As it has become a yearly outing a couple of good friends and myself headed west in search of something to chase in the form of whitetails or mule deer. The anticipation for this trip started growing since June, when we finally decided we were to head to the Sandhills of Nebraska. No not the big buck capital of the US but cheap tags, public land, within a days drive, early season dates and velvet horns, I’M IN!
Simply put round one is a hats off to the deer. 7 days of stomping through the sandhills has this midwestern boy wanting nothing more than my hard seated rivers edge stand. Oh and did I mention sand?! Everything is prickly, hard, and dry! The end result of the trip was 0-4 but as my age starts to catch up to me, not everything is about coming back with that kill, it is becoming more fun learning and getting your butt kicked a little. Heck just that feeling of I have no clue what I am doing! Is all part of the fun! Other positives was learning some new ground for the future and definitely know a few areas with big red x’s for calling coyotes this winter.
First 3 days we spent glassing and covering as much ground as humanly possible in the evening and mornings. Google maps for a month might as well just have gotten tossed as everything changes so much when you literally have no clue what an area looks like. Everynight we had deer moving, mostly does and fawns but we would each catch a glimpse of horns every couple sits whether it was a mature deer or not is another thing.
The weather was more of a factor than I wish to admit that it was. from opening day until saturday, highs in the 90’s and even broke 100 on the jeep mirror gauge. Made stalking very difficult past 10 or so in the a.m. Which by the end of the week it was a resounding claim that it was very hard to get in front of the deer and still be in the right coulee or valley that they were in. Once you found a deer bedded it was game on, but to find that right deer bedded for the week was a much greater task with the temps. Thursday morning I had an encounter with what I would consider to be a stud Muley, first spotted the buck at 700yds.(video clip) with a very slight crosswind my brain was filled with “getting on him before I loose him” thoughts. Good bad or indifferent I watched the buck feed on a hillside for about a half hour until he decided that it was time to find his shade. He immediately began following a small valley that met up with one from my angle. I mentally told myself I had to beat him there, which I did, it seemed like it was going to come together, wind was a stiff crosswind when I dropped my pack, until I slid into the pocket that would meet up with his intended route. I Worked closer to the cross and slid up behind a big yuca plant, started to pick out some objects to range and waited with release clipped. Within the minute I catch the tips of tines heading up the higher opposite ridge, at this point he was at a slow trot and within 10 seconds he was up and over the lip and gone into the next system of twists and turned valleys. How and what happened I have no clue, the last 300 yards of my move I hopped on a cattle trail, the only aspect that seemingly changed was my wind once I slid the last 100 yards or so into the valley, which I can only guess was too much and turned the wrong way enough. I spent the rest of the morning looking into the shadows and bowls hoping to pick out his velvet splits but nothing showed.
Our entire group left with a little more knowledge on the art of stalking in the sand, as well as the itch to start and finish a full length successful stalk in the open. As well as No Vehicle Breakdowns, i cannot stress how relieving it is to not have to worry about anything else other than finding the next deer! The itch is only a couple of days old and it is starting towards us looking into a weekend fly-by in a month or so, but we shall see! I will try and throw up a video and couple pictures from the adventure!
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Like you said, it becomes less and less about the harvest and more about the journey 
Nice read ! Now I want to get out !!! 
