Do Mule Deer Count? - Deer Hunting - Deer Hunting

Do Mule Deer Count towards the contest????

Got lucky and killed this little guy on my first night in Western North Dakota. He was a basic 4 by 4 with a small brow tine. Hunting was pretty tough the rest of the week and we ended up 1 for 6 as a group.

Day one- Got up on a high bluff overlooking one of our go too hay fields, glassing the first morning. Later that day, set up a blind and a camera were we spotted deer exiting the field that morning. The rest of the afternoon was spent setting up blinds and cameras. Later that evening, went back and glassed the same field from the morning.

Day 2- Up to the same bluff and glass the hay field again. Checked cameras later that afternoon (pics 1 & 2) and decided to hunt that evening. I got set-up at about 2:00. My first doe shows up at about 3:30, than my first buck shows up at 3:45 chasing a doe. Works in to about 35 yards but doesn’t stick around for a shot. (Pic #3) Not long after that, a bunch of does and a smaller buck enter the field. At about 4:15, 2 nice bucks show up at the field edge. The bigger buck is pushing the smaller buck around and won’t let him enter the field. Pretty soon, the group of does get inside 20 yards of my blind and that’s when the buck I ended up shooting enters the field. Finally, at about 35 yards, slightly quartering away, I let my arrow fly. Hit wasn’t perfect, a bit low and back than I would have preferred but was confident the arrow did its job. We waited an hour and a half before we started the blood trail. Didn’t take us long to figure out that we had to leave him for the night and return in the morning. After a long night, we took up the trail from the night before. After about 200 more downhill yards, we found him in the bottom of a draw. Good thing we left him because he was still plenty warm while I gutted him out. I ended up getting one lung and liver. It’s nice to have good friends with strong legs and backs.