Boys & Muleys

Early Season Muzzleloader Fun

- Jason Brooks

Two bucks were bedded below the ridgeline and surrounded by several does. The rut was still a few weeks away and these deer were “resident” mule deer, those that don’t migrate but live in the foothills all year long. A small 2x3 buck stood up and started feeding, but the larger 3x3 stayed bedded as the morning sun started to heat up the hillside. My hunting buddy had first spotted the deer as we peeked over a large basalt outcropping that overlooked a deep draw. The deer had fed up the hill during the night, and now that the morning sun was shining it wouldn’t take them long to move back down into the safety and cooler shade the draw offered.

A simple plan was put in place. Chad, who spotted the deer, would stay at the rock pile. My sons Adam and Ryan and I would backtrack our steps to the far side of the hill behind the bedded deer. Using the terrain, we would need to sneak into muzzleloader distance, which is not easy to do in an open country with a group of mule deer bedded on a ridgeline.