# Nebraska Muzzleloader Hunt 12/10/16-12/17/16



## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

My trip to Nebraska started Friday 12/9/16, we all met at 3:30pm and planned on heading out around 4:00pm. We had packed everything away into the trailer on Thursday so we would be ready to roll out on time Friday. As luck would have it the lights on the trailer decided they did not want to work on Friday night. After an hour of rewiring the truck adapter the lights were working, and we were on our way!

We were planning on driving straight through from Michigan. The next 17 hours consisted of driving, gas stations, and truck stops. As we entered Nebraska we were ready to be out of the truck and ready for some breakfast. We were driving through some pretty remote areas and finally came to a small town that had a small bar that was open for breakfast... Or so we thought. We walked into the bar and it appeared everyone in this town was there for breakfast. (You should have seen the looks we received when we opened the doors) Apparently it was the mayors Birthday and we weren't invited....








(Us attempting to crash the mayors birthday)

Breakfast ended up being an egg muffin from the next gas station. We reached Chadron NE around noon, where we stopped at Walmart and stocked up for our week. We also met Regina, our cabin owner at Walmart and she led us the remaining half hour to our cabin in Whitney NE. On our way in we seen 75-100 deer driving down the 2 mile long driveway.

We finally reached the cabin around 1:30pm, unpacked and lounged around the cabin the rest of the day... Below are a few pictures taken of the cabin and the surrounding area. Tomorrow we will get into the hunting portion of the trip. Sorry if grammar and spelling is terrible today, I am writing this on my phone riding back from Boyne.


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## Namrock (Apr 12, 2016)

The mayor's birthday?! Bahaha. love it


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## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

Sunday morning we headed out and explored the 80 acres surrounding the cabin we were staying in. This was just a small creek bottom and a hay field. There was not much for sign on this 80 acres so we went and spoke with a few other land owners who we had previously spoke with about hunting their property. We looked at numerous properties and the last one we looked at was owned by a older gentleman who owns 680 acres surrounding the national forest we would also be hunting. He gave us permission to hunt any of his property and to use any of the roads through his property to gain access to the national forest.

( The goal on this trip was to hunt Mule deer as much as possible and if we were not seeing those by mid week switch over to whitetail. Mule deer numbers are not very high in this portion of Nebraska and most of them stay in the hills of the national forest. Whitetail on the other hand are abundant and are on the more flatter ground ( I use the term flatter loosely!))

Sunday afternoon- Sunday afternoon I hiked 4 miles back into the national forest and climbed to the top of a hill to glass for the afternoon. The truck was parked at 4000' of elevation and the hill I ended on was around 4700' of elevation. I glassed from this hill top the remainder of the afternoon and was pleasanly surprised on what I seen. Within the first hour I had a spike mule deer walk withing 80yrds of me and a few other does walk through the same general area.

Later on toward dark I spotted three different herds of mule deer all miles away from where I was located. I couldn't tell what any of them were from that distance but I knew that the next morning I would be sitting much closer so I could make a move.

Below are a few pictures from the hill I was glassing from.


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## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

*** I should have mentioned earlier in this post that Myself and 3 other friends went on this trip, most of the time I hunted by myself or with my buddy Kyle***

With the excitement of seeing so many deer Sunday night, the plan was to be out before daylight Monday morning about a mile North of look out hill which I hunted Sunday night. This should have put me in the middle of all the deer.

Monday morning came and what do you know... Its gets light out faster than we get around. We rolled out of the driveway late enough I could see across fields already. So instead of heading out to where we were at last night we decided to head to the far South side of the National forest and explore the more wooded section of the national forest. We agreed to meet back at the truck at 11am and head to the North side where I seen deer the night before.

Monday morning was very slow, I was sitting on a tall hill side over looking a canyon. Throughout the morning I had 9 mule deer doe walk withing 75 yrds of me but no horns in the group. As 11am was approaching I headed back to the truck to meet up with the others.









Monday afternoon we headed back out to the North side of the national forest where we thought all of the deer would be. Around 3:30 deer started strolling out of every little crevice around. We were hunting between two creek bottoms and there must have been deer laying. We seen a total of 32 deer this after noon, including 3 bucks. One was a 2x2 and the other two were small spikes. By the time dark rolled around it was a FREEZING 3 degreese.


