Super Tag 2007

Idaho Super Tag 2007

By: Ryan Smith

Wow, what a season!  It all started back in July when my brother Dallas called me at work, I believe that it started something like this “you lucky SOB, your name was drawn for the super tag”.  The Super Tag is a tag that the Idaho Fish and Game gives away in a lottery drawing.   I couldn’t believe it best $50.00 I have ever spent.

After the initial shock wore off, it was time to get down to business.  Start scouting and looking for the “WOW” buck..  I decided right off that I was going to hold out for the 220”+ mark.  This is probably crazy from a guy that hasn’t even broke the 200” mark yet.  However my mind was made up, 220 or tag soup.

Fortunately for me my brother lives right in the middle of the units that we were planning on spending the bulk of our time in.  My personal scouting trips consisted of  my son Kody and I heading out on Friday evenings and returning home on Sunday.  My brother and I  both videoed many different bucks.  Some of those bucks were real bomber bucks let me tell ya.

Now it was time to find the “WOW|” buck.  We spent many days hunting the different units that we had scouted so hard during  the summer months.   We saw many great bucks and at least three bucks that would have gone over the magical 200” mark, but fell short of the 220” mark.

Due to business obligations, I was scheduled to be out of town the last week of one of the premier units that I was hunting, and to say the least my brother was a bit irritated.  I told him that if a monster showed up to get a hold of me.  I didn’t mention the trip that I was leaving on was deer hunting trip on Catalina Island, California.

November 2, I was in my second full day on the island when my cell phone started receiving messages.  I had one from my dad and five from my brother all telling me that I needed to get back home because a monster had shown up.  Turned out a good friend of ours has a ranch that is located in the middle of some of the best late season mule deer country there is.  “Earlier in the season we had run into Lou Anderson and I told him that I had been fortunate enough to draw the super tag and he said that if anythingshowed up around his place he would be sure to get a hold of me”.  Well that time was now.

So after some explaining to my boss and customers that it was a life or death situation, it was time to figure out how to get off the island and back to Idaho.

With some quick goodbyes I was off to catch the last boat back to Long beach, and from there I caught a one hour cab ride to LA.  Unfortunately I had missed all of the flights out of LA to Boise that night.  So I found a hotel and made arrangements to fly out the next morning.  I made arrangements to have one of my friends Ryan Leggett pick me up at the airport the next morning.

Saturday morning I got on the airplane and arrived in Boise without a hitch.  Then it was off to meet my brother, and Chuck and Jesse Shenk these two folks were soon to  become my new friends.  We arrived at the ranch and immediately started hunting, and glassing.  Looking over every piece of landscape possible.  Let me remind you I was still yet to see a good picture of this buck or the buck at all.  After pushing some brush patches and only seeing small bucks I was wondering if what they were calling a monster buck was really a monster.  Around 3:00, Chuck drove up and said that his wife had made some fresh apple pies and would we like to go and visit for a bit, and make a new game plan.  Well we got to the ranch house and Jesse hadn’t just made apple pie, she had a entire meal laid out for us.  “Awesome” is the best way to describe it.  I can’t explain in writing how nice and hospitable these folks were.  After enjoying the great meal and pie, and lots of great hunting stories, we decided that our best bet was to head back out and glass for the evening.  If that didn’t work out we would make plans to meet up the next morning before light and catch the buck moving from his feeding grounds to his bedding area.  

As we were leaving the ranch house we decided to glass the surrounding sage hills that bordered the corn fields.  Within a couple minutes of glassing, Dallas had spotted the buck.  The buck had just stepped out of a patch of Russian Olive trees and was heading into the corn field in hot pursuit of a doe.  The stalk was on. My brother and I jumped into the empty ditch that skirted the corn field the buck was in.   I couldn’t believe this was how it was going to end, after putting miles and miles of walking sage and lava flats I was going to shoot my monster Muley in a  corn field.  So after coming up over the bank and getting the camera and myself set up, I finally took a good look at this monarch of a buck.  Wow! shouldn’t have done that for the first time since I was a kid I started to get a bit of buck fever.  I told my brother that I needed to take a second and gather myself.  I took about 5 seconds and turned and squeezed the trigger.  For security I put a second shot in him, even though it wasn’t needed he was on his way down.  I couldn’t believe it, I had finally gotten my “WOW” buck.  The entire hunt and kill scene can be seen on Burly Bucks 3.  The buck unofficially scored 220” B&C, and is 34 ½” wide.

