Featured Story:Five
Trophy Mule Deer in Four Years
 Four years ago my brother and I and a good friend decided we wanted
to hunt trophy mule deer in Colorado. We grew up hunting in California our whole lives
hunting blacktails and mule deer. Never were we able to harvest what we called a
"magnum buck". If you have never hunted California before let me tell you it is
very hot, steep and very little deer to keep you motivated. But no matter what the
conditions we were always able to turn a few bucks up. No matter the horn size we were
very exited about our success.
Growing up with a granddad that got to hunt in the sixties
and having heard and seen all the bucks he and his friends have harvested we were ready
for a trip of our own. So the next fall, with an old map and "thirty inchers" on
the mind we were on our way. The first year we hunted an over the counter tag zone on
public land in early October. That was a five-day hunt. By the fourth day none of us had
seen a single deer. We thought this was just like California.
 Knowing how hunting was back home, we just kept pounding away trying
to turn up something. Then on the fifth day when we thought we were all gonna get skunked,
my brother turned up this buck we called MOBY. MOBY was 26 wide and a nine-inch base. Boy
were we surprised when we walked up to that buck. I shot at a monster that afternoon and
missed and good friend Jeff had seen nothing.
 The second year
brought my brother another 26 incher with five and half-inch base and I shot at yet
another monster and Jeff saw nothing again. Now the third year Jeff was not gonna give in
for nothing again. With a lot of patience and determination, Jeff turned up a 36"
wide, 9x7. This buck grossed 224 B&C, not bad for your first out of state buck Jeff! I
settled for a bull that year and my brother killed a smaller four point.
 The fourth year it was my turn, on the third day I shot a 27 inch
five and half-base buck. My brother got another four pointer and Jeff got nothing once
again. There is no telling who is gonna get the big one next year but we all would like to
think its gonna be us.
 I would just like to add that we hunted a different season every
year and all of these bucks were harvested on public land. I’m not gonna tell you
that we seen bucks like these every day because we did not. Where we hunt there is not
many deer there but the ones we do see are keepers. I also can’t say every spot that
was good back in the sixties is gonna carry trophy mule deer today, but I will say that
public land does still have some nice mule deer like these. You just need to hunt hard and
do your homework and it will pay off for you sooner or later just ask Jeff.
Good hunting and God bless.
Shaun Rapp
(you can contact Shaun at Outland
Video.com or muley@mlode.com)
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