creed_az_88

My wife Miracle was able to get it done yesterday morning. We had a little bit of history with this guy. It was nice to finally see her get a bullet into him. Packing this deer out just about did me in. I've got a new level of respect for the guys packing these mule deer out of the high country in one trip. I'm beyond proud of my wife. Hope you enjoy. -Creed

Nice buck jack. Tough place to tag out good job.

World class.

Two years ago my wife had this same tag and we blew it on this deer and didn't see him the rest of the hunt. She didn't have a tag last year but I found this buck that summer very close to where we saw him the first year. We elected to look for a different buck opening morning this year, and after seeing 5 small bucks and no shooters we bailed on that spot and hauled butt to our glassing hill overlooking this bucks mesquite flat. About an hour before dark, my wife says "I see some". After a little scrambling I finally find the group of 9 bucks about 3/4 of a mile out, only about 400 yards from here we saw this buck the first time two years ago. He had put on a little mass but for the most part wasn't much bigger. The bucks were working their way out of the thick stuff and feeding towards a grassy spot. We decided to head straight for them, because we didn't have much daylight left. When we made it to the deer, they had all bedded again in some low mesquites. All nine bucks stayed bedded until just before dark when finally a few stood up including this buck. 3 other bucks gave us a shot but this deer houdini'd his way out of getting whacked that evening. Miracle stayed in the scope for 15 minutes at 200 yards waiting for a shot but it eventually got too dark to shoot so we sat down and waited for it to get completely dark and then we snuck out the way we came in. We were on our glassing hill first thing the next morning and before the sun came up we found the bucks only 400 yards from where we left them the night before. We angled to where we thought they would be heading back out of the low spot they were in and before long they were headed our way. The big buck was in the very back. Some of the smaller bucks were spread out in front of us from 60-100 yards but the three biggest bucks took awhile to make it in range. Eventually this buck gave us a broadside shot at 160 yards and a 6mm Sierra bullet hit the deer high on the shoulder, dropping him in his tracks. The amount of fat on this deer made the gutless method very difficult. We didn't make it back to the truck until after noon and it was flat the whole way! My wife blows my mind every time we go out. The gentle, caring, full time mom that I'm used to being around turns into a mule deer slaying crazy woman when we she has a tag in her pocket. I may have her convinced to try shooting a whitetail next year so I'm looking forward to that. Thanks for reading. -Creed

Can someone please rotate the pics for me. Thank you!

Wow. Awesome stuff.

Beauty Keven congrats.

Happy birthday Phil hope you're on top of a mountain somewhere.

South end is pretty dry. Much more water in the north end. What looks burned or barren on Google earth is still barren with the exception of grass growth. Relatively weak monsoon will make it even worse as far as water goes. I recommend packing In water a week ahead of time if you plan on hunting the south end.

41 grains of reloader 17 under Sierra pro hunters shoots fantastic in my Remington. Im considering trying the 90 grain accubonds. I would be afraid of hitting shoulder with some of the previous mentioned bullets.

Looks like an awesome hunt. Sometimes the tougher they are the better they become in the end. Looks like a dream hunt as far as I'm concerned, sharing it with everybody and all.

That was one heck of a read. Congrats on the bear.

That kid will never forget that. Awesome!

But that is only my opinion. Please inform me if I'm COMPLETELY WRONG again.

But back to the kids, What hunt do you want them to have, a hunt where they see almost no deer at all and the success rate is 20% at best?? That's not doing much for are future hunters IMO, I would have no problem if for one year all they allowed to hunt in 6A was kids. So you are saying the retention of future hunters is based off of success? I do not buy that at all and from what I have researched there is no evidence to prove that it does. There are enough Small game and Big game opportunities to hook, grow and retain future hunters without the youth Hunts for Deer and Elk. Part of the learning curve of any angling or hunting is the lesson in humility and understanding that there are no guarantees. Youth hunts are the equivalency of Giving all Kids who participate in a sport a trophy just so they stay interested, IMO, and that IMO is a bad habit. You may not have said that you were against them but you did Call them the equivalence of participation trophies. Also, have you personally seen more deer activity in early October than you have from deer other times of the year? You are correct that testosterone spikes cause velvet to shed and also begin to spar but that does not mean it makes them be on their feet more. If anything it makes them more comfortable bedding in thick cover where their velvet is no longer sensitive and vulnerable and allows them to get away from the heat of the October sun.

