Just got back from my first hunt in Nevada and had a total blast. This was my first year putting in for NV and with knowing I probably wouldn't draw any other August deer tags I focused on easy to draw units. I ended up drawing probably one of the easiest to draw archery hunts in the state and knew it wouldn't be an easy one and likely I wouldn't be seeing a bunch of monster bucks but still, my expectations were higher than what I usually hunt in California.
My main goal on the hunt was to do it solo, get remote and kill a buck up high. From a lot of good feedback from others with experience in Nevada, some regarding my unit specifically, I knew the bucks could be anywhere from the top to the bottom of the unit. But I wanted to do it my way, up on top.
With only one day off in the two weeks leading up to the hunt and a lot of 12 hour days at work I went into it pretty burned out, I wrapped up a big project at noon on the Saturday after the opener and left straight from the job to start my drive. I got to sleep at close to midnight that night, woke up at 4AM and started hiking. Early on I glassed up what looked like a nice buck just over 4 miles away, thankfully he was skylined or it would have been too much for my Kowa TSN55 to pick him out at that distance. I still had 3000' feet up to gain the ridge he was on and more than 4 miles along the ridge to close in on him, I knew I wouldn't get on him that day.
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on Flickr
Untitled by stephen miller, on Flickr
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on Flickr
The rest of that day I glassed, hiked, set up camp, found water, glassed, hiked etc. not turning up much. That evening I glassed up four bucks headed to the water I had found (an answer to a thread I posted a couple months ago about using the same water source as the deer) and in fading light I tried closing the distance. The bucks hadn't shown themselves til after the sun was already down, I got to 100 yards and watched them cross over a small ridge, the wind was good but 5 minutes later as I followed them over the ridge legal shooting light was over and I backed off. One buck was a solid 4x4 probably only a 150 class deer but was all I had hoped for on this trip.
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on Flickr
The next morning while glassing a small forky passed right by me in a saddle at 60 yards, I had decided that with my lackluster pedigree in mule deer hunting and the fact that I was really here for the experience and the meat that I would be OK shooting a forkie on this hunt, but at that point decided I wasn't ready to. I spent the day covering over 10 miles and 3000' of elevation up and down the main ridge, scouring about 6 or 7 different basins looking in every likely bedding spot and picking apart every shadow with my 15's and spotter for naught. I got to where I'd seen the buck the previous morning and couldn't turn him up. I was a bit discouraged by the fact that the deer were only seemingly active the first and last 30 minutes of the day and not turning up bedded bucks was making me think they were probably bedding up in the brushy draws down low I couldn't really glass due to the super steep hillsides and lack of good angles to see down in them. I was only seeing a bit of fresh sign here and there at saddles on the main ridge.
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on Flickr
The biologist had told me if there was recent rain the deer would all be on top, that hadn't been the case in this unit, there had been little to no thunderstorm activity yet and all the springs were between 1000' and 2000' feet below me except for the one I'd found up high. I started to realize I was going to have to hunt down lower where there were lots of roads and presumably other hunters. Though from my high vantage point I never saw another hunter or ATV or truck within 5 miles of the base of my range, the low spots that looked most promising were in other parts of the unit where I knew the pressure would be greater.
My brother in law was hunting another similar, easy to draw unit and was getting into tons of deer down low around water in the pinyon juniper and sage. After a long day of seeing nothing I decided I'd better try something different but first decided I'd sit the water and see if the bucks from the night previous came back. I had 5 more days to hunt but the idea of sitting all day waiting for those bucks to come in wasn't my idea of fun, but I figured I'd give it a try for one evening.
I brushed in a little blind with some dead sage and grass, ranged all the landmarks I could and with perfect wind settled in to sit the last hour of the day. I had my 15's in front of me and was picking apart the lower sage country when I looked over to see a buck sneaking in to the water. I set aside my tripod and got my bow ready, though this buck wasn't one I wanted to shoot I figured he wasn't alone. I lost sight of him and could hear him and definitely another deer drinking just below me out of sight due to the rise of the slope and the tall brush. I listened to them for 20 minutes, catching glimpses here and there of antler tips and ears. After a bit the small buck stepped out with 3 does, I ranged him at 40 yards and watched. 5 minutes later a much bigger fork stepped out, perfectly broadside, perfect wind. I drew back, watched their reaction and knew they weren't alarmed, took my time settling my anchor and let fly. The hit sounded good but the deer were too backlit to see much else.
All 5 took off at a full sprint and I lost sight of them after about 60 yards. I ran uphill and over to put my eyes on them and saw just four deer standing in the bowl below me, staring behind them. After about 5 minutes they took off over the ridge and I was certain my buck wasn't with them. Having been unable to see where I hit the deer and not being able to find my arrow or blood (I'm color blind so blood trailing is pretty difficult for me) I knew the right call was to wait it out. It was getting into the 40's at night and 15 minutes after I shot I was already putting on my puffy. I felt pretty confident the deer was down but didn't want to risk bumping him in the dark.
