Another big New Mexico buck

[hntr4life]

Ahh… New Mexico, Land of Enchantment - and the cedar country in western New Mexico are home to vast expanses, big bucks, and big dreams. But those dreams can turn to despair and disappointment, for in reality, the deer population in this area is very low. It is not unusual to hunt for days and only see an occasional doe, if you are lucky. Most hunters, including me, are eternal optimists and believe that a monster buck is always just over the next ridge. I know from personal experience that can be the case, for two years ago my nephew and I each simultaneously scored trophy bucks in the same unit I hunted this year.

As I arrived in Springerville the night before the season opened I had big dreams. Unfortunately, my nephew Luke, who hunted with me two years ago did not have a tag this year, but he did have a couple of horses, so we planned on spending opening day on horseback, thinking the more country we could cover, the better our chances of seeing a big deer. So as we set out opening morning I was very optimistic and thought this is the only way go; let the horse do all the work, all I have to do is spot a deer. Well by about mid morning my thoughts on the situation had taken a complete 180. Aside from a scraggily little bull elk all I found opening day was one very sore you know what, I looked forward to walking the rest of the season.

Day two found me on top of the highest point in the unit where I sat and glassed until my eyes bled, then I glassed some more. All I saw in the way of deer were four does, I did glass up one very nice bull so that was kind of exiting.

On the third day of the season I was joined by my nephew Durand, who had killed one of the big bucks with me two years ago. That morning we walked and glassed and glassed and glassed and walked and only saw three does. By this time I was becoming a little disappointed and disheartened. Nothing so far had turned up so much as even a hint of a buck, and this was my last full day to hunt. I was almost resigned to the fact that this just wasn’t going to be my year. For the evening hunt, Durand thought of a spot that he didn’t think had been hunted for a few years due to access reasons, and we headed out for it. After driving for about an hour on a very rough and dusty road we arrived at our destination, got our packs together and set out on foot. After walking for about a mile we found a nice spot to glass from so we sat down and started looking. It wasn’t long before we glassed up several elk that were feeding. I watched the elk for a few minutes then started looking on the ridges above and in back of the elk, and saw a deer standing under a juniper tree about one and a half miles away I said, “I see a deer and it’s a buck!” Durand’s response is, “ya sure.” We got locked in with the spotting scopes and can tell that it is a pretty nice buck, but can’t really tell for sure just how big he is, it’s just too far. When I squinted real hard I could see what I thought might be antlers, and if they really were antlers then he is really big, but it is probably just tree branches I see. We watched the buck for about 10 minutes and then he laid down, so we decided to make a move on him. We hoped we could close the distance to under 400 yards without spooking the deer or the elk that were wandering all over the place. We made our plan, packed up and lit out, in order to stay concealed we would definitely have to take the scenic route and it was already well after 2:00 so we had to move. Finally after closing the distance to about three quarters of a mile we stopped to see if we could relocate him. Durand had picked out a “landmark” tree near the buck that we thought we could always locate, which should make it easier to locate the buck. After looking for a few minutes we were able to find him again, still lying in the same spot. We wanted to get a spotting scope on him to see just how big he really was. Durand got him focused in through the spotter and just said “wow, he is a toad”. I took one look and literally fell over backward, those branches I had hoped were antlers, were really antlers. My heart was suddenly in my throat. We grabbed our stuff and took off again. We wound our way down a wash until we thought we were near the spot on the ridge we needed to climb up. By now we are both sweating like pigs and very excited and nervous at the same time. After taking a few moments to collect ourselves we begin to make a final approach. As we near the top of the ridge we took off our packs and quietly sneak to the crest of the ridge and peak over, hoping above hope that the buck is still there and that we can find him. After looking and looking we see nothing, no deer, and no landmarks that look familiar, nothing. So we decide to back off, move parallel along the ridge for a ways then pop up again and take another look. By now, the on again off again adrenalin rushes have taken there toll and I am a wreck, but we push on. As we topped the ridge for the second time, Durand is still looking for his landmark tree, I stepped into a little opening, look up the hill, and there he is! Still lying under the same tree as he was two hours ago. That image will be forever burned into my mind, I thought I was looking at a pictures from a Kings calendar. There he was not more than seventy yards away. I raised my trusty 7mm mag, shaking like a leaf and squeezed the trigger. The buck didn’t appear to even move, once I recovered from the muzzle blast and the smoke had cleared, he was still laying there. Then he kicked a couple of times and I realized I had just taken a deer we all dream about but few of us are lucky enough to ever see!

After taking several pictures, and a quick butcher job we had him loaded onto our backpacks and happily ready to make the 2 and half mile hike in the dark back to the truck and a cold Bud light. A fantastic end to another great hunt!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Az_Outdoors]

Congrats! That is one fine Buck.

[CouesWhitetail]

Wow, great mule deer!! Thanks for sharing your story and pics!

[ZBAR]

Loved the story! Great buck.

[Coach]

Super buck! Man, I'm jealous! Very nice write-up too. Congrats and thanks for sharing the story here with us.

[couespatrol]

Beautiful buck. Congrats!

[Chef]

That's a dream buck. I have to come back and read the whole story but wanted to take the time to compliment you guys and congratulate you and your monster buck.

[CRAZYBUCK]

Sweet Buck Congrats

 

[cohntr6]

Yikes!!

My daughter said, "that mule deer is huge!"

I have to agree!

Congrats!!

Jeff

[hunter4life]

Congratulations, that is a great buck.

[jwhunter]

Congrats thats a stud buck! Great Inlines!

[BeardownAZ]

absolutely fantastic deer!! Not trying to highjack this thread but I always wondered why the eastern portions of Arizona and western New Mexico, with there vast areas, low populations of people, and great Mule deer country never have high numbers in deer. These areas scream deer country, I mean there are some big ones but like the post said, you can glass till your eyes bleed and only see a couple deer, usually doe's at that . Anybody care to comment??

[The Coues]

Great Buck!!!

[loco4coues]

awesome buck! great job and thanks for sharing.

[Guest super jumbo]

Wow ! wow ! wow ! This is a stud no matter where they were harvested, but new mexico,wow. Very low deer densities over there ,but some good bucks. My good friend dave fretz just got back from new mex with a 193 buck with huge bases. Hats off to big deer in a place that's harder than normal to find them !!!!