provided by John Phillips
Mossy Oak Pro Keith Pullins from Rapid City, South Dakota, has been hunting mule deer for 35 years. After high school, he joined the Armed Services and became a radiology tech in the U. S. Air Force. After service, he immediately returned to hunting mule deer and elk. Throughout his career, he’s harvested 30 mule deer bucks and also enjoys hunting elk.
With my family, a rifle hunt for mule deer is always more of a family hunt than anything else. Since my wife’s family has some property to hunt on, we usually take the children with us there to hunt some muleys. While hunting during the second week of rifle season, I hadn’t really seen any bucks I wanted to take. I was standing on a hill talking to some of my wife’s family members when I suddenly spotted movement underneath a tree a good distance from where we were. I told them, “I think I found a shooter.”
Since the only shot I had at the top of the hill was in the buck’s rump, I decided to walk down to an area where I could get a better shot. After walking about 100 yards, I peeked over a hill to see if I had a good angle or not. The muley buck had bedded-down, so I finally got the angle to take a broadside shot on him. I aimed with my .270 Winchester Short Magnum. I laid down, braced up and squeezed the trigger. I heard that, “Wop,” sound, indicating that I’d made a good hit. However, the buck never got up out of his bed. I went back up to where my relatives were standing, and they asked, “Did you get him?” I replied, “I must have because he’s still in the same spot he was when he was shot.” One of my wife’s cousins drove a truck close to the area. We dragged the mule deer buck out of the bottom and into an open spot where we could take pictures before loading him up. Everybody in the family was in awe because this was one of the best mule deer bucks any of us ever had had the opportunity to harvest. This buck scored 173 inches.
