aaronjo2324
Member
- Messages
- 95
This whole story begins with me not being able to draw Unit 21's rifle hunt. That left me no choice but to buy a left over tag. I opted to try to hunt for the first time with a muzzleloader. My grandpa let me use his Thompson Center Encore. I had NEVER shot a muzzleloader before and to top it off, I was left with the task of sighting in the new Nikon Omega scope that he put on it. After 2 hours on the range, the use of a chronograph from a very nice gentleman at the range, and another couple hours making myself a ballistics table, I was ready to go hunting. I was able to shoot at any distance from 50-300 yards with confidence.
A couple weekends before the hunt my girlfriend and I went to go scouting. It was a very successful trip, we saw 13 deer, 3 were bucks, and 10 javelina. In fact with one of the deer, we walked up a mere 10 yards from him and he never knew we were there. I had just looked up, and all of a sudden i just saw a deer butt. And this is WIDE open terrain on the top of a mountain. I told my girlfriends to duck down and we watched him for about 20 minutes. This is the closest I've been to a deer besides the deer out in Silver City. haha.
Well the season finally came around and we arrived a day before the season started. This place was FULL of hunters. After my scouting trip, I was wanting to hold off for a big buck, but after seeing how many hunters were in this area, I knew I wouldnt be able to be picky. It was either get the first buck that presented an opportunity. Well opening day rolls around and we were off hiking onto a huge mountain. We didnt expect ANY hunters to be in that area, but sure enough, about twenty minutes into the walk, we see two hunters glassing about 100 yards from us. I dont think they saw us at first. Well we knew we had to walk a bit faster than them to be able to get on the mountain we wanted. As we're walking up the second mountain, about halfway way up, some bedded deer stand up and there was this forkie in the group. After about a 100 yard shot, my season was over. The hunters that were near us were able to watch this from about 300 yards away...I dont even know if they knew we were there before that.
Unit 21 is definitely a tough hunt with all the hunting pressure that it receives, I believe it could be much better unit if the game and fish stopped giving out so many licenses. From the top of the mountain we could see hunters east, west, and north of us. It was insane. I guess the trick to this unit is just to walk....and walk....and walk some more. Then just when you think you've walked far enough....go further. That was the success that I had on my scouting trip and what I planned on doing for my hunt, we just happened to get the deer before we could walk further.
A couple weekends before the hunt my girlfriend and I went to go scouting. It was a very successful trip, we saw 13 deer, 3 were bucks, and 10 javelina. In fact with one of the deer, we walked up a mere 10 yards from him and he never knew we were there. I had just looked up, and all of a sudden i just saw a deer butt. And this is WIDE open terrain on the top of a mountain. I told my girlfriends to duck down and we watched him for about 20 minutes. This is the closest I've been to a deer besides the deer out in Silver City. haha.
Well the season finally came around and we arrived a day before the season started. This place was FULL of hunters. After my scouting trip, I was wanting to hold off for a big buck, but after seeing how many hunters were in this area, I knew I wouldnt be able to be picky. It was either get the first buck that presented an opportunity. Well opening day rolls around and we were off hiking onto a huge mountain. We didnt expect ANY hunters to be in that area, but sure enough, about twenty minutes into the walk, we see two hunters glassing about 100 yards from us. I dont think they saw us at first. Well we knew we had to walk a bit faster than them to be able to get on the mountain we wanted. As we're walking up the second mountain, about halfway way up, some bedded deer stand up and there was this forkie in the group. After about a 100 yard shot, my season was over. The hunters that were near us were able to watch this from about 300 yards away...I dont even know if they knew we were there before that.
Unit 21 is definitely a tough hunt with all the hunting pressure that it receives, I believe it could be much better unit if the game and fish stopped giving out so many licenses. From the top of the mountain we could see hunters east, west, and north of us. It was insane. I guess the trick to this unit is just to walk....and walk....and walk some more. Then just when you think you've walked far enough....go further. That was the success that I had on my scouting trip and what I planned on doing for my hunt, we just happened to get the deer before we could walk further.
