How Shooting Sticks Helped Get My Biggest Mule Deer

by Ron Spomer

There was no ground shrinkage when I walked up to this Montana mule deer. The antler’s grossed 201 inches. And they lay two steps from a barbed wire fence beyond which we could not go. Had that buck jumped that fence, it would have been in a private land sanctuary. Thanks goodness I had my portable shooting sticks.

One doesn’t usually recognize a couple of aluminum cross sticks as a critical component to hunting success, but they can be. Sure, the rifle and scope and ammo and even our boots are essential, but six ounces of aluminum tent poles can spell the difference between all that other gear working or… tag soup.

Here’s how my little hunt for my biggest mule deer went down. I was a guest of a Powder River Outfitters out of Broadus, Montana, an area famous for big mule deer and whitetails in the 1990s. I believe the principal operates now as Gardner Ranch Outfitters near Ashland. If their current crew is as dedicated, helpful, and friendly now as they were then, I recommend them.

I’ve forgotten the name of my guide, a competent, agreeable young man who had insights into big bucks of the region and the dedication to finding them. But we didn’t. Not until the 11th hour of the fifth day.

“There’s one spot yet we haven’t checked,” he said as we were literally departing the ranch at closing time. “We’ve got a half hour or so. Want to try?” We drove a short distance to a ridge and glassed a small creek bottom in an odd corner of the property much too close to the county road to hold an old buck. It held two of them. Bosom buddies bedded in a snowberry patch.

As we drooled at the span of antler, both deer rose, stretched, peed, and began sauntering south. “We’ve go to get them before they reach that fence. That neighbor won’t even let you enter to recover a wounded buck. We have to drop one on this side of the fence!” After both bucks dipped into a hollow, we bailed from the truck and started running.

There were cattle about, and our running startled them. At first I thought this thundering herd would spook the bucks, but instead it stopped them and created a diversion. The deer stood one leap from safety, watching the stampeding cattle. My guide and I were near the top of a small hill, peering through grass tips at both bucks, the cattle between us. We assumed the deer mistook our heads for cattle parts.

“I’m going to slip around the backside of this hill and try to clear a shot while they’re looking this way!” I said. “You keep their attention. Wave at them if you have to.” And then I ran some more, the thumping of my boots blending with the clumping hooves of the cattle.

When I peaked over the grass the bucks were still there, still staring back toward my guide. I needed to wriggle forward a dozen yards or more to clear the hill and grass for a sitting shot, but that would expose me. So I spread my Steady Sticks and knelt behind them. Out of breath. Heart hammering. Adrenaline surging. The reticle scribbled like an etch-a-sketch over and across the biggest buck. I sucked in a big breath, let out half of it, and willed my body to stop quivering. The reticle suddenly settled on the base of the big buck’s neck. The trigger broke, the light rifle recoiled, and I heard a meaty, heartwarming wump. The smaller buck leaped into the sanctuary, but the big one was lying in a heap beside it.

Real trophy mule deer hunters would laugh at this buck. It’s probably just a five year old, a year or two away from growing truly massive antlers. But bucks of that age are few and far between. Regardless how many or few inches this rack scores, it remains to remind me of a trophy hunt and a trophy shot made possible by a cheap set of trophy aluminum shooting sticks perfect for the job.

If I’d been hunting with a bipod clamped to the front swivel stud of my 5-pound Rifle’s, Inc. Strata Stainless 280 Ackley Improved, l wouldn’t have been able to take the shot that secured this buck. This is why I recommend lightweight, versatile, portable shooting sticks, the roaming hunters best tool for steadying shots.