srearnhe

Hello everyone. I'm new to the forum but have read and learned a lot from everyone. I've been hunting my whole life with my dad and brothers, and decided to involve my wife in this passion. Last year was her first deer hunt where she took a beautiful mule deer out of 22. It was 183" so not bad for her first deer hunt, actually makes me sick because I've never taken anything that big yet. Well her luck continues, she drew 24B December Whitetail. So I'm a little familiar with the unit. I've done some hunting there, but I've focused more in 22 and primarily hunted mule deer in 24B. Would love to have any advice someone can give us for a great whitetail in the late season of this unit. I know I'll be competing with my archery friends but would love to give her an opportunity to take a nice buck for another trophy on our wall. I drew the later (November) whitetail tag, so I plan on doing a lot of scouting this year for the unit and would love to explore the area. Any help would be much appreciated.

We took both to Clay at Mogollon Taxidermy. He is going to put both of them (mine and hers) on the same mount. Should look great when it's done. Clay does an excellent job, can't wait to see what it looks like.

My wife finished her hunt Sunday morning. We hunted in the same general area I had shot my deer earlier in the season. We started hunting on Friday morning and saw a nice buck every day. Saturday we found a monster, but as we moved into position the buck was spooked by something behind it and eventually ran off. Sunday morning started with my wife glassing up a doe on a distant ridge and I wasn't able to find anything. I turned around and started glassing behind us and finally found a buck about 700 yards away. It looked like a smaller 3 pt because of his unique rack. I brought my wife over and told her we could go if she wanted him. After looking at him for a second she said, "I want him, let's go." So my dad stayed put and directed us as we made our way over. Along the way the buck moved down into a cut that was below his vantage point, so my dad was unable to direct us anymore. We kept moving to an area where we could see into the cut. I stopped and glassed along the way but could never find him. I found a nice rock outcropping where we could sit and she could setup for a shot. This put us about 150 yards away from where we last saw the deer. The cut did have some heavy brush in it and the wind was strong enough where our approach would not be heard, but I thought for sure he had already slipped out of the area. We noticed the deer in the area had not started to rut yet, but I decided to rattle a little to see if it would bring him out in the open. Nothing happened, so I told my dad and my 10 year old daughter to make their way higher and try to kick him out, if he was still there. I moved a little lower to have a different angle looking into the cut, hoping I could find him bedded under a tree. Before my dad and daughter crested the last finger, before the cut we were looking in, my wife started snapping her fingers at me and gets behind her gun. I looked up and still saw nothing, and even said, "Do you see him?". She was looking at the deer standing broadside 145 yards away and took a shot. Since I moved down a little lower, the deer was behind a tree for me, so I never saw the deer. After she shot, the deer ran up the hill about 10 yards and fell over backwards. Again, I wasn't able to see any of this, which was so disappointing. I even asked her, "What are you shooting at?". I wish I could have seen her take her first Coues, but I'm thrilled and very proud of her. Having my daughter there was a huge plus as well. Great hunt, sad to see the year over, but it's been a great 2013. Can't wait to see what God blesses us with next year.

