father and son success

[jdhunter]

I am a new member to this site but have been visiting this site for a year or so. I am a newley converted coues addict for two years now. It seems that the more time I put into these deer the more I learn and respect them for how they survive in the habitat that they live in. The past two years I have put a lot of time into learning Unit 22 and it payed off very nicely this year for my Dad and I. We were successful last year in harvesting small deer so this year I was hoping we would get a chance at a couple of nice deer.

Opening day on Oct. 23 was a very great yet strange day. I usually like to get to our area by mid morning the day before the hunt and hunt the first weekend but this year my business came first and I had to drive from my home in the White Mountains to Mesa for a three hour appointment at 11 am that would mean that I might be able to hunt for an hour or two on my way back home. I figured no big deal I could spend alot of time with my dad as he came with me to Mesa. We figured we would take a look at our area near Payson and hunt Monday and Tuesday. Everything seemed to take a little longer than expected and I began to wonder if I would get to hunt at all opening day.

When my dad and I finally arrived to the main area where I like to park and walk from I noticed no one had been near there, this made me feel like I may have a chance to see something on the way into our glassing location. We quickly changed into our hunting gear and headed off down the first ridge. I told my dad to take one side as I would take the other, we planned on meeting at the bottom of the ridge to move on from there. I got to the end of the ridge first. As I was figuring my dad should be there any minute I heard something coming from where he was. I figured it was him. As I looked over it was a really nice buck. I was shocked to see it as it was shocked to me. It quickly turned left into a large ravine with another nice buck following close behind. I had seen these deer on the same ridge before and noticed which trail they used though the thick manzanita to escape. I lifted my rifle and held in an opening I figured they would go through. The first deer appeared in my cross hairs so I pulled the trigger. I noticed that only one deer was still running I knew I had dropped the first deer. My dad about had a heart attack when he heard the first shot because he had no idea he had even flushed the deer towards me. He quickly got to where I was and I pointed out where the next deer was heading. It crested the next rise, my dad put a nice shot on him and he fell. All of a sudden we realized we had been hunting for fifteen minutes and had filled our tags. We could not believe it.

We both drug our deer down to a level spot to to clean them when I noticed an old Lion kill of a very nice coues buck. So we had three nice racks in the matter of minutes.

What a day. The only thing that could have made it better was if I could have found the missing piece to the antler of the deer I shot. The deer fell hard a couple of times and broke his main beam. I looked for over an hour for the broken piece. It makes me sick that he broke. O well.

 

 

[tjhunt2]

That is one awesome story and it all happened in 15 minutes or so? Now that is a deer story to be told many times around a camp fire. And to find that lion kill on top of what you and your Dad did is amazing. The hunting Gods where with you for sure this day. Don't expext every hunt to go as well as this one. Them are really nice bucks you and Dad took. A big congratulations to the both of you. Thanks for sharing with us all.

 

TJ

[bonecollector]

Very nice deer and story congrats on a quick successful hunt

[Coues Archer]

Wow. What luck great coues those are some big boys.

[CVLCADMAN]

That is awesome! Congrats on those nice bucks!

[jwhunter]

Congrats on the deer!

[CouesWhitetail]

Wow, congratulations! That's a great afternoon no doubt!

 

Amanda

 

[joeybari]

wow that a dream hunt