YumaOutdoorsman
Member
- Messages
- 73
It is a little intimidating posting up a buck that isn't 170" plus (or even 150" for that matter) like what a lot of guys are shooting in most places. I figured what the heck, I'll share it anyways. I was able to tag out on a buck that was actually one of my target bucks. This is the last year we can run cameras in Arizona to pursue big game so I took advantage of it. I had this buck, and several others on camera since August. I'll share a photo of him before he stripped his velvet. I have never shot a buck with a "kicker" and this buck is a 4x4 with a 1/2" "Kicker" on his right side. I don't know that it really counts with it being that small but I'm counting it hahaha....We had unusually warm weather for our general rifle hunt, with temps pushing 85-90 degrees. The days were warm for walking and the deer were bedding down very very early. The area I found him in was hunted very hard the first weekend and I actually did not even hunt in there. I went in there the Friday of the 2nd weekend and that's when I noticed a lot of fresh tracks over all the jeep/utv tracks in the main washes. Once I saw the fresh tracks over the vehicle tracks from the weekend before, I knew the deer were in the area. The nearest hill was pushing 4 miles away and with as thick as this area was this year from the monsoon rain, there just was no way to glass it effectively. I had friends that sat at the waterhole and glassed the weekend before, including the area where I ended up finding them and they never saw a deer. I ended up walking a wash in the flats and kicked up my buck and a nice 3x3 at about 50 yards and took a chip shot at 70 yards with my .243. My first shot dropped him and I gave him a second shot just to finish him off. I was very happy to wrap my tag around this buck's antlers. This is the 3rd buck in a row I have had on camera and was able to find him during the hunt. I know a lot of people do not like game cameras for different reasons but I sure do love seeing all the desert has to offer with them. Thanks for looking.