Just returned from my hunt in 24B with success to share. This was a very difficult hunt. We spent hours walking miles into the wilderness looking for decent bucks. The terrain was unforgiving but beautiful. We found a few deer and I put a shot on one opening morning but couldn’t connect. On Saturday afternoon we were sitting at camp refueling from a morning trek into the wilderness. We started doing some glassing from camp and my dad saw a small buck on a north face in a cut. I took off trying to get a shot, but the route that I chose put me in a bad position where I couldn’t see the buck. My dad went in from another direction and took a shot putting the first deer in camp. From that point on, all the deer in the area vanished. The area started receiving more hunting pressure from the weekend crowd and the deer took refuge in the canyons. Finally, Monday we started seeing deer again and some bucks on distant hills but nothing we were able to get to. Tuesday was going to be my last day of hunting so I decided to head back to a canyon where we had seen some decent bucks. My brother and his friend glassed up a great buck in this canyon earlier in the weekend but couldn’t find him after moving down to get into position. We always saw this buck running with a fork. The last morning of the hunt, I saw this buck walking with his fork over a distant ridge. I hated the thought of walking all the way over there just to find that they had vanished, as Coues are famous for, but I decided to make the trek realizing it was my last day of hunting. When I finally reached the ridge, looking into the next valley, I found nothing. I figured, and hoped, that they had bedded down in some of the thick brush on the north face. So I started walking along the ridge making my way up to the cliff face of this particular ridge. I heard movement above me and there they were running up the ridge. I sat down and had only a few seconds to get on him. I pulled the trigger and the fork continued up the cut, but the bigger buck was nowhere to be found. From my vantage point, I could only see a portion of the cut near the top. I figured that I either connected with him (which the shot didn’t give me that distinctive sound when hitting something, so I wasn’t sure), or he ran further into the cut where I couldn’t see him and out of the area. I decided to traverse the north face climbing cliff edges and making my way through heavy brush to find out what had happened. When I finally made it to the cut, the fork jumped up and ran across the other ridge 50 yards away. I knew something wasn’t right if he was still hanging around. I started looking for blood around the bushes the big buck was next to when I took the shot; I could not find anything but heard more movement further up the cut. He stepped out and walked up and over the top of the mountain hidden by brush so I couldn’t get another shot. He didn’t act wounded but still being in the area made me think I probably made a gut shot on him. I managed to follow the path he took out of the area looking for any sign of a hit. I found nothing and he had many different options he could have walked into after going over the top. I decided to head back to the hill top that my dad was glassing from that morning, and as I topped over and started making my way to the cliff face, I saw him bedded under a tree 200 yards away. He was facing away from me so I crept up to the cliff face, got into position, and waited for him to turn or stand. He positioned himself so I could see more of his body and I took the final shot that resulted in a great trophy. Can't wait to see what's available during my wife's December hunt! Great hunt with a lot of memories!

My wife took her cow elk over the weekend in 4A. Great hunt. Now looking forward to understanding 24b, so we have a great opportunity in December.

yep, that's it. Dickson was awesome, he hung around camp talking with the kids. I thought my deer was great too, but next to her's it's dwarfed. The article I posted has a picture of mine on the left hand side. It's the smaller picture inside the larger one where she's showing the side view of her deer. We were both lucky to harvest such great bucks. I attached a picture of mine here also.

Flatlander, Thanks for the advice, I actually live near the superstition mtns and plan on heading up around the north end since it's easier from home. Can't wait to post a few pics!

We've heard that this deer was "famous" in the area. We killed this deer and mine on opening day. We were far back, in an area closed to vehicle traffic, so we decided to hang the deer for the night and hike back out. Our plan was to hike back in the next morning and pack everything out. On our way in a game warden stopped by our camp and saw the deer heads (we had to pack those out). The game warden talked with my mom who was still in camp after we were already hiking in to recovery the deer. My mom was able to phone my dad and he talked to the game warden who drove all the way in to help us recovery the deer. That saved us a full day of packing out two deer. We were so thankful for the help! The game warden told us there were a few different groups in the general area looking for these deer, so we felt privileged to have the opportunity. Again, my wife has no idea how lucky she was on this hunt. She takes a great buck as her first deer, she doesn't have to pack it out, and now she has a December whitetail hunt....I wouldn't trade it for anything! I'm going to do some looking around as recommended by ready2hunt and see what I can come up with.

James, thanks for the link. I read on another post where you offered this advice. I've bookmarked that site and will compare it with my Garmin topo.

Okay, she actually made Muley Crazy magazine with the hunt, so here's the article with the story. I'm hoping I can do something similar for her on this whitetail hunt. Hopefully it comes up alright. It was a great hunt, I also had my 8 year old daughter with me. Big bonus!

I know, she doesn't realize how lucky she is. She also has a 4A cow hunt in October, so we'll be busy this fall.