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## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

Tuesday morning we were out well before daylight and sitting in the same exact spot as the night before. With seeing so many deer the night before we figured it was only a matter of time until Mr. Big showed up.

We sat until around 11:00 am Tuesday morning before heading back to the cabin. We had to run into Chadron today to pick up some more supplies for the week.

Running into town took much longer than expected and we did not get back and ready to head out until shortly after 3:00pm. With all 4 of us hunting the national forest so far this week and not seeing a shooter I decided to set the land we had permission to hunt that butted up to the national forest. I knew the majority of the deer I would see would be whitetail but at this point I was ready for anything.

Being so late in the afternoon I walked about a half mile onto this property and sat along the top of the biggest hill against a fencepost so I could glass most of the property and decide where I wanted to hunt the next morning. There wasn't much for cover where I was sitting and I was not expecting to see anything within 300-400 yrds...

Well tonight is where I learned deer can hide in the littlest pockets when you are out west. About a half hour after setting up I had a 5 doe come out of a little bunch of trees about 300 yrds down hill from me. These doe milled around eating for about 10 minutes before all heck broke loose.

All of a sudden a buck came charging out of the same little bunch of trees the doe had walked out of. He ran a big circle around the doe before chasing them directly up the hill I was sitting on.

Just before the buck came out I had decided I was cold and started putting my coat, during this time I had set my gun leaning up against a fence post so it was out of my way. I had one arm in my coat when I looked up and the buck came busting out of the scrub toward the does. I could tell it had horns as soon as it cleared the brush. I dropped the coat scrambled for my muzzle-loader and quickly twisted to get my scope on him to see if he was a shooter. I quickly determined it was a shooter and went for my shooting sticks and rangefinder....

As I stated earlier in this post I was not expecting to see anything close enough to get a shot so I quickly realized my shooting sticks and rangefinder were still tucked safely away in my backpack. The buck was still chasing the doe directly up the hill so I slid around hoping to be able to use my knees as a shooting rest. As I did this I whistled and the buck stopped. I put my cross hairs where they had to be and squeezed the trigger. Directly after the shot a bunch of dirt flew behind the buck :rant: ( it was very dry and dusty out there) and I new I had shot low. The buck looked around before running closer to me and stopping again. My backpack was laying 3ft away from me with my reloads so I got to enjoy the buck as he walked another 40 yrds before bounding up the hill after the doe... I had just missed a 18" wide 8pt all because I assumed I would not see anything close enough that night and did not prepare myself for a shot.

After calming down I dug through my bag and ranged where the buck was standing when I shot. I had guessed the buck to be between 100-125yrds when in all reality he was close to 200 yrds. There was a slight drop between me and where the buck was standing and it threw my depth perception way off.

Lesson learned today. Always be ready for a shot no matter how unlikely it is to hold deer!








Left side of hill where I was glassing for deer.










Deer came out of the trees on the far right side of this picture and ran up the hill. Where I missed.


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## kingfisher 11 (Jan 26, 2000)

I love the country out there. I guess if I lived there I would probably love MI due to Trees. I worked fro a guy that grew up in NE. He said he liked MI better because it had trees.

I hunt NW KS which looks a lot like that.


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## Trout King (May 1, 2002)

Nebraska is on my hit list in the next few years. Looks like a great time. Thanks for the post.


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## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

Trout King said:


> Nebraska is on my hit list in the next few years. Looks like a great time. Thanks for the post.


It can be a very cheap hunt!


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## Trout King (May 1, 2002)

Hunting18 said:


> It can be a very cheap hunt!


That is the goal, I'm not rich, but got interested in out of state for some reason this year, so I have spent some time looking at DIY public land out of state hunts. Went to Ohio this year, Indiana/Ohio is on the list next year. I think I will be putting in for my South Dakota rifle tag this year and hopefully get one in two years. 

BTW, noticed you are from Ionia, me too. Graduated IHS in 05, and live in Portland now.


