az_shooter

Isn't that illegal...Haha

Nice of you to post this, hopefully it gets back to its owners.

Great job to Garrett, congrats!

The December archery season started out with my friend and I hunting for desert muleys in southern AZ. My buddy is a huge mule deer fan while I haven't spent much time hunting them, I spend my hunting time going for CWT. So I took his word on where we should hunt and what bucks we should look for. On the very first day we were able to locate a couple nice shooter bucks and tried our luck at putting a stock on them. Needless to say we weren't able to capitalize on the deer and opening day ended with a long truck ride home talking about what we did right and what we should have done different. We were only able to hunt about once or twice a week due to work and the holidays coming up soon. So after the first two weeks we still haven't been able to put an arrow through any bucks but have been seeing good deer every time out. So we set out the day before Christmas to go back and try and find a buck we put a stock on the week before. We ended up finding him and from about 950 yards I took a picture of him through my sworos with my phone before we tried to make a move on him (picture below). So we decided to head down a wash and get around on him and let him come to us. We almost had got into position when a doe busted us and the buck soon realized something wasn't right and high tailed it out of the area. After having no luck chasing mule deer we decided to change our plan and try some luck at getting a coues deer. I have never successfully hunted coues with a bow but thought we would try anyways. After spending a day scouting an area I thought might be good we quickly found an area that was loaded with deer sign and seeing a few bucks we knew were in a great spot. We made a plan to come back in a few days and hunt the area hard and hopefully bag a nice buck. My friend was able to hunt the next day but I wasn't which is why we planned to go back in a few days, but my buddy decided to go out without me and try his luck. Sure enough I get a call from my friend saying he found a buck and stuck one the day before we were supposed to go out. I was pumped so I quickly drove home and changed and headed out to help him blood trail and pack his deer out. By the time I got out to the spot and hiked into him he had already discovered he had made a non fatal shot but was injured bad. We decided to pursue him and try and get another arrow through him. We knew where he was bedded and had a good route into him but unfortunately that didn't work out. The buck stood up and walked on us and made a big circle around close to where he originally shot him. After tracking him for about an hour we found ourselves right on top of him but not in a good shooting spot. Suddenly the buck stood up 20 yards from us and my friend quickly drew back, leaned around the tree and let it fly. We knew it was a good hit this time and gave him some time before we headed after him. We found him about 30 yards from where he stuck him and we were pumped. This was the first successful archery hunt I have ever been on and my friends first coues whitetail ever. The pictures aren't that good quality because I took them with my phone. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed.

Wow congrats! Awesome width on that stud, can't wait for the story.

Thanks all, we're heading back out on the first of the year to try and get my first bow kill, I'm extremely pumped and ready to get one down!

Couple of nice bucks, congrats and way to stick with it!

That is one of the oddest group of deer I have ever seen. Usually you might get a picture of one odd deer but to have that many deer with deformations and odd stuff going on, and all in the same area. I just don't know what to think about that. It's like "The Hills Have Eyes" part 3: Beware the wildlife. I would watch out next time you go out in the woods, you might end up getting dragged into a hole by some morbid deer. Haha that's my 2 cents 😜

SOLD

Wanting to sell my XD-40 Solid black with no wear Only had about 30 rounds through it Includes two mags, holster, case and child lock Asking $350, pm me for more info or if you are interested

Yup haha, been a long day, I'm getting my units mixed up cause my buddy and I are chasing mulies in 34B, in the whetstones and out in the flats by the San Pedro river, haha I should pay attention more haha

First class act, very nice giving such a great tag to your son and then capitalizing on an even greater buck, nicely done and congrats!

I'm bow hunting with a friend in 34A almost every other day and were chasing mule deer but I know for the past week or so every buck we have found has been with or pushing does. Haven't seen any whitetail cause were running the flats in 34A but there is some rut going on in the unit.

My truck! I remember that cause it was the day before my b-day and I parked next to the green dodge. I have a habit of parking next to other dodge trucks haha, like to show off haha

Great job on a great buck, I'm pretty sure I saw your picture up on the hunting board in Sportsmans Warehouse in Tucson, congrats!

Holy eye balls... I mean guards haha great buck and congrats, what's the story?

Great job, way to fight through the pain and get a great buck on the ground!

Sorry, I don't know anywhere to hunt up there. Not much help around the site either, I posted a topic about ducks down south and I didn't get any help. If I knew anything about your area I would try but I don't so i hope it goes well for you though, good luck.

I'm looking to take some friends and family on a duck hunt in southern AZ this weekend and I haven't been duck hunting in almost ten years. I was just wondering if anyone knows of any good ponds or spots around the benson/st. David/tombstone area. I'm not looking for anyone's secret spots or anything like that, just looking for some ideas. Thanks y'all

Those are a couple of really nice deer, please tell Taylor I said congrats, my name is Justin and I used to work with Taylor in Nogales. Congrats to the both of you.

