Another successful year

[logan kelly]

I have been on this sight for awhile now, and always read every ones discussions, so I thought that I might as well post my interesting hunts for this year. My two brothers and I got drawn for are 33 in Arizona again, which is the only area we have ever been drawn for. With all of us in college and having jobs we were unable to scout before the hunt, but we went to our usually spot knowing that there would be some deer there. This is the earliest we have ever been drawn, and I was worried because we hike in quite a ways because hunters from the previous weeks have pushed all the deer farther into the hills.

The first day we only saw a couple of does, and our spot was not looking too good. There were a lot of shots to the west of us and I was getting discouraged because we only had until Sunday to hunt. We went back to our same spot on Saturday and my dad and I split off from my brothers. I glassed two deer just about to crest a small hill at 450 yards, and I could see that one was a doe, but was unsure about the other one. As soon as they crested the hill my dad and I went over to see if the other one was a buck. When we got to the rough estimate of where they crested we sat down and started to glass, but did not see anything. After around three minutes of seeing nothing a their was rustling in the bushes below us. A small fork jumped up and started trotting through the wash and started to head up the other side of the small canyon. He was 230 yards away and was barely moving so I shot. I barely missed high and was able to disgracefully take 3 more shots before he slowly crested the next small ridge. I was pissed off at myself for missing such an easy shot, but the buck wasn't moving fast and so we decide to rush over to the next hill. I went over and could not see anything and my heart dropped. My brothers were laughing at me on the radio, and I knew I had blown it. Just when all hope was lost, I look 15 yards below me and this little buck is just slowly walking with his head down. One shot of the .300 and he dropped.

I packed him out and we didn't see anything for the rest of the day. My two brothers still had tags and we decided to go to Bellota ranch on Sunday, because our spot was not producing deer like it usually does. I had been to Bellota once during archery season and I saw some doe, but we knew that it was heavily hunted, and all of us had very little hopes. We walked in quite a ways and were slowly creeping forward while glassing this massive hill. There was little sign, and we could not see anything on the hill. At around 10 we decided to head back and try to find another spot. We were walking through a small little dip when I see a tail jump up from behind a tree 15 yards in front of us. My brothers quickly cocked their guns and pulled up on the deer which was running up the the hill. I pulled up my binos and immediately saw that it was a nice buck. I whistled, which never seems to work, but for the first time ever it did and the buck stopped broadside to us 10 yards short of the top of the hill. My eldest brother shot and missed low and the buck trotted to the top and waited there. As bad as they wanted to, my brothers could not take the shot because he was right on the top of the hill. After 15 seconds he finally ran over the hill, and we jogged up to spot him. After we found out how great of shape we were in, and we heaved and panted to the top my eldest brother spotted him slowly jogging up the massive hill. I ranged him at 245 and my brother started to shoot. After his 7 shots and karma of laughing at my shooting, the deer stopped broadside at 314 yards. My other brother who had only taken one shot finally dropped him.

Needless to say, we had another successful year, and I couldn't be happier. My brother's buck is the biggest whitetail in the family, and my eldest brother is quite mad at himself. I will try to practice my writing skills on this, other than writing this whole novel for next time. Another thing that I need to start doing is scouting more, because are usual spot only generates around 70 inch bucks, and I want to find some spots where I can start picking and choosing some bigger bucks, and letting these spikes and forks grow a little bit bigger.

[logan kelly]

Here is the other photo of my brother and his buck.

[200"mulie]

congrats all around nice write up

[Snapshot]

Nice! Great time,and memories, with your brothers.

[loco4coues]

Nice job! Thanks for sharing.

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations on a successful hunt and what sounds like a good time with family. It also sounds like you have some good plans for next time, keep at it.

[psebowhunter]

Congrats, nice bucks !!!!!

[papa]

Congrats to you and your brother. Nice bucks.

[bonecollector]

Congrats to you and your brother on the success.