Once I left the hunt with Pam Zaitz in Illinois I flew straight to Colorado Springs to catch up with Larry Weishun for a Mule Deer hunt in the beautiful town of Stonewall, Colorado.

I was looking forward to this trip because I have a lot of respect for Mr. Weishun and even though I freelanced for Bass Pro Shops for several years, I never had the opportunity to work with Mr. Weishun.

We started our journey in Colorado Springs and headed down Interstate 25 South where we stopped in Trinidad, Co for some lunch. We cruised town and decided to have lunch at Black Jack’s Saloon, Steakhouse & Inn  ( www.blackjackssaloon.com ). After a great lunch we got on Highway 12 and headed west to Stonewall. 

An hour later we made it to Stonewall and we got our equipment out and prepared for the following days hunt.  After I got my gear ready I got the camera out and went and filmed some critters before dark.

The first four days of the hunt weather was rather warm. The mornings would start off in the low 40s, but once the sun came up it would warm up quickly to the low 70s.  We were after a couple of 190 & 200 class mule deer our outfitter, Walt Isenhauer, had been watching in September and October. Unfortunately Walt had not seen the deer the 10 days before we got to camp. 

We spent the first 5 days of the hunt chasing 150-160 class mule deer and since we were seeing plenty of action and not spooking the deer, Larry passed trying to catch up with the larger deer!

Finally on the afternoon of the 6th day of the hunt we spotted a nice mule deer in a meadow and snuck to within 80 yards of him. I got the camera on the deer and began rolling. Larry took aim with his Thompson Center Icon and asked me if I had sufficient footage. Once I gave the go ahead, Larry pulled the trigger and dropped the deer in his tracks!

What a hunt! I had a great week hunting with Larry and I hope to do it again in the near future!

Thank you Mr. Whitetail for letting me work with you on an awesome hunt!

Spent the past five days on a bow hunt with Pam Zaitz of She Outdoor Apparel. We were chasing giant whitetails in Calhoun County, Illinois. Our stand we were hunting was less than a mile from the Pike County line. Anyone who is a serious whitetail hunter knows that the area surrounding Pike County is the land of the giants.

We were hunting with Buck Creek Outfitters and we had a great hunt and saw plenty of deer. We saw several shooters, but just couldn’t get a shot on them. 

Last night I flew from Illinois to Colorado to meet up with Larry Weishun. We are leaving Colorado Springs this morning and headed south to Stonewall, Co. There we will be chasing mule deer for the next 7 days. 

I didn’t have internet in the last camp, hopefully I will have access in this camp to give daily updates.

Back in 2004 I went on a Mule deer hunt with Bill. For those of you that don’t have the background informations on Bill’s hunting style, please read Shoot the Deer Bill!

We were hunting outside of Sundance, Wyoming!  Bill had a Mule Deer tag and an Antelope tag in his pocket. With a little coaching by your’s truely Bill, with a little belly-aching, went ahead and shot his antelope. That left him 5 days to chase a quality Mule Deer.

Once again on the next to the last day of the hunt I find myself having to beg Bill to shoot another trophy.

This hunt was fun and in beautiful country. Yes, we had a 2 1/2 hour drive from camp to get to our hunting grounds, but they were full of game and the landscape was gorgeous!! We had been glassing some hills and we spotted a mule deer laying in the shade. The guide said he was one of the bigger mule deer he had seen on the lease and we were running out of time and if Bill wanted to harvest a deer we should put on a stalk for this deer.

Bill took a long look at the deer and said he didn’t think the deer was quite big enough!!!! I reminded Bill that the guide said that the guide said the deer was one of the bigger ones left on the lease. Once again he started whining about he didn’t know if he wanted to shoot the deer or not!

Finally after several minutes of arguing, Bill finally agreed to shoot the deer. We made the 1 1/2 hour walk to the back side of the hill he was sitting on and set up within 100 yards of where we thought he would come down the hill.

We were there about 20 minutes when I heard the guide say, “there he is!”

I got a few seconds of pre-roll and told Bill, “shoot the deer!”

I was a little nervous that Bill would not shoot, but as soon as I gave the command he shot without hesitation!!!!

Below is the deer Bill did not want to shoot until we talked him into it! 

Well I just got back from another successful trip! This time I went with Allen Treadwell of Bass Pro’s Outdoor World on a Black Powder hunt for Montana Mule deer. I left Friday for Great Falls, Montana and met Allen in Minneapolis. Then we flew into Great Falls where we met up with Chad Shearer of Central Montana Outfitters. We left the Airport in Great Falls at 2:30 and made the hour drive to our spike camp.

Once in camp we changed into our camo and went to the rifle range to make sure Allen’s scope did not get bumped during the flight. With one shot we knew we were good. We had 2 hours of daylight left so we went to try and get on a deer.  We covered some ground and saw a good Mulie, but we didn’t have any luck. We headed back to camp and Chad cooked us a great steak dinner.

The next morning we got up and ate a quick breakfast and headed to our glassing point before light. Once the sky started to turn orange we could see some deer silhouetted on top of the hills. Then Chad spotted a good buck on top of the hill. We sat and watched the deer for a while and then drove around the hill so we could make a stalk on the buck we saw on top of the hill. As we rounded the hill we saw another nice buck in the alfalfa field at the bottom of the hill. He saw the truck and ran around the side of the hill out of site. We grabbed our gear and went after him.

Chad started off with a fast-paced walk. I made it a total of about 30 yards before it felt like my heart was going to pound out of my chest. Not only did it feel like my heart was thumping like a drum, I also felt like someone was squeezing the breath right out of me. I didn’t get this winded on the entire 3 week hunt in the Yukon back in September.

Allen and Chad kept up the pace and I lagged about 20 yards behind. We kept the pace because we were trying to get on the buck. Once at the top of the hill Chad spots the buck one hill over, bad thing is he’s 170 yards away and going in the wrong direction. We sit and watch the buck check a some does and he finally goes over the hill out of sight. Then Chad checks to see if he can find the first buck we spotted on top of the mountain. Once again, Nothing.

We head back to the truck and we go to town to grab some lunch. We see a few bucks along the way, but nothing worth chasing. After lunch Chad takes us to the back side of the ranch. He said he had seen some great bucks on that part of the ranch earlier that week. 

As we a driving we are seeing lots of does and some small bucks. Then we get to an area where we see a group of small bucks together and no does. Chad says that this time of year you shouldn’t see that and he thinks there is a bigger buck in the area pushing the little bucks away. He says we should get out and ease around the hill and see if there are any bucks on the other side of the hill.

Boy was Chad right. As we eased around the hill, Allen spots a great Mulie buck. We get set up and I start filming the buck. The buck knows something isn’t right, but he doesn’t spook. We are in the shade and he can’t figure out what we are. Allen let’s me get some pre-roll of the buck, 6 minutes worth to be exact. The the sun starts to shine on us and the buck gets uneasy. At that point I tell Allen, “If you want him you better shoot him!” No longer than I had gotten that out of my mouth, Allen pulled the trigger. I could hear the bullet hit the deer, but all I could see was smoke once the CVA Electra ignited. We jumped up to see the fatally wounded animal stumbling over the top of the hill. We eased up to the top of the hill to find Allen’s deer laying just on the other side.

Boy were we surprised. We knew it was a good deer, but he definitely didn’t have any ground shrinkage when we got to him.

What a great hunt. Another successful trip and this was another 1st afternoon harvest. It has been a great hunting season so far and this one is special. As far as we know this is the first Mule Deer harvested with the CVA Electra. 

Great Deer Allen and a great way to go into the CVA history book with an awesome buck!