My son's Yoakum Dunes WMA mule deer youth hunt recap

[BradBryant1000]

We arrived Friday afternoon around 415 pm. The hunt was for one mature management buck and doe. We got all unloaded and settled in to the bunkhouse. I cooked us a little bite to eat and we relaxed Friday evening since our hunt didn't start until Saturday morning. We did see 6 mule deer from the bunkhouse (one buck) that evening so we were feeling good about the hunt.

Saturday morning we got up and the wind was howling. We went out and saw a few deer. A couple of young bucks and some does. After a couple hours we spotted what the biologist thought was an older doe bedded by herself on a dune around 350 yards away. We stalked to within 125 yards and my son made a good shot off of a backpack and the doe ran about 30 yards and died.







We went back to camp and we quartered her and iced her down. I cooked a little lunch and then we went back out to hunt. The evening hunt was fairly eventful. We saw a couple groups of hogs but no shot was taken because they slipped away but that's ok because we were after mule deer. We saw several does and a couple of young bucks that weren't shooters. We spent the last hour glassing from a good vantage point but didn't see any bucks other than a spike. We called it a day and headed back to camp with high hopes for Sunday.

[BradBryant1000]

Sunday morning the wind had died totally and it had cooled down to 27 degrees. It was a beautiful morning. We went out glassing and driving to the next spot to glass and so forth. We saw one really massive buck but he was not anywhere near a management buck. We saw another group of hogs but passed them to keep looking for a mule deer. Shortly thereafter we saw 2 pronghorn and that was a pretty cool deal as well. We saw a couple more small bucks that were very young. It was shaping up to be a good morning.

Then we saw "the one" that we were after. The biologist gave us the green light. He however was around 250 yards off and my son wasn't comfortable shooting that far. We attempted a stalk but the deer (he was with a group of does) got nervous and went into a draw heading uphill. We went to the top of the draw to where the deer were heading. Sure enough it looked like it worked out. There they were at 85 yards. My son got on his shooting sticks and waited for the buck to clear the does and some small mesquite trees. It seemed like a half hour went by but it was only a couple minutes. The buck steps out into the clear. My son immediately shots him and the buck dropped in his tracks.

[clayg08]

Heck yeah!!! That’s awesome! Congrats young man! Wonderful memories made!

[Schubert6689]

Awesome!!!!

[Austin]

F5,f5,f5

[bowhunt3]

Nice, congrats

[BradBryant1000]

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[dustinztx]

Awesome!!!

[BradBryant1000]

F5,f5,f5

My pictures weren't (still aren't) being cooperative there for a minute. I know it can't be operator error.

[DZM]

Man that is cool

[droebuck]

That is an awesome hunt and recap! Congrats to your son, his management buck looks like an amazing trophy to me.

[lmartin5]

Great memories...congrats!

[BradBryant1000]

That is an awesome hunt and recap! Congrats to your son, his management buck looks like an amazing trophy to me.

For sure. It's a nice buck. He's still pumped about it. Heck so am I. You wouldn't believe how I got buck fever just standing next to him while he shot it.

I told him I'm 41 and have never even mule deer hunted one single time my entire life. He turned 12 last month. I told him that he's set the bar pretty high for himself already.

[diamond10x]

I would say that’s a trophy! Congrats to your son, I’d be pretty proud of that Texas mulie.

[Austin]

Awesome that is what it is all about.


Love seeing kids getting it done