Awesome job Robert and even better bucks, congrats on the deer

Thanks fellas, looks like a lot of good hunting going on so far with all the topics on the forum

This year started off just like any other year, with big dreams and even bigger anxiety. I've only been hunting Coues for three years, this year being my third, but I fell in love with it from the first tag i drew, that i ended up not tagging out. I started out hunting a buck that i glassed up while scouting but thing weren't going well. I found a real nice 3x3 the evening before the hunt but three days into the hunt I was left feeling confused and worried that i wasn't going to find him. The canyon that he was in was being pounded by hunters, including myself, and i just felt he moved out or maybe even worse, already killed. So the fourth day of the hunt i decided to start fresh and go deeper into a different canyon where I soon realized I was about to make the biggest mistake of the whole hunt. I glassed up three nice bucks at first light but one of them was just amazing, he was laying in the grass between two dead oaks and all i could see was horns moving around above the grass, and what a mess of horns they were, my heart went through my throat the second I found him. I was too far for a shot but when I tried to get in closer all three made thier way over the ridge and out of the canyon. I quickly decided to hike all the way around and get to a good spot to where i think he went. after about an hour of glassing for him again I wasn't having any luck. But ot of no where another hunter came over the ridge and was walking around through the brush occasionally lifting up his binos to look for deer. Luckily for me he spooked up the three bucks and he didn't even see them so I waited just long enough for the bucks to get up canyon from him before setting up for my shots. No need to embarrass myself with details but I missed the shot and the buck ran off never to be seen again, I was so frustrated with myself. On the fifth evening i found myself in a new spot again but still thinking about that beautiful buck I missed the day before. I was sitting under a tree glassing up the canyon when I found another buck, I couldn't tell how big but I knew he was a buck, so I started up the drainage being sneeky and hoping to get a chance to redeem my self. When I got to my shooting position I picked out from my glassing spot, I realized he was not anything close to the buck I missed the day before but still bigger then my first buck I shot last year. When I got all set up he was 330 yards and walking away so I let out a whistle, he stopped and turned to look and I squeezed the trigger. He dropped right in his tracks and I quickly grabbed my stuff and went to go see my second Coues buck. I didn't make a perfect shot but it was still good enough to get the job done. I'm already looking forward to next year and a new adventure, hope the story wasn't too long but I had quite an eventful hunt to share, hope you enjoyed it.

Thanks y'all, got the head all boiled out and now it sits on her shelf right next to her flower pictures haha

We set off early on opening morning with the rain coming down and the wind blowing. We got set up into our glassing spot just before darkness broke and waited for first light. It wasn't anymore then 15 minutes before i glassed up a little 3x3 about 900 yards out feeding circles around a yuca cactus. I told her I found a buck and decided to make a move on it. So we set off down the ridge to get into a good shooting position, with the wind still blowing pretty hard, which was good because it was blowing our scent down canyon and away from the deer. On our way to our shooting position I made a quick stop to pull up the swaros and just see if i could locate the buck again. Just as i did this we heard some rustling around in the grass no more than 20 yards in front of us. as I peaked over my binos I noticed that it was three javalinas feeding. I quickly shrugged it off and we were on our way once more. When we got down to our shooting spot I set up the glasses and began looking for the buck. Not too long after we set up again I noticed five deer just 60 yards from us also feeding and because of the strong wind they didn't even know we were there. I picked two bucks out of the group that was feeding 60 yards from us, a little spike and a fork horn, so I just ignorned them and turned my attention to finding the original buck we set out for. After scanning for about ten minutes i finally located the buck, which now was much further up the ridge and still walking. I told my GF that we could go after the small 3x3 but we would have to move around again and maybe take another chance at loosing him and not finding him and also spooking the deer feeding by us which had now fed to about 120 yards away. Just as this was happening my GF grabbed my arm and said something in a whispering voice that i couldn't understand but i could tell that she had been startled. I looked away from the glasses and noticed two things, one, she was still squeezing my arm and two, the javalinas from earlier had found us this time and mom was 15 yards away staring us down with a vengance. So i made a quick move to grab the rifle just in case and just then they decide to run off...in the direction of the deer that were feeding close by. But once again, thanks to strong winds the deer didn't notice anything. So after a 10 minute talk on what we were going to do she decided to let the 3x3 walk, which was now almost over the ridge about 800 yards away and still moving, and take a chance on the fork horn from the group feeding. So I moved her around just a bit to get into a better shooting position and waited until the buck gave us a shot. When the buck finally gave her a chance he was about 140 yards away and standing perfectly broadside. I told her to focus on breathing and just keep the crosshairs right on him and squeeze the trigger. as soon as the shot rang out i saw the buck jerk and collapse right where he stood. This was her first CWT and her first buck ever, she did a really good job and now has the deer to prove it!