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## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

Trout King said:


> That is the goal, I'm not rich, but got interested in out of state for some reason this year, so I have spent some time looking at DIY public land out of state hunts. Went to Ohio this year, Indiana/Ohio is on the list next year. I think I will be putting in for my South Dakota rifle tag this year and hopefully get one in two years.
> 
> BTW, noticed you are from Ionia, me too. Graduated IHS in 05, and live in Portland now.



I live in Muir, Work in Portland. Graduated in 2011. You probably graduated with my older brother.

If you ever want info on where we hunted let me know.


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## Trout King (May 1, 2002)

Hunting18 said:


> I live in Muir, Work in Portland. Graduated in 2011. You probably graduated with my older brother.
> 
> If you ever want info on where we hunted let me know.


Appreciate it man. I'm sure we probably know a lot of the same people. Nebraska is on the list probably about 5 years down the road. I told my wife that the out of state stuff is going to get addicting.


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## casscityalum (Aug 27, 2007)

so after the miss was there anymore hunts or did you gets leave due to the storm?


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## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

Thanks for the reminder Casscityalum, between Christmas and work I forgot I hadn't finished this yet...


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## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

Wednesday morning we woke up to a temperature of -2 and a wind chill well below that. With it being so cold and the wind howling the way it was we called out morning hunt off and went back to bed. we eventually ran into town ate breakfast and stopped at a few sports shops before heading back to the cabin.

Wednesday afternoon warmed up nicely and we were headed out around 1:00pm. Tonight my friend Kyle decided to tag along with me and we went back close to the area where I had missed my buck the night before. We were about a half mile further back on the highest hill on this property. The afternoon was slow with just a few doe wandering through here and there. 

About a hour before dark deer really started to move. We had a group of 16 deer move out of the pines into a grassy field where they "grazed" for the rest of the night. In this group there were two bucks, the first was just a small 4pt (2x2) and the other was a half rack with 4pt. This buck would have been a monster had both sides of his rack been attached. As these deer ate it was very tempting for me to shoot the half rack but I just couldn't get myself to pull the trigger. He was in the cross hairs numerous times at 150-200 yrds.

This hill became known as half rack hill and we will get one more hunt out of it before we have to head home.

Sorry about the lack of pictures, it was still rather cold out and apparently I never took my gloves off long enough to take pictures.


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## Hunting18 (Jul 16, 2014)

Thursday morning we woke early to very cold temperatures again. We were not going to lose another morning to the cold so we bundled up and headed out. Again this morning I was headed back to half rack hill to see what would show. The wind was blowing 25-30 mph so I was not able to sit on top of the hill like the night before. I had to stay about 60ft from the top in a little cut out on the side of the hill that blocked most of the wind. This morning was very slow with only a few doe wandering through...

We headed back to the truck around 11am to warm and regroup. During this time we were listening to the radio when a weather alert came on stating near blizzard like conditions starting that night lasting through Saturday. They were predicting that many highways would be closed and travel would be treacherous. One of the highways list was I 80. We kind of blew it off until we received a call about 5minutes later from my buddy back in Michigan who owns a trucking company. His first words to us were you better leave now or make sure you have enough food to last a few days. He was watching the weather and already rerouting his trucks he had out west away from this area.

He is not one to freak out about weather so when we received this call we decided we better head back and start packing. This mornings hunt would be the last of our Nebraska 2016 hunt.

We were packed and headed out of Nebraska by 1pm.

I don't think the weather ever got as bad as they predicted but they did receive over a foot of snow.

If I had known Wednesday night that we would have been leaving the next day I would have definitley took a try at the half rack or shot one of the numerous doe we had seen. But thats how hunting goes!

This was a great trip that I hope to go on again some day. The next few years are tied up with elk hunts but maybe sometime after that...


If anyone is looking for a very inexpensive hunt this is the one to go on. I had less than $1500 into this trip and could have had far less than that but this was my first trip out west so I purchased some new gear that I thought would be needed that is included in the $1500.00 total.

If anyone heads out that way check out RlazyJ Cabin in Whitney NE. I can't say enough good things about the cabin and the owners! They are fantastic and willing to help with anything.

If anyone has any questions on the hunt let me know. I will attach a few other random pictures from the trip in a few minutes.


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