Now it was time to celebrate and take pictures.

I would like to thank the Idaho Fish and game for making this Super Tag  experience possible.

I can’t thank Lou Anderson, Chuck Shenk, Jesse Shenk enough, without there help none of this would have been possible.  I also need to thank all of my friends and family for there help in taking this incredible animal.  A special thanks goes out to my brother Dallas Smith for everything…  Thank-you Tina, my wife, and Candice my brothers wife for understanding this crazy passion that my brother and I have of hunting Mule deer.

Alberta, New #2 Archery Mule Deer!

Alberta Bliss

By Steve Alderman

Anyone and everyone in  the mule deer world knows that Canada is home to impressive mule deer including the current world record, the Broder buck.  Hunting the rolling hills of Alberta for trophy mule deer had been a dream of mine for the last ten years.  Harvesting a monster mule deer with a bow is a difficult task because of the mule deer’s keen senses. Nonetheless, before I knew it, a mule deer hunting buddy of mine, Joe Wiggs, referred me to an outfitter in Southern Alberta.  The date was set and I  was headed north to hunt the rolling agricultural fields of Alberta.

 

 I would be hunting the second week of the season in Alberta.  It would give my guide and outfitters some time to locate a good buck.  I called the outfitter every night of the first week to get updates and it seemed as if 180+ class bucks were the norm with every phone call.

 

My hopes were high as I started my trek to Alberta.  Soon, I would get my first chance at a trophy buck  with my trusty Hoyt.  As usual, none of the bucks that were seen the prior week showed themselves, however, I did find a 190 class buck on the third day of the hunt.  A sudden  wind change blew our stalk on the heavy Alberta muley.  The rest of the hunt was spent chasing the elusive 190-inch non-typical that seemed to vanish into  thin air.  Needless to say, my 2005 hunt ended without even taking an arrow out of my quiver.  

 

Fast forward to 2007.  This year I was on a cancellation hunt, but instead of the second week, I would be hunting the first.  I was really looking forward to hunting with guide and good friend, Scott Olson.    Lucky for me, Scott had a summer job grading roads before the hunting season, which in my eyes doubled as a daily scouting opportunity.  If nothing else, Scott would know what fields and water source the deer were frequenting.

 

We arrived in Alberta two days before the season started in an attempt to find an elusive 6×8 non-typical Scott had photographed the prior week.  As luck would have it, opening morning was upon us and we had not spotted the big buck. The morning dawned cold and wet with the pungent smell of freshly cut alfalfa overwhelming our senses.  We began scanning the hay fields surrounding the area where the buck was previously spotted twice.  Suddenly, in the distance, I spotted antler tips in the depression of a hay field  to the East.  We scrambled into position to try and cut the deer off as they were moving to their bedding area.  Crawling  through the freshly cut hay to the edge of the depression we were able to set up our glass.  Looking through the lens of the Swarovski scope we spotted the deer watering and realized these were eight bucks  Scott had never seen before.  Two among the group were worthy of a stalk with antlers grossing in the mid 190’s.  I chose to make the one with the extra kicker my quarry.  He was a little wider, much heavier, and he just had to be the one because mass is my big weakness.  Spirits were high as we had found a couple of great bucks to stalk on opening morning.  We were joking and making fun of one another as the deer made their way to an aspen patch located in the middle of the hay field.  The deer bedded for the day and the stock was planned.  The first 1000 yards would be in the open, but the last 200 yards had the cover of a spring where the grass was over two and a half feet tall due to the fact that it was simply to wet and difficult for farmer to cultivate it.  

Alberta and Hoyt, go together like peanut butter and jelly!

We snuck from hay bale to hay bale for the first 1,000 yards, but then it was hands, knees and bellies for the next  400.  Halfway through the stalk,  the deer got up and left the cover of the aspens to bed near a single bush in the middle of the spring.   The mature bucks worked their pecking order to vie for the best beds while the forked horns were left to bed in the open, 20 yards from the bush.  The stalk was back on. This time, however, we had to move more slowly to ensure one of the young bucks didn’t detect our movement and destroy the last two hours of painstaking stalking.  

