cramerhunts

Congratulations on a great buck! Super job on the pictures as well. Awesome having your son there with you too!

Happy Birthday, I hope you have a great day!

Well it seems like it was just yesterday that I was day dreaming of being in Old Mexico chasing rutting bucks and enjoying the good life...before I knew it we were headed south for two weeks of coues hunting! Most of you know that I can be really long winded in these recaps so I'll try and keep this one short on words and long on pictures. Hector, Jim, Keven, Mike, and myself hunted Justo's ranch again this year and were able to take some nice bucks. We seemed to time the rut perfect and got to see some serious action. We passed up bucks bigger then the ones we killed in hopes of a toad but it wasn't meant to be. Keven and Mike both tagged out on a couple of beautiful bucks and I was able to take two nice bucks, Jim and Hector passed up some sweet bucks, and a few are still walking the hills by pure luck. It seemed dryer than previous years and I believe the horn growth suffered because of it. We also saw three lions and had a bunch on trail camera which seems to be contributing to the younger age class of bucks that we've been seeing and taking year after year. The lions got plenty of lead thrown their way and can either thank the howling wind or the fading light for being able to still roam the ranch. Justo and his family cannot be beat when it comes to great hospitality and wonderful food, it is always a pleasure to be with them. Some pictures of some of the great food! We can thank Hector for most of these pics Chef Hector working his magic on heating up one of our many lunches. We took some BIG hikes to get to our desired glassing locations. Spent a ton of time behind the glass looking for that special buck. Saw way too many of these. Saw a few of these.... and a few of these..... and a bunch of these! More to come....

Congratulations!

Congratulations on a stud buck! Love the great character on that super awesome deer man!

Very nice! Congratulations to all. Awesome job on the pics and write up!

For the past 15 years I have made my living off of and around the mining industry and I would like to continue.....so I cannot see this as being a bad thing. I have personaly seen wildlife continue there existence and even thrive around and in mines just like the future Rosemont mine. All of the talk about ruining the water shed is not really viable as the studies have been done and the permits granted through much debate but it has been determined that the water shed and its affecting areas will not be harmed. Yes mines are an eyesore but in the grand scheme of things I believe that for the amount of jobs and revenue that this will bring into our struggling state it is well worth it. Yes it will change the area that we hunt but just like the wild life I will change and adapt with it. These are just my beliefs and opinions and I do not pretend to speak for anyone but myself and I respect others' beliefs and opionions, I just thought I would share mine.

Does the buck in the last pic with his hair all stood up have another beam or is that an eye guard that grows forward? Either way cool pics.

Awesome! Hopefully he left some of those genes running around on the ranch.

Yes sir this is true! We had some hard times this year but that's part of hunting sometimes, we definitely proved we can adapt. Good times for sure.....well mostly good times and a couple rough ones! Sure was nice having each other to count on to pull you through when needed. Still haven't found out the name of that snake but from what Justo told us we were lucky to see it first. Thanks everyone for your nice comments!

Very cool, thanks. Timing the rut right is tough to do and sometimes it can be extremly frustrating but it looks like it turned out just fine

Looks great! Just can't beat the taste of coues meat IMHO.

Congratulations on a jaw dropper of a buck! I can't think of anyone that deserves it more than you! That buck has it all and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit jealous I've been waiting to see the pictures and it was well worth the wait! Simply awesome.

Dang Orlin, you guys knocked it out of the park! Congratulations on some absolutely beautiful bucks! That country is gorgeous and looks to be a coues paradise. Did you guys see a lot of deer or were the numbers low with great quality? Did you see any lions or lion sign? Anyway congratulations again, Hector and I were pulling for you and it turned out AWESOME! P.S. I could of done without hearing about the snake....I'm still flinching over the one Hector and I saw.

Great footage man, that stuff is too cool!

Congratulations to all involved, just doesn't get any better than that first big game animal! Way to get her out in the woods, some awesome memories made right there. Great pics, the smile on her face and yours says it all!

Congratulations again buddy on a super sweet buck! Awesome job on the pics and write up of your hunt! Looks and sounds like a blast!

So on the sixth or seventh day Hector, Jim, and myself glassed up this buck and filmed him for quite a while as he was rutting a doe and beating up every tree near by. I happened to notice that he had an inline extra point on one side and decided that he needed to be ground checked. We were losing light fast so I got set up for the shot as Hector checked the range and angle (640 yards and 550 after angle adjustment). Jim had the camera rolling and I got a good lesson in wind as I missed several shots before it became too dark. We hiked back in the next day and relocated the buck rutting several does. Jim stayed behind the spotter as Hector and I made the stalk. One shot from 182 yards and the buck was lights out. It was a long night and pack out as Justo had ran to town that day and couldn't bring the horses but it was well worth it. Here is the first buck interview. We hunted hard for the next few days covering a lot of country and seeing a lot of deer. Here is a quick 360 degree view from one of our glassing locations. On the last day we decided that any good buck was going to be in trouble and after an action packed morning I was able to connect with this buck at 505 yards. Since we were fairly close to where Jim could drive the ranger to I told Hector that I would just pack the buck out and he said he'd take my pack....he got the short end of the stick on that one! Here is the last day recap video. It was a great time and you just can't beat having good people along with you every step of the way. Thanks for hanging in there on another one of my long winded posts and here's to next year!

I am not sure if this is the actual picture but it DID happen near the Pogo Mine outside of Delta Junction, Alaska a few years back but the bull ended up dying from breaking his neck. Heck of a large bull too, we had drill rigs working there so I can attest to it actually happening.

Very nice Jim and crew! Beautiful looking ranch and bucks, great pictures as well.

Very cool Jim on what looks and sounds like an awesome hunt! Great bucks, fun times, and good people in some beautiful country! Congrats to all!

I know that I've replied already but I just can't express what a great time it was hunting with Keven and sharing in his enthusiasm for coues hunting. I've put up the short video taken by Chef after Keven whacked his great buck. Hope you all enjoy.

We were hunting about 20 miles east of Magdalena and were there from the 6th through the 20th, right during the full moon even though I saw as much if not more movement during this time. We experienced some extremely hot days and also some very cool days. From what we were able to observe was that the rut really got going around 11th and by the 19th was winding down. We also found that it could be smoking hot in one area of the ranch and almost non-existant in another. Funny thing was the bucks seemed to have to be in the right place at the right time as well as I watched smaller bucks breed does with larger bucks a couple canyons over just cruising or laying low. It's hard for me to really decide when the best hunting was though as the later it got the more broke bucks we found and also the harder it was to keep up with them once we found a good one. In one area of the ranch we hardly ever saw the same buck more than once but always saw a minimum of five or six bucks on one hillside. This year was some of the best rutting action I've seen in Mexico and I feel where we were at (north/south) we hit it just right. On another note just like Jim said I think that the antler growth was below normal this year and I believe it had to do with how dry the ranch was and the lack of browse during the crucial time period for growth. We had tanks that were dry or almost dry that were running over last year. Anyway just a couple more thoughts on the subject. Sorry to Hi-jack the thread Tim, congratulations again on a great buck!

A huge congratulations to Parker on his first big game animal as well as to Dad and Jay for getting him out there. I took my 10 year old on her first hunt this year and I agree there is no better feeling in the world! Congrats again to all.

Wow another close call! I hope it all comes together for you today and your time and effort pay off, one way or another it's been a great ride and I really appreciate you sharing it with us all!