NMPaul
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This hunt started on a whim.
My son did not draw deer this year and just on a whim I checked the leftover tag list this year. we have never bought a leftover tags, figuring the ones we drew were tough enough. However, I checked out the list and on impulse I bought Zach a tag for a youth hunt that was under drawn. We had never been in that part of NM, but, love to see new country.
I got to thank a bunch of guys that gave me suggestions and Ideas for this unit. Hank, Jason, Nick, Travis hope I am not missing anyone. I appreciate your willingness to share info, and I hope i have the opportunity in the future to help on one of your hunts.
We headed out after Zachs BBall practice the day before thanksgiving.
Next morning way before daylight, we left the truck at the hwy and took a quad about 5 miles up to the base of the wilderness.
We started hiking to get to a glassing spot and as daylight started coming I realized my mistake.
We were packing 15x binocs, spotting scope and we were hiking through brush the first 3 hours of daylight and were miles from the truck and the quad. The disapointing thing was that we saw 2 piles of fresh deer sign and they were right next to each other in all that hiking.
Also it got over 80 degrees in the middle of the day.
Saw lots of old sign, but, almost nothing fresh. We finally got down to the hwy grabbed the other quad to retrieve the first one.
This was not looking good.
At this point we had given up on getting our first coues. If we had seen some fresh sign we would have gone back up high. We decided to focus on mule deer. That night we focused on an area that was recomended to us across the hwy from a real nice piece of private with water and green pasture. We split up and glassed from 2 really good looking mountains. We never saw a deer that night either and saw only a couple fresh track.
Next morning we just started hiking tall hills and glassing off the hwy just wanting to see a deer. We then came across some good looking deer country and decided to leave the truck at the hwy and take a quad up the road and hike the long ridge down that looked promising on the gps.
It was now mid morning, getting hot and still no deer. We were about 2 miles down the ridge and I spotted 2 bucks 950 yards away on a distant canyon.
We decide I would stay and watch them and Zach would Cross the canyon, get on the back side of the mountain they were on and try to come in above them. Off he went with his orange hat all on his own.
Within minutes after he left I could not find them anymore in the trees. I was thinking I lost track of them. 45 minutes later Zach was above them and could see them.
I still could not see deer.
He shot and I saw a buck run across my lense. I followed the buck in my 15x binocs and watched him bed way down the mountain. There ended up being 3 bucks there. Zach shot the 2nd biggest one. The better buck had down turned main beams that were very unique.
I watched zach follow the blood and the buck died right before he got to him about 15 minutes later.
It was a ugly pack out, but, we were totally jacked that we had found a nice buck and he was able to make a awesome stalk all on his own. Some of the pics show Zack dragging him down the last few hundred yards to the bottom of the canyon. Some turkeys lived down in the bottom. Very dry.
This is Zachs best mule deer to date and what started out to be a discouraging day, turned into a great one.
My son did not draw deer this year and just on a whim I checked the leftover tag list this year. we have never bought a leftover tags, figuring the ones we drew were tough enough. However, I checked out the list and on impulse I bought Zach a tag for a youth hunt that was under drawn. We had never been in that part of NM, but, love to see new country.
I got to thank a bunch of guys that gave me suggestions and Ideas for this unit. Hank, Jason, Nick, Travis hope I am not missing anyone. I appreciate your willingness to share info, and I hope i have the opportunity in the future to help on one of your hunts.
We headed out after Zachs BBall practice the day before thanksgiving.
Next morning way before daylight, we left the truck at the hwy and took a quad about 5 miles up to the base of the wilderness.
We started hiking to get to a glassing spot and as daylight started coming I realized my mistake.
We were packing 15x binocs, spotting scope and we were hiking through brush the first 3 hours of daylight and were miles from the truck and the quad. The disapointing thing was that we saw 2 piles of fresh deer sign and they were right next to each other in all that hiking.
Also it got over 80 degrees in the middle of the day.
Saw lots of old sign, but, almost nothing fresh. We finally got down to the hwy grabbed the other quad to retrieve the first one.
This was not looking good.
At this point we had given up on getting our first coues. If we had seen some fresh sign we would have gone back up high. We decided to focus on mule deer. That night we focused on an area that was recomended to us across the hwy from a real nice piece of private with water and green pasture. We split up and glassed from 2 really good looking mountains. We never saw a deer that night either and saw only a couple fresh track.
Next morning we just started hiking tall hills and glassing off the hwy just wanting to see a deer. We then came across some good looking deer country and decided to leave the truck at the hwy and take a quad up the road and hike the long ridge down that looked promising on the gps.
It was now mid morning, getting hot and still no deer. We were about 2 miles down the ridge and I spotted 2 bucks 950 yards away on a distant canyon.
We decide I would stay and watch them and Zach would Cross the canyon, get on the back side of the mountain they were on and try to come in above them. Off he went with his orange hat all on his own.
Within minutes after he left I could not find them anymore in the trees. I was thinking I lost track of them. 45 minutes later Zach was above them and could see them.
I still could not see deer.
He shot and I saw a buck run across my lense. I followed the buck in my 15x binocs and watched him bed way down the mountain. There ended up being 3 bucks there. Zach shot the 2nd biggest one. The better buck had down turned main beams that were very unique.
I watched zach follow the blood and the buck died right before he got to him about 15 minutes later.
It was a ugly pack out, but, we were totally jacked that we had found a nice buck and he was able to make a awesome stalk all on his own. Some of the pics show Zack dragging him down the last few hundred yards to the bottom of the canyon. Some turkeys lived down in the bottom. Very dry.
This is Zachs best mule deer to date and what started out to be a discouraging day, turned into a great one.
