Badlands Buck

NDMuliejunkie

New Member
Jan 1, 2016
13
0
Hey All, I recently posted in the new member thread my introduction and another member suggested I post a pic or two. So i thought I would share my 2015 Badlands Buck.

So the story starts a year ago. I started to receive my new subscription to Eastman's magazines. It only fed my new found love for mule deer. I started to learn about draw odds and preference points and relized I was sitting on 4 pts for ND, of which I accrued trying to draw for whitetail. I made the choice to start applying for ND mule deer tags. They usually take at least 6 points to draw. So i thought I didn't want to burn the points I had invested already and start applying for mule deer tags expecting to take at least another year or two. Sure enough I drew on my first try. I was pumped.

In september my brother and I went to the Badlands to do an early seaon scouting trip to familiarize our selves with the area and try to hunt Muley with our bows. It was a good trip, we learned alot and even got on a few bucks but never sealed the deal.

Come November we were ready. We head out for opening day with the only expectation of having fun. The first night we saw a nice buck about 2 miles into off the beaten path. We ran out of light and decided to get in there in the dark the next morning. The next morning came and we started our walk in. almost Immediately we found ourselves on top of deer in the dark. One looked nice. We decided to wait for sun to come up to look over this buck before we went further in to find the one we saw the night before. A little while after the sun came up we got on the buck and realized he was the buck from the night before. We end up pushing him further away from our starting point but magically got back on him, about 1 mile away and sealed the deal.

The hunt was short but sweet. I regret not hunting longer and enjoying the whole experience more but couldn't resist this buck.

The first photo is from September at a glassing spot, just a beautiful spot. Second is the buck. Third is the pack out.
 

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NDHunter

Veteran member
Feb 25, 2011
1,166
25
North Dakota
Nice buck man and good to see another ND guy on here. I'll have 4 points for the draw this year and am hoping to pull a tag. Some damn big deer in the badlands.
 

NDMuliejunkie

New Member
Jan 1, 2016
13
0
Good luck on the next draw. We saw a couple other shooters. Talked with a guy the day I tagged out. He had a dandy of a buck. I think it scored 182 and had alot of stickers. The deer numbers seemed pretty decent to me but I never hunted during the high population years. They should hopefully continue to get better.
 

ando_31

Active Member
Sep 14, 2012
402
0
ND
Nice job. That should keep you excited about muleys and it beats the heck out of trying to find land to hunt whitetails these days. I love the public land freedom we have. That is a mature buck which everyone else had an equal chance at.
 

marcusvdk

Veteran member
Dec 13, 2011
5,397
1,662
Michigan
Wow i wouldn't pass him up. Cant blame you on that on. But see your point of how fun a few more days would be. Congrats
 

2nasty4u

Active Member
Mar 27, 2014
298
0
nd
congrats from a fellow nodaker, that was my plan last year as well, i had some points built up from unsuccessful whitetail drawings and started sending in for mulies. i think i only had two points last year though so i have a few more years to go most likely. but once you hit 4 points anything can happen, anyways beautiful buck and i hope to post something similar here in 2 or 3 years