opening day

[firstcoueswas80]

so whats the story did anyone/ does anyone know about anybody connecting today? lets hear some stories

[Bryson Bendall]

My dad, 8 yr old bro, and I went out to 30A, a place we hadn't hunted for a long time. Opening morning, we hike to the top of a small hill about 5:30 and wait for it to get light. I'm on one side of the hill and my dad's on the other with my little bro. Well about 6:30 I hear shooting. He tells me to come over quick, and then he tells me to stay so I'm kinda gettin excited. about 30 min. later he shoots a couple more times. He says the deer's bedded down and wounded so my dad and bro stalked closer, the deer jumped up and my dad finished him off and he dropped on the spot. So of course they start yellin and screamin. so my dad get's on the radio and says, "hey I just shot the biggest whitetail I've ever seen in my life". so I run over there and can't believe my eyes. He's a 6 by 4 and scores 107.2 gross, 102.0 net. So my dad kinda screwed up my hunt but I'd have to say it was worth it. I'll have pictures of him when we get them developed. Pretty awesome. He has about a 1.5 inch drop tine too he's real nice.

[CB1]

My son Cole had a 33 tag, we saw 5 bucks friday morning and he harvested a 2 point at 255 yards, his 2nd buck in 1 week from 2 states(he had the burro youth tag last week), he's gotten some good whitetail expierence his first deer season....BH

[Guest Ernesto C]

Way to go my fellow members,congratulations!!God bless you more.

 

Ernesto C.

[ajohunter]

Well it was a great year for our camp. 7 tags filled opening day in 36B. I did not make it down until friday noon so I got a late start. Here is where it gets depressing. I went out for the afternoon hunt and right about sunset I glassed up a huge buck. His horns were sider than his ears with good mass. When I first saw him I thought it was a stump I was looking at then he turned his head. The buck was bedded on top of a ridge in the open. My first shot went right over him but he did not know where it came from when he stood up another buck stood up next to him. My second shot connected and they both went over the hill. We waited until the next morning to find him since it was getting dark and we were on top of the mountains. Well the next day me my brother and two friends went in we started looking for him. and aswe were looking the other buck he was with stood up about 40yds from us but I did not shoot him since we were looking for my deer. Seeing that buck still on the hill but now alone proves to me even more they both stayed on the hill. But after searching saturday and today we could still not locate my buck. Hopefully someone will come across that rack and make their day.

 

Eric

[Guest Ernesto C]

ajohunter,you did not mentioned why you know you connected,also the following morning did you find any blood? In my personal opinion you should look for your buck right away even if it was dark unless that for safety reasons you did not did that like being by your self or not having a flashlight.

 

Hope you find it later on,good luck.

 

Ernesto C.

[ajohunter]

Yep no flashlight in my pack. It was about a mile and a half from the road where I shot him. As for the hit i could hear the bullet hit the deer and see him stumble as he went over the hill with the other buck following. We looked for a day and a half for him with no luck. Believe me I have been doing the should have done this, should have done that routine since friday. Nothing leaves a bigger pain in my stomach than losing an animal. I'm planning to go down later this week to look again for whats left. Maybe the crows will lead me to it.

 

Eric

[az4life]

Ajohunter

That is the good news and bad news of the situation I guess. I hope you find him, or at least evidence of him. If you do not find any blood, It is possible that you did not hit the buck though.

I have seen deer stumble when just startled by a bullet impacting near them.

One time I hit a running deer and he went down to his knees. Sure that I hit heim I stopped shooting and took a step before he got up and continued running. I heard the shot hit, and was sure I hit him by the way he went down. As ti turns out, my Brother-inlaw shot this deer about 1/4 mile away. It was my deer that had run downhill to him. We found an andtler tip missing. and a bullt impact where it borke off.

I went back up the mountain and found the tip that matched where I shot him.

 

I just rung his bell and would not have dropped him if it was not for my brother in law.

 

Good Luck!

[couesstalker]

ajohunter, What part of the unit were you in? I will be leaving for 36B on the 11th and will be down there for the duration of the hunt , if i come across a rack I will let you know.

[trufletch]

ajohunter- I will be on my last scouting trip this weekend and hunt the nov hunt. let me know as well what area you were in and i will keep an eye for the crows and scavengers- If I come across him, will let you know.

 

trufletch

[trufletch]

firstcoueswas80- My neighbor got his whitetail opening morning near Patagonia lake- says all the deer he saw were low in the draws. His was a 4x2. Bigger side had a kicker point. Shot it at 275 yards with a 30-30 Thompson contender w/14"barrel 2X scope. Says the crosshairs completely covered the deer. Took a longer shot than he wanted, but had limited hunting time. Hit him in the femoral artery crawled about 10 feet and died, bled out pretty quick. Waiting to hear from some other friends about their hunt- good luck

 

Trufletch

[smartbeginner2004]

Well Here's my story:

Nothing compared to these stories but she'll work!!!

