I made my first ever trip to SD to try my luck at taking a mule deer. It all got started last Wednesday morning. We spent the first half of the day driving around learning the area we would be hunting. It was a mixture of private and public land. We seen close to 300 deer both whitetail and muleys. The first day ended without seeing any decent deer worth chasing. Day number 2 I found myself up on top of a big hill glassing the valleys. I got to watch a big whitetail bed Down about 200 yards out so I made my stalk. I got within 25 yards and came to full draw. Only to see him snap his head my way and bolt. Day 3 a couple of the other guys we were with sat on that same hill. They got to watch a good muley and 2 big whitetails bed down. One of the guys only wanted to take a mule deer so the other guy got to make the stalks. The first one he was able to get to 8 yards before he bolted. The second he got to 33 and missed the bedded deer shot right over his back. When they got to where the muley was bedded he was gone. When that was going on I got into range of a small muley. I didn't care what size deer I shot I just wanted a muley buck. I missed a 56 yard shot I was a little nervous. I pulled it bad. After regrouping and shooting at cow pies out to 80 yards with a small game tip. I was feeling better. A couple of use went and walked a small draw just slowly working our way down it. When we were just about to the end. The guy I was with was able to get within 50 yards of a good 3x4 buck. After a perfect 50 yard shot I got to watch the buck run up the hill and tip over 60 yards infront of me. Day number 4 it rained and was muddy made for good stalking weather but nothing would stay in its bed longer than 30 min and we were not able to get into range of anything. Our last day there we only were going to hunt till noon. A couple guys went and sat on the hill and I went and drove around with another guy dropping off bottles of booze to the local ranchers that were nice enough to let us hunt. It was about 10 and I figured I better go walk one more draw and see if I could get lucky. I was about a mile in when I came to the top of a hill and started to glass. A couple hundred yards out was a group of 4 buck in a little draw. After making a game plan and memorizing landscape I started my way around. About 30 minutes later I was about 20 yards from where they were. They were gone. Sh:t. I must of poked my head up a touch high cause all of a sudden all 4 bucks burst out of the cover 2 of them never stopped. But 2 of them stopped at 80 yards out. I ranged the deer I wanted to take and took draw. Thinking in the back of my head about the last one I missed. I took a little extra time and let it fly. I lost the arrow after it left my bow. Then I heard the loudest wack on a deer I have ever heard. My arrow went right through the shoulder and shattered the other side. Not having 2 front legs my deer did a bunny hop for about 50 yards before staying down. This was one of the best hunts I have ever been on my deer is not big but one hell of a trophy
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