kfallsrob Report post Posted November 27, 2017 My lucky son drew the same late season youth tag he had last year and got it done again. We setup camp Thanksgiving afternoon and spent the evening glassing the country. We spotted probably close to a hundred deer, but only saw one young 2x3. The following opening morning, we glasses another area and could find nothing but does. The weather was extremely warm and everything bedded down early, so we spent about 3 hours hiking and hunting the edge of a canyon, only to kick up a small spike. That evening we could not turn up any bucks before dark either. The following morning we decided to hunt another area that seems to always hold bucks, but is hard to get within shooting range most of the time. After 10 minutes behind the optics, I spotted 2 deer about 2 miles out that looked like they might be bucks. After getting a spotting scope on them, we had to wait for the sun to come up before we could make out antlers. We watched them for 2 hours until they finally bedded down in the middle of open nothing of course, no bushes, trees, or anything for a landmark, just lots of cactus and rocks. We hiked in to where we thought they were and started stopping ang glassing every 20 yards or so, until finally I picked up some antlers stickup up above a cactus. The slight breeze was perfect, so we slowly crawled for a couple of hours until we saw antlers again 70 yards in front of us. We setup and got ready for the long wait for the bucks to stand up. The dilemma was whether to take the small 3x3 or the heavy 2x2. After getting a good look, we decided the 2x2 was a much more mature buck. After about 40 minutes, we got lucky and the bigger buck stood up to move to a new bed. He was quartering away and my son made a perfect shot that dropped him in his tracks. Not as big of a rack as his buck from last year, but still mature and a heavier body. Well worth the sore knees and cactus in us from all the crawling. The picture of the open country was while we were waiting, they are bedded down 70 yards away. I need to get the picture on a larger screen to see if I can pick out the antlers. 17 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Big Browns Report post Posted November 27, 2017 Very cool! Congrats!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SO I HUNT Report post Posted November 27, 2017 Congratulations to you and your son... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeke-BE Report post Posted November 27, 2017 Well done!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yoshi Report post Posted November 28, 2017 Good Job!! congratulations!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
azruger Report post Posted November 28, 2017 Congrats to the young hunter... big old heavy 2×2.. great buck. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
22Jet Report post Posted November 29, 2017 This is what hunting is all about. Congrats and thanks for sharing your story. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites