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October hunt, my wife and pops were able to tag out on a pair of decent bucks. Little more hunting pressure this year than usual and had to hike in a bit farther to locate the bucks. Nov hunt, my buddy smoked this great buck that did a head dive into some boulders, we were able to recover the broken tine and had a cool, long pack out in the dark. Junior hunt- my son had his first big game tag for deer and javelina. He had an away basketball game in Nogales, after his game I picked him up and we were off to camp. We completed 9 failed stalks on Friday-Sunday and was finally able to get within range of this buck. After some careful shooting and assistance from my dad and Christian who were spotting from the distance, we were able to knock him down. That evening we decided to go out look for javelina (haven't seen any yet). At last light, Christian glassed up a herd far out. We made plans for the morning and they were up and feeding in the grey light. A short stalk later he was able to put his first javelina down. Thanksgiving hunt- my buddy and I found a whole bunch of deer, a lot of tiny ones. Finally Sunday morning we located his buck way up in the mountains. A gruesome hike up a steep ridge, he was able to dump 2 rounds into the chest. I'm glad that pack out was all down hill and in the flats.

Had a very quick thanksgiving with my Wife and her family and slunk out of there after finishing my plate and made it down to camp Thursday afternoon with an hour or so to go look around and make a game plan for the morning. Picked a spot I had seen deer in the past at while glassing for pigs and opening morning came with us spotting a few does in this area and no bucks. Decided to go check some different spots that afternoon and found a great looking spot and glassed up a little spike right off the bat inside of my comfort zone for shooting. Decided to let him in hopes that something else would appear. No luck glassed till it was dark with only a few more doe sightings and took headed back to camp for the night. Next morning headed into the same spot I was at the night before where we found the little spike and we were seeing deer everywhere. Must have seen at least 30 different deer. Once the sun finally rose high enough to expose the hill I was concentrating on deer were coming out of the wood works. I finally spotted a decent 2x2 with Eye guards and decided if he stuck around I would try to make a play on him. He went over the hill out of my sight for at least 15 minutes and just as I was loosing hope he came back over the saddle and I spotted him again. Now I was confident he was going to stick around so I made a plan to get closer and moved in. He was about 800 yards from where I was glassing and 500 yards is about the range I felt I needed to get to. Without many options I figured the nob below me would get me close to that range. Made it down the hill to the best spot I could find and found the buck up on the hill and ranged him at 515. Got my gun set up for me to shoot in a prone position but had to crawl out in front of where I was going to shoot from to bend over all of the tall grass over so I could see. The grass is crazy out there this year, great to see. First shot, right over his back, second shot went right under him, he had enough and trotted to the right a little bit. Found him again and the third shot was true and he dropped.

Day 4 Update: TAG FILLED! My wife decided she wanted to head back up to the northern part of the unit to hunt today since we just couldn’t seem to make anything happen in the areas we had scouted pre-season. So we made the hour drive north in the dark and parked the truck, hoping that the early morning light might finally get us into some elk. We settled on doing a 4 mile loop out and back to the car since the area wasn’t too steep and it was a nice break away from the canyons we’d been hiking in and out of the last 3 days. About an hour into shooting light, after not having seen anything, a decent mule buck ran across our path about 30 yards in front of us. If only it was a bull instead of a buck haha. At least we had finally seen some signs of life. Another hour went by and we still hadn’t seen anything. We were starting to get a little discouraged that another morning had gone by with minimal activity but tried to stay positive. I found an antelope “shed” which was super cool cause I’ve never seen one and I’m pretty sure they fall apart quickly after falling off. That got us a bit excited for a while. As we approached a tank about 3/4 mile away from the truck, I looked at my map and realized there was a nice little bench just up ahead. From past experiences I’ve seen elk bed on little benches like these even though they’re only 30 feet tall, so I told my wife to keep an eye out. We hadn’t gone more than 15 yards when I spotted four oval looking things. I immediately thought how out of place they looked amongst all the jagged edges that are natural in the forest (branches, logs, etc)so I knelt down. My wife whispers “do you see one”? And I reply “I don’t know I thought I saw something weird but it’s probably nothing”. I pull out my binos and sure enough, there are two pairs of ears and I see two cows bedded in grass that’s almost blocking their entire bodies. I let my wife and father in law know and we slowly start glassing. The next cow I see was 80 yards directly in front of me bedded under a tree with a completely unobstructed view of me. How she didn’t spot us walking surprises me, but I have had that happen several times where I’m close to elk and they don’t know you’re there. I’m just glad I spotted them so quickly or they likely would have seen us walking and spooked. The longer we sit there we start finding more elk, maybe 10 total, but several of them are blocked by trees. I asked my wife if it’d be ok if I backed out slowly to try to glass them from another angle to see if there are any bulls. She agrees, and I move as slowly as I can but one cow spots me and stands up. Luckily the elk slowly start getting up one by one but none spook. I finally get a good look at some elk that were out to our right and there was a bigger spike in that group of elk. Then I look over to the elk that had stood up on the left and there was a spike there too. I try to look at the rest of the group and don’t see any other bulls so I tell my wife, 2 spikes and the one on the right is the bigger one. Thankfully they slowly start feeding down into a more open area off the knoll and I tell my wife to get ready. I lose the bigger spike between the trees but I know he’s coming out and will step out soon. Second later, I see him come out and my wife’s gun goes off! Perfect lung shot at 130 yards, slightly quartered away. I know people have reservations about spikes, but this bull was the best of them all for us. Not only was it my wife’s first elk tag, it was her first big game tag ever! Sure we were slightly disappointed we werent able to turn up/make a play on any larger bulls we had scouted earlier this month, but that’s ok. The look on her face and her excitement after her shot is something I’ll always remember. I wanted this so bad for her since she’s put in so much work practicing shooting, scouting, getting the right gear, and finally being drawn after 7 years. I’m so so proud of her and our family and friends that participated in the hunt couldn’t be more stoked! I’m glad I was able to end this “semi-live” thread with a success story! Thanks again for all the well wishes and following along! Until next hunt, John

