Hunt was great had a chance at a monster but didn't work out early on tried to hunt water but had this young man drive right up on two separate tanks and check his cameras I feel he could of waited till dark but with no concern he checked them at prime time ,all I ask is the same consideration I showed your cameras after you ruined to nights of my 11 day hunt.
12 b west early hunt
- Thread starter Ranger518
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That really sucked. Why do you have check them every day. They should have them checked before a season starts and then after a season ends so they do mess other hunters hunts.
"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".
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"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".
>[Font][Font color = "green"]Life member of
>the MM green signature club.[font/]
I was there during the last five days of the season. I had pretty good luck with other hunters with really just one exception. I had been told of a few waterholes by another guy who helped tremendously and provided a lot of support and information - as a matter of fact without his help, I would have probably been set back, at least three or four days doing my own research, and I still would not have had the background information to go off of. But luckily with his help, I was able to hit the ground running, so to speak.
On day one of my hunt, which would have been the actual sixth day of the season, I found my way to one of the waterholes about an hour before daylight. When I arrived, I found someone else already parked there. So I asked if I was even at the waterhole I was searching for, as I was simply working off of a usgs map and the map app on my phone, which as you know, was pretty sketchy unless you were on the very top, or on the edge of the plateau. Anyway, they said yes, it was the waterhole, and I did what I thought was the right thing to do, and I left, searching for somewhere else prior to daylight.
However, the next day, at around 10 a.m., I thought I would recheck that waterhole, as I had spoken to another hunter and he filled me in on the etiquette, so to speak, of waterholes. He had said, if no one was on stand at a waterhole, and I wanted to hunt THAT waterhole, to get in, and stay in. It kind of felt strange to me. I mean I understand the fact that public land belongs to everyone, and I also understand the Arizona law that says, first come first serve, but if felt strange to kind of swipe the stand of another hunter, who may had been running cameras, or been hunting there religiously since the opener. Regardless, when I arrived at the waterhole, no one was there. So I found the waterhole, and found a place to hide.
It was unbelievable seeing all the deer come on a string to the waterhole - again, though I am very familiar with western hunting in general, my experiences in the earlier seasons in the southwest, is minimal. So after seeing about twenty does, and deer seemed to quit coming, I heard a vehicle up top, they drove in, and cut off the vehicle. After some thought, I decided to check out what was going on, since I had heard lots about confrontation and other problems, etc, arising from sitting waterholes in Arizona. When I got near my vehicle I saw the same vehicle that was there the previous morning. I also saw a couple guys walking up and down the road. It didn't make sense, and I had no true idea of what to do. I didn't want to meet them, as I didn't want them to think I was being confrontational. So, I returned to the blind, and the other vehicle remained there. Then about two hours before dark, I thought I would investigate more thoroughly, because I thought, if the other hunter/s were trying to cut me off, etc. I would simply be better off going somewhere else. When I arrived at my vehicle I found a couple others still sitting in the truck. When one of them saw me, he came and spoke with me. He said that the actual hunter was hunting a waterhole down below me. We spoke a bit and I returned to the blind. I didn't think a whole lot about the situation, until I spoke with another hunter the next day, and after telling him about what had happened, he told me that the only other waterhole in that area was about a hundred yards below the one I was sitting. He also told me, that particular waterhole was dry. That was pretty frustrating when I found that out. I mean, I would never do that to anyone, and as they had come in around noon, they could have easily found somewhere else to sit/hunt, but they just slid in right next to me - which I am certain with the added human activity didn't help the opportunity to get a chance at a good buck. Personally, I would have NEVER done that, unless I had actually known the other person at the primary waterhole. Also, at what I would have considered prime time, about 15 - 20 minutes before actual dark, I heard them crank up and leave.
Oh well. It was actually an interesting hunt, and after learning a few things, I saw lots of deer. I also saw a LOT of successful hunters, but it was unbelievable to see what most had killed. Whenever I was hunting, I would hear a gunshot, and I would envision 160 to 190 inch bucks hitting the ground. But in reality after I started speaking to others who had been successful and maybe even had a deer in the back of the truck, or hanging, I found just the opposite. Most were tiny two points and spikes, or maybe even the occasional 1.5 year old three point that was no bigger than the little forkies. I thought to myself, the brown and down gang, back home, had nothing on these guys.
But I would like to add to my last statement since it seemed derogatory to some degree. After speaking to as many other hunters that I could, I found that most residents could only hunt deer every few years, some even waited six or more years between tags - which does make it easier to understand the desire to fill a tag, even if it was with a little 1.5 year old two point. Because here in North Carolina, we don't have a limit on doe, and can take two bucks, and we can hunt every year with all weapons. So filling a freezer with venison is not even something we have to think about. If we want a deer, though nice bucks are as rare as hen's teeth, we can go out almost any day of the season and bring home meat. I guess my prior notions simply lamented that most western hunters were more serious about trophy hunting - that simply wasn't the situation.
I would be interested in how and where you saw a monster buck and how big he actually was. If you want to share the information you can PM me. You can be as specific or as general as you like. It is just that after being there, it would be very interesting to me to find out where a good buck was, meaning, high on the buckskins, or low on the edges, waterhole, still-hunting or glassing, etc.
As for me, you don't have to worry about me returning, I won't be back, as I said, I am simply curious about how you went about seeing a good buck. I now fully realize how difficult it was/is to find a NICE buck on that tag/season. Don't get me wrong, now I understand why others have said it was a FUN hunt. In the right areas, there were LOTS of deer and it was physically very easy. But it was nothing like I expected. Meaning I felt like before the hunt, and I must add, also before speaking with several others, I would see at least ONE nice 140 - 150 inch buck almost daily, while waiting for a good buck, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. I ended up killing the largest buck I saw while I was there. And though he is very odd to me, plus the fact that I am not great at scoring mule deer, I would guess he would be around 140 gross. Actually if my buck would have had front forks that matched the back forks, it would have been what I had hoped to come away with from my hunt.
