TerynItUp
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The high school baseball team I coach had just finished beating our biggest rival when I received an email from the NMDGF stating that I drew my 2nd choice deer hunt. That also meant that my Dad drew as well since we applied together. After the game, my wife told me she also got an email from NMDGF and she drew the same exact hunt we did, we were very excited to say the least. This is the first time I have drawn a deer tag since 2006 in which my brother and I killed two beautiful bucks standing right next to each other. Well this was the same hunt, the 3rd rifle season in 2B, our bread and butter. Growing up in Farmington, this is the unit we hunted the most in our childhood. I hold it very dear to my heart.
Fast forward 6 months and my Pops and I were taking our first scouting trip. It was early October and it is no secret that the forest is heavily dependent on good weather up North to push the migratory deer down. I am under the belief that the does and fawns will come down into the forest at the same time every year no matter what the weather, but that the weather is needed to bring the bigger mature bucks down from the high country. Eventually, no matter what the weather does, the bucks are going to come down because that is where the does are. I could be wrong but that is my opinion. Well, our first trip up was the same weekend as the Youth hunt and I think we saw maybe two does, and zero bucks. No surprise there.
Fast forward to the weekend of the 2nd rifle hunt. My wife, a buddy, and I went back into the same area as we did two weeks prior. There still had not been any significant weather up North, but, the deer had definitely started moving in. There were trails beaten into the ground every where, and every deer we saw was moving in the same direction. We spent the morning hiking around and saw about 30-40 does and 5 or 6 bucks, but nothing to get excited about. I was feeling good about the migration and was fairly sure the bucks would start moving in soon.
The night we returned from scouting we found out that my wife had a death in the family while we were gone that was very untimely. My wife was only going to be able to hunt the weekend because she just started a new job, however, the funeral services were on opening day and it just didn't make sense to have her drive all the was from Rio Rancho to hunt Sunday morning. It was a tough week and we were bummed she would miss out on the hunt.
After missing the opening day, my buddy and fellow MM'er farmer14 left town at 1:00 AM to make it to the trail at first light. My Dad hunted opening day and saw lots of does and fawns and only one small buck. Sunday morning had brought wet weather and heavy cloud cover and lots of moving deer. At first light we spotted a group of deer that had several bucks in it, we could see through the spotter they were worth getting a closer look at. We made our way across the canyon to intercept the quickly moving herd and caught up to them just as a sideways blowing sleet storm blew in. One of the bucks was a definite shooter, high, wide, and heavy, unfortunately things just didnt come together and they gave us the slip. The rest of the day was full of lots of deer moving and several bucks that we didnt feel were worth hanging our tags on. Several forkies, and 3x's and small 4x's.
Monday. Clear and cold. Made our way into the canyon we spent the whole hunt in and once again saw several does and fawns and a couple of small forkies. We spent the whole day out and found a bedded group of about 15-17 deer that we could count. We spent an hour or so glassing to see if there was a buck with them but could only find does. We decided to take a nap with them. We woke up about an hour later as they were starting to get up, but there were no bucks. We hunted the rest of the evening but didnt turn up any bucks.
Tuesday. Clear and colder. We spent the morning on our same glassing knob and could only turn up does and faws. It was starting to get old looking at so many women and children. We easily saw over 100 deer a day but the bucks had just not moved in yet. We were starting to feel the pressure with two days left and no tags filled. After the early morning movement had stopped, we decided to split up and parallel each other and work a large North facing slope. We kicked up several groups of deer but all does and fawns, same story. My dad was to the North of us and came across a canyon he liked the look of and decided to take a seat and glass. He said he got a little chilly sitting in the shade so he decided to move into the sun to warm up. He grabbed his rifle and his rosary beads and thought it was a good time for prayer. After his first decade of the rosary he saw a lone buck make its way down the ridge. He watched him through the scope for a hundred yards trying to decide if he should shoot him. With the amount of bucks we were seeing, he decided to pull the trigger. We heard the shot ring out and my Dad came on the radio saying "buck down."
