Late muley unit 21

[Born2hunt]

After crunching all the numbers for 14 BPs, I put in for late kaibab and late 21 muley. The hunting websites said I didn’t have better than a 5% chance of drawing either. Evidently they were wrong because I drew tag #1 for the late 21 tag (12/13-12/31) so I must have been max bonus points.  I would have loved to finally hunt the Kaibab, but 21 is closer to scout and hunt and should be fun to meet up with friends and family. 

I’ve been chasing muleys and coues for over a decade with my bow in various units, but I haven’t hunted 21 a whole lot. As I’ve been out scouting I’m seeing more elk, coues and coati than mule deer. Yesterday I went to what used to be a sure bet and didn’t see a single deer. 

Is this everyone else’s experience this year?  I’ve been avoiding the crowded areas which could be my problem, but l I may change that come December. 

For the deer you have seen, do they seem healthy and how was antler growth this year?  I’ve seen very few bucks so far, curious what everyone else is seeing.  Seems like good grass on the ground, especially further north so I’m still optimistic. 

[trphyhntr]

Idk anything about it, but that should be fun 

[catclaw]

A few years ago I had a flat tire by Table Mesa.  It was my second of the trip and no spare left. While I waited for  my son to bring me a spare I hiked around the edge of table Mesa close to I-17.

I found muley tracks that were bigger than my 300 Wby cases.  Fresh pellets and all. There was a big bodied bruiser in there somewhere

[PRDATR]

40 minutes ago, catclaw said:

A few years ago I had a flat tire by Table Mesa.  It was my second of the trip and no spare left. While I waited for  my son to bring me a spare I hiked around the edge of table Mesa close to I-17.

I found muley tracks that were bigger than my 300 Wby cases.  Fresh pellets and all. There was a big bodied bruiser in there somewhere

Back in about 92 me and a couple of buddies drove in through New River and camped in the desert below the Mesa. Hunted it for three day and didn't see too much so they left on Sunday. Monday I hiked about half a mile in and was on a flat below the Mesa when I saw two sets of antlers hauling bouncing north. I hauled butt and knowing Mulies usually go up when spooked I soon found them running west about 75' below the rim. I shot the bigger 4x4 and it took an hour to climb up to him. I boned him out and the pack back to camp was brutal. My buddy pulled a 5x6 out of there a few years before.

[Tannert]

Each year 21 has more Coues and less Mule deer. Its getting harder to find big mature MD's. Im not sure if you have point guard but that sure is a lot of points to burn on a hunt that can be pretty tough especially if we get the colder weather later they might not rut hard (or at all) until the new year. 

[bigj23]

It is a good hunt and there will be some good bucks running around but not like Kaibab.  I will be up there at the end of December for a week.  Hopefully the OTC hunts are still open.  

[trphyhntr]

Big desert buck > kaibab buck 

[Couesnut]

look along the Verde n. of Horseshoe

[Born2hunt]

Thanks guys I appreciate the support. Found a really nice white tail yesterday, that’s always fun when scouting for muleys. I’m sure it’ll get better as we get later into the season. Good luck to anyone still hunting this year!

[couesyodaddy]

@Born2hunt howd the hunt go?

[Born2hunt]

Thanks for checking in. I still need to make some time to sit down and write out more detail, but the short story is it was an extremely difficult hunt. As many people mentioned above, I saw some great white tail but we saw more lions than we did mature muleys. Heard of a few others with the same tag that had difficult hunts too, but I can’t complain as I ended up with a beautiful buck. I’ll post more details after archery season is over. 

[Born2hunt]

Hey y’all sorry it’s taken me forever to finally get to this, but it has been archery season for the last month and I’ve been playing catch up from my rifle tag…

I ended up scouting and hunting what felt like most of the country between the 17 and the river, and all the way from Bartlett to a little bit south of camp verde.  I was planning to finally have a hunt of a lifetime with the opportunity to pass on multiple mature bucks. That didn’t pan out. This hunt was grueling. I was able to hunt with some friends a lot though which was a lot of fun. Being able to have friends along because it was close to Phoenix was one of the reasons I stuck with the tag.

Another reason I put in for the tag was because I’ve hunted 21 in October a bit in the past. Granted it had been a few years but I didn’t think it could be that different. It should only be better in December. I couldn’t believe the drastic change from back then to now. Places where I used to see tons of muleys now held 1 or 2 does. 

We put in a lot of miles hunting hard to access places, easy to access places, and places I thought would be overlooked by the masses.  We glassed up coati, javis, lots of white tails, and more mountain lions than 4 point mule deer. 

About a week into the hunt I passed on the first 4x that I saw.  He was pushing a doe so I felt confident I had nothing but time, with the rut kicking off, so why end it now?  I regretted that decision a few days later when it was clear that he was the only mature mule deer chasing anything that I could find. 

I had glassed up a good sized 3x at one spot a few times and I was ready to throw in the towel and go shoot that deer. I hadn’t seen the family much for Christmas and had the kids home from college. The hunt was 10 times harder than I thought it would be. The morning I decided to go look for that 3x, my buddy and his daughter convinced me to try a different spot one more time. We’d hardly even seen does there yet, but decided to give it one more try and found this guy hiding in a thicket with some does and smaller bucks. Couldn’t hardly believe it! 

Literally ran 3/4 of a mile to cover ground and get closer.  Had to top a little finger 130 yards from him to actually get eyes on them. They must have sensed something because as I went up the back side of the hill they blew out. Caught back up to them a few hours and a few miles later. 

The events of that morning honestly seemed too easy, and it’s crazy to think if someone was watching me that morning it would have looked so quick and simple. But all told, I hunted 10 solid days before finally tagging out (actual hunting days in the field and not counting scouting). It was hard fought and hard won, and I’m glad I got to earn this deer. 

There’s no way I would have gotten this deer without the help of my buddies who were amazing to hunt with. 

The steaks have been great! Took the hide to Weller’s in Tucson and can’t wait to get it back! 

[Born2hunt]

I should add that a few people reached out to me from CWT to offer some helpful tips on where they’d seen muleys lately. It was great of them to reach out and offer some help. I really appreciated their help and encouragement. They helped me manage expectations of the size of deer in this unit and the quantity of muleys. I’d second that for anyone looking at this tag in the future. I found a needle in the haystack for sure but I wouldn’t expect to ever re-create the way this hunt ended. I’m really glad I got to see so much country and hunt with great friends. Also glad that I ended up getting the biggest deer I saw in all of that country. 
 

Hope you enjoyed! 

[CatfishKev]

Congrats on a very well deserved buck