Next morning I got above where I'd seen the 4 deer run to after the shot, about 200 yards away from where I hit the buck, and spent some time glassing the very low sage brush looking for the buck. I couldn't see anything so I went back to where the buck had been and pretty easily found the tracks from where the deer had busted out of there. I started following tracks and in less than 100 yards found my buck. He'd probably dropped in about 15 seconds at the rate he was running, full pile up. The entrance had been high lung and the exit had been perfect, I backtracked and only found a bit of blood. In my experience it's exactly what happens with a high lung hit, they don't bleed much til the end but go down quick as they fill up with blood pretty fast.
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on Flickr
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on Flickr
I was stoked, he wasn't a huge deer but the whole experience had been exactly what I'd hoped for. With a 7 week old baby at home and a 3 year old and 5 year old I couldn't have in good conscience passed this buck and told my wife I'd be hunting another 5 days while she held down the fort. I know there will be other trips and other seasons to go back and find the big boys.
The meat was fine, already cool even on the side he'd been laying on. It was the first time I'd left a deer overnight and I was a bit unsure but that turned out to be no big deal.
There were a ton of flies where he died with the spring nearby so I broke him down bone in as fast as I could, got everything packed and dropped the first mile and 1000' to the first tree I could. I hung the meat and deboned everything and let it hang to cool. The meat around the femur was already nice and cool and in the incredibly dry air with a slight breeze and shade the meat was doing great.
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on Flickr
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on Flickr
It was incredibly tedious hiking down the super steep hillside with camp and all the meat on my back, I took it very slow and careful and with only one slip and fall made it to my truck.
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on Flickr
In retrospect I'm still very glad I shot this buck, I had hoped to get more opportunities on bigger deer but also had decided that if it came down to shooting any buck up high or a bigger buck down in the lowlands I'd rather do it up high. I feel incredibly blessed to have even been able to take this trip. A month before the season opened my wife and I were placed with a foster baby with a lot of medical issues and with two wild little ones at home already to chase around and tons of headache and doctors visits for the baby, the fact that she was so supportive of me still going off to the hills fills me with a measure of gratitude I can't even express.
We're all so lucky to have the health and resources to get to chase these amazing animals in the beautiful places they live and this trip for me was the culmination of years of dreaming of taking a buck solo up high far from roads or anyone else.
Good luck to everyone out there, the season is just getting started!
My main goal on the hunt was to do it solo, get remote and kill a buck up high. From a lot of good feedback from others with experience in Nevada, some regarding my unit specifically, I knew the bucks could be anywhere from the top to the bottom of the unit. But I wanted to do it my way, up on top.
With only one day off in the two weeks leading up to the hunt and a lot of 12 hour days at work I went into it pretty burned out, I wrapped up a big project at noon on the Saturday after the opener and left straight from the job to start my drive. I got to sleep at close to midnight that night, woke up at 4AM and started hiking. Early on I glassed up what looked like a nice buck just over 4 miles away, thankfully he was skylined or it would have been too much for my Kowa TSN55 to pick him out at that distance. I still had 3000' feet up to gain the ridge he was on and more than 4 miles along the ridge to close in on him, I knew I wouldn't get on him that day.
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on Flickr
Untitled by stephen miller, on FlickrNV 2018 by stephen miller, on FlickrThe rest of that day I glassed, hiked, set up camp, found water, glassed, hiked etc. not turning up much. That evening I glassed up four bucks headed to the water I had found (an answer to a thread I posted a couple months ago about using the same water source as the deer) and in fading light I tried closing the distance. The bucks hadn't shown themselves til after the sun was already down, I got to 100 yards and watched them cross over a small ridge, the wind was good but 5 minutes later as I followed them over the ridge legal shooting light was over and I backed off. One buck was a solid 4x4 probably only a 150 class deer but was all I had hoped for on this trip.
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on FlickrThe next morning while glassing a small forky passed right by me in a saddle at 60 yards, I had decided that with my lackluster pedigree in mule deer hunting and the fact that I was really here for the experience and the meat that I would be OK shooting a forkie on this hunt, but at that point decided I wasn't ready to. I spent the day covering over 10 miles and 3000' of elevation up and down the main ridge, scouring about 6 or 7 different basins looking in every likely bedding spot and picking apart every shadow with my 15's and spotter for naught. I got to where I'd seen the buck the previous morning and couldn't turn him up. I was a bit discouraged by the fact that the deer were only seemingly active the first and last 30 minutes of the day and not turning up bedded bucks was making me think they were probably bedding up in the brushy draws down low I couldn't really glass due to the super steep hillsides and lack of good angles to see down in them. I was only seeing a bit of fresh sign here and there at saddles on the main ridge.
