Formerly “teen”bowhunter’s 2019 season
- Thread starter teenbowhunter
- Start date
Day 1:
We drove through the night and arrived in AZ around 6 am. We parked at Walmart and slept for an hour before walking in and stocking up on nuts, fruit, jerky and water. We headed over to the game and fish office and grabbed out tags, then headed towards the area we’d picked out in OnX. They offered Javelina tags but $115 for a small pig didn’t seem worth it.
After a long drive through a cactus filled desert we got to the foothills we’d picked out in unit 20A. I turned off the highway then drove about 15 miles on a smooth dirt road, before turning off on a small two track. I hadn’t anticipated taking the Tacoma rock crawling and driving across creeks but that’s what it turned into.
We headed to the first spot we’d picked out, lower bottomland beneath the mountains where we figured deer would have moved to rut and be out of the snow and wind. However, we failed to notice on OnX that it was in the middle of a massive burn from this summer. There was no vegetation left anywhere. We found a few buck tracks crossing the area but it didn’t seem worth hunting. No food or cover was left. The whole road at this point was sand, washouts and gumbo. The tires were caked and I didn’t want to go any further into the burn.
We drove back to a fork in the “road that would take us up behind the burn in higher country. It took over an hour to go a couple miles across creeks and rockslides but we made it up there. On the way we saw our first javelina.
We stopped next to an abandoned mine with an abundance of big buck tracks crossing the road. Winds were howling upwards of 30 mph throughout the night. I slept in the back of the truck and it was rocking.
Day 2:
We woke up the next morning to try and get over to a knob to glass. We quickly discovered that the brush was way too thick to see a deer through and was covered in thorns. It took way too long to get up to the knob and we never saw a deer. We ended up seeing seven elk and freezing our asses off because the wind never stopped. This was still the day before the season, so we made the hard choice to drive back out and find a new area.
We chose an area of long finger ridges with distinct south facing slopes. We figured we could find bucks cruising the tops looking for does.
It took quite a while to drive down to the desert and back up onto the ridge around cliffs and through creeks but we made it up there. We decided to head up to a glassing knob on the next ridge over and set up camp. We set everything up and glassed for an hour that evening but saw no deer. We got our bows ready for the morning and laid down for the 13 hours of darkness.
**I’ll apologize in advance because this will take a while to type up. I’m back in school and very busy.
We drove through the night and arrived in AZ around 6 am. We parked at Walmart and slept for an hour before walking in and stocking up on nuts, fruit, jerky and water. We headed over to the game and fish office and grabbed out tags, then headed towards the area we’d picked out in OnX. They offered Javelina tags but $115 for a small pig didn’t seem worth it.
After a long drive through a cactus filled desert we got to the foothills we’d picked out in unit 20A. I turned off the highway then drove about 15 miles on a smooth dirt road, before turning off on a small two track. I hadn’t anticipated taking the Tacoma rock crawling and driving across creeks but that’s what it turned into.
We headed to the first spot we’d picked out, lower bottomland beneath the mountains where we figured deer would have moved to rut and be out of the snow and wind. However, we failed to notice on OnX that it was in the middle of a massive burn from this summer. There was no vegetation left anywhere. We found a few buck tracks crossing the area but it didn’t seem worth hunting. No food or cover was left. The whole road at this point was sand, washouts and gumbo. The tires were caked and I didn’t want to go any further into the burn.
We drove back to a fork in the “road that would take us up behind the burn in higher country. It took over an hour to go a couple miles across creeks and rockslides but we made it up there. On the way we saw our first javelina.
We stopped next to an abandoned mine with an abundance of big buck tracks crossing the road. Winds were howling upwards of 30 mph throughout the night. I slept in the back of the truck and it was rocking.
Day 2:
We woke up the next morning to try and get over to a knob to glass. We quickly discovered that the brush was way too thick to see a deer through and was covered in thorns. It took way too long to get up to the knob and we never saw a deer. We ended up seeing seven elk and freezing our asses off because the wind never stopped. This was still the day before the season, so we made the hard choice to drive back out and find a new area.
We chose an area of long finger ridges with distinct south facing slopes. We figured we could find bucks cruising the tops looking for does.
