You Won’t Strike Out When Hunting With Central
Montana Outfitters
The Final Decision About Mule Deer
Editor’s
Note: I love to do any type of hunting. I’ve learned
many years ago that some of the biggest white-tailed
deer in the nation live in the Northwest. And, although
I love to hunt mule deer, I truly enjoy hunting big
whitetails.
I’d had a great hunt with Central Montana Outfitters.
I’d seen two monster whitetails and several really-big,
trophy-class mule deer and hunted partridges, pheasants
and coyotes. I figured I easily could go home with my
deer tag in my pocket, if I failed to get on this last
day the big whitetail I’d seen in the draw the
afternoon of the day before. That was what I told Schearer.
But Schearer said, “That scenario isn’t
going to happen. If you don’t get that big whitetail
by 10:00 am, I’m going to send Dale Yonkin, our
chief guide, with you since you’re my only hunter
left in camp to get a nice mule deer, I agreed. By 10:00
the last day, no white-tailed buck had appeared. Yonkin
brought the .270 barrel with a Bushnell scope on it
to me, and we replaced the .45 caliber on my Optima
Elite with the .270. Chad Adams, Yonkin and I then scouted
for mule deer bucks. We looked at several mule deer
bucks before Yonkin said, “There he is. He’s
a monster. Let’s go and get him.” Adams
decided to remain with the truck, while Yonkin and I
climbed a mountain higher than I wanted to climb. Once
I regained my breath at the top of that mountain, I
watched this monster mulie with a doe for about 30 minutes.
The mulie almost got to within 250 yards of us, but
not quite. When the mulie dropped over the next ridge
line, Yonkin said, “Let’s go. We can get
that buck before dark.” When we arrived at the
next ridge line, we could see the mule deer’s
antlers just above the ridge line. We belly crawled
to the mulie and came to within less than 30 yards of
the buck. However, all I could see was the mulie’s
antlers.
Yonkin told me,”John, lay still. That mulie is
moving to our left.” Yonkin crawled back to where
I was, laid down sideways in front of me and told me
to, “Aim off my back, John. The buck should pop
up in front of us. I’ll hold my ears.” But
instead of popping up in front of us as Yonkin had predicted,
the mule deer buck
stood over us, 30 yards to our left, looking straight
down on us. I couldn’t move without spooking that
buck. When the buck backed away, I stood up to take
the shot. But the mule deer buck and the doe were gone.
Neither Yonkin nor I could decide where they’d
gone. The only conclusion we could come up with was
that the buck and doe got raptured. We had a great stalk
that lasted about 2-1/2-hours. However, the light was
fading as we walked back to our car. Although I realized
I’d go home without a buck, I knew I’d go
home with memories of a great hunt. As we walked along
the rim of the canyon, Yonkin whispered urgently, “Get
down, John. There’s a good buck right across the
canyon.” Both of us glassed the buck. Yonkin ranged
him at 259 yards, and I prepared to make the shot. The
first shot missed. “John, you shot over him,”
Yonkin told me. “Aim a little lower.” As
I squeezed off the second round, I watched the buck
buckle. Quickly and easily I reloaded and took a third
shot, and the buck tumbled into some deep brush. When
Yonkin and I climbed down the steep mountain, crossed
over the narrow valley with a creek running through
it and climbed and crawled through heavy brush to finally
find my buck, we realized we had a problem. “We
were in such a hurry to go after that big buck, John,
that I left my pack, my knives and my light back at
the truck,” Yonkin explained. “You stay
here with the deer. I’ll go get Chad Adams and
bring him and my gear up here. Then we all three can
drag out the deer.”
When Adams and Yonkin returned to where I was waiting
with the mulie, Yonkin made another decision that I
couldn’t believe. “You two guys are suppose
to go into town tonight, eat dinner and stay at a motel
so you can catch your flights out early in the morning,”
Yonkin said. ”Y’all haven’t even packed
up your gear.
So, here’s what we’re going to do. John,
you and Chad need to go back to the truck, drive the
12 miles back to camp, pack up your stuff, put it in
the truck and then come back and get me. In the meantime,
I’ll cut this mule deer in half, put him on the
frame pack and carry him out. By the time I get through
carrying these two halves of this mulie out of the mountains,
you’ll be back with the truck, and I’ll
take you and the mulie to town.” “Dale,
there’s not any way that you can cut that deer
in half and carry both halves out by yourself,”
I told Yonkin.
”Let us help you.” But Yonkin interrupted
and said, “I can get this mule deer out by myself,
if you and Chad will get back to camp.” Then Adams
admitted that he wasn’t certain exactly how to
get back to camp. Yonkin explained that if we weren’t
back with the truck by the time he had the two halves
of the mule deer at the place where we had left the
truck while hunting, then, “I’ll come find
you two.” Adams and I both insisted that we help
Yonkin drag out the deer, but he kept arguing that we’d
be too late to get into town to order something to eat.
Too, he figured we‘d be too worn-out for our trip
home. “Look, all you’ve got to do is take
the truck back to camp, get your stuff and come back
here,” Yonkin told us once more. “I’ll
handle everything else.”
As we walked, climbed, stumbled and fell out of that
steep canyon, Adams and I both
agreed that there was no way Yonkin could make two trips
and carry two halves of a 275-pound mule deer in less
than 2-3 hours out, if he could do it all. So, we took
our time getting back to camp, got all our gear packed-up
and drove back the 12 miles to pick up Yonkin. About
half-way to where we were suppose to meet Yonkin, we
spotted a flashlight on the side of the road, moving
toward us. “That must be the rancher or his daughter,”
I told Adams. However, when the lights of the truck
illuminated the person carrying the flash light, I couldn’t
believe what I saw. Walking straight toward us was Yonkin.
“Did you decide to give up?” I asked Yonkin.
“I thought that was too much mule deer for you
to get out of the woods by yourself.” But Yonkin
answered me,”What are you talking about? After
waiting 10 minutes for you two, I figured you were lost.
So, I was coming to find you.” Yonkin climbed
into the back of the truck. When we arrived at the spot
where we should have met Yonkin, there sat the two halves
of my deer. Dale Yonkin wasn’t a big guy, and
although he was an outdoorsman, I never imagined that
he was as strong as he was, and more importantly, as
strong and as tough as he was to carry those two halves
of that mulie out of that rough terrain on his back
in that short a time.
I’ve been on many, many hunts, and I’ve
taken many great trophies. I’ve also seen some
wonders in the outdoors that will amaze and astound
most men. However, I never in my wildest dreams would
have dreamed that the three of us ever could have gotten
that deer out of the mountains, even in twice as long
a time as Yonkin needed to do it himself. The trophy
of this Montana wilderness hunt wasn’t the big
mule deer buck I took or the two large whitetails I
saw or the birds I shot. The real trophy of this hunt
was meeting Dale Yonkin, one of the strongest, toughest
men I’ve ever met. Yes, he had an unbelievable
personality to go with his immense strength. Just getting
to hang out with folks like Dale Yonkin, Chad Schearer
and the other men in camp with me would be worth going
back to hunt with or not even carry a gun with Central
Montana Outfitters.
To learn more about CVA’s top-quality black-powder
guns, click on www.cva.com.
For more information on Central Montana Outfitters,
call or email Chad Schearer, www.centralmontanaoutfitters.com;
chad@centralmontanaoutfitters.com;
(406) 727-4478
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