Yuma Outdoorsman

I can't ever get a photo of this buck head on, he's always got his head sideways. It's by far the widest and tallest. I'm guessing it is pushing 25-26" wide. This photo was from September 3 so he's grown quite a bit since then. I don't have hardly any photos of him in focus. Everything is blurred or I've got half a rack with nothing to judge against. I know that he will look great in my scope though.

Now that the snowbirds are back moving in my area, they have the deer moving. Some of the roads where my tracks were the only ones since August are beat to crap. The washes have ran so much this monsoon that the wash bottom in some washes is hard and even when my fat behind is walking down them, I barely make any tracks. I have friends hunting in D12 in southern California and they said their deer are in the flats and not towards the hills like years past. The hard part about flats where I'm at is if the deer are in them, they could be 4-5 miles from the closest hill. That makes it hard to find them, especially with how thick and green the desert it. I am sure you are having similar issues. Stick with it though, you will turn them up eventually.

Bummer man. It’s been warm in Yuma. 2 of my biggest bucks on camera went MIA Since September. I’m hoping the warmer weather brought them back in....the snowbirds are back in the desert and I think their added pressure driving all over the desert is starting to scatter the deer I’ve been looking for. That’s why my dad quit scouting years ago. He said it’s a waste of time and the line he lived by now days is “they are where you find them, the day you find them”...that’s boring though 😂

You were out yesterday...did you find your buck?

I've talked to several people who went all directions from Yuma and the most birds anybody shot was 4. I was out most of the day scouting deer Saturday and didn't see one bird. I've had cameras on 3 waterholes since August and I do not have any quail on camera either. Very odd. The only place anybody saw quail was around the farmland in 41 out by Texas Hill. All the desert hunters didn't see anything. We had a ton of birds last year, I even limited out by 10am one morning. I almost feel bad now for shooting so many last year. The rain did not come early enough this year it seems.

Last weekend, they were up and feeding still at 9am.

Nice one! All I found this weekend was a bobcat skull.

I got a golden eagle on a different waterhole...it likes to go hop into the water and take a bath and then sit on the cement and dry off.

Hard horned is 2019 and the velvet photo is back in early September. Not much growth but has gained mass.

I’m not a good enough hunter to target a certain buck so he will most likely live another couple years 😂😂😂 But they are fun to look at on camera.

Well I went and checked a camera and sadly, two of our bigger bucks haven’t watered at this drinker since I changed the batteries last. I did get a new buck on camera though that got my attention. Not the best photos because I just snapped a shot of my computer screen but you get the idea. Solid 4x4 with a small point on one side that isn’t big enough to count as a kicker.

Nice bucks! They should be stripping soon. I’ve got photos from last year that had hard horned bucks on Oct 12....I haven’t checked my camera in 3 weeks. It’s killing me.

I got this cool ram on a trail camera. I thought it was a neat shot. I made it black and white and like that better than the in color shot.

Just took this one a little bit ago. It’s about to dump in Yuma.

That’s an awesome find. Bummer you didn’t find any sheds.

He found that dead head about 4 miles in to our 9 mile walk. I am shocked he was able to carry that head for that long. I have never personally held a sheep's head before and I was shocked at how heavy it was. Luckily, one of the horns is detachable from being weathered so at about mile 6, I offered to carry that horn for the final 3 miles back to the truck. He said he was good to carry the rest of the head. I am glad I have been hitting the treadmill hard the last month. I've lost 15lbs in that time frame and it really made the walk a lot easier and more enjoyable. I am busy the next 3 weekends but should be able to make it out the last weekend of October to do some more scouting. Hopefully the rest of you guys are able to get out and find some shooters.

Well, we hiked 9 miles. Only saw a couple young bucks. I found 3 drop antlers and my brother in law scored on a giant bighorn ram dead head. We eliminated a lot of country and scratched an itch I’ve had for awhile. On to the next.

Headed out in the morning! Hopefully I’ve got some photos to share after. Got a 7 mile hike planned...hopefully find some good sheds and even bigger bucks! 🤞🏻

I've got cameras on 5 different waterholes and not one of them had quail coming to drink. I was so bummed. I have seen a couple coveys out scouting for deer but the numbers are way down compared to last year. Thanks for the report. That is some very good information.

Where I'm at we don't have much grass but there is some areas where it can get between the ankle and knee and man it is sketchy walking through it in late September/October when the rattlers are looking to fatten up. Luckily, the few I've seen, I saw them before they saw me.

It is so thick in the area I've got deer on camera that I don't think I could glass them up if I wanted. There are mountains around but that buck in the photo I attached in the original post, I saw him run across the road in front of me and he was 3 miles away from the closest hill. It would've been impossible to see him from any mountain because of how deep cut the washes are. Looks like I'll be doing a lot of walking.

It's pretty simple in my opinion. More does for bucks to breed equals more fawns to have a chance to be born. More fawns being born equals more chance for bucks to be born. More bucks that are born, more of a population of bucks there will be. I wouldn't mind seeing Arizona implement a law saying a buck has to be a forkie or bigger to harvest. I understand some people don't hunt for antlers but giving the younger bucks a chance to leave mama gives them a chance to survive to reach maturity. I'm not a biologist though.

What a great monsoon for the desert this year. Gotta love it. More rain today!!!

It's getting so bad that pretty soon, all the "youtube stars" are going to become patch pirates with sponsors all over their clothes like what has happened in the fishing industry. Average Joe's in the local tournaments started making their own jerseys and adding all these sponsors on them and they aren't even really sponsored. I already see them on their instagram posts tagging every dang outdoor company, bow company, rifle company, coffee, blah blah blah...social media and the "look at me" mindset has changed the terms "hunter or hunting" ....I do enjoy videos on youtube where it's people out hunting for themselves and not trying to plug a sponsor or nothing. Those are enjoyable.

The deer I had on camera in July looked horrible but once we got rain, they fattened up over the next couple months. Hopefully that buck did too. If this dang weather would break, it would make it a lot easier on them and it would make it a lot more intriguing to want to go hiking through the hills to find them before the season. The 105+ degree days lately in Yuma suck. Woke up to 81% humidity on Saturday. That is terrible. It's saying 108 for this week still. I do see some light at the end of the tunnel though as there are some 99's showing on the 15 day now. Hopefully you have some good stuff on those other areas you placed a camera.