Unit 36A results

[RodinAZ]

Hey everyone, been lurking here off and on for a while now and thought I'd relay the results of my late November hunt.

This was my third year hunting Arizona as we moved here from Iowa in 07'. The whitetail hunting here is a bit different from what I am used to. I've hunted this unit, on the same hunt dates the past three years as well for whitetail and have been blessed with a successful hunt each year. In the past years, our camp has had 8-10 hunters each year until this year as the group split up to hunt other units, the camp consisted of Andy and myself, along with two fellow hunters from previous years, only they were mainly scouting for their coming up Coues hunt this weekend.

We were both advised that we couldn't leave on Thanksgiving, so we decided to head out at 2:30 a.m Friday, putting us in place before sunrise on the opener. We set up on a traditional glassing area with views of three mountains, we could glass up to about a half mile or so to the furthest hillside. My equipment includes a Cabela's outfitter tri-pod, a Manfrotto 222 pistol grip ball head and a pair of Swarovski 15X56 SLC, this combination works well for me. We spotted two groups of does and a coyote, one of the groups of does came out of the wash after being bumped by another whitetail hunter.

We went to our camp site and set everything up, had lunch and waited for our friends to arrive before heading out for the afternoon. They arrived around two and we helped them set up their tent. Around 3:30 we split up and headed back out, Andy to a different area and myself and Mel went to the spot I'd glassed in the morning. Things were quiet until about 4:30 when we started seeing a few does on two different hills and a coyote. At around five, I was starting to think about what was for supper and whether I should make the Jalapeno poppers for hors de voers. About that time I scanned the top of the middle mountain and caught glimpse of antlers moving our way at about 850 yards. I didn't have to think twice, I ran over to the truck while telling Mel to get over to my glassing spot, grabbed my rifle and sticks and ran back over to my binos. It took me a minute to find the buck as he came down and to his right, approximately 100 yds. from where I saw him.

I told Mel to keep an eye on him while I run down the hill and through the wash onto the flat below the mountain. I grabbed my tri-pod set up and headed out, once to the flat I set up my tri-pod and quickly found him, he was staring right at me so I figured now or never. I ranged him at 453, found a spot to set up for a shot, checked on my range table taped to my stock, held for windage and squeezed the trigger. I lost sight picture at the recoil but quickly found the buck staggering up the hill, about when I was ready to fire again, he tumbled down the mountain a couple yards and stopped next to a cactus.

At this point, it was after 5 and loosing light fast so I took off across the flat and slowly made my way up the chola, ocotillo and saquaro infested mountain side. Luckily I had my phone to call back to Mel and help me out with coordinates, it still took about 15 minutes to find him. Unfortunately, my flashlight and camera were left in the truck so I have no field photos other than in the back of the truck. It took us over an hour to carry him down the hill and to the spot where I'd glassed him up. We were both full of cactus needles and bleeding from a few falls while coming down the mountain.

I used my Tikka T-3 Tactical rifle chambered in 308, 165 gr. Sierra SBT with a NF 3-15 NPR2

 

 

Sorry about the blood

 

 

[CouesWhitetail]

Congratulations on your buck!

[Couzer]

Nice Buck and great shot!!!!

[Shawn]

Congrats! Nice buck

[Red Rabbit]

Congrats and welcome to the forum.