The buck was bedded on the opposite hillside 512 yards away, and this was as close as we were going to get. He had bedded, as big bucks always do, in the one place where he was fairly safe. His body was clearly visible, as he laid in the shade of some scrub oak, dozing and chewing on his breakfast. We could tell it was a big buck, but could only see the bases of his horns. Most of his rack was lost in the brush he was bedded in. From time to time he would move his head, or nod off and bounce one side of his rack off the ground. We just couldn’t be sure if this was “the buck”.

It was the third day of my five-day Nevada Mule deer hunt with Western Wildlife Adventures. My long time friend, Ron Lara, the owner of Western Wildlife Adventures, had been telling me for several years about the great bucks they had been taking in Nevada. He never pressured me to buy a hunt, but I was beginning to get the hint he thought this would be an exceptional year. I’d already hunted mule deer in Nevada on my own a couple of times. I’d taken a good 5x6 buck in the mid 170’s, and had had several opportunities at equal or slightly better bucks. Lately, however, I had been on a dry spell in the tag drawing lottery and all of Ron’s talk about Nevada was making me anxious to go back.

Nevada has a separate drawing, early in the year, for guided hunters where the odds of drawing a tag are 10X better than in the regular non-resident drawing. I’ve never been too crazy about the idea of special tags for guides in public areas, but after spending two days with Ron, at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation show in Reno, I decided to put my opinions aside and apply for the tag. Another bonus was learning that Doyle Moss, of Mossback Guides and Outfitters, was exclusively guiding for Ron in Nevada, and that it would either be Doyle or Ron who would guide me if I drew the tag. All of Ron’s guides are top notch, but to get the chance to hunt with Doyle or my long time buddy was an opportunity I didn’t want to pass.

My luck held out and I drew a tag for my second choice area. The season in my area started the first week in October and ended the third week. In my experience, the first three weeks in October aren’t the best times to be hunting mule deer, so when Ron asked what 5 day hunt period I wanted; I told him it didn’t matter. My hunt ended up being the third hunt, from October 14th through the 18th.

October finally arrived and I met Ron, the rest of the crew and another hunter at the tiny motel we’d call home for the next few days. I was in great spirits, but secretly had doubts about the mid October timing of the hunt. My apprehension only lasted 30 minutes into the first morning. We started seeing quality deer right away and I decide I would be in no hurry. Just getting to look at so many deer was a successful hunt whether I pulled the trigger or not.

On days one and two I hunted with Ron. Doyle had another 1 on 1 hunter and we were all seeing bucks. On my first day we saw three or four bucks in the 160-180 class, as well as lots of smaller bucks. Looking for “Mr. Big” you can’t shoot the first good buck you see so I was willing to go home without shooting if I didn’t find one. We met up with Doyle at the end of day two and his client had filled his tag with a nice 27” 4x4. The big news was that this buck had been running with another larger buck, and Doyle’s client had mistakenly shot the wrong one! The big guy was still out there and Doyle was confident we could find him in the morning. This was going to be great! Now I had Ron, Doyle, and Doyle’s Camera man, Kalen Lemon, all working for me and we were actually after a “really big buck”.

At first light we were in the same area the buck had been seen the day before. We glassed for an hour or so and saw a few bucks, but not the big guy. One buck was very respectable with huge eye guards and a 27 inch spread in the 175-180 class, but I decided to pass knowing the big guy was around somewhere. We decided to split up after glassing the area carefully. Ron would stay in the area just in case, Doyle, Kalen and I would drive around the base of the mountain. We slowly made our way out and back again, stopping to glass frequently. When we met up with Ron again a couple hours later, he was focused on some deer that were bedded a couple thousand yards away. From what he had briefly seen, there was definitely one good buck in the group of deer. The buck was no longer visible but Ron insisted he was still there. We decided Ron would continue to keep an eye on the area while Doyle, Kalen and I got closer.

After a couple of attempts, the closest we could get was 512 yards. I was hunting with my 300 Jarrett and had practiced with it out to 600 yards. I knew the rifle and bullet drop at 500 yards exactly. In the right conditions I knew this was a shot I could make. There was no wind. The deer had no idea we were there and I had all the time in the world. I folded out my bipod, lay across my pack, nestled into the scope and cranked it up to 24 power. We still didn’t know if this was the buck, but I was ready if he stood up and gave us a look. Now all we had to do was wait.

Two hours later the buck still hadn’t moved. We’d watched him long enough to decide this was the buck, but I really wanted a standing shot. I’d been lying in the snow now for two hours and I was starting to get cold. I was calm but knew something had to happen soon. After a quick pow-wow with Doyle and Kalen, who were standing a few yards behind me with the video camera, we all decided it was time to make something happen.

My rifle hits 18” low at 500 yards so I put the cross hairs 6” above the bucks back just behind his shoulder. I was as steady as if I’d been on a bench when I started to put pressure on the trigger. BOOM! The rifle went off and to my amazement; I didn’t hear the expected WHACK of a hit. Kalen started yelling “good shot, good shot”, but as I found the deer in the scope again, he was up and moving downhill as fast as a deer could run! I’d hit him, but the shot was low. I’d figured the width of the deer’s body to be roughly 22”, but a bedded deer is a smaller target and I’d miscalculated the holdover. Now it was off to the races!

The deer headed downhill and I did the same after grabbing my rifle and a handful of shells. He was hit bad enough that he wasn’t going to get away, but I had lost all of my composure. Offhand shots after running a few hundred yards aren’t my thing, so I’d flung a few in the general direction of the deer until Doyle finally caught up to me. He gave me a quick verbal slap in the face and then handed me his spotting scope tripod. I took a steady rest and the deer was down for good.

The deer ended up dying 100 yards from the road so I joked later that it was my plan all along to get the deer closer to the truck before finishing him. For some reason, no one believed me. What really scares me is that Doyle has the whole thing on video and I’ll have to wait until Mossback’s “Bucks Gone Wild” to see how stupid I looked running after this deer.

The buck ended up gross scoring 193 6/8 and was a perfectly symmetrical 4x4 with an out side spread of 28 inches. I couldn’t have asked for a better mule deer hunt. Anyone wanting the opportunity at a great buck in Nevada could do a lot worse than hunting with Western Wildlife Adventures. You can view Ron’s website at www.wildlifeadv.com . Doyle’s new video “Bucks Gone Wild” is now available at www.Mossback.tv .

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Galen Sonntag

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