 

Finally, we reached the cool, tall grass of the spring.  To our surprise, the spring was lower than the bush the deer had bedded near which allowed us to stalk within 50 yards of the big boy.  Unfortunately, the forked horn bucks were between us and my prize.  We couldn’t get any closer  so we settled in for the long haul.

Fortunately for us, after 15 minutes, the clouds broke and the skies began to clear.  It started to heat up and the deer began to pop up almost magically out of the tall grass looking for a shadier spot to bed.  The big boy stood up and began feeding on the bush he was previously bedded under.  I knew the buck was 50 yards from us and standing broadside.  The camera man had been standing over my right shoulder with Scott kneeling to my left.  ”Are you on him” I asked the camera man.  He replied “yes, I’m rolling”  I slowly started to draw my Hoyt Vectrex back, anchored  and let the arrow fly.  The buck spun 180 degrees and ended up facing the opposite direction.  To my disbelief, the arrow had flown harmlessly over his back.  Now he was standing broadside curiously trying to figure out what had just happened  allowing me to knock another arrow, ask the cameraman if he was still rolling, draw, anchor, concentrate on the spot, release and follow through.  The arrow flew perfectly and found its mark.  The buck ran eighty yards where he crashed lifelessly into the cattails.  It was almost surreal that everything had gone so perfectly, from finding this buck, executing the perfect stalk, and being granted a second shot.  It was amazing to share this experience with two great friends and harvest one spectacular animal with my Hoyt on the first day of the hunt.

As we made our way over to the buck, he kept growing and growing.  This was one of those times when the deer was actually bigger than we had thought.  His mass was spectacular with huge 3’s and 4’s.  He had massive blading which made all of his points appear shorter than they actually were.  Our Alberta buck measured out with a 204”  typical frame with four inches of extras.  He officially nets out at 195 4/8” typically, which places him #2 right behind the new #1 shot by Peter Tsoulamanis almost two months later.  

Camera man Cody Waldo and I on cloud nine!

 

What a trip!  Three days in Alberta and I had the biggest buck I had ever harvested!   I couldn’t wait to get it back to the States with my 208” gross buck and rub it in! 

One tip that I would pass on to new archers is that you need to have patience.  Don’t force the situation.  Allow the buck to do what is natural for him and eventually he will make a mistake that you can capitalize on.  This was an experience I will treasure. I now have an Alberta buck that still takes my breath away.  Good luck and “Dare to dream big!”

 

*On a side note, there was one down side to this hunt.  I called to rebook a hunt for this coming year and the cost of the hunt went up by over fifty percent.  It looks like I will be archery hunting in My home state of Idaho this year!  It’s not that it is not worth it, I’m just not made of money.  If I was, Scotty, would be busy helping me find that next trophy of a life time.

Hunting north of the border for mule deer is something everyone should try, at least in September when the weather is somewhat pleasurable.  You just never know when that buck of a lifetime will walk out of a thicket.

 

A special thanks goes out to my good friend and guide, Scott Olson, for taking us around and letting us stay at his grandparents house.  You are the man Scotty!  Thanks for all you have done to help make my dream a reality.  Thanks to my wife and son for making room in the house for one more mount and to Hoyt for making the best bow money can buy!  Thanks also to Kings for their awesome camo!  No need for shadows when you can flat hide anywhere.  Congratulations, goes out to Peter Tsoulamanis for his new Alberta record.  What a buck!

My guide and friend Scott Olson and I loaded and ready to head back to camp

 

Hunter: Steve Alderman

Location: Alberta, Canada

Outfitter: Jack Franklin

Guide: Scott Olson

Date: September 5, 2007

Days Scouted: 2

Weather: Overcast, rainy

Temperature: 70’s

Moon:

Terrain: Rolling agriculture with thick pockets of vegetation

Camouflage: King’s Mountain Shadow

Weapon: Hoyt Vectrex

Spotting Scope: Swarovski 20-60 ATS-HD

Binoculars: Swarovski- 10×42 EL

Range Finder: Swarovski

Pack: Mystery Ranch.  Nice System.

Boots: I wish they were Kenetrek 7” Hardscrabble Hikers

It all starts with the bucks?

FAWNS-BUCKS-DOES, WHERE DOES IT ALL START?

