king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Hunting Illustrated - October/November 2007 - Index

spots for mule deer are. It seemed
to me that Old Mexico had been
producing some of the greatest bucks
of this last decade. So, I made up
my mind that some day, God willing
and with blessings from my wife,
that I would hunt Sonora, Mexico.
My time came in the spring of 2006
when a good friend, Dennis Palisch,
called to invite me to Mexico to hunt
the monarchs of the desert.
All of this, my history with
mule deer, didn't really sink in until
I was checking in my Markesbery
muzzleloader with the Mexican
federales on January 3rd, 2007.
Hunting mule deer in thick,
nasty, tangled ironwood and cactus
is more suited for a high-racked
vehicle and a long-range shooting
rifle. With all of the vegetation, it
was easy to get turned around and
lose sight of the quarry, but it also
helped with the stalking of game
once it was spotted.
On the first cool, crisp,
morning of the hunt we spotted a
group of deer from a vantage point
about 1200 yards away from where
they were feeding and carrying
on. The date was January 5th and
the pre-rut was in full swing. We
snuck through the cholla cactus and
ironwood to within 150 yards of a
42 HUNTING ILLUSTRATED.com
buck that scored around the 180-inch
mark. He was an excellent deer, just not
the buck I drove 1500 miles to shoot.
We watched the buck carry on for over
fifteen minutes before the herd started
to move off to their bedding area. It
was then that a monster buck appeared
from around an ironwood from off to
our left. I knew instantly that this was
the buck I came to Mexico to harvest. I
soon found myself in a stare down with
one of the monarchs of Mexico. It
seemed like it lasted for over twenty
minutes but, realistically, it was
more like three minutes before the
buck turned to follow his harem.
The sound of my front stuffer broke
the morning silence as I squeezed
the trigger. After moving around
the smoky haze, I could see my
Mexican buck lying on the ground a
mere 180 yards away. My emotions
started to take over and I began to
get choked up as I approached this
spectacular buck. For over ten years
I had been pursuing monster mule
deer and, finally, my dream buck
was a reality.
I feel very fortunate to
have harvested such an awesome
trophy. I know how many people
travel down to Mexico and never
even see a shooter buck, let alone
get close enough to harvest one with
a muzzleloader.
My desert mule deer ended
up being 30 inches wide, with seven
points on his left side and six on his
right. With a typical rack of 198 4/8
SCI, my buck is the new world record
desert mule deer with a muzzleloader.
It broke the old record by over 25
inches, which tells me a few things.
Steve with his world record SCI muzzleloader desert buck taken in Sonora,
Mexico in January 2007. This beautiful mule deer scores 198 4/8 typical SCI.