Hunted unit 53 3rd season and hot and dry. We were complete
rookies and were not able to find deer in the high elevations,
with all the oak brush and hunting pressure. We started hunting
lower elevations and found lots of deer and keep checking herds
of does hoping big bucks would move in. My brother took a stand
in a canyon on the 3rd night and killed a 30 inch tall 5x4. Not
bad for his first mulie huh? This deer had eye guards however
his first point on his right antler did not fork or I beleive
this would have been a 190 plus buck.My son shot a 22 inch 4x4
for his first mulie and was very happy with it. As for myself
not so good. Had a real nice 6x5, very high , heavy but narrow
in my scope with safety off only to have another hunter shoot him from up above me. I did not even know the other hunter was
there. Had my safety off on another good buck the next day but
he would not stop and could not squeeze a shot between the cedars. Finally on day five I had a descent buck at 400 yards
took the shot and shot low. About a dozen deer came out of the brush and ran to 460 yards and stopped one last time, I seen the
horns aimed and dropped him, only to take a few steps towards him and seen my buck run away. Walked up the mountain to where
I had shot and found out I shot the wrong buck. A 21 inch 2x2,
Oh well rookies will be rookies. Rut had seem to really kicked
in that morning as I had seen 7 bucks and all were with there
own set of does.