By Todd A. Black

I’ve really had to bite my tongue these past few weeks with all the internet chatter about Utah’s mule deer management plan. It just seems so much of it has all been about more and better ways with more opportunity to harvest mule deer. That is a hunting plan not mule deer management. I really believe strongly if we don’t put management 1^st we won’t be hunting at all 20 years down the road.

Photo by Vincent Martinez Photography

A few years ago, Terry Messmer (my boss) wrote an article titled ‘It all starts with fawns’. In this article he discussed the importance of fawn production and survival being the key to success for your deer herds. In the last two paragraphs he discussed the importance of buck age structure within a given population and the role they play in the fitness of a population. He stated, “reduced numbers of mature breeding males in breeding populations could further disrupt mule deer reproduction if immature bucks are unable to breed (or might not know how to court and breed) available females”. Having a good number of mature bucks in the population is a very important part of mule deer biology. So my question is, does it really start with the fawns, or does it start with the mature bucks? I guess this is kind of like asking which came first the chicken or the egg. No doubt the health and fitness of the does is equally important as well. If does are not ‘fit’, they likely won’t even be breed. Terry goes on to say that the timing and strategies of our harvest and the increased recreational access during the fall and winter months could possibly be disrupting the biological mechanisms regulating mule deer reproduction. These factors may inadvertently be contributing to reported declines in deer abundance.

How about we discuss the importance of age structure amongst the population of bucks and the role the older bucks play in mule deer population. Then we’ll briefly discuss how you and I fit into the mule deer management equation.

Does it all starts with the bucks?

Have you ever wondered what goes on in bachelor groups of bucks during the long summer months? While I do spend a fair amount of time watching them, I would love nothing more than to spend an entire summer or four day in day out watching one group of bucks interact, establish a dominance hierarchy among themselves, and learn new and undocumented behaviors; what a great summer job. A close friend and partner theorizes that during this time the younger bucks are learning form the older bucks how to be bucks. This might sound kind of silly but there is likely some truth to this theory. Much like the males in the human population there is a great deal of learning and maturing gleaned from the younger bucks observing older males. They learn what to eat, where to water, where to hide, how to act, how to treat the ladies and generally just how to be a buck. Without a doubt, these type of learned behaviors are crucial and key to the survival of the species. So just what is a mature buck? How do we know they are there?

Some biologist may classify and tell you a mature buck is a 2 year old buck. This is mainly because this buck is sexually mature. All this really means is that its testicles have dropped and it can produce viable sperm. However, a buck really doesn’t become ‘mature’ until he’s somewhere around 5 years old. Not only are many physical characteristics of the buck fully developed but the buck has had time to grow and mature and knows how to be a buck. The question now is, are we losing some of these important learned behaviors because we don’t have the mature bucks we once had?

So what does all this mean?

The natural history of cervids dictates that the females will select and breed with the dominant mature male. Generally, this is determined by body and or antler size. This selection takes place during what we call ‘the rut’. The rut of mule deer, in most western states peaks around the third/forth week in November. Mating with a mature buck should ensure a strong/’fit’ offspring and builds a healthy population. At least that’s the theory. Unfortunately with the declines of deer in the west, there aren’t too many places where you find ‘mature’ bucks doing the bulk of the breeding. Habitat fragmentation, highways and roads and urban sprawl have isolated and fragmented traditional winter ranges and breeding grounds. With these groups of does scattered hinder and yawn, it’s next to impossible for one or two mature bucks to breed 30 does let alone 100 or more. What is more typical in many of our herds is the two and three year old deer or even yearlings are doing the majority of the breeding. Are they capable of doing so? They are. The genes are still there, it can’t be bad for the population, right? Well, it might be and here’s why.

Could it all start with the Does?

A doe likely won’t breed with a scrawny pencil neck buck during her first estrus cycle. However, if she is still ‘fit’ she will come into estrus again 3-4 weeks later. Now, she may just decide that pencil neck is better than nothing if Goliath is still absent. This really isn’t helping our deer herds.

