Zeke-BE Report post Posted January 12, 2020 Last year we talked to the son of the good outfitter. They own and lease ranches for cattle. They didn't have any openings but said we could hunt on a ranch they haven't had any hunters on before. Problem was there were no amenities, kind of lacking on roads in the area and 3/4 of the ranch his heavy timber so it lacked on glassing. For the price and they were only allowing 3 tags in the area it seemed worth it. When we got there it was pretty thick in alot of areas. Set camp up and we paid the rancher son to find a full time cook so we had awesome food the whole time. We stayed at the ranch hands house but stayed outside in tents. The first even seemed pretty depressing. Hard to glass and wind. Then wind all night and the next day. Ive hunted couse down in the 36s with wind before with no luck. But some of the open areas and lots of cold wind bucks were still on the move and we glassed up lots of deer. My hunting partner brought down an old hunting friend from Utah and has never hunted Coues before. So he was anxious for any respectable bucks. The deer were not really scared at all, never been hunted before, but we couldn't find any big guys, just 60-80" bucks. Right when we jumped in the truck to move on Scott spotted a buck that had some width and we jumped out. He was 160 yards off the road. Just stared at us. After about 25 mins of him and hawing if he wanted it (plus we shorten the hunt by one day, and when Scott came down form Utah he told us he made a mistake and his plane flight leaves on Sunday and not monday so 2 days lost. That gives us 3 days to hunt to fill 3 tags) So with that in his head he decided to shot it. 100 yards and he used my 280 AI 160 TMK ran 20 ft and died. The 160 TMK did its job almost a 4" hole and liquefied the heart. Funny how deer still run with no heart but it stills has some blood in the brain for a few seconds. NO exit but plenty of blood and vitals soup!! The next day the wind calm down. My buddy Kyle put a stalk on a really nice buck, while I watched from 900 yards. He got set up at 300 yards and I watched the deer jump, then a boom and watch it run off injured and around the mountain out of site.. Well that sucks. I guided them in to the spot where he hit the buck and they followed the blood trail After that I hiked down the road to start glassing. Spotted a little spike and then turn 90 degrees to start glassing and glassed up a doe in the open. I ranged her at 260 yards and got my gun out and ready for 260 yards just in case a buck come in. We already watched a big forky mount a doe so bucks are staying close to does. Put my gun in place and got ready. Kept glassing all the bushes and trees around her to find something. Then all of a sudden that spike comes down to her. Right then and there a nice buck jumps out to defend his women and scared the spike off. I thought to myself "oh crap this worked perfectly according to plan" It worked so good I didn't even take time to really break down the buck size and in my excitement jumped on my gun. Laid the gun on the berm and buck fever all over the place and shaking I shoot at 260 and miss!!! Crap!! He ran over 20 feet and stopped. This time I laid out on this slopped berm and really steady ( what a novel idea why didn't i do this in the first place). Put the cross hairs on and shot. Thud of a thuddd hit!!! I was alone so I jumped back on my binos to see where he went. Never moved dropped dead! Radio over to Scott and Kyle I got a buck down. They were excited! But kyle couldn't find his buck. So that sucked The 160 TMK did its job going 3060fps. Lances did his job with my loads, and shout out to Eric from Axis work on the 280AI. Broke the spine in half and liquefied the vitals. Holy crap this round is nice. Ruined some meat but gets the job done Here was my shooting position Some good food from our cook Our cook and we paid him 20 bucks each to clean and boil our heads, well worth it! The ranch hand. He showed us the ranch property and he kept spotting deer with his naked eye out to 500 yards and spotted deer 200 yards out in the shadows with his naked eye and we said your coming with us and tipped him for his services. Over all it was a fun hunt. Never saw any bucks over 95" but an area that has never been hunted I would of thought we would be passing up 90" bucks left and right looking for 105" bucks. Im sure they are there but we never saw them. Im sure if we dedicated a whole week we would of found some big boys but thats how it just how it happen this year. For the price it was still worth it for sure. No hunting pressure, no other hunters or anyone else even on this property. Food was awesome just a great hunt. 10 1 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeke-BE Report post Posted January 12, 2020 My buck did score 87-1/2 inch so almost 90" buck. If that G-2 was taller maybe. But very happy 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Delw Report post Posted January 12, 2020 congrats thats pretty cool Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PRDATR Report post Posted January 12, 2020 Great write up and pictures. Too bad about the lost deer but that's hunting. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Swivelhead Report post Posted January 12, 2020 Nice! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MULEPACKHUNTER Report post Posted January 12, 2020 nice trip man congrats Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeke-BE Report post Posted January 12, 2020 11 minutes ago, PRDATR said: Great write up and pictures. Too bad about the lost deer but that's hunting. Yeah he drew blood so he couldn't hunt any more. Ranch rules. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
azbirdhunter88 Report post Posted January 12, 2020 Congrats dude looked fun. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mattys281 Report post Posted January 12, 2020 Sounds like a great adventure. Congrats to you guys! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lancetkenyon Report post Posted January 13, 2020 The 160 TMKs gave those deer a whoopin'! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CatfishKev Report post Posted January 13, 2020 That's awesome dude congrats. That bullet hole is something to write home about, holy smokes! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CatfishKev Report post Posted January 13, 2020 When do the wt in Mex rut? Same as southern AZ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PRDATR Report post Posted January 13, 2020 31 minutes ago, CatfishKev said: When do the wt in Mex rut? Same as southern AZ? Pretty much. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaffer62 Report post Posted January 13, 2020 Congrats. Was there a lot of rutting action while you were down there? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeke-BE Report post Posted January 13, 2020 12 hours ago, Kaffer62 said: Congrats. Was there a lot of rutting action while you were down there? Rutting hard maybe not. But lots of bucks following does around. Watched one in my binos at 100 yards mount a doe. First time to see that happen other than hunting vids. Red rocket and all ha ha Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