Finally harvested one.

My 10 year old daughter was able to harvest her first coues buck here in NM last week. We spent a lot of hours behind the glass, battled the flu, got screwed by adult hunters on two big bucks, and finally put it all together to harvest this little guy. My daughter made a great shot to put this buck down. We have been very blessed this season!

You're right they're close to those does but you're not looking well enough for the bucks. Bucks are in bachelor herds and very nocturnal. In a few weeks they'll lose their heads to those does. Open your eyes to the northwest sides of ledges and canyons. Always on the shady side till dark!

So I found a cave up on the Rim and had some gear and decided to rap in. First real salamander I have ever seen Took a peek down in a hole Then another hole Found his buddy Once you check in you can never leave (although the Eagles are the most overrated band ever) Mandatory tailgate shot All cleaned up UPDATE- I scored the bigger buck. He came in at 107"

There’s a old saying when it comes to coues deer hunting….”some time you have to see every doe in the unit first “

Woohoo! Next round baby. Go USA!!!

Have you tried going up a little higher towards Murphy?

No help but 2K tags ahead of you sure doesn't help....

I’ll look forward to the sluts they’ll show in the stands

Looking to sell my Ranger. Only reason I am selling is I am buying a new one. 392V 94' 19'4" 200 Mercury 10' Talon New lower unit New powerhead New bilge pump New live well valves and pumps Has a jack plate and tempest prop boat will go 60+ Lowrance 7Ti Elite at console Lowrance Hook 9 at bow $11,000.00 928-978-eight zero two four

So after chasing mule deer in Dec/Jan archery my wife decided she wanted to try her luck on a desert mule deer during the general hunt. We’ve chased these deer only during archery and had decided to keep tabs through the years. We finally felt we had a solid plan so off we went. We got to her u it the afternoon before and set up camp then went out to glass. On our way to our glassing spot we came across a groups of 4 bucks hanging out in the area we were goi g to focus on. We got up early Opening morning and my wife and son got ready and headed to the area we had chosen to be at sunrise. I went to the glassing spot. At about 0611 I glasses up a group of 5 bucks, one of which was a definite shooter. Once they had formulated and approach everything just worked out perfect. I was bummed I couldn’t be with her when she shot but having just had hernia surgery a week earlier I was relegated to glass duty. 312 yard offhand shot with her 300WSM and the rest is history. Super proud of her!

What a great year this was! Congratulations.

@muley224 is in the car business and might be able to help.

Great stuff! Looks like you've been BUSY! Congratulations to everyone on the success.

Hunting with family is the absolute BEST of times!!! Multiple generations being able to spend time together in the field is AWESOME! Thanks for sharing, Tyler! S.

Thats a Impressive season !

VERY cool!!!! AWESOME few days of hunting! I don’t have any reservations about spikes what so ever! Also, for the record, that’s a 2-point in my book! 😉 S.

Stud Ram. Congrats!

Had my boys first youth cow elk hunt in 22. Started good while scouting a couple days before the hunt saw a few but not alot. Hunt started with an almost full moon so elk were hard to locate. We had a lot of downs before my son made a great shot and got his first elk. I wanted to say thank you to some of the guys on here who helped provide some good information. Hope all the youth elk hunters have/had a great experience.

Name some. Their best player is a bit part player for Chelsea. We have no player development in this country. We should be miles ahead with the size of our population but our coaching and development is miles behind.

That's the coolest deadhead story I think I've ever heard. Very cool finds and those are solid bucks to boot! Are you big into spelunking? What other cool stuff have you found?

That's crazy. I too am wondering how they got down there. I'm thinking Bigfoot.