If you ever hunted Desert Mule Deer in Texas you know that is can be a really difficult hunt in wide open High Chihuahuan Desert country. There are rough rugged mountains, remote canyons and Desert flats full of every kind of brush and cactus. They have a saying that everything out there either Sticks, Stings or bites. Hunting Desert Mule Deer usually meant you spent the Thanksgiving holiday on the road and got to have your Thanksgiving meal in some Texas Diner or Fast food place that was open on Thanksgiving Day, It meant missing all the food and company of family on Thanksgiving. Yet to many of us Desert Mule Deer hunting became an addiction like no other.
I killed my first Desert Mule Deer when I was 12 years old on the Love Ranch out by Big Bend National Park. I am 60 years old now and have hunted them every chance I got most of my life. If someone asked to go I would head out again tomorrow, such is the addiction to Desert Mule Deer and the big country they live in. My Uncle's grandson James Lefner of Cedar Park, Texas has seen the Desert Mule Deer mounted on my walls and heard the stories of the hunts. This year he was invited to go with Gene Toungate to a ranch north of Del Rio, Texas and make his own memories. James took his first Desert Mule deer with his Savage .243. The buck dressed out at 145 pounds. His deer was taken in the grease wood flats but I bet sometime in the future the addiction will push James up to the high desert mountains in search of the big one. I have been of some influence to the shooting of this young man and am very proud of James. I recently helped him track a nice Central Texas whitetail that he made a heart shot on and it had run into the cedar breaks. In his excitement James had walked just a few feet from his deer in the thick cedars and missed seeing it. What a thrill to me to find it for him. If you have the where with all, take a kid on a hunt of your own and make some memories, it will be good for both of you. Wild Ed
2 comments:
Never killed a Texas Mule Deer. But I do know the country where they are found. And your right on. It is rugged country. I am not that tough any more. Bill
Bill I'm not that tough either. I would have to be on horse back or a four wheel drive vehicle, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. Ed
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