The gestation period of a doe is 200 days give or take a week or so. Given that, lets do some math I know it hurts but it’s simple. Lets say doe ‘A’ is bred on November 18^th, given a 200 day gestation, the fawn should hit the ground right around the 30^th of May. Doe ‘B’ is bred on December 23^rd (her second cycle) given the same gestation period, the fawn hits the ground on Independence day. Does anyone see what is happening here? Fawns born in May/June are likely to weigh more, be more ‘fit’, and better to withstand predation and make it through a bad winter than those born in July/August. These fawns go into the winter being less ‘fit’, weighing less, making them more susceptible to disease, predation, and extremes in weather. Which can lead to higher fawn mortality, less recruitment into the population and lower doe to fawn ratios? Ask yourself when the last time you saw a fawn with its spots still in late August/September. This really shouldn’t be happening if all the does were bred in late November early December, but I see it with more and more frequency.

Could we a part of the problem, does it start with us?

This is a tough question. It’s a biological, social, and economic issue. What are we to do? For starters, we just can’t continue to manage for quantity during these times of famine. Maximum sustained yield goes out the door with extremes in weather. One solution might be to manage for quality rather than quantity; another might be to simply reduce the number of tags sold and reduce harvest. Obviously this presents a few problems. Who is going to be the first to give up their tag for a year or three? I know in Utah it would be cut throat to give up a tag. Ask your state agencies how much money they can live without.

In summary, I don’t think we can continue to allow our immature bucks to do most of the breeding. We need those mature males in the population. We need ‘fit’ healthy fawns to make it through the dry summers and the cold wet winters. We can’t be harvesting 70-80% of our yearling bucks during these harsh times and expect things to recover over night or from year to year. We must manage for an even age distribution of bucks in the population through restrictions and reductions. It’s important for us to realize this. We as hunters just can’t continue to kill anything that has antlers and expect our mule deer population to increase. I’m not saying we all need to be trophy hunters either. But just maybe we don’t have to kill a deer every year to be a real hunter.

The Payback Buck

GREG KROGH, Featured Outfitter

Mogollon Rim Outfitters

The Payback Buck

 by Greg Krogh  (Mogollon Rim Outfitters)

 

The Payback Buck The story of this buck goes back to three years ago when Randy Ulmer spotted the largest typical mule deer he had ever seen. Randy graciously told me about the buck and gave me the green light to hunt him with my clients that year. However we never were able to find the buck again that fall so Randy and I both applied for the tag the following year. Believe it or not I beat the odds and drew the tag! On the second day of the season I was able to harvest the buck and he was everything Randy said he was and then some. I now had, what I felt, was a nearly impossible debt to pay and that, is where this story begins…….

Greg Krogh with one of the largest net typical velvet bucks ever harvested!

 

A few days after taking my buck I drove over to a neighboring unit to spend some time scouting for my rifle deer hunts. I had been glassing for two days in an area where I had jumped a real nice non-typical during the year prior. I had seen some pretty good bucks but nothing too great. Truth be told, I was still basking in the afterglow of my archery hunt when suddenly I noticed some movement under a big burned cedar tree. I was a long way off but I thought it was a buck’s rack. What intrigued me most was the apparent rack was 100 yards from the rim rock where I had jumped the nontypical the year before. Just as I was convincing myself that I was imagining it, the buck rose from his bed and walked out in the open. I wasn’t sure if it was the same buck from the year before, but regardless I knew he was something very special. I quickly got some video of the buck before he walked out of view. I couldn’t believe it, it was opening weekend of the archery deer season and there was nobody hunting this buck. For two days I filmed the buck and by then I was confident nobody knew about him.

With nobody to share my excitement except my non-hunting wife and twin 1-year-old daughters, Randy finally returned my countless calls. He had been hunting sheep in Wyoming and after hearing about that, I proceeded to tell him that we had a buck for him to hunt next year that would definitely settle up our debt. After I got done telling him, in detail, about the buck he said he would have to see it to believe it. One week later in our elk camp I showed the video to Randy and then the long one-year wait began.

