Remembering My First Mule Deer Buck
By: Michael “Micky” Luby
It’s been twenty years since that hunt, but I can still feel the burn in my legs, the thin air in my lungs, and the pounding of my heart as if it happened yesterday. I was twelve years old, hunting with my mom in the high country, and I was about to take my first mule deer buck.
A Week That Tested Us
We’d been at it for over a week, climbing ridge after ridge, glassing until our eyes ached, and coming back to camp each night bone-tired. My mom pushed us forward every morning, boots on, packs loaded, no excuses. I’ll admit there were moments when I wanted to quit. The mountains felt too big, the deer too scarce, and my legs too short for the country we were in.
But Mom wouldn’t let me give in. She kept reminding me that hunting isn’t supposed to be easy, it’s supposed to be earned.
The Snow Morning
Then came the morning when the mountain gave us one last chance. I remember unzipping the tent and seeing snow on the ground, frosting the rocks and willows above the tree line. It felt like a fresh start.
We climbed higher than we had all week, the cold biting through my gloves. Just as I started to wonder if we’d come up empty again, Mom spotted him, a small buck feeding across a snowy pocket. He wasn’t big, but to me he looked like the king of the mountain.
The Shot That Changed Everything
I dropped behind my rifle, heart hammering. My chest heaved from the climb, and I could barely keep the crosshairs steady. Mom knelt beside me, calm as ever, whispering the same reminders she had drilled into me back home during practice: breathe, squeeze, don’t rush.
I did exactly what she said.
The shot echoed, the buck stumbled, and suddenly all the exhaustion from the week was gone. I’d done it. I’d taken my first mule deer buck, up in the snow, above the tree line.
(Micky apologized for the picture being misleading, his buck was much smaller but more people click on big buck pictures so the editor made some decisions)
What It Taught Me
That buck wasn’t big by any stretch. But looking back twenty years later, it’s still one of the most important hunts of my life. It taught me about perseverance, about respecting the mountains, and about the bond that hunting creates between people, in my case, between a mother and her son.
It also gave me my first real respect for mule deer. Spending over a week in their country, watching how they survived in such harsh conditions, made me realize how incredible these animals are and how fragile their habitat can be.
Why It Matters Today
Now, as an adult, I see how that hunt shaped the way I think about conservation. The Mule Deer Foundation is doing the work to make sure those alpine ranges, the same ones where I hiked and struggled and finally pulled the trigger, are there for the next generation of young hunters. From restoring habitat to protecting migration corridors, MDF is making sure twelve-year-olds like I once was will still have wild places to chase their first mule deer buck.
Closing Thoughts
I may have pulled the trigger that day, but it was my mom who taught me how to work for it, and the mountains that taught me humility. Twenty years later, that small buck in the snow still feels like the biggest deer of my life.
If you care about ensuring those same opportunities for your kids and grandkids, I encourage you to support the Mule Deer Foundation. Whether through membership, volunteering, or a donation, every effort helps conserve the habitat and herds that make these memories possible. Together, we can make sure the next generation has its own story to tell from above the tree line.
Join the Mule Deer Foundation!
Send any success pictures or stories from the field to [email protected] and you could be featured on our website or in our magazine. If this article or any of our articles have helped you become a better hunter or conservation steward, consider becoming a member of the Mule Deer Foundation or the Blacktail Deer Foundation or both. Click here to join: https://muledeer.org/product-category/membership/ or https://www.blacktaildeer.org/
Michael “Mickey” Luby – Writer Bio
Michael “Mickey” Luby is a modern-day mountain man and unapologetic traditionalist living deep in Western Montana. A seasoned mule deer hunter with decades of experience chasing high-country bucks, Mickey has earned a reputation for grit, stubbornness, and a sixth sense for finding big deer where the air is thin and the trails are long forgotten.
