HUNTING
The four-by-five Eastern Washington mule deer I killed last October sits in the bed of my truck. If there’s such a thing as ground shrinkage, then I experienced ground gainage walking up to the buck after downing it, so surprised was I by the size of its antlers. (ANDY WALGAMOTT)
Lessons I’ve Learned Hunting Muleys Sitting on my butt all day last fall led to my biggest buck yet, the culmination of past seasons’ observations and kills – and, yes, luck. By Andy Walgamott
J
ust a lucky lazy deer hunter or a learned one? I’m still wondering where I fall on the spectrum after tagging my biggest-antlered buck yet. Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely grateful to have harvested the Okanogan County deer, a gift from the wild. I vowed to it that I would always work to protect its herd and habitat. But prone to overthinking things like I am, my question has vexed me since the middle of last October.
I killed the four-by-five muley (five-by-six counting eyeguards) in midafternoon on Washington’s opening day of rifle deer season after sitting in one spot for five hours. Five … very … long … hours. It was only my second stop of the day on that steep forested slope too. I sat in the first spot for about two and a half hours before slowly moving a couple hundred yards over and sitting. And sitting. And sitting some more. In past seasons I would have hiked 8 miles all the hell over by that time of
the afternoon; or checked on a halfdozen favorite spots and seen a dozen or more deer; or been up the mountain for the morning, back to camp for a sandwich and coffee at lunch, and back at it again for the late shift.
YES, THERE WERE short stops along the way to my spots, but I essentially planted my butt cheeks in all of two places – a rocky perch in the trees and a spot in the dirt underneath the bushy lower branches of a Doug fir. Lemme tell you, seven and a half hours is a long damn time to do not nwsportsmanmag.com | OCTOBER 2021
Northwest Sportsman 119