Have any of you guys thinking that youth hunts are bad ever been on a youth hunt with a kid? It's not much easier than a normal general hunt. I suppose the youth run hunt might be a bit of a gimme but I've not experienced one of those but the early October youth hunts are friggin hot and the deer have usually just shed their velvet or are very close. Deer that just shed their velvet are generally less active than deer in August/september and less active than deer in late November for sure. I hunt with multiple kids every single year and never do we have to work less during the youth hunts. The early youth hunts are great for somebody trying to keep tabs on a particular deer for their kid and plan on killing him opening day but even then, it's not much different than a late Oct hunt. The only difference is that you are not having to compete with a faster, better equipped, more experienced adult hunter that is ahead of you on the same ridge because he got to take time off work and camp in the area while the kid you are hunting with got 5 hours of sleep because he had a football game the night before. The youth hunts are great for the kids. They're great because the kid still has to work his or her butt off to be successful but they don't have to compete with the adults while doing it. I disagree with your statement str8shot. Sorry. The youth hunts are far from a participation trophy.

And I may not apply for 4a if you killed a 380 bull there but if you're the 5th or 6th person to show a pic of a 350 plus bull there then yes I may apply for that unit since I'm low on points and looking for an easier to draw unit that what I normally apply for. Its not all about inches either. Just the fact that people are having alot of success in 4a on nice mature bulls then that may just sway my decision for next year.

I'm with bonecollector. With as much effort as I've put in to some places I really have no desire to sparks someone's interest in the unit because in reality lots of units arent near as big as they used to seem. I can cover most any unit with Google earth pretty quickly. I love to share pics too. One decent background pic and any skilled Google earth user can dial right in to it if they know the unit. Alot of it has to do with the fact that I hunt alot of unpopular units. I know a lot of guys that used to hunt some of these units but have moved on the some of the more popular units because of the amount of large deer those units produce. If some of those guys knew what units some of the bucks that I was showing them pictures of came from, then they would almost certainly come back and focus on these units again. Just about every serious coues hunter I know halfbutt keeps track of what units the giants are being killed in. No matter what there is gonna be X amount of rifle tags in every unit, but if I can keep some of the serious coues guys from knowing what units I might be seeing big deer in, then maybe just maybe there will be less of those serious guys in my unit and more of the weekend warriors getting the tags. I'm really not super anal about sharing the unit, but I'm probably not gonna share the unit online if I can help it. I know somebody who killed a really good deer last year. He was pretty open about what unit he shot it in. It seemed like the unit of kill popped up I'm just about every conversation I had with other people about that deer. Ironically, a large portion of those people now have tags in that same unit this year for the first time. People want to protect their investments. Sharing the unit may not feel like a big deal to some but to the people who pour their heart into finding really special deer or even just like having places all to themselves, sharing the unit can feel like you're threatening everything you've worked for. That's a little bit of an exaggeration but it's the truth.

That's a nice buck BTW.

.... Jk

They look fatter Cuz their horns are smaller this year.

That's awesome man. I didn't realize that you had a bunch of stuff stolen. Makes this story all that much sweeter. Congrats again.

That's awesome man. I didn't realize that you had a bunch of stuff stolen. Makes this story all that much sweeter. Congrats again.

I love these kinds of stories. Fantastic read.

This deer is so impressive when you get to hold it in your hands. Pictures do it no justice. Congrats again Cody you worked hard for that deer.