An eternity later, August rolled around and found Randy and I once again in Nevada searching for the buck. It was four days before the season opener and the buck hadn’t been spotted since the prior year. I was glassing from the same knob were I had previously located the buck on prior years but this time we were having no luck finding him or any other deer for that matter. I was starting to get that sinking feeling that maybe he hadn’t returned this year, when I decided to look one last time down below me where I had first seen the buck two years ago. I couldn’t believe my eyes when my binoculars settled in on the buck chewing his cud, bedded under a tree eight hundred yards away. He was facing straight away from me and I counted twelve points per side. That’s when the uncontrollable shakes started. I tried to film him and it took several minutes for me to hold the camera steady. After getting some good video, I slipped off the backside of the mountain to go back to camp and tell Randy the news. When I arrived in camp there was nobody around. I had just found the buck of a lifetime and I had nobody to show it to. After several hours Randy returned from scouting and I showed him the video. The look on his face was priceless. After the initial excitement subsided, we came up with a plan of attack. The next three days were the longest of my life as we spent every waking hour watching and patterning the buck. Every time the buck bedded, I would take a nap and dream of what it was going to be like to eventually see the buck up close and hold his rack. I can’t explain why but I was just sure we were going to harvest this buck. I think my biggest source of confidence came from knowing that Randy was going to be the shooter. I have been lucky enough to go on numerous hunts with Randy over the years and there is nobody better. Everyone knows he can shoot a bow but his stalking and hunting skills are what set him apart from everyone else that I have ever hunted with. As confident as I was Randy had to keep being the voice of reason over the next couple of days and reminded me often that this wasn’t a done deal and that it was still a bow hunt.

Randy Ulmer on another successful hunt with Greg Krogh of Mogollon Rim Outfitters!

 

On the evening before opening day we had finally come up with a plan. For days the buck hadn’t traveled more than a couple hundred yards and he always chose his bedding area below a jagged peak that gave him a great view of any approach from below, while the wind currents tumbled over the top behind him would warn him of any danger from above. His water source was a spring 150 yards below him and there was surrounded by feed. The good news was that we could locate him everyday with relative ease, but the bad news was that we couldn’t figure out a way to kill him where he was. We finally decided to patiently wait the buck out for as long as it took until he made a mistake. Our main concern was that if we bumped him he might disappear forever because he was surrounded by thick country. We had hoped that by one of us watching from afar (me) and Randy several hundreds yards away waiting, we would be ready when the buck slipped up and left his secluded fortress. For days on end Randy would leave in the dark to get into position and after waiting all day he would return under the cover of darkness when the buck wouldn’t cooperate.

Finally, after seven long days of watching the buck, he left his secluded fortress and went over the top of the jagged peak into some rolling cut up country. He made his move right before dark and we didn’t have any choice but to watch him disappear over the skyline and hope we could relocate him in the much more stalkable, yet thicker, country where he appeared to be headed.

The next morning found me glassing from a nearby peak while Randy patiently glassed the edge of the area we believed the buck to be in. After two hours of turning up nothing, my spirits started to drop. I was starting to second guess our decision to not stalk him when we had had the chance. Inwardly, I was starting to resent Randy. After all it was his idea to be patient. I had wanted him to try the stalk several times but he kept convincing me that odds were too low. If only he had the same confidence in his stalking abilities that I did. I couldn’t believe we had let the buck of a lifetime get away without pursuing him more aggressively. I had just about worked myself into a total frenzy where my whole world was crashing down when suddenly……there he was! He was bedded under a cedar tree chewing his cud without a care in the world. To top it all off, he was approachable from downwind with the cover of a ridge to within bow range.   

Time was now of the essence and Randy quickly circled the buck to get the wind right. The next time I saw him was when he slowly crept over the ridge. There were four smaller bucks that were with the giant, one of which was bedded 50 yards off to Randy’s left.  Fortunately, Randy spotted him before it was the other way around and the situation quickly turned into a waiting game. Soon all five bucks were up feeding towards Randy. At one point the big buck was painfully close, but he couldn’t draw because of the other bucks. Just when I thought the other bucks were going to get too close, they all turned and started feeding slowly away. I watched as Randy slowly closed the gap, only moving when all heads were down. As luck would have it, the big buck was the closest to Randy but he was facing straight away. My prayers were finally answered when he turned broadside to nibble on some brush. I watched through the binoculars as Randy drew his bow and took aim. The buck lunged forward at the impact and then turned and trotted straight at Randy before going down a short distance later. I couldn’t believe what I had just witnessed. I had been confident we would get him, but now that we had, I just couldn’t believe it was real. After joining up with Randy a short time later and holding onto the rack it all started to sink in.

Mogollon Rim Outfitters, Nevada 2007

 

Story coming soon….

Greg Krogh (Mogollon Rim Outfiiters) successful again in Nevada.

  Please respect our site and don’t steal any photo’s for other sites.  This photo is the property of Greg Krogh, with permission to use granted to Mule Deer Country.com .  Thank you!