Chad Schearer on Hunting Mule Deer with CVA’s Kodiak Pro & Nate Treadaway
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Editor’s Note: Chad Schearer owned and guided for Central Montana Outfitters for 15 years and specializes in hunting with black powder and shooting video for his TV show.
Question: Chad, tell us about your most-memorable mule deer hunt when you were guiding.
Schearer: I was guiding Nate Treadaway, president and COO of CVA muzzleloaders, in Montana to mule deer. We’d been glassing and looking for mule deer. We’d covered a lot of terrain without locating a buck Nate needed to take. About 3 days into the hunt, this area had pretty-strong winds. I’ve learned that when hunting in really-windy conditions, mule deer prefer to move into thick cover, because the wind makes hearing or seeing predators approaching difficult for the animals. So, they’ll get into draws and hold out of the wind. I told Nate, “I know where there are some protective draws. Let’s go check them out and see if we can find a buck there.” When we got into one of those draws, we saw a really-nice-sized buck and 
started stalking-in close. We came-up over a little hill. Nate made a 150-yard shot and dropped a really-nice-sized mule deer with a CVA Kodiak Pro. When he hit that mule deer, the buck’s legs went out from under him, and he rolled down the hill.
Here are some tips to taking a mule deer this season.
* Don’t give up your hunt when you encounter high winds. Any time you’re hunting in the West and in the mountains, you’re subject to facing high winds. Just remember that the mule deer don’t like high winds any better than you do. They want to get out of that wind, so they can see and hear better. Search for draws, and then look for the mule deer on the opposite side of a draw from the side you’re approaching. If you can get out of the wind and hunt in draws, you won’t have as many problems with wind drift when you shoot as you will if you’ve been trying to hunt the top side of the mountains. Therefore, you can shoot much-more accurately when you don’t have windy conditions.
* Know what your CVA muzzleloader rifle will do at distances of less than 50 yards and out to 
200 yards. Nate had to take his shot at 150 yards. If he hadn’t known where to aim or where his bullet would land, he might have missed a really-nice-sized mule deer. Learn all you can about your gun, your bullet and your powder charge on a rifle range before you go out West to hunt mule deer, elk, bear, antelope or any other western big game.
