Backpack Hunt: God's Timing, Not Mine

[Tunachaser]

Last year, I was unbelievably blessed to harvest a giant Arizona color phased Black Bear, and while hunting that bear, found a giant Coues Deer that two weeks later was again beyond blessed to take. Bear hunting is awesome but I don't think I will ever need to kill another for myself. So this year, the bear focus was on my two friends.

I always enjoy using Bear hunting as my scouting for my rifle Coues hunts. Opening weekend, our group did a backpack bear hunt in the unit I was drawn for deer. I was excited to see some big bucks, but we didn't really see anything I needed to shoot. I did glass up a handful of bears and a mountain lion but stalks didn't work out on any of them. I returned home and went back to the topo's to figure out where I was going to hunt come the end of October. A good friend of mine gave me a lead on a spot that he used to backpack into close to 20 years ago. All I needed to see were some of his sheds that he had found in there and I was on my way.

 

The week before the hunt, my brother and I threw on our packs and started penetrating into this canyon as it got dark. The next morning revealed some of the biggest country I've seen in a while. I knew it would be impossible for the two of us to cover everything in a day and a half. We glassed hard though and hiked harder, and our efforts showed a healthy population of deer but no potential shooters.

 

We weren't discouraged however, and a week later, we were headed back in deep, this time with our dad, and some rifles.

Right off the bat, we were seeing bucks. And at about 8:00am, the first good buck stepped out. He was old and heavy with short tines but tons of character. I was positive that my brother who has not killed a buck bigger than an average 2pt would be fired up to kill this buck. Well, he wasn't, and we let the first 90+ inch buck live.

During the middle of the day, we made our final push into our main camp and made a small shelter. Due to the warm night time temperatures, we decided not to bring sleeping bags. I brought a flannel sheet but my dad and brother pretty much didnt bring anything (They bough "backpacking blankets" from REI- Useless!!!). After a miserable first night trying to share one sheet, we knew that we needed to make a shelter, which actually helped a lot more than I would have thought.

That night, Bennett and my dad went up one side of the canyon, and I went up the other. I glassed up a buck that was pushing 100 but due to our remoteness, we knew that another hunter would never see this buck, and so we also passed him up. The next day we spent exploring the ridge tops and saw a few smaller bucks in the morning, and then passed out third buck that was in the 90's range. While on the ridge, we found 9 sheds!! It was too awesome.

The next morning was our last morning so Bennett and my dad packed their gear and started heading out to try and find the heavy short buck. I went up hoping to find that "Giant". Neither of us glassed up a buck that morning however, and we headed out. It was an awesome awesome time in the back country, exploring new country, but we were going to eat our tags. And I have a little bit of a problem eating my deer tags. I schemed how I would get back down, seeing that the hunt closed on Thursday. Somehow though, it worked out that I was able to skip school on Thursday however, and my dad and good friend Colton and I made the long drive back south on Wednesday night to try and seal the deal on a buck. I had a pretty good plan, and I was excited to see what this particular basin had to offer.

 

We woke up at 4:00am with not much sleep and began hiking. By first light, we were glassing an incredible basin, and started picking up some deer. At about 7:30, a small buck stepped out. I really didn't want to see him because I didnt want to shoot a small buck but I knew it was the last day. Then all of the sudden, I caught movement behind him and saw a much bigger bodied deer. When he stepped out, I knew that he was a buck I would be happy with on the last day of a general season hunt. Colton and I threw on our packs and took off for a knob that I figured we could shoot from. A few minutes later, I had my scope dialed for 365 yards, and he gave me a quartered-to shot. I hit him a touch high, which rattled his cage pretty hard but it didn't hit vitals. After a stressful scramble around the knob, I relocated him doing the classic stand perfectly still Coues Deer move, and I put a final bullet into his chest. He ran 10 yards and back-flipped down the hill. We were all pretty excited! There was definitely a lot of cheering going on way up on that rock. He was on the north facing slope of a cliff which gave us full shade the entire time we broke him down.

Check that sweet tail out! I was messing with my California buddies , telling them that I had killed my first Blacktail.

The entire hunt was a gift, and I give all the praise and the glory to him who is worthy of all our praise; our perfect and holy Creator. Thank you Lord for your incredible goodness in my life. I am totally humbled.

 

Thanks everyone for reading! I know it was long but it was an action packed week! I hope you all enjoyed. Some numbers for those of you who like that. He is 16 3/4" wide making him my widest buck ever. Close to 18" beams. I roughed him at 92. My fourth biggest Coues ever, and on the last day, I couldn't be happier!

 

 

[anthonyrmatthews]

Awesome! Congrats!

[Shawn]

Nice buck and great pics! Awesome bear! Congrats

[bbd1234]

Good job guys

[az_shooter]

Nice beat and great deer, congrats.

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Great job putting down the hard work. Love to see it pay off. I am dying to get out next week with my pack on. Reading this fires me up even more. I'm thinking I will hit some even deeper holes this trip. Congrats on an epic few seasons.

[Zeke-BE]

Well done!

[Flatlander]

It's quite the year you are having. Congrats on a fantastic adventure!

[muledeerarea33?]

Dang he's wide! Conradulations on a fun hunt.

[Redman]

looks like good times with friends, the memories will last forever

[ready2hunt]

Great write up! Beautiful bear! Have you had a chance to score it yet?

[singleshot]

What a nice write up and great adventure you had. Thanks for sharing that with us.

[DBArcher]

great story and great buck to boot.

[kidso]

Great deer! But, I too would like to see you post a story on your bear, as I do not recall reading about it last year. Thanks!

[yumabowhunter]

Atta boy!