Editor’s Note: Cody Robbins lives in an area home to some of the best mule deer, whitetail deer, and elk hunting in North America. Most specifically, he believes, “Here in Delisle, Saskatchewan, we have bigger mule deer than you’ll find anywhere else.” Cody and his wife, Kelsey, host the TV show “Live2Hunt“. He explains this week why he can hunt some of the biggest mule deer in the mule deer’s home range. To learn more about Cody, visit his Facebook Page.
My huge mule-deer buck lived about two miles from my house, and I’d never seen him until one day when my wife, Kelsey, and I were driving down a road headed toward our ranch. We’re cattle ranchers and raise Black Baldy cows, and this trip was right after our branding. So, I wanted to check on our cattle and make sure all of them were okay. While on the road, Kelsey brought her binoculars just in case we happened to see a deer.
“Stop the truck! I see a buck,” Kelsey said. The sun was setting, so I told her, “We don’t have time to stop and look at a mangy deer right now. We must get to the pasture and check the cows before the sun goes down.” “This is a big one, Cody. Stop the truck.” “Kelsey, we don’t have time to stop and look at some things. I’m headed to the pasture to check on the cows.”
Irritated with me, Kelsey reached over and grabbed the back of my neck and squeezed it like the jaws of a vice grip. No longer using her soft, sweet, feminine voice, she screamed in my ear, “Stop the truck!” She handed me the binoculars, and I looked at an immense mule deer 200 yards away. When he picked his head up above the grass, I noticed that he had double drop tines, and I could tell he would score at least 240 inches. I turned to Kelsey and said, “I’m going to shoot that buck this year.” Of course, she argued with me because she wanted to shoot the buck with her bow, but I trumped her.
Tomorrow: Learning from Bowhunters about Mule Deer