My 2nd chance buck

[BELLOTABUCKS]

Well this years hunt was a roller coaster to say the least. My usual hunting partners were unavailable. My best buddy couldn't get off work, my cousin moved to colorado to work a mine, and my old man had an engagement he could not back out of. So I decided to bring my wife, her dad is a hunter and she grew up going on his hunts with him so she knew what chasing coues entailed. We dropped our 3 kids at my moms and were on our way about 5pm thursday. I always stay at my Grandma's house in San Manuel, hot showers, hot meals, and clean sheets!

Opening morning we left at 4am, it would be an hour ride to the end of the road and leaves an hour and fifteen minutes to walk in before glassing light. There were more camps on the road in than i had ever seen. I guess this being one of the few open gates left in 32 the congestion should be expected but in the 4 years i have hunted this unit i only ever saw 2 or 3 others. Then the unexpected, a chain and padlock on the gate. Uh-oh. I grew up hunting 33, gates were a non issue and i know it like the back of my hand. Here i had only ever hunted this one spot. I have been around the Holy Joe area years ago and had witnessed the fiasco that is Copper Creek once in 2003. Saw some small bucks in the Holy Joe area and saw nothing but does in Quad Creek. Not really sure if my wife could go that far and in years past when i reached the truck i was done so the extra distance from the sign in box was a setback. At the gate there were two pickups camped and 3 quads and a side by side. A group of 3 guys were getting ready to walk in and i chatted with one of them briefly he was equally shocked to find the gate locked. They set off, the guys camped were already gone so i decided to walk in and get a feel for how close to where i want to go i would be able to get. Shortly after first light while walking a couple of shots rang out, didn't hear the round hit home but kinda felt like salt on the locked gate wound. I knew i was in the middle of coues country and anything could happen but as two other hunters stood up ahead of us i started to look over at the huge blue mass of the Catalinas thinking take me back, i'm sorry i left you, she doesn't mean anything to me, i scored but only twice! We sat to eat breakfast and come up with a plan b. I chose this spot brcause litterally every time i hunt here i see at least 4 bucks a day, 4 is the lowest number. During breakfast i glassed up the three hunters from the gate withe one having a deer over his shoulders, couldn't tell how big it was, I was wondering was it a good enough for first light opening morning buck or did the guy not want to muck with the locked gate and zapped the first buck he saw? During our conversation he had said he liked to go way back in right where i usually go. So i made the call to back out. I started tossing around ideas, do I get drastic and head for Texas Canyon, maybe the Winchesters or east Galiuros? Do i want to hunt Holy Joe or Copper(quadder)Creek? As we approached the truck the rancher was arriving at the gate. I asked if he was going to open it at all this hunt and he claimed to not have even known there was a hunt going on which well i have seen him there that exact day 3 years in a row, he's an old high school classmate of my old man. He said he needed to button a few things down and had hoped to open the gate on sunday. We decided to try quadder creek and to dedicate the rest of the day to in hunt scouting. we grabbed a chilly willy from Mel's in San Manuel, gassed up and drove in. Just as I remembered, WOW! Fiasco. Checked the north end of sombrero butte, checked the first left before dropping into copper creek. People every where 6 or 7 rigs drilling ore samples, redhawk company vehicles on every road. But I decided to stay with it so we went home with a plan for day 2.

The next day we beat everyone in and got set up on a ridge top, the sun came up and the hills came alive.....with quads. The first couple kept goin way back and up high. A second group parked up the road near a hill that was nothing but prickly pear. I was looking for deer but kep an eye on them to see which way they were gonna go. They returned to their quads ten minutes later i could hear them at 1000 plus yards! Chatting away. Then the side by side with a guy in each seat and one standing in the back followed by a guy on a quad headfed toward our mountain they kept going and circled around heading in the direction of the 2 quads earlier only they were all talking and shouting over their engines to hear eachother at 8 am! Then a ram drove through and a wrangler parked. The guy walked off leaving to 12 year old boys who were hootin and hollerin, some one even started shooting a pistol in the bottom. So we walked the ridgge 4 or 5 peaks down jumping 3 does. It will never fail to amaze me seeing these deer bail of a steep mountain in seconds, pure awesomeness. This was the view from that spot. We decided to check out Sombrero Butte, were were almost alone there and saw lots of deer all does. Then 30 minutes before sundown we spotted a spike. The small deer contest was mine. Being unsure of the prize and having promised my self to never shoot a spike again many years ago i passed. His "horns" were smaller than the bumps they sat on. Day two ended and i knew the gate at plan a should be open in the morning so i bid farewell to quad creek. That night we got a call from my mom and we needed to pick up the kids early sunday so i scrapped the hunt with the plan of hunting wednesday and thursday with my old man.

