Desert Deer with a Smoke Pole

For only the second time since I started hunting with black powder I was drawn for one of the most sought after units by a smoke pole shooter. I was lucky enough to draw a tag for units 39,40 a&b 41 and 42. There were only 75 tags for this hunt. The dates run from 14 Dec. to 31 Dec 2001, and that’s the reason it is a premier tag for black powder, the big desert mulies will start to rut some time during the season and like any big buck they will be looking for some lovin.

I had done my homework and located several nice bucks to include a couple of dandy’s. The plan was spot and stalk and to have Rick Williams from Arizona Wilderness Productions with me so that we could get the hunt on film. 

 On the first day I got up early and met Rick along with AZOD’s CEO Glen Willis and Webmaster Ken Coon, we met for breakfast and then were off. My hopes were high the morning broke cold. I hoped with the cold snap we were having that the rut would kick in a little early but as the day wore on we spotted no bucks. I had to quit hunting at around 2 PM to meet my daughter Leanna at her work she also drew the same tag and would be going out with me that evening. Leanna and I hunted hard that night passing up a couple of small 2 points.

For the rest of the week Leanna was with me on and off we were able to locate some nice bucks but we also noted that the big bucks were starting to show signs the rut was getting close. Due to work and other obligations Leanna was not able to get out as much as she wanted to so I ended up out quite a bit.

On Weds the 19^th of Dec I located a very high racked Buck right at dark there was no way to put a stalk on, the light was fading fast. Thursday morning found me back on the same ridge as the night before. After 4 hours of glassing I spotted 17 does and 3 bucks but none of the bucks was the one from the night before. This sitting and spotting went on through Saturday morning except Saturday Leanna was with me. We glassed until about 10 am. Leanna needed to be back home by 11am so we packed up and headed home.  On the way I happened to looked up on a ridge and there stood a nice high racked 3x3 before Leanna could get out of the jeep he was gone.

Sunday morning found me back on the ridge alone, I had promised my wife that I would be back by 10am so that we could go to church. So at 9am I headed home, after church my wife had to go to work. So I decided to take a little nape I was planning on leaving at 2pm well you can imagine my surprise when I woke up and saw it was 230pm. Dang I over slept. So I hurriedly got dressed and headed for my ridge. I needed to get gas so stopping at a station I reached for my wallet to get a credit card out and no wallet. I had left it in my good church pants. Dang it! Well after finally getting my wallet (which and my deer tag in it) and gas I was off. I arrived at the spot where I parked the jeep grabbed my gun, pack binos and tripod and was off. It took me about 20 mins to get to the top of the ridge were I began stalking to my rock pile. About 10 mins of taking 5 steps and looking over the flat I spotted a deer about ½ mile out. The second I put my glasses on him I knew this was the high racked big boy from Wednesday night. After a quick check of the wind I knew it was now or never the wind gods were in my favor. I left my bipod and big pair of bino’s there on the ridge. And the stalk was on. It took me about 30 min’s to get to with in 500 yards of this buck I thought it was a big 4x4 I took one more look with my bino’s and put them in my pack. (I did not want to look at the headgear this big boy was sporting any more). He had feed up a small ridge and feeding into the wind. I had to cover about 350 yards to get with in 150 of him. I had crawled about 300 yards on my hands and knee’s when I heard a doe blow at me. This big boy had company I had not seen. When I looked at him he was looking in my direction. Dang it I need to cover about 30 more yards to get well with in my range. My muzzleloader was sighted dead on at 175. And shoots about 3 inches low at 200. So I made up my mind to try from where I was. I had a Harris bipod on the gun so I had a good solid rest. The problem was he had his butt to me and was looking back over his shoulder at me. I pulled out the in/ex mule deer grunt call I had gotten from Mark Cain of Modern Call Products. I blew on the call once; the buck got all stiff-legged turned and walked about 10 yards in my direction. He thought some other buck was gonna take his ladies. He stopped broadside to be, when he stopped I was ready I held at the top of his shoulder and squeezed the trigger at the report of the rifle I saw and heard the bullet hit home. I raised up to my knee’s to reload. While reloading the buck ran about 15 yards and stopped at the top of a little ridge. The only thing I could see was from the neck up. When I saw his rack in the skylight I started to shake. As I was starting to ram my bullet home I watched him go down. I finished loading my smoke pole and started the walk to where he lay. After reaching him I discovered how big it was. His outside spread was 26 inches and he was a 5x5. After a closer look I found that the 6^th tine on his right side had broken off. This by far is the biggest buck I have taken with a smoke pole. And one that will live in my mind for a very very long time.

I just hope that I can get Leanna on one as big or bigger. Her time will come.

Equipment used.

Rifle: CVA Firebolt muzzleloader with a 3 to 9 Simmons scope

3-50 grain pyrodex pellets

240 grain xtp hornady

Optics. 16x50 bushenell and 15x50 with 10 to 30 zoom Vanguards

Clothing: Camo by realtree

A special Thanks to Mark Cain of Modern Call Products  and a Very Very special thanks to my wife Sherri who has be very understanding lady for the past 10 days.

R L Gray

Camping Editor

Team AZOD