It took quite a while to drive down to the desert and back up onto the ridge around cliffs and through creeks but we made it up there. We decided to head up to a glassing knob on the next ridge over and set up camp. We set everything up and glassed for an hour that evening but saw no deer. We got our bows ready for the morning and laid down for the 13 hours of darkness.
**I’ll apologize in advance because this will take a while to type up. I’m back in school and very busy.
Day 3, opening day:
We got up before first light to glass. There were deer tracks all over the knob so we had high hopes. We set up to look at the south facing slope to our north. I left Mitchell there with his binos and spotting scope and went off to look in various different directions to try and catch deer on the move.
I never located anything. On my way back to Mitchell I saw a herd of javelina headed straight up towards him. I got back and he’d had them walk up within 3 yards of him with little piglets bouncing everywhere. You could still hear them smacking their lips in the bushes eating cactus roots.
Mitchell had located a doe and eventually a forky had appeared behind her. They’d slowly worked their way down the slope and were bedded at 400 yards. I told Mitchell to go for the stalk since he hadn’t shot anything yet this year. He planned a route down behind a swell in front of us then up the next wash over from them. It was so thick down in the creek bottom that it took him around 40 minutes to get to the target location. The deer had gotten up and moved and were somewhere near the creek. He snuck forward in socks and eventually saw the doe staring at him at 100 yards. She eventually dismissed him and he took one more step. The buck blew from down beneath him where he couldn’t see.
The deer busted and he tried to pursue. I couldn’t see anything anymore so I decided to go set up on a saddle nearby. Just as I got there the deer came flying up at me out of the bottom. They slowed down and looked like they were going to walk by at two yards. They got to the top of the steep saddle at 100 yards, started my direction, then raced down the other side and disappeared.
At this point it was too warm to expect much movement so we made a new gameplan. We’d looked a fair bit of ground and only seen two deer, so we decided to move over to the next ridge with a much larger view to see if we could determine where the deer were concentrating on the landscape. Just moving one ridge over through the cacti and thorns was absolutely brutal. It took over an hour to go less that a mile. We identified two glassing knobs and set up camp right between them.
I was a bit concerned because right around camp looked like the best feed I’d seen anywhere. We set out to the blue glassing knob to glass for the last hour of light. The blue is our second camp and the red is our first. The location of the buck he stalked is marked in red. The saddle it used as an escape route is the one just slightly NE of our first glassing point.
As we eased out onto the rocky spine, I saw a beautiful fox appear behind Mitchell. I told him to hold still and look left. It walked right up behind him and around a rock towards me very casually. When it got to five yards I said, “Hey little buddy” but it kept walking. It came right up to my leg and opened it’s mouth, I jerked my leg back just in time for it to barely grab my camo. I slammed my leg forward and kicked it a few feet. Mitchell jumped down and kicked it again and it opened its mouth and went towards him. He kicked it straight in the face and sent it flying back into the rocks. It started shaking and whimpering and screaming and we started hurling rocks at it. Just as I grabbed a boulder to put it down it stood back up and started to slink off. I couldn’t hit it so Mitchell drew back to fling an arrow. He released but it was moving too fast and dodged it. My heart was pounding, a bite from a rabid fox would’ve pretty much ended the hunting since we only had four more days. Thankfully neither of us received any flesh wounds or touched the fox directly. I felt bad that we didn’t kill it, a death from rabies involves far more suffering than an arrow.
Now that we’d alerted every deer in the basin we sat down and glassed. The next hillside to our north had almost no grass on it, and we saw no deer that night.
As we walked back to camp, we froze 50 yards from our tents. A doe and a tiny buck were standing just behind the tent. There was still shooting light, but the doe was in front of the buck and didn’t budge until it was way too dark. These deer obviously were not seeing any pressure. We got back to the tent fairly disappointed and went to bed for another 13 hours of darkness.
We got up before first light to glass. There were deer tracks all over the knob so we had high hopes. We set up to look at the south facing slope to our north. I left Mitchell there with his binos and spotting scope and went off to look in various different directions to try and catch deer on the move.
