P
Phinkle
Guest
LAST EDITED ON Aug-31-09 AT 03:01PM (MST)[p]So my best friend Brian and I went out into the Southern Arizona desert Sunday morning with our eyes on taking a nice 4x4 we had seen earlier this season. The morning did not start off well. I had apparently set my bow on top of the mouthpiece of my camelback so when I went to put my pack on it was soaking wet. So I decided to leave the pack at the truck. (more on that later).
We hiked to the top of the canyon about a half mile from the truck and sat down to glass. Instantly a sharp pain was felt in my backside. I had managed to sit on an old piece of prickly pear cactus. For those of you that dont know, these are pads about 4 inches or more in circumference with nice 2 inch daggers on them that hurt like HE Double Hockey sticks. My morning was officialy horrible.
We glassed for a while and managed to see nothing. So we walked the ridgeline for another mile or so and jumped the 4x4 that we had seen a couple of mornings before. He was not really spooked, more like feeding very quickly. So we followed him over the next canyon and found him feeding over the next ridge with another forkie buck. We decided to let them calm down but try to get in front of them feeding. So we backed out into the bottom of the canyon behind us and tried to circle them. When we finally came out of the canyon below us we were able to locate them at (what seemed like) 3 miles away. There was no going after them.
So, again, we glassed. As soon as I put up my binoculars I spotted another buck feeding down the hill about 700 yards in front of us. The plan was to try to get to him before he got to the bottom. So we pushed hard to get down the canyon face and into the bottom of the wash. It took us a good 20 minutes or so to get there.
Brian and I had been in this situation before. Last January we spotted a buck feeding down a hill, Brian went high and I went low. That buck wound up feeding to within 18 yards of me but I was in the middle of a stand of ocotillo at the time and had about a 6 inch hole to shoot through. My arrow struck the top of the hole and the deer was gone.
So in this situation we did the exact same thing. I started moving up the wash and Brian moved up the side of the hill to my left about 100 yards away. I nocked an arrow and moved into the ravine the deer was feeding towards. I moved several more steps and stopped. The buck was feeding directly towards me and had spotted me. With a quartering towards shot I put my 40 yard pin just infront of his shoulder and took the shot. I missed high. The deer jumped forward and moved around the tree to my left and stopped at 30 yards. Once again no time to range him so I put my 30 yard pin on him and shot. This time the arrow found its mark. You've all heard that arrow hitting a pumpkin sound before. The deer bolted up the hill and went out of my view.
I went to find my arrow and the blood trail and to look for Brian. I saw Brian about 45 yards away from where the deer was shot. Brian could see the deer and could tell it was hurt pretty bad. Brian came over and told me what he saw. He told me that he had heard the first shot and saw the deer coming towards him. Brian had a 45 yard shot and as soon as he got to full draw is when my arrow busted through him.
We found the deer about 150 yards from the shot lying under a tree. It was not the biggest but it will taste great and knowing that there are bigger deer in there for January will make the wait that much easier. The hard part was now to start. We had about a 6 mile loop to walk as we were not taking the deer up and over the several canyons that were there. Remember before when I left my pack with no water in it. Yeah...it was 96 degrees by 8:00 that morning and we had used most of Brians water cleaning the deer. We got the deer cleaned and hung in a tree about a 1/4 mile from a road we had never seen before and high tailed it for the truck. Thank the lord for other hunters because we were out of water and about 3 miles down the trail we were spotted by a truck with hunters heading home for the day. They gave us a ride to our truck and we were able to get back to the deer.
Thanks to Brian for your trememdous help and being there to see the shot. Nothing like sharing these times with your best friend. This is not my first deer but is definitly the one I put the most work on and therefore my proudest. Another mention goes out to Aaron for helping us get that buck back to the truck...man these Mule deer are heavier than a Coues.
Sorry for the long story!
2007 Diamond Liberty @ 70 lbs, Easton FMJ's, Muzzy MX-3's did the job
We hiked to the top of the canyon about a half mile from the truck and sat down to glass. Instantly a sharp pain was felt in my backside. I had managed to sit on an old piece of prickly pear cactus. For those of you that dont know, these are pads about 4 inches or more in circumference with nice 2 inch daggers on them that hurt like HE Double Hockey sticks. My morning was officialy horrible.
We glassed for a while and managed to see nothing. So we walked the ridgeline for another mile or so and jumped the 4x4 that we had seen a couple of mornings before. He was not really spooked, more like feeding very quickly. So we followed him over the next canyon and found him feeding over the next ridge with another forkie buck. We decided to let them calm down but try to get in front of them feeding. So we backed out into the bottom of the canyon behind us and tried to circle them. When we finally came out of the canyon below us we were able to locate them at (what seemed like) 3 miles away. There was no going after them.
So, again, we glassed. As soon as I put up my binoculars I spotted another buck feeding down the hill about 700 yards in front of us. The plan was to try to get to him before he got to the bottom. So we pushed hard to get down the canyon face and into the bottom of the wash. It took us a good 20 minutes or so to get there.
Brian and I had been in this situation before. Last January we spotted a buck feeding down a hill, Brian went high and I went low. That buck wound up feeding to within 18 yards of me but I was in the middle of a stand of ocotillo at the time and had about a 6 inch hole to shoot through. My arrow struck the top of the hole and the deer was gone.
So in this situation we did the exact same thing. I started moving up the wash and Brian moved up the side of the hill to my left about 100 yards away. I nocked an arrow and moved into the ravine the deer was feeding towards. I moved several more steps and stopped. The buck was feeding directly towards me and had spotted me. With a quartering towards shot I put my 40 yard pin just infront of his shoulder and took the shot. I missed high. The deer jumped forward and moved around the tree to my left and stopped at 30 yards. Once again no time to range him so I put my 30 yard pin on him and shot. This time the arrow found its mark. You've all heard that arrow hitting a pumpkin sound before. The deer bolted up the hill and went out of my view.
I went to find my arrow and the blood trail and to look for Brian. I saw Brian about 45 yards away from where the deer was shot. Brian could see the deer and could tell it was hurt pretty bad. Brian came over and told me what he saw. He told me that he had heard the first shot and saw the deer coming towards him. Brian had a 45 yard shot and as soon as he got to full draw is when my arrow busted through him.
We found the deer about 150 yards from the shot lying under a tree. It was not the biggest but it will taste great and knowing that there are bigger deer in there for January will make the wait that much easier. The hard part was now to start. We had about a 6 mile loop to walk as we were not taking the deer up and over the several canyons that were there. Remember before when I left my pack with no water in it. Yeah...it was 96 degrees by 8:00 that morning and we had used most of Brians water cleaning the deer. We got the deer cleaned and hung in a tree about a 1/4 mile from a road we had never seen before and high tailed it for the truck. Thank the lord for other hunters because we were out of water and about 3 miles down the trail we were spotted by a truck with hunters heading home for the day. They gave us a ride to our truck and we were able to get back to the deer.
Thanks to Brian for your trememdous help and being there to see the shot. Nothing like sharing these times with your best friend. This is not my first deer but is definitly the one I put the most work on and therefore my proudest. Another mention goes out to Aaron for helping us get that buck back to the truck...man these Mule deer are heavier than a Coues.
Sorry for the long story!
2007 Diamond Liberty @ 70 lbs, Easton FMJ's, Muzzy MX-3's did the job