Tuesday night I was back in San Manuel old man in tow. Wednesday morning found us at the gate at 530 and it was open. We walked in and intead of heading straight back to where i pretty much kill automatically we stopped halfway and glassed the foothills. I hadn't been seated 30 seconds "BUCK" I tell my dad he was feeding on barrel cactus up and own a finger. We watched him for ten minutes when my dad says "got another one bedded 50 yards our side of him". This deer looked nice. He was tall and thick. We watched for 20 minutes before he got up. Then 2 more bucks showed out of the bottom. The big boy and an almost equally nice but thin horned 3x3, a small 3x3, and a 2x2 rounded out the 4 buck bachelor herd. We watched for an hour as they fed up, fed down, fed away, and fed back. The plan was i would walk back down the trail to the river bottom and take a branch off of the trail around the hill they were across from and come in above them. The wind was at our backs the whole walk in and 3 years ago i had watched a group botch a stalk at this very spot. They came in on the near side and blew it so that and the wind the far side was best. I had been in radio contact with my old man and he said thet had bedded just past the lone saguaro. When i made it to the designated spot the wind was at my back again, no bueno so i started to ease across the face of the hill opposite of the last known location of the deer. i could see the saguaro and some of the areas i had watched them feed. I kept going super slow thinking they were just passed the saguaro not realizing when my old man said that the cactus was between him and the deer. I heard branches snapping and there went the 2 3x3s and the big boy. I dropped to my rear end and fired at him. He was at a dead sprint running up the opposite hill at 175 yards straight away from me. I missed two more times at 250 and 320 yards and he was gone. I was sick to my stomache, all i had to do was get out of the wind then wait em out but the miss comunication left me thinking i had a few steps. My dad's voice came over the radio "what happened"? "I just learmed a lesson pop" i told him. Now i have these deer in this area patterned, i have bumped does and watched 3 years ago when other hunters failed to connect right here and every deer not most but every deer runs north across the face of the mountains or up the drainages to a thickly wooded canyon. My dad says to keep going up to a switch back and he will meet me where it leads into the escape canyon. I find a wide 2x2 lion kill and a pretty compact 3 point drop so i have gifts for my 2 eldest. After meetimg with my pop we sit and glass the canyon and eat lunch. I'm going through all the woulda coulda shouldas cursing under my breath. We work out a plan to take the road through the canyon and up the other side then we would hike the ridge west and hunt back the long way to get into some fresh non busted country. after we had topped out and made our way 2 hundred yards down the ridge we stop to glass we are looking north we are looking west down the canyon glassing the oaks and junipers for bedded deer. I decide to look straight down ther steep steep hill to the bottom directly belowand i see the rear end of a deer dissapear behind a palo verde. When it comes out the other side i see it's him! he has the biggest 3x3 with him the other 2 were gone. I layed down on a pile of boulders and get the cross hairs on the deer. He goes behind another tree with the 3x3 following. As the deer comes out the other side i ask my dad if it was the big boy and he said it was. I take off the safety and fire but as i do a rock under me shifts and i shoot high. When the bullet hits the dirt behind the deer the dust cloud sends the big boy running toward me. I shoot again and drill him, he's hunched up and i put 1 more in his neck and game over! Over 6 hours from our first meeting, over a mile away and we end up right above him. Unbelievable! nice thick tall 3x2 with kickers on both sides. he was an old deer his teeth were worn bad and his legs looked squatty because he was so big bodied, i am 6'4" 360 lba so to see his size compared to me here gives a better idea.my favorite shot! got him cleaned up and boiled and on my skull hooker the little hooker. Definately a crazy up and down hunt with lessons aplenty with memories aplenty as well and spell check isnt working so bare with the misstypes!

[DrRx09]

Nice buck, and congrats

[papa]

Nice buck,like the mass

[azmetalman]

Good story. I appreciate your persistence. You killed a very nice and well deserved mature Coues buck with great mass. Life is good.Soon you will forget all of the tourists you saw in the field.

Thanks for sharing and it is very cool that you and your dad hunt together.

[palivs2hnt]

Great buck and enjoyed the write up! Congrats!

[Pine Donkey]

Nice buck, great story. Thanks for posting.

[cramerhunts]

Congrats on a great buck. Really like the character of that bad boy, the pic looking over the back of him really shows how cool he is.

[ROBERT RIVERA]

nice deer

[JMP]

that's an awesome buck.

[wildcat]

Nice buck! I think I was in the same area on Saturday and Thursday but parked at the gate and hiked northwest with no luck. Looks like I should've drove down the road further.

[BELLOTABUCKS]

here is the lion kill and shed i found

[dbengraver]

Nice buck congrats

[superdave]

That is an awesome buck, way to go man!!!

[lucky2hunt]

Nice buck! Congrats! Love the picture from behind!