# Wy Mule Deer - The Forky that wanted to be eaten



## MuscleWhitefish (Jan 13, 2015)

I arrive on Saturday and set up camp and decide to hike up behind camp to see what I can see. I can see does an fawns from the glassing point. I turn around to look through the trees and spot a little forky. I decide to let him live. I glass until the light starts to fade and pack up. As soon as I stand up, I bump a deer behind me. I look over the ridge down the other side expecting to see the forky and instead I see a super tall 4x4 running through the trees. I make the plan to go back in a few days. The next day after checking out a morning spot, I come back to camp for lunch. There is a car parked at the bottom of the ridge I was looking at the night before and the guy had just taken a beautiful 4x4 dark horned buck from where I was looking the night before. It was not the buck that I saw running through the trees. 

The next day after an uneventful night, I hike into an area where there were loads of elk in May and there had to have been 6-8 gut piles in that area due to the bunny hopping ravens in the area. It is too late to hike into another spot, so I watch the area and nothing. 

The next morning I decide to go after that buck. Hiking up into the trees before light, I run into that forky again. Rather than run down the hill away from me. He decides to cut a half circle to get my wind and then run into the area where that buck I was looking for was bedded. I'm sure he bumped him looking at the area. I go down for lunch and while eating a sandwich at the tailgate. I see a buck sneaking down the hill to cross the road and get into the pines. I grab the gun and go, but I am too late. I decide to hike around this pined mountain to see what I can find in the evening. I spot a couple of does and a 4x4 buck sneaking over a distant ridge. I also spotted two wolves, one stopped in the meadow to scratch an ear like a domestic dog. I was hoping that they would push some elk my way, but I guess they were not hungry. I am 2 miles in and on my way out there were 4 other hunters below me in the same area. One was elk calling and a big black angus bull was answering. This was comical. When I was in this area in the spring, I spotted a Boar Grizzly - so on the way out I was playing an audiobook on my phone (American Buffalo - In Search of a Lost Icon). I heard a crash in the water and instinctively went for the bear spray. As I am reaching for the bear spray, I realize that I was just petrified by a beaver slapping it's tail on the water.

The next day is pretty uneventful, but I decide it is time to take a meat buck if one presents itself.

I wake up and decide to make a play for that tall four point again. I get into position and the wind is good. I can see where the buck bedded recently. I wait. I decide to relocate and when I stand up, I bump a deer. I didn't see it, but I assume it was the 4x4. I move a big higher to get a better vantage point and wait to see if the buck circles around and comes back in. I then hear a deer behind me and turn around to see the forky puttering around. This time, however I chamber a round in the 30-06. He stops around 30 yards away between two trees and let a shell off. The shot felt good, but I have no idea if I hit the deer or not. I do not find any blood in the area. I think back to times I could have knocked the scope and can't think of any. I set clothes in the trees and go back and replay the shot. I find the set of trees I shot at him in between and start looking for blood. I do not find blood. I decide to pack up and move in the direction, I thought he went. Within 10 feet I spot him 15 feet from the shot in the opposite direction, I thought that he went. There was more blood on him, than on the trail - Which is why the photo filter. I am impressed at the performance of the Berger VLD's from HSM, granted at 30 yards there probably isn't a bullet that wouldn't preform. 

That's the story of the forky that just wanted to be eaten. 

I tried to pack all into the backpack, but after failing to stand up - I decided to make two trips. This deer had a lot of fat on him, It looks like the deer are in great shape in Wyoming.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Congratulations!

Great story and pics, thanks for sharing.

.


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

Best forkie sorry ever! That was some beautiful country you were hunting!


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

Sometimes the deer picks you........Congrats!-----SS


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Nothing wrong with shooting a young tender deer. I know alot of people frown on it but the way I think about it is for every young buck shot, that's one more big one left in the hills for everyone else.


-DallanC


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## stillhunterman (Feb 15, 2009)

Very cool, congrats on the fat buckie! Haha, have had a beaver slapping it's tail in the water spike my nerves a time or two, amazing how much power that tail has when it hits!


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## MuscleWhitefish (Jan 13, 2015)

stillhunterman said:


> Very cool, congrats on the fat buckie! Haha, have had a beaver slapping it's tail in the water spike my nerves a time or two, amazing how much power that tail has when it hits!


Believe you me. It is even worse at night in Grizz country.


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## High Desert Elk (Aug 21, 2012)

Congrats!

The only other thing to give you a heart seizure besides a beaver tail slap is a flushed grouse 10 ft from you that you didn't see.


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