Dads pics
Turns out that my Dad shot this buck within 50 yards of where we killed the giant 196" buck back in 2010 with a good friend of mine. We like this canyon now
We loaded the buck up on our backs and made our way back out to our glassing spot for the rest of the evening. We didnt turn up any bucks and made our way back to the truck to finish the pack out.
Last Day. Clear and cold again. We left the truck earlier this time and made it to our glassing spot before shooting light. We decided we wanted to try another point that we thought we could see more country from. We busted our way across this draw to the new knob before it got too light. Right when we got set up with the binos I spotted a few deer about 700 yards away and thought one was a buck just by his body size. I called my buddy over who was glassing a different direction and he brought my Vortex Razor 50mm spotter. We got him in the scope and I could see he was a shooter. 700 yards is WAY to far for me so I grabbed the rifle and off I went to try and cut them off as they were on a quick line out of the canyon. I literally ran down the ridge where I knew they couldnt see me and busted it quickly to the bottom of the canyon. When I got there I though that they might be coming out in the very bottom so I waited for a minute or two. As fast as they were moving I knew they would have been there by now so I made it over the next little finger ridge. I spotted a doe and she spotted me. I quickly dropped to my belly at the top of the finger ridge and crawled forward to overlook the other side. I could see the does and the only one that spotted me was the lead doe. I crawled forward to a good rock to rest on laying prone and waited. The buck finally stepped out so I settled the crosshairs on him. I couldnt get a good cheek weld due to the way I was laying on the rock and couldnt get the gun solid on my shoulder. However, I had the buck in my crosshairs and was steady on him. I decided to squeeze it off. I saw the buck flip forward into a small sandy wash and knew I hit him good. Unfortunately, due to my funky shooting position, I felt a strange feeling on my face. I looked down and saw blood running off my nose. The Vortex scope did a number to eye. This is what I saw when I looked down.
The buck expired and my Dad and buddy made it down to me for a good laugh and a couple hugs and high fives. We got the buck taken care of, loaded up on our backs, and out to the truck by noon.
From L to R: Farmer14, me, my pops
It was a great hunt we wont soon forget. I only wish my wife could have been there with me. But, as you can see, she is happy for me!
Not sure why the photos are sideways. It always does this to me. If anyone can turn these and re-post I would appreciate it.
Hunt Hard. Shoot Straight. Kill Clean. Apologize to No One.
Fast forward 6 months and my Pops and I were taking our first scouting trip. It was early October and it is no secret that the forest is heavily dependent on good weather up North to push the migratory deer down. I am under the belief that the does and fawns will come down into the forest at the same time every year no matter what the weather, but that the weather is needed to bring the bigger mature bucks down from the high country. Eventually, no matter what the weather does, the bucks are going to come down because that is where the does are. I could be wrong but that is my opinion. Well, our first trip up was the same weekend as the Youth hunt and I think we saw maybe two does, and zero bucks. No surprise there.
Fast forward to the weekend of the 2nd rifle hunt. My wife, a buddy, and I went back into the same area as we did two weeks prior. There still had not been any significant weather up North, but, the deer had definitely started moving in. There were trails beaten into the ground every where, and every deer we saw was moving in the same direction. We spent the morning hiking around and saw about 30-40 does and 5 or 6 bucks, but nothing to get excited about. I was feeling good about the migration and was fairly sure the bucks would start moving in soon.
The night we returned from scouting we found out that my wife had a death in the family while we were gone that was very untimely. My wife was only going to be able to hunt the weekend because she just started a new job, however, the funeral services were on opening day and it just didn't make sense to have her drive all the was from Rio Rancho to hunt Sunday morning. It was a tough week and we were bummed she would miss out on the hunt.
After missing the opening day, my buddy and fellow MM'er farmer14 left town at 1:00 AM to make it to the trail at first light. My Dad hunted opening day and saw lots of does and fawns and only one small buck. Sunday morning had brought wet weather and heavy cloud cover and lots of moving deer. At first light we spotted a group of deer that had several bucks in it, we could see through the spotter they were worth getting a closer look at. We made our way across the canyon to intercept the quickly moving herd and caught up to them just as a sideways blowing sleet storm blew in. One of the bucks was a definite shooter, high, wide, and heavy, unfortunately things just didnt come together and they gave us the slip. The rest of the day was full of lots of deer moving and several bucks that we didnt feel were worth hanging our tags on. Several forkies, and 3x's and small 4x's.
