BML

My dad and I went 2 for 2 this weekend. I had 6 total days of scouting in our unit without seeing a single deer. I have to be honest that my confidence was next to none. It's been a long time since my dad and I have killed a deer. We pretty much though that this was going to be another typical deer hunt without seeing many deer and it ended up being the complete opposite. Opening morning found us hiking in at dark to our glassing point. We were on the west side of a big mountain glassing across to another big mountain. In between us was a pretty good canyon. I had the Swaro 15's on the tripod(thanks Terry!!) and started my search. As soon as the sun broke the horizon, I hear my dad whisper, "I got a deer!". I found them shortly after and saw that we had a doe, a fawn and a small fork horn buck. I told my dad that he could have first shot. He wasn't concerned with size and I wanted to try to shoot a three point or better, so this little buck was all his. We watched them and very quickly realized that they were heading down into the bottom of the canyon. We had to side hill them, basically racing them over there. After a while, we were set up 239 yards from the bottom of the canyon waiting for them. Then we realized that the buck had completely vanished!! He was no longer with the doe and fawn. They continued down the hill. On the way down, they picked up a really long spike that we hadn't seen before. As they started to filter through our shooting lane, my dad could not find him in the scope. I kept telling him he had better shoot because if they get to the bottom, they would be gone. Well, he couldn't find them in the scope and they made it to the bottom and out of site. I told my dad to head down there and see if he could find them and I would wait. Well, he didn't go 50 yards and they started coming out of the bottom. It was then that I could no longer hold back and I picked up my rifle. My dad still couldn't find him, so I made the decision to go ahead and take him. One 239 yard shot and he rolled twice down the hill!! WooHoo for me. My first buck in a very long time!! We hiked down to the bottom and realized that there was a quad road down there about 30 yards from my buck. How lucky were we!! Upon review of my buck, we noticed that his left horn was pretty gnarly. It had a bunch of dried velvet still on it and the right horn had a small mass all the way around it about where the eye guard should have been. He also had a small kicker coming off the back. I figured maybe he wasn't really a yearling spike, but rather a very old buck. I checked his teeth and sure enough there were only 4!! Here he is. Saturday morning we were at the exact same spot. It took a little longer, but we found deer again, only this time a little farther away. We had that same doe and fawn, but this time they were with two different three points!! I couldn't believe it. I immediately started kicking myself for not being patient enough. Oh well, nothing I could do about it but help my dad shoot one of them! Unbelievable, these deer did the exact same thing the deer did the morning before. They were heading down to the exact same spot I shot my buck so we headed to the exact same spot as well. As they filtered through, my brother told my dad to wait until he said shoot and "BOOM!" the rifle went off!! My dad apparently has the same amount of patience as me!! haha. He shot the very first buck that came through, which was the smaller one! The larger buck had held up just a tad and it saved his life!! Here is my dad's buck: Both these bucks were glassed from the same spot, shot from the same rock and died a mere 30 yards apart on separate days. Both shots were 239 yards.

Thanks again everyone! I have to say that I owe a very big THANK YOU to Neil Large, aka Tinman111. He was the main reason we were able to tag out, as he pointed us in the right direction. Also to a guy named Adam Young, aka BigBrowns. We didn't end up hunting in his area, but he was very kind in telling me of a few good spots. Thanks again fellas!!!

Gamehauler, I was shooting my new .270 WSM and my dad was shooting his trusty .270. After this deer, though, I am switching bullets. I was shooting the 150g Winchester Supreme Ballistic Silvertips. What a freaking mess inside!!! I shoot these bullets out of my 22.250 and love them on predators. For deer I just found out that they are way too expansive. My shot entered just in front of the hind quarter and exited (sort of) behind the front shoulder. The bullet basically just exploded inside the deer. The shot angle was pretty extreme from the steep slope and the quartering away as he was coming out of the canyon. The only organ that I could identify was the heart. Everything else was total mush!!! It was nice to not waste any meat but the cleaning job was tough. az4life, It was the EXACT same hunt two days in a row. The whole quad road thing was just a blessing!! Sort of like icing on a long overdue cake! Cramerhunts, We ate the tenderloins of my dad's buck in camp last night and it was awesome!!! It had no "gamey" taste at all. My wife even ate some and she's not a big fan of venison. I can't wait to grill up the back strap medallions we cut out!

