Got it done on Veteran's Day

[tjkazhunter]

After a lot of time looking at maps, hiking my butt off, and spending countless hours behind glass I finally got it done on Veteran's day. I passed on a two point buck on opening morning which another hunter ended up taking on Saturday. Didn't see another buck until Monday, which was a spike that I passed on as well. My goal was to harvest at least a 3x3 so I was willing to eat tag soup if I didn't find one. Tuesday we changed gears and went to a different spot. I killed my buck at 7:30 am and I was home before noon! Had an awesome hunt with some good friends. Saw tons of big horn sheep, found some sheds, and stumbled across a good sized male desert tortoise (the first live one I'd ever seen in the wild; usually just find the crushed empty shells). Here are some pictures from my hunt.

[Couestracker]

Very nice buck! Congrats on holding off for what you wanted and making it happen. Always cool seeing other wildlife, nice photos too. Thanks for sharing your hunt with the site.

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations on a very nice buck! Way to stick to your goal and get it done.

[PelaPapas]

Whoa! Looks like waiting it out paid off! Congrats on your buck!

[az_shooter]

Awesome, cool tortoise, great buck, sweet ram.

[DAS]

Nice buck. Congrats.

[randyolson]

Sweet! Congratulations!! Nice buck!!

[capoeirajosh]

Cool buck! Pretty cool that you found a tortoise!

[azpredator@work]

Very nice. Congrats.

[lucky2hunt]

Great buck! Congratulations!

[lancetkenyon]

Nice wide Coues! Congrats.

[CouesPursuit]

Very nice job! Great buck.

 

So if I recall correctly, you started a thread about where to glass, what would you recommend back to everyone?

 

Where were you finding those bucks in comparison to the terrain?

[KidBowHunter]

Nice buck!

[tjkazhunter]

CouesPursuit,

Like was said by many in that thread it was important to glass everywhere!!! Which I did. On the first October hunt I help a buddy with his hunt and I glassed up three bucks at 1600 yards in the sun on an east facing slope at 7:30 am. Then the two point buck that I passed on opening day of my hunt was on the west facing slope in the shade. The spike I glassed up on Monday was going into water at 12 pm in broad daylight. The buck I ended up killing on Tuesday was on a north facing slope in the shade at 7:30 am. Moral of the story, glass everywhere! You never know where you're going to find them. Thanks for bringing up this older thread CouesPursuit.

[tjkazhunter]

Also on a side note:

I wasn't going to bring this up because I didn't want to deal with the nay sayers, but here it goes. Has anyone else noticed any rut activity? The two point I glassed up on Friday was chasing around about 6 does and would not stop. I thought it was a fluke so I didn't think much of it. However, the buck I shot on Tuesday was unmistakably bird dogging several does. He had his head to the ground chasing these does. In fact I almost lost him over a ridge because he was hot on the doe that crossed over. Anyone else see any of this rut/prerut activity yet?