Monday. Clear and cold. Made our way into the canyon we spent the whole hunt in and once again saw several does and fawns and a couple of small forkies. We spent the whole day out and found a bedded group of about 15-17 deer that we could count. We spent an hour or so glassing to see if there was a buck with them but could only find does. We decided to take a nap with them. We woke up about an hour later as they were starting to get up, but there were no bucks. We hunted the rest of the evening but didnt turn up any bucks.
Tuesday. Clear and colder. We spent the morning on our same glassing knob and could only turn up does and faws. It was starting to get old looking at so many women and children. We easily saw over 100 deer a day but the bucks had just not moved in yet. We were starting to feel the pressure with two days left and no tags filled. After the early morning movement had stopped, we decided to split up and parallel each other and work a large North facing slope. We kicked up several groups of deer but all does and fawns, same story. My dad was to the North of us and came across a canyon he liked the look of and decided to take a seat and glass. He said he got a little chilly sitting in the shade so he decided to move into the sun to warm up. He grabbed his rifle and his rosary beads and thought it was a good time for prayer. After his first decade of the rosary he saw a lone buck make its way down the ridge. He watched him through the scope for a hundred yards trying to decide if he should shoot him. With the amount of bucks we were seeing, he decided to pull the trigger. We heard the shot ring out and my Dad came on the radio saying "buck down."
Dads pics
Turns out that my Dad shot this buck within 50 yards of where we killed the giant 196" buck back in 2010 with a good friend of mine. We like this canyon now
We loaded the buck up on our backs and made our way back out to our glassing spot for the rest of the evening. We didnt turn up any bucks and made our way back to the truck to finish the pack out.
Last Day. Clear and cold again. We left the truck earlier this time and made it to our glassing spot before shooting light. We decided we wanted to try another point that we thought we could see more country from. We busted our way across this draw to the new knob before it got too light. Right when we got set up with the binos I spotted a few deer about 700 yards away and thought one was a buck just by his body size. I called my buddy over who was glassing a different direction and he brought my Vortex Razor 50mm spotter. We got him in the scope and I could see he was a shooter. 700 yards is WAY to far for me so I grabbed the rifle and off I went to try and cut them off as they were on a quick line out of the canyon. I literally ran down the ridge where I knew they couldnt see me and busted it quickly to the bottom of the canyon. When I got there I though that they might be coming out in the very bottom so I waited for a minute or two. As fast as they were moving I knew they would have been there by now so I made it over the next little finger ridge. I spotted a doe and she spotted me. I quickly dropped to my belly at the top of the finger ridge and crawled forward to overlook the other side. I could see the does and the only one that spotted me was the lead doe. I crawled forward to a good rock to rest on laying prone and waited. The buck finally stepped out so I settled the crosshairs on him. I couldnt get a good cheek weld due to the way I was laying on the rock and couldnt get the gun solid on my shoulder. However, I had the buck in my crosshairs and was steady on him. I decided to squeeze it off. I saw the buck flip forward into a small sandy wash and knew I hit him good. Unfortunately, due to my funky shooting position, I felt a strange feeling on my face. I looked down and saw blood running off my nose. The Vortex scope did a number to eye. This is what I saw when I looked down.
The buck expired and my Dad and buddy made it down to me for a good laugh and a couple hugs and high fives. We got the buck taken care of, loaded up on our backs, and out to the truck by noon.
From L to R: Farmer14, me, my pops
It was a great hunt we wont soon forget. I only wish my wife could have been there with me. But, as you can see, she is happy for me!
Not sure why the photos are sideways. It always does this to me. If anyone can turn these and re-post I would appreciate it.
Hunt Hard. Shoot Straight. Kill Clean. Apologize to No One.