Thanks Doug. I guess you could call that Patterning 101! The deer actually made it pretty easy for us.

Great buck!! Congrats.

I switched to Blazer's after the fall hunts last year and I love them. Unfortunately, you will get LOTS of opinions to your question. It's all a matter of preference. I would suggest you try a few different fletchings and really get a first hand experience with each one.

Nice pics. Good to see that you are into the deer. I know exactly how you feel with the snakes. I HATE rattlesnakes!!!!

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions. I appreciate it. I will be back out both of the next two weekends before my hunt. Hopefully I will have some scenery pics with deer in them! Two Guns, We will either be in my black Silverado Crew Cab or my dad's black Dodge Quad Cab. More than likely, my truck since my dad's truck is such a rough ride. What will you be driving?

Spent the day scouting for my coues hunt in unit 21 this October. I am fairly new to this unit, even though I live pretty close to it. Last year was the first time I had hunted it for deer and, somehow, I was lucky enough to draw the December tag. I spent 7 days scouting before the hunt, but could only hunt the first 5 days of the hunt. In those 12 days, I saw a total of 8 deer. I passed on a little spike on the 5th day of the hunt. I had him in the scope at a mere 75 yards, but just couldn't pull the trigger. They don't get to be big when you shoot 'em that young! Needless to say, the deer won big time last year. So far, I am not having much luck this year either. Today, I made my trek into an area that I didn't make it to last year. The fact that it's 36 miles on a dirt road just to get there has been a big deterrent! I didn't see a deer one, but I imagine they are there somewhere. Here are a couple pics. You can't really tell, but there are two nice canyons in this pic that separate the ridges. There wasn't any water in the bottoms, but behind where I glassed from there are a few tanks with water in them. I am open to suggestions on how to hunt this area. I am no coues expert, but it looked like good coues country to me. Any thoughts?? I still have one more area that I am going to check out, but it will be between those two spots come opening weekend.

Nice! I am still trying to kill my first bear, so they are shooters to me!

I believe this is the bull. Congrats to the hunter on a magnificent bull.

Just curious as to if anyone else has this unit this year. My brother has been up there since last week and is having a tough go at it. Very few bugles, and lots of wind. I was with him for the first three days. We had a pretty good opportunity on Saturday, but needed about 25 more yards that we just couldn't get. We didn't want to blow that bull out of the area, so we quietly backed out so we could hunt him again. He has passed on a couple rag horns while sitting water in the evenings and that's about it. He is staying for the whole hunt and I will join him again this weekend. Again, just curious if anyone has had any luck. Thanks

Here is my brother with his bull. He had to wait until he got to our dad's house before he took any pictures. Just thought I would share. Congrats again to all the other successful hunters!

Sorry to hear of the misfortunes. I own a courier route and I drive that particular stretch of highway every single day. I will keep my eyes open for you.

Try Craigslist. There are lots of them for sale. Good luck.

Well, it finally happened! My brother called me today to tell me the good news. He finally tagged out on a bull last night. I met him this afternoon to take a look at it. It's an awesome bull stretching the tape to around 330". He hunted the same area we were in the night I called in the bull where he ran out of light. He says he got in between two bulls bugling like crazy. He started his calling and the bull without any cows came right in. 42 yard shot right before dark and the bull went down in 30 yards. Then the fun began! Remember, that area was over 2 miles from the road. He said he didn't get back to camp until after midnight some time. I have no pictures unfortunately. He was too busy worrying about how he was going to get this elk out in the dark by himself and he didn't take any. I have to say that I am proud of my little bro. Just goes to show you that even if you are given the worst hunting conditions like he was, you can still be successful. He stuck it out through all the bad weather, close calls and non existent rut. He drew a unit 10 archery bull hunt a few years back and didn't kill. He hunted every single day of the hunt. A few of his buddies really gave him a hard time for that one. This year, he gets his revenge. All those same buddies had tags this year and all of them killed bulls. My brother's, however, was the biggest one!! Now it's his turn to dish out the ribbing!

