CouesKilla

Good to hear some people are seeing rutting mule deer still. I watched a rutting whitetail buck this evening. Closed to within 100 yards before I ran out of light.

That is a good one. If you would like I can go out with you be the guy that doesn't get him, that way you can be the guy that does get him. I'm really good at being the guy that doesn't get them. Some friendly advice: (please disregard if you have killed many large bucks in your life) go out and practice shooting with the image of that guy in your head walking towards you at 40 yards. I'm working on a buck of equal magnitude and am having major buck fever issues when I get to within 100 yards of him. I guess it's all part of the hunt when you are going for monsters like this.

Just posting a pic I though you might like to see. Good luck seeing him here. Taken with as camera phone through my bino's. I ended up getting 80 yards from him before a doe busted me. He is a huge 3x3. If you zoom the picture in you can get an idea of how big he is. Just right of center.

+1 Now there is a great idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you can recognize that hill out of all the hills in Arizona you are a smarter man then I. I can not attest to him being blind on his left side, but will hopfully be able to stick him in the next couple weeks. I've been chasing this guy for the past three years now including this year. I've been out three days this week without seeing him. I assume he's a bit tired from working does the past three weeks. I think the rut is just about over if not totally done. What do big muley bucks do after the rut? Just kidding, unless you know the answer. If it is the same buck, and you get him, be sure to post pics. Good luck.

I'll go with 92 1/2"

I e-mailed my comment and got a reponse back saying the would hold it for review. I flat out told them I'm going to carry weather it's legal or not. Hopefully if enough people comment we can get this law changed.

Outstanding!!!! Thanks for sharing the story and pic, and congrats on your archery kill!!! I have a question though. I've been a novice archer for several years. By novice, I mean that I never got into it in a hard core way and I don't shoot on a regular basis (hence, I don't archery hunt much...). My question though is regarding your comment about 'holding a little high to compensate for the uphill shot.....'; I always thought you should hold low to compensate for an uphill shot?? Again, being a total novice, I'm interested in this comment so as I grow my skills so I can improve as an archer..... I always thought that given 'physics' and the natural laws of gravity, that you should hold low (with a rifle or bow.....) while shooting on an incline or a decline of any significance.... Is this not true? Any hard-core bow shooters wanna comment please???? Thanks! S. Great job on knocking down the deer, but it does appear you got a bit lucky (which is great). Both uphill and downhill shots drop less then a totally flat shot. Without getting all "physics teacher" on you it has to do with the distance the arrow travels in the plane perpendicular to the gravitational force. Uphill and downhill shots spend less time in that perpendicular plane and therefore drop less.

Well after hunting my a** off for 5 days I finally gave into the small spike that had been showing himself every once in awile. My first muzzleloader deer. I'm not sure if it's an excuse, but opening day was accompanied by a full moon. I never saw a buck on my trip. Keep in mind this is an area where I have seen so many big bucks during late bow season that I was convinced I would walk away with a trophy deer. With the good bucks acting for the most part nocturnal, I decided to fill the freezer. The weird thing is I was hunting for a big mule deer (fairly low elevation) and for some reason the area was overrun by whitetail. My spike was a whitey. Come late bow season this area is typically filled with mule deer. My guess is the two big whitetail hunts pushed the deer down from the foothills where they typically hangout. I've never laid foot on this land except during the late bow hunts. I guess I should have scouted a bit more. How did others fair with this hunt?

I was out doing a little scouting for January on Saturday the 13th. The wind nearly blew me over several times. Partly cloudy, windy, and full moon yet I saw 13 deer (4 different herds throughout the morning to mid day). Only two smaller bucks, but the deer activity was relativly high. I was shocked. I think the big deal here was the pressure was dropping before this storm hit. I'm convinced rapidly dropping pressure equals good deer movement regardless of other conditions.

The deer herds in the Dragoons have declined drastically over the last 10 years. I've heard the lions have had a lot to do with it.

With all do respect, I disagree. Mulies are difficult to pattern. Whitetail are much easier to pattern. Work hard on your scouting trips to make your hunting trip easier and enjoyable. The little deer are very territorial. Thier small stature can make them difficult to see, even when they are right in front of you. Use your glasses and trust your scouting. It's a fun deer to hunt.

Here is my run at it. 38" spread RIGHT main beam : 28" G1 : 1" G2 : 18" G3 : 0 G4 : 10" H1-H4 : 12" (3" each) 69" TOTAL LEFT Main Beam : 28" G1 : 1" G2 : 18" G3 : 6" G4 : 10 H1-H4 : 12" (3" EACH) 75" TOTAL Overall (gross) = 182"

Wow! I just had an eyegasam!

I shot a mid 80" deer within a stone throw of someones camp once. I was headed back to camp around lunch time and there he was standing there just staring at me. One shot and down. I had him gutted, skinned and on the back of my quad by the time they got back. They were shocked to say the least. Lesson learned, you never know where these suckers might be.

This is not the reaction of someone wanting to chat or investigate. Thed could have at least said sorry just wondering what this was.

I will be focusing on some monster muleys this year in 34a. I know of a couple high density whitetail areas in this unit. PM me if your scout comes up empty.

Is he looking off to the right side of the picture (his left)?

A well placed round from a .243 (100 gr.) will take just about anything down. The key words being "well placed". Be ethical with your shots. The .243 is a great coues killa!

I was on a javalina hunt in unit 28, and saw a couple guys cross the border and shoot a pig. They came back to my camp gloating about the pig they just shot. I asked where, and they pointed to a hill that was clearly on the other side of the border. Real shady people. I wish I would have written down there plate numbers and turned them in. You can't trust anyone these days.

At the very least could you please post a personal and vehicle description, so the rest of us can keep an eye out for these a**holes. I'm glad you were there. Those blinds are not cheap. Hopefully it didn't ruin your hunt too bad.

Looks like he has some mule deer genes in him. It also looks like the deer had more spread 2 years ago.

That's one heck of a deer!.....and to think he was the smaller of the two. Maybe you should tell me where that is so I can keep an eye on him in late December for you

Great pictures. What unit is that?

I'm a big fan of acronyms............. T.I.T. In use... Joe: "Hey Bob" Bob: " What" Joe: "I think I see a T.I.T. below that tree over there"