A perfect plan

[hntr4life]

I am a long time watcher, first time poster.

 

I arrived in Springerville with the hope that my upcoming New Mexico mule deer hunt would be more productive than last weeks Southern AZ Coues deer hunt. I was to be hunting with my nephews Durand and Luke, both of whom live in Springerville and both, especially Durand know NM very well. The cedar country of Western Central NM has some very large mule deer, but they are few and far between, and very difficult to hunt.

 

The first morning of the hunt we set out on foot to climb to the top of the highest point in the area we were hunting, about five minutes into the walk we heard a pack of coyotes yipping and yapping and raising all sort of commotion. About ten minutes later we saw a nice 5x5 bull elk that we watched for a few minutes before going on. By 7:00 AM we had reached the top of our look out point and everyone got set up for glassing, we immediately spotted a group of elk with two more nice sized bulls. I was looking at the elk when Durand said “I see some deer, nice bucks too”. The deer were about one mile away and seemed to be headed for a heavily wooded area on the other side of flat about a 1/4 of a mile wide. We quickly packed up our stuff and headed to another point about a mile away where we thought we might be able to get a shot, so we half walked and half ran and covered the ground pretty fast, but by the time we got to out point the deer had already crossed the flat and were just entering the trees. We could see that there were three nice bucks and one smaller buck. Unfortunately they were still out of range and into the wooded area where we figured they would bed for the day. We decided rather than push them we would come back in the afternoon and try to find them when they got up. That afternoon we went back to the top of out look out point and started glassing, at 5:00PM we could see them moving around in the trees not far from where we had last seen them that morning. We once again ran down off of our hill to try to close the distance between us and the deer, unfortunately it got dark on us before we could close the deal.

 

The second morning once again found us at the top of our look out point where we again spotted the big 5x5 bull, this time he had 10 cows with him and he was bugling and carrying on, very cool. After a few minutes I spotted our bucks again, this time they were only about a half a mile away, we thought they were probably going to go to the same place they had bedded the day before so we high tailed back off of our hill to try to get to an ambush point. The problem was to get there without spooking the elk which would in turn probably spook the deer. We successfully got to our desired destination without spooking either the elk or the bucks. We set up in a perfect spot for an ambush and waited, and waited. The deer never showed, we decided to go back up our hill and see if we could glass them up again. The day before Durand had said that when you’re chasing big bucks it’s always a good thing if they have a small buck running with them. He said that if you are patient and stay after them long enough the young buck will eventually give them away and get somebody killed. So we got back to the top of our hill at about 10:00AM and started glassing and glassing. At about noon I noticed some movement on a little point directly below us about 600 yards away, I concentrated on glassing area and finally saw that it was indeed a deer. It was a small buck and ever so often would step out on the open to feed, we watched him for about 30 minutes but he finally disappeared into a thicket. After discussing our options we decided that one person should go down and walk in from the far side of the point where we had seen the small buck, if the big bucks were there they would almost certainly have to flush directly towards the two waiting on the lookout point. Durand wanted to be the one to walk the point, Luke and I made our way to a better position on the hill side and waited. We could see the small buck moving around again, but no other deer. Finally Durand had made his way to where the deer was and still nothing was happening. I was ready to give up all hope when all of a sudden four deer busted off of the ridge where Durand was and were headed directly towards Luke and me! They were our bucks! When they got near the bottom of the draw we opened fire, with my second shot I dropped the lead buck, Luke continued shooting at the other two big bucks and by now Durand had sprinted across the ridge he was on and could see the deer going up our hillside and he opened fire and connected on the buck of his dreams. Unfortunately Luke missed on all of his shots and we had to settle for 2 out of 3. My deer is a big 4x4 with one broken tine; Durand’s deer is a beautiful 9x6 non-typical with five four inch eye guards, a drop tine, and big hooked cheater!

 

Thanks to both Durand and Luke for making this one of the most memorable hunts of my life.

[cdenton]

Albert,

 

Congrats to you and Dur for a couple of great Mule Deer Bucks. Dur looks a little hungover in that picture. Nah, just giving him a hard time. I met you a few years back. Durand and I were roomates for a while. If anybody can find those Mule Deer Bucks it's Durand. Congrats again on two awesome bucks and executing a perfect plan!

 

Charlie

[WadeNAZ]

Great Bucks Congrats!!

[azcouesandelk]

Sweet bucks guys! Sounds like a great hunt with some good friends!

[mxslaugh]

Congratulations on two hammer bucks! I just wonder how come Durand never shows me any big bucks like that , I am his horse shoe throwing partner ? No all kidding aside those are two great bucks.

[firstcoueswas80]

Awesome deer! I love that second buck, what a character/toad combined into one!!

[Coues Sniper]

Great bucks, congrats

[willhunt4coues]

Those are some monster mulies. Congrats

[flagpknmule]

Man u guys did great very good bucks.

[AZcoues_addict]

Wow, awesome bucks! Congratulations and thanks for sharing!

[ROBERT RIVERA]

Great looking flop ears

[coyotekid]

great bucks! glad all the marathon running you guys had to do paid off for you.

sam

[Coues Archer]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those bucks are huge great job.

[AllBoutHuntn]

Those are two hogs!! Congrats.

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

Great bucks and a great hunt... Congrats!