Those that were successful, a big congrats to you!! I got back yesterday from another 4 day trip helping my brother out. It's getting a little better, but not much. The wind has really been tough. In all the hunts that I have been on, I have never seen a year like this one. The bulls aren't bugling at all in the mornings. They seem to be getting fired up right after the sun goes down past the horizon up until about 30 minutes after dark and that's about it. We have several different areas that we are hunting. All these areas are 2 to 2.5 mile hikes to get to. We got hammered with the rain as well. Unfortunately for us, we were already in 2.5 miles to our spot when the rain started getting heavy. Needless to say, we walked back to the truck very wet and dejected!! Oh well. It's gonna happen every now and then. He has still had some great opportunities. Friday night, I called in a nice 6x6. We saw him at 65 yards before I started calling. I normally don't call once I see them, but he wouldn't commit and we were running out of daylight fast! Got him into roughly 30 yards. I watched as my brother drew his bow and I though "Finally! It's going to happen" Then I saw my brother let down and I immediately knew that we had run out of light. He couldn't see his pins! Sunday night a very big 360 class bull came into a tank but held up. The wind was swirling, yet again, and he stopped at 72 yards. He wouldn't come in any further. He teased for a while and eventually left the area. All and all, it's been a decent hunt still. We have been in elk every day. My brother is still out there sticking it out for the duration. If he doesn't kill, it will not be from lack of effort. I really think the upcoming full moon will really get the bulls going. It's going to be a stellar year for those with early rifle tags!!

One more report from this morning. My brother said the bulls were really getting going. Once again, though, the wind really screwed things up. He got right in the middle of several bulls letting it rip, but the wind wouldn't make up it's mind on which way it wanted to blow. He couldn't seal the deal, but he said it made him feel better knowing that they were at least bugling. I know what it's like to hunt by yourself. If things aren't going well, it's really hard to stay positive. I think today did wonders for his optimism. I knew this storm was on it's way, but I didn't know they were talking snow!! That should help things a bunch. Terry, I wish I was there in NM as well. I heard it was a short, but fun hunt! Congrats to you and your client.

Thanks Ryan, He is up there for the whole hunt so I am sure he will eventually hit at least some of the rut. We haven't had much trouble with other hunters. He is hunting near the border of another unit and the only hunters we have spoke to are hunting that other unit. There were several camps near his, but we never ran into those guys in the field. The bulls so far don't seem very interested in the calls, but I don't think it's from being call shy. I think they just aren't ready yet. Hopefully it will happen soon. The days are getting shorter and the weather cooler. Casey, Tell your buddy congrats! Any chance we get to see a pic?

Hello gang, I don't post very often, but I am usually reading all the posts every couple days or so. Lots of you know me from AZOD as well. I am looking for a used pair of 10 power SLC's or EL's. I am hoping to do a trade, but will consider anything. I have a Ruger Mach2 7mm Mag with a synthetic stock and stainless barrel. Topped with Ruger rings and bases and a brand new Nikon 3x9 scope that I am willing to part with. I have had this gun for many years and it has been nothing short of awesome. I just don't shoot it much anymore and I really want to get a new pair of binos. I also have a pair of Zeiss Dialyt 7x42 binoculars that I am willing to trade as well. I have had these about as long as the rifle. You can respond here, or email me lanoue25@yahoo.com with any questions that you may have or if you have binos to sell. Thanks for looking. Blake

Tell us more about that antelope please!! He looks really big.

Just sent you a PM. I will take the Leica if it's still available. Thank you. Blake lanoue25@yahoo.com

Thanks for the kind words guys. I was taking antelope photos every weekend all summer long up until about three weeks ago. I have nearly 1000 on my computer, but only a handful that are good. It's a hobby of mine that I hope to get better at. Plus, it gives me a great excuse to get out there and scout new area for those speed goats! Thanks again!

Hey all, I don't post here often, but I am around all the time. TLH and I are partners in the guiding business. I submitted this photo, but didn't win. Maybe next year though!

Hey Elkhunter. Where did you get that picture? That is my brother holding that rack. Maybe we know each other? The story that I got was that they were talking to another group of hunters and they offered to let them see the rack. When they opened up the trailer, it was filled with all sorts of sheds, skulls from both deer and elk. They were a little suspicious when they say that. They took a real quick picture and left. I beleive they called Game and Fish after they left and told them about the trailer. I never heard anything else about it.