Like I said, if you would be willing to send me a PM, I also could let you know exactly where and how I ended up shooting my buck, etc.
If you happen to be interested in a pic of the buck I shot, you can check it out on my thread, the other 12 bw thread started by myself.
On day one of my hunt, which would have been the actual sixth day of the season, I found my way to one of the waterholes about an hour before daylight. When I arrived, I found someone else already parked there. So I asked if I was even at the waterhole I was searching for, as I was simply working off of a usgs map and the map app on my phone, which as you know, was pretty sketchy unless you were on the very top, or on the edge of the plateau. Anyway, they said yes, it was the waterhole, and I did what I thought was the right thing to do, and I left, searching for somewhere else prior to daylight.
However, the next day, at around 10 a.m., I thought I would recheck that waterhole, as I had spoken to another hunter and he filled me in on the etiquette, so to speak, of waterholes. He had said, if no one was on stand at a waterhole, and I wanted to hunt THAT waterhole, to get in, and stay in. It kind of felt strange to me. I mean I understand the fact that public land belongs to everyone, and I also understand the Arizona law that says, first come first serve, but if felt strange to kind of swipe the stand of another hunter, who may had been running cameras, or been hunting there religiously since the opener. Regardless, when I arrived at the waterhole, no one was there. So I found the waterhole, and found a place to hide.
It was unbelievable seeing all the deer come on a string to the waterhole - again, though I am very familiar with western hunting in general, my experiences in the earlier seasons in the southwest, is minimal. So after seeing about twenty does, and deer seemed to quit coming, I heard a vehicle up top, they drove in, and cut off the vehicle. After some thought, I decided to check out what was going on, since I had heard lots about confrontation and other problems, etc, arising from sitting waterholes in Arizona. When I got near my vehicle I saw the same vehicle that was there the previous morning. I also saw a couple guys walking up and down the road. It didn't make sense, and I had no true idea of what to do. I didn't want to meet them, as I didn't want them to think I was being confrontational. So, I returned to the blind, and the other vehicle remained there. Then about two hours before dark, I thought I would investigate more thoroughly, because I thought, if the other hunter/s were trying to cut me off, etc. I would simply be better off going somewhere else. When I arrived at my vehicle I found a couple others still sitting in the truck. When one of them saw me, he came and spoke with me. He said that the actual hunter was hunting a waterhole down below me. We spoke a bit and I returned to the blind. I didn't think a whole lot about the situation, until I spoke with another hunter the next day, and after telling him about what had happened, he told me that the only other waterhole in that area was about a hundred yards below the one I was sitting. He also told me, that particular waterhole was dry. That was pretty frustrating when I found that out. I mean, I would never do that to anyone, and as they had come in around noon, they could have easily found somewhere else to sit/hunt, but they just slid in right next to me - which I am certain with the added human activity didn't help the opportunity to get a chance at a good buck. Personally, I would have NEVER done that, unless I had actually known the other person at the primary waterhole. Also, at what I would have considered prime time, about 15 - 20 minutes before actual dark, I heard them crank up and leave.
Oh well. It was actually an interesting hunt, and after learning a few things, I saw lots of deer. I also saw a LOT of successful hunters, but it was unbelievable to see what most had killed. Whenever I was hunting, I would hear a gunshot, and I would envision 160 to 190 inch bucks hitting the ground. But in reality after I started speaking to others who had been successful and maybe even had a deer in the back of the truck, or hanging, I found just the opposite. Most were tiny two points and spikes, or maybe even the occasional 1.5 year old three point that was no bigger than the little forkies. I thought to myself, the brown and down gang, back home, had nothing on these guys.
But I would like to add to my last statement since it seemed derogatory to some degree. After speaking to as many other hunters that I could, I found that most residents could only hunt deer every few years, some even waited six or more years between tags - which does make it easier to understand the desire to fill a tag, even if it was with a little 1.5 year old two point. Because here in North Carolina, we don't have a limit on doe, and can take two bucks, and we can hunt every year with all weapons. So filling a freezer with venison is not even something we have to think about. If we want a deer, though nice bucks are as rare as hen's teeth, we can go out almost any day of the season and bring home meat. I guess my prior notions simply lamented that most western hunters were more serious about trophy hunting - that simply wasn't the situation.
I would be interested in how and where you saw a monster buck and how big he actually was. If you want to share the information you can PM me. You can be as specific or as general as you like. It is just that after being there, it would be very interesting to me to find out where a good buck was, meaning, high on the buckskins, or low on the edges, waterhole, still-hunting or glassing, etc.
As for me, you don't have to worry about me returning, I won't be back, as I said, I am simply curious about how you went about seeing a good buck. I now fully realize how difficult it was/is to find a NICE buck on that tag/season. Don't get me wrong, now I understand why others have said it was a FUN hunt. In the right areas, there were LOTS of deer and it was physically very easy. But it was nothing like I expected. Meaning I felt like before the hunt, and I must add, also before speaking with several others, I would see at least ONE nice 140 - 150 inch buck almost daily, while waiting for a good buck, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. I ended up killing the largest buck I saw while I was there. And though he is very odd to me, plus the fact that I am not great at scoring mule deer, I would guess he would be around 140 gross. Actually if my buck would have had front forks that matched the back forks, it would have been what I had hoped to come away with from my hunt.
Like I said, if you would be willing to send me a PM, I also could let you know exactly where and how I ended up shooting my buck, etc.
If you happen to be interested in a pic of the buck I shot, you can check it out on my thread, the other 12 bw thread started by myself.
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