready to go into the trees about 300 meters away, so I panicked and took a long shot with the 7mm and totally missed. Strike one. I didn't hunt at all during the week and only got around to doing it this Friday. I guessed that the mule deer probably drank at one of those two lakes right close together next to the lodge (where I had, incidentally, shot an albino mule deer doe in my first hunt). I decided that my best chance of taking down the mule deer before TruRACS came out for mule deer and possibly ruined a chance at my first diamond. So I set up a tent in between the two lakes with a tripod at the south lake and the hunting tower at the north one. Fortunately, my brother wanted to do some multiplayer on Silver Ridge so he joined me as a lookout for my diamond. He took the south lake and I took the north lake since the north lake was where I had seen him the first time. Lo and behold, before I had time to reset the time to mule deer drink zone time I saw my buck trotting north near the north end of the lake. I whipped out my drilling gun thinking I would take a shot before he was totally out of range. Fortunately, my brother advised to me take my time and try to get closer. So I started crouching towards the buck hoping to get close enough to take a shot or call him in to bow range. Unfortunately, the buck was headed for his feeding zone (it was about 6:00 in the evening) and I could never get to the point where I was 100% comfortable taking a shot. Eventually he disappeared into the forest and I continued crouching forward, figuring that I would track him to his feeding zone. I found male mule deer tracks right where he had been and followed them for maybe 15 minutes, when I discovered that they were the tracks of a tiny mule deer buck who would at most have been a mid-silver. However, my brother had by that time made it to where my buck had been and found his tracks. He tracked him all the way to his rest zone. He found him lying down there and told me to get over there post-haste. I got there as quickly as I could and could have had a clear shot at his chest from straight in front of him at 80 meters, but I decided to try to call and get him within easy bow range. I called and he got up and started strolling toward me, then suddenly stopped, lowered his head, and sprinted away. Strike two. Then I decided to try getting him at his night drink zone time. I reset the time and climbed into my tower and started nervously scanning the lake looking for any sign of mule deer. Pretty soon I saw a small buck emerge out of the forest and start heading towards the southern lake. I was watching him trot to towards the lake when something emerged out of the woods behind him. It was my buck! I watched him trot towards the southern lake and was about to slip out of the tower when I saw a black bear just 30 meters from the tower. The last thing I needed right then was for that bear to make a ruckus and scare my buck off so I waited impatiently until he made it to 60 meters out and then hopped out of the tower. I crawled toward my tripod at the south lake, imploring my brother to keep a good lookout for the buck. My brother couldn't see him and told me to hurry up. I kept crawling but when I finally got there, I was just in time to see the buck spook back north-west, apparently having caught our scent. Strike three and (not) out. Next I decided to try setting the time to morning drink zone time, I waited a while for the buck to show up, but he didn't and I needed to go so I sadly exited the game, leaving my brother to keep hunting for 5 minutes or so. Two minutes later, he was telling me to get back in the game if at all possible, 'cause he could see my buck by the northern lake. I managed to re-join my own game server by getting him to send me an invite to his game. I then walked north to where he could see the buck and waited for it to come over a little rise about 200 meters away. He finally did, but when I was just about ready to take a shot with the Martenssen, he walked into a bunch of tall reeds right by the lake. The reeds made him totally disappear so I wasn't sure what he was doing in there. My brother started jamming on his mule deer caller and soon I saw a set of massive antlers pop up over the reeds. He was there! He slowly walked through the reeds and emerged fifty meters away. As soon as he turned broadside and stopped I put a 6.5 mm bullet through both his lungs. He turned and ran about 75 meters through the reeds, but I had seen that his health was dropping and was overflowing with joy. I ran over there and got some pictures (pretty bad because of the reeds but I'll attach them anyway). I then collected him and was shocked to see that he scored 542.60, almost max score. I taxidermized him and put him right at the front of my lodge, thus ending an initially frustrating but ultimately rewarding hunt.


Pictures:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1297549598681470787/AC8C31168E7D48FD1056BC4BC67A58380FB54BF1/

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1297549598681472811/8256AACC7BFD52E6C4B6369B272DB94BB95AFC77/

[76561198851277407]

My view of the bedded monster mulie as I waited for Nic to get over there. I got to watch that amazing buck for 10-15 minutes!

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1297549598682087118/6A3465F34D7253D84B035B91CD82CEE425F47C0B/

[JPSGT40]

I guess we can call it a "Great-ish One".
Wonderful find, thanks for sharing.

[Striker]

It's a very nice deer!