Hunter stalks ‘the big bucks’

Mule deer hunting expert Dennis Wintch spoke this weekend at the sportsman expo held at the Navajo Nation Museum this past weekend. In addition to being knowing how to hunt the elusive mule deer, Wintch is also a writer for a national magazine, has appeared in numerous hunting videos and has developed his own line of camouflage. [Photo by Brian Leddy/Independent]

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Move over, Bill Gates — Dennis Wintch is the man with the really big bucks!

And plenty of doe, too.

An avid hunter — especially of mule deer — Wintch was part of the sportsmen expo held at the Navajo Nation Museum this past weekend.

He has bagged — or guided hunters who have — a total of some 60 mule deer over the past 50 years.

People always tell him how lucky he must be, but he puts a lot of work, energy and brainpower into tracking down the elusive mule deer, Wintch said.

“I started hunting with my father about as soon as I could follow him,” Wintch told the audience gathered in the museum’s auditorium. Since then he has taken one buck with an antler span of 40 inches and 13 over 30, he said. He even set a world’s record, he added.

He has hunted game in Africa three times, and hunted in Alaska and New Zealand, but the mule deer lure him back here, he said.

“Mule deer are still my favorite to hunt,” he said. “If you get a big mule deer, you’ve done pretty well. These old, big bucks are pretty smart, and most of them have been around the block.”

Whitetail deer, the most hunted animal on earth, is easy to hunt compared to a big mule deer, Wintch said. Mule deer are prized because they are elusive and difficult to kill, he said.

Some people don’t think they need to be in shape to hunt mule deer, but they should heed his “30 and five rule,” Wintch said.

“A mule deer can go as far in five minutes as it would take you to go in 30,” he explained.

Mule deer also have a keen sense of hearing and usually will bolt before a hunter can even get his rifle off his shoulder, Wintch said.

“He’s not going to wait for you to get a dead rest, he’s not going to say, ‘Hey, why don’t you go rest your gun on that rock over there? Here, I’ll stand right here, because it’s about 100 yards and I know that’s what your scope is set for.’ It ain’t gonna happen,” Wintch said.

A hunter must be on constant alert, and ready to shoot free wheel, or “running and gunning,” as Wintch calls it.

If you’re hiking through the woods, looking at the ground, with your gun across your shoulder, that deer will be long gone before you even get a good glimpse of him, Wintch said.

“I tell people about the 80-20 rule,” he said. “When most people hike through the woods, they look down 80 percent of the time because they’re afraid of tripping over something. I tell them to turn that around — look up 80 percent of the time.”

He said most hunters will give up too soon, thinking maybe they can catch a big buck standing on the side of the road, Wintch said. To be successful — or lucky, as his friends call it — requires three key elements: Patience, perseverance and knowledge.

Wintch said he will go that extra mile when others want to turn back.

Hunting is more than following tracks, it’s outthinking what the animal will do, it’s understanding the geography around you, the lay of the land, Wintch said.

Tracking big bucks is challenging, Wintch said. Few animals can move as fast as a mule deer, he added. That makes the hunter’s preparedness even more vital, he said.

“You have what I call the magic three seconds,” Wintch said. “You have to bring your gun up, get the safety off, line up the scope all in three seconds. A hunter has to know his gun. It’s like dancing, you can’t think about it, you just have to know you can do it. You have to be ready, it’s the eye of the tiger.”

Follow his suggestions — and be ready to master the unknown — and you just might return home from the hunt with all your friends calling you Mr. Lucky, Wintch said.

John Christian Hopkins can be reached at Hopkins1960@hotmail.com