NOTE: this is my first hunt, I was going to be happy with any animal!

 

Thursday morning we arrived at our destination..Pena Blanca Lake. We had gotten the camping spot we wanted to, it was the closest Camping spot near the lake. Well after setting up Thursday morning, I thought I'd fish for a little while and then head up and scout a little bit before sundown. Fishing wasn't the greatest in the world... actually I didn't catch a thing. Well at around 3pm me and my dad headed out North West in some large hills and valleys. It was VERY windy, when I mean windy i'm talking about bracing yourself so you don't fall windy haha. Well as I was glassing one canyon my dad went to glass another and spooked up a BIG W/T buck and that buck had meet up with 2 others. Both really nice size bucks. We headed back to camp, hoping not to spook anything else. Well as you are probably thinking... thursday night brought VERY LITTLE if ANY sleep.

 

Friday morning camp and I headed out to where my dad had spooked those bucks. For 3.5 hours I sat in the most beautiful country/weather. It was awesome. Well it turned out that I didn't see ONE deer in that canyon that morning. I decided to walk around a little bit see if I could scare anything up. I had been hearing shots all around me all morning and the anticipation was growing.

 

I sat down in another ridge and glassed up some hunters skining and gutting their kill. After another 2 hours my dad radioed me and said to head back to camp for an hour or so to eat lunch. Not 5 minutes later I spooked up 3 bucks and a doe. I was VERY excited and rushed the shot at a nice 80" 4x4(including the eyeguards). I was upset and headed back to camp.

 

Me and my dad had decided to hike another 3 miles after those deer to see if I had wounded them because the deer I shot at wasn't running right. After 2 hours and 3 miles, we decided to head back and try another spot.

 

Well my dad dropped me off about 2 miles from camp and right as we walked not even 100 yards... 3 big W/T does popped out of no where. Well I thought this was promising and my dad went on his way. I decided to walk a couple canyons over and glass. Well that proved to be a VERY smart decision as I glassed up 15 W/T. I could see only 3 bucks but who knows how many spikes there were. They were too far away before sundown so right as I was going to head back to where my dad was going to pick me up, I saw two deer running full speed to my right about 200 yards away. After they disappeared I ran as fast as I could to try and cut them off. When I stopped I couldn't see them and glassed for 5 minutes when I decided to give a little grunt call. Not 50 yards below me two spikes (one around 8-10" and the other 4") were looking right at me. I had yet again rushed another shot and missed the bigger of the two. He took off and I grunted again and the 4"er stopped broad side at 125yards+/-. I got my bino's up and took a good 5 minutes to make sure he had antlers. Sure enough he did but he started to walk away, so I hit the call and he stopped. I shot a little high and he took off full speed, I grunted again and he slowed down and the shot hit the mark. 175yard shot and now I had a nice 4" spike for my first deer ever. It was my most memorible hunt ever and I had a BLAST. Not to mention another 20 or so deer I saw after friday!!!! Well thats my story, I'm sorry it was so boring I'm not that great of a writer...anyways lets hear everyone elses stories.

 

Terry: "Hunt Hard, Shoot Straight, Enjoy the Hunt"

 

If anyone would like some tips in 36B Pena Blanca area let me know...azbwhuntin04@hotmail.com

PS: I'll have pics soon... they're getting developed

[smartbeginner2004]

Forgot to mention... Of the 20 or so after Friday I glassed/spooked... 3 were EASILY 100". One was just huge, not to mention a GIANT mule deer buck I glassed. All I saw at first was his rump, then the "bush" above his head started to move and I almost had a heart attack. Easly 30" Wide and 20"+ Tall. I've been VERY fortunate to be able to see many trophy bucks both WT and MULE DEER in my home unit 36A, and now I've seen more in 36B...CAN'T WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR...JAN. HERE I COME!!!

[firstcoueswas80]

congrats on the first whitetail it is exciting. it was not brong at all i was hi king the hils with ya and i felt the recoil of the rifle. congrats cant wait for some pix.

[COUESAZ]

just got home. we filled two of the three tags we needed to. Saw a few more bucks and way to many hunters. I counted over 10 bucks the first day taken out of a 5 mile radious. We lost one buck the first morning after it was hit the fog rolled in and stayed thick for about fifteen minutes so after the second shot (missed shot) we lost him in the fog. We found blood and tracks for the first 20 minutes. then lost it do to the rain. I hate that more than any thing.