I never located anything. On my way back to Mitchell I saw a herd of javelina headed straight up towards him. I got back and he’d had them walk up within 3 yards of him with little piglets bouncing everywhere. You could still hear them smacking their lips in the bushes eating cactus roots.
The deer busted and he tried to pursue. I couldn’t see anything anymore so I decided to go set up on a saddle nearby. Just as I got there the deer came flying up at me out of the bottom. They slowed down and looked like they were going to walk by at two yards. They got to the top of the steep saddle at 100 yards, started my direction, then raced down the other side and disappeared.
At this point it was too warm to expect much movement so we made a new gameplan. We’d looked a fair bit of ground and only seen two deer, so we decided to move over to the next ridge with a much larger view to see if we could determine where the deer were concentrating on the landscape. Just moving one ridge over through the cacti and thorns was absolutely brutal. It took over an hour to go less that a mile. We identified two glassing knobs and set up camp right between them.
I was a bit concerned because right around camp looked like the best feed I’d seen anywhere. We set out to the blue glassing knob to glass for the last hour of light. The blue is our second camp and the red is our first. The location of the buck he stalked is marked in red. The saddle it used as an escape route is the one just slightly NE of our first glassing point.
As we eased out onto the rocky spine, I saw a beautiful fox appear behind Mitchell. I told him to hold still and look left. It walked right up behind him and around a rock towards me very casually. When it got to five yards I said, “Hey little buddy” but it kept walking. It came right up to my leg and opened it’s mouth, I jerked my leg back just in time for it to barely grab my camo. I slammed my leg forward and kicked it a few feet. Mitchell jumped down and kicked it again and it opened its mouth and went towards him. He kicked it straight in the face and sent it flying back into the rocks. It started shaking and whimpering and screaming and we started hurling rocks at it. Just as I grabbed a boulder to put it down it stood back up and started to slink off. I couldn’t hit it so Mitchell drew back to fling an arrow. He released but it was moving too fast and dodged it. My heart was pounding, a bite from a rabid fox would’ve pretty much ended the hunting since we only had four more days. Thankfully neither of us received any flesh wounds or touched the fox directly. I felt bad that we didn’t kill it, a death from rabies involves far more suffering than an arrow.
Now that we’d alerted every deer in the basin we sat down and glassed. The next hillside to our north had almost no grass on it, and we saw no deer that night.
I'll say it again, i love this thread. Come on day #4! Good luck fellas and be safe.
Day 4, Second day of season:
We woke up before light and cooked oatmeal in our tents, getting dressed and up on the knob just as it got light enough for binoculars. We looked around the basin to our north and realized the trees were fairly thick, not ideal for glassing or stalking. We looked for 30 minutes in prime time without seeing an animal and decided that meant we should look in a different direction.
We headed back down the ridge behind us (heading southwest) glassing down into the folds on the north and south side.
The further we headed the more sign we saw. We got down to a finger ridge about a mile from camp that was filled with tracks so we followed it down into the valley to our north. My buddy stopped to glass so I started sneaking down below him through some trees. I jumped a couple rabbits and immediately nocked an arrow. I saw an ear flick beneath a tree 20 yards away. A doe stood up and walked in front of me. She paused then bounded away. I saw movement and rearranged for a shot at the tree above her. A smaller doe stood up confused and wandered off after her. I watched as they crossed over the next finger, no buck in tow.
It was encouraging finding deer, but with one look at this area it was apparent that spot and stalk was unlikely to be effective. We decided to pack up and head to a whole different area of the state for the last three days. The hike out was filled with more sharp, spiky obstacles. We got back to the truck and packed up to head north.
After a couple hours of driving and 30 miles of dirt roads we got to the new spot at last light. We had a few mile hike in and decided to wait until the morning for that.
We woke up before light and cooked oatmeal in our tents, getting dressed and up on the knob just as it got light enough for binoculars. We looked around the basin to our north and realized the trees were fairly thick, not ideal for glassing or stalking. We looked for 30 minutes in prime time without seeing an animal and decided that meant we should look in a different direction.
We headed back down the ridge behind us (heading southwest) glassing down into the folds on the north and south side.