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on Flickr
The biologist had told me if there was recent rain the deer would all be on top, that hadn't been the case in this unit, there had been little to no thunderstorm activity yet and all the springs were between 1000' and 2000' feet below me except for the one I'd found up high. I started to realize I was going to have to hunt down lower where there were lots of roads and presumably other hunters. Though from my high vantage point I never saw another hunter or ATV or truck within 5 miles of the base of my range, the low spots that looked most promising were in other parts of the unit where I knew the pressure would be greater.
My brother in law was hunting another similar, easy to draw unit and was getting into tons of deer down low around water in the pinyon juniper and sage. After a long day of seeing nothing I decided I'd better try something different but first decided I'd sit the water and see if the bucks from the night previous came back. I had 5 more days to hunt but the idea of sitting all day waiting for those bucks to come in wasn't my idea of fun, but I figured I'd give it a try for one evening.
I brushed in a little blind with some dead sage and grass, ranged all the landmarks I could and with perfect wind settled in to sit the last hour of the day. I had my 15's in front of me and was picking apart the lower sage country when I looked over to see a buck sneaking in to the water. I set aside my tripod and got my bow ready, though this buck wasn't one I wanted to shoot I figured he wasn't alone. I lost sight of him and could hear him and definitely another deer drinking just below me out of sight due to the rise of the slope and the tall brush. I listened to them for 20 minutes, catching glimpses here and there of antler tips and ears. After a bit the small buck stepped out with 3 does, I ranged him at 40 yards and watched. 5 minutes later a much bigger fork stepped out, perfectly broadside, perfect wind. I drew back, watched their reaction and knew they weren't alarmed, took my time settling my anchor and let fly. The hit sounded good but the deer were too backlit to see much else.
All 5 took off at a full sprint and I lost sight of them after about 60 yards. I ran uphill and over to put my eyes on them and saw just four deer standing in the bowl below me, staring behind them. After about 5 minutes they took off over the ridge and I was certain my buck wasn't with them. Having been unable to see where I hit the deer and not being able to find my arrow or blood (I'm color blind so blood trailing is pretty difficult for me) I knew the right call was to wait it out. It was getting into the 40's at night and 15 minutes after I shot I was already putting on my puffy. I felt pretty confident the deer was down but didn't want to risk bumping him in the dark.
Next morning I got above where I'd seen the 4 deer run to after the shot, about 200 yards away from where I hit the buck, and spent some time glassing the very low sage brush looking for the buck. I couldn't see anything so I went back to where the buck had been and pretty easily found the tracks from where the deer had busted out of there. I started following tracks and in less than 100 yards found my buck. He'd probably dropped in about 15 seconds at the rate he was running, full pile up. The entrance had been high lung and the exit had been perfect, I backtracked and only found a bit of blood. In my experience it's exactly what happens with a high lung hit, they don't bleed much til the end but go down quick as they fill up with blood pretty fast.
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on FlickrNV 2018 by stephen miller, on FlickrI was stoked, he wasn't a huge deer but the whole experience had been exactly what I'd hoped for. With a 7 week old baby at home and a 3 year old and 5 year old I couldn't have in good conscience passed this buck and told my wife I'd be hunting another 5 days while she held down the fort. I know there will be other trips and other seasons to go back and find the big boys.
The meat was fine, already cool even on the side he'd been laying on. It was the first time I'd left a deer overnight and I was a bit unsure but that turned out to be no big deal.
There were a ton of flies where he died with the spring nearby so I broke him down bone in as fast as I could, got everything packed and dropped the first mile and 1000' to the first tree I could. I hung the meat and deboned everything and let it hang to cool. The meat around the femur was already nice and cool and in the incredibly dry air with a slight breeze and shade the meat was doing great.
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on FlickrNV 2018 by stephen miller, on FlickrIt was incredibly tedious hiking down the super steep hillside with camp and all the meat on my back, I took it very slow and careful and with only one slip and fall made it to my truck.
NV 2018 by stephen miller, on FlickrIn retrospect I'm still very glad I shot this buck, I had hoped to get more opportunities on bigger deer but also had decided that if it came down to shooting any buck up high or a bigger buck down in the lowlands I'd rather do it up high. I feel incredibly blessed to have even been able to take this trip. A month before the season opened my wife and I were placed with a foster baby with a lot of medical issues and with two wild little ones at home already to chase around and tons of headache and doctors visits for the baby, the fact that she was so supportive of me still going off to the hills fills me with a measure of gratitude I can't even express.
We're all so lucky to have the health and resources to get to chase these amazing animals in the beautiful places they live and this trip for me was the culmination of years of dreaming of taking a buck solo up high far from roads or anyone else.
Good luck to everyone out there, the season is just getting started!
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