on the evening of day 2 of our 4 day hunt, i spotted about 25 deer in a draw but the wind was wrong to allow for a sneak before dark. i could see one of the bucks was pretty decent, but didn't have a spotting scope with me to tell if he was a shooter or not. so, i put them to bed and thought hard about whether or not it would be worth going back to get a better look the next morning. i decided it was worth it, so i arrived just before dawn and worked carefully down the draw immediately west of the draw the deer had been feeding in the night before. i spooked a couple does with a forky near the head of the draw, then saw very little. i was patient tho, since i was working the wind in my favor and therefore wouldn't get a look into the draw where the herd of deer had been until i hit the bottom of the one i started down. as i approached the bottom, i began to be able to see the draw where the deer had been hanging the night before. they had moved down closer to where the two draws met, so that was good for me. as i snuck toward where the two draws met, i got a glimpse of a decent 4 point about 250 yards away working his way up thru the brush on the far side of the main draw. I sat down and gave him a good hard look, but he was not a shooter. as he fed up the hill and out of sight, i stood and slowly walked on down the draw, carefully watching ahead as i went. i spotted a set of antlers above the roll of the hill and across the draw where the small 4 point had disappeared. i knew immediately this was a different buck, so i sat again. by sitting, i knew i wouldn't be able to see even his antlers, but i also knew he would not see me and it appeared he was facing my way so maybe he would come into view. if not, i could always sneak down through the bottom and up the other side to get a good look. not two minutes after i sat down, the buck sauntered slowly over the roll of the hill at about 150 yards. with the wind in my favor and the sun at my back, i had the clear advantage. as he stood and peered into the draw, sun in his face, with his beautiful chest and head lit up by the sun, i settled my crosshairs and slowly squeezed the trigger. that was end of that. i caped him, quartered him, and had him back to the rig by noon.
my dad's hunt was a bit different. i had spent the entire morning of day 4 with him hunting a vast expanse of juniper flats. that area had been loaded with does, but for some reason nothing better than forks and three points, except for one bedded four point at the farthest possible point from the rig where the land met nothing but water. as we were sneaking on the bedded buck, a couple of does spooked near us and just happened to move out of country via the route he was bedded so he went along with them. dad and i trudged back to the rig with tail between our legs for having blown it. my dad was pretty discouraged by this point and was beginning to talk of settling for a smaller buck. i told him it wasn't time to give up yet. we drove slowly back toward camp. about half way back to camp we spotted about 11 deer from the highway, one of which was a good buck. i quickly checked the maps and was disappointed when i saw the deer were about 1/2 mile onto private land and i had no idea who might own that piece so we could ask permission to hunt. again feeling like failures, we slowly drove off. as we were accelerating to highway speed, i realized i had incorrectly located a landmark on the map and the deer were actually 1/2 mile ON the public ground! we pulled over and quickly parked the rig, grabbed our gear and headed out along a ridge adjacent to where the deer had been feeding. we went about 1/2 mile before peeking over the ridge and lo and behold there were the deer. my dad laid down on top the ridge and i ranged the buck. he was at 300 yards. my dad isn't as confident at this range as he used to be, but since he was prone and had a good rest he squeezed off a shot. the buck looked up and then went back to feeding. daylight was starting to fade and the does with the buck were getting nervous. i told my dad he had missed clean and he should try again. he cycled the bolt of his rifle, settled back in and squeezed the trigger. another clean miss! the buck was getting nervous now and began to move away with the does, but only at a walk. as i watched thru my range finder, the buck paused just before he stepped behind a sage brush...he was now at 330 yards. i started to say, "okay, hold off. we'll make another sneak and see if...BOOM!". the buck went out of sight behind the sage. the does were really nervous now and climbed a nearby clay bank and kept looking down where we had last seen the buck. we waited and watched but the buck never reappeared. after about five minutes the does moved off and we stood. even standing we could not see beyond the sage where we had last seen the buck, so we hiked down and over to where we last saw him. as we approached the sage he had stepped behind when we last saw him, i spotted him piled up about 30 yards away. my dad had made a beautiful lung shot on him. we caped him, quartered him and packed him in the dark the 3/4 mile back to the rig. next morning, we packed up camp and left for home as scheduled.
it was a fun hunt, with a fair amount of luck thrown in for good measure.