The further we headed the more sign we saw. We got down to a finger ridge about a mile from camp that was filled with tracks so we followed it down into the valley to our north. My buddy stopped to glass so I started sneaking down below him through some trees. I jumped a couple rabbits and immediately nocked an arrow. I saw an ear flick beneath a tree 20 yards away. A doe stood up and walked in front of me. She paused then bounded away. I saw movement and rearranged for a shot at the tree above her. A smaller doe stood up confused and wandered off after her. I watched as they crossed over the next finger, no buck in tow.
It was encouraging finding deer, but with one look at this area it was apparent that spot and stalk was unlikely to be effective. We decided to pack up and head to a whole different area of the state for the last three days. The hike out was filled with more sharp, spiky obstacles. We got back to the truck and packed up to head north.
After a couple hours of driving and 30 miles of dirt roads we got to the new spot at last light. We had a few mile hike in and decided to wait until the morning for that.
Day 5, 3rd day of season:
We woke up two hours before dawn, threw down some oatmeal and caffeine and began the hike in. We brought our full pack frames but left our camping stuff at the trucks in case we were unable to locate deer. The two miles in was far more challenging than we envisioned. The trail was hardly even a deer trail and wound up steep, rocky slopes through cedar thickets. We got off track a few times but OnX got us to the spot just after shooting light.
Mitchell set up with his spotting scope to start glassing intensely. Once again, I ran around with my binos just trying to find a moving deer or some blobs before they moved into the shade. In one of the first spots I looked at I saw two dark rectangles beside bushes, each with what could’ve been a head popping out. I rushed back to the spotter while keeping my eyes on the location. I got back to Mitchell, zoomed in and immediately saw a 160 class mule deer with five does. We relocated to a wider vantage point that would allow us to see where they headed. It was still cool and the sun had hardly risen in the sky.
As the shadows formed and the sun moved up, the deer began to feed around. The buck was focused on one doe and the others moved all over the place. Mitchell kept the spotter fixed on the buck while I tried to keep track of the does. We were looking from a shallow angle, and they eventually vanished behind the trees. We lost track of them and decided to loop around to the cliffs behind them and see if we could locate them from there. We also saw a herd of six cow elk bed between them and the cliffs.
The last spot the buck had been at is beneath the yellow highlight. The cliff is the red arrow.
Just as we started off, we heard snorting in the bushes and both let out our best squeals. Javelina came charging in ready for battle.
It was about 1.5 miles to hike around. As we moved we thought a different knob along the way might offer a good vantage in case they saw us circling to the cliffs. We saw nothing from the knob and continued around to the cliffs. We wasted so much time eating and sneaking around that it was close to 3 pm by the time we got over there. Everything looked completely different. We thought there were a few meadows, but really all of the trees were equally dispersed and there just happened to be some spots we could see into better. It took almost a half hour to locate the “white square of grass” we had been using to reference their initial location. Around 4 pm saw the does feeding beneath the far cliff, no buck to be seen. We watched for a while and no buck appeared. It got dark and we headed back to the truck to sleep and pack camp in in the morning.
We woke up two hours before dawn, threw down some oatmeal and caffeine and began the hike in. We brought our full pack frames but left our camping stuff at the trucks in case we were unable to locate deer. The two miles in was far more challenging than we envisioned. The trail was hardly even a deer trail and wound up steep, rocky slopes through cedar thickets. We got off track a few times but OnX got us to the spot just after shooting light.
Mitchell set up with his spotting scope to start glassing intensely. Once again, I ran around with my binos just trying to find a moving deer or some blobs before they moved into the shade. In one of the first spots I looked at I saw two dark rectangles beside bushes, each with what could’ve been a head popping out. I rushed back to the spotter while keeping my eyes on the location. I got back to Mitchell, zoomed in and immediately saw a 160 class mule deer with five does. We relocated to a wider vantage point that would allow us to see where they headed. It was still cool and the sun had hardly risen in the sky.
As the shadows formed and the sun moved up, the deer began to feed around. The buck was focused on one doe and the others moved all over the place. Mitchell kept the spotter fixed on the buck while I tried to keep track of the does. We were looking from a shallow angle, and they eventually vanished behind the trees. We lost track of them and decided to loop around to the cliffs behind them and see if we could locate them from there. We also saw a herd of six cow elk bed between them and the cliffs.
The last spot the buck had been at is beneath the yellow highlight. The cliff is the red arrow.
Just as we started off, we heard snorting in the bushes and both let out our best squeals. Javelina came charging in ready for battle.
It was about 1.5 miles to hike around. As we moved we thought a different knob along the way might offer a good vantage in case they saw us circling to the cliffs. We saw nothing from the knob and continued around to the cliffs. We wasted so much time eating and sneaking around that it was close to 3 pm by the time we got over there. Everything looked completely different. We thought there were a few meadows, but really all of the trees were equally dispersed and there just happened to be some spots we could see into better. It took almost a half hour to locate the “white square of grass” we had been using to reference their initial location. Around 4 pm saw the does feeding beneath the far cliff, no buck to be seen. We watched for a while and no buck appeared. It got dark and we headed back to the truck to sleep and pack camp in in the morning.
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Freaking awesome man. Love this thread! Those roads out there can be brutal on trucks and the cat claw bushes even more brutal when on foot.
Those spiky things are no joke. Walked outside this morning and my tire is flat again from a slow leak from down there.
Day 6, 4th day of season:
We went through the same motions as the previous morning and got there slightly earlier. We started out at the same glassing point.
Mitchell set up to look where we’d seen deer the day before, I hiked back a bit to look directly beneath us for closer deer. Almost immediately I saw a doe walking up the drainage beneath us. Trees were in the way so I couldn’t see if there was a buck with her and she quickly disappeared. We both grabbed our bows and rock hopped around the trees to get a better view. We caught a glimpse of three deer still moving up the drainage but still couldn’t see well. We both about ran across the rocks trying to get way around in front to get a view. We didn’t see the deer so I told Mitchell to head back and glass and I’d wait them out for a bit. I snuck down into the basin a bit but never saw them again. I don’t know if they beat us up and over, turned around, or just laid down in the thick brush.
I got back to where Mitchell was glassing and he’d already relocated the doe group from the day before. There was a medium sized fork horn with them today. It looked like the big buck had had his fill the day before and left the harem. We watched much closer this time to try and get a good bead on where they bedded down. We kept track of them for an hour but they vanished before bedding again. We worked way around to the cliffs again but went much faster this time. We got over to the cliffs around 12:30 and began glassing.
Mitchell immediately saw the does moving in the wide open. They were feeding and drinking out of a small creek on the bench, slowly heading from left to right. The buck was in tow, slowly following behind. They eventually worked into a line of trees and disappeared for a bit. I eventually found the buck bedded down in an opening. We zoomed in with the spotter and could see him drooling. I put a pin where I thought he was on OnX and started the stalk. I knew the odds were low because of the lack of underbrush to cover my movement with that many does around. I also knew they’d been up on their feet by 4 the previous day so I needed to hurry.
I looped way around, peeking over every once in a while to relocate the buck. The route I took is in yellow, with the red pins before the buck being my planned starting point for the stalk.
I got to the exact clump of bushes I’d planned on starting from and looked up at Mitchell. He signaled to keep going so I started the stalk. The dirt was bare coarse sand and gravel, all of it soaking wet. Each step was quiet but my socks sank in and got soaked. I only stepped on a few cactus as I crawled and glassed up to to a tree thirty yards from him. On the way I’d heard a sneeze so I was fairly confident they were still there. However, it was 3:45 so I knew there was a chance they’d already moved on. I snuck around and all of the deer were gone. I looked back at Mitchell and he waved me back up.
As I came back up where I’d come down the cliff, I snuck over to see if there were deer in the open meadow. I didn’t see any so I turned around and glassed back below me. I turned back just in time to see a big bodied mule deer vanish into the bushes 30 yards in front of me. I think a buck had popped out to check out the noise just as I’d turned around to glass. I mooed and chased after him/her but never caught a glimpse.
We set up camp beneath a favorite cow tree that was clear of vegetation thanks to years of cow poop and sleeping cows. We planned to get up and glass off the cliff again, hoping we’d be able to pin point their bedding better in the morning.
We went through the same motions as the previous morning and got there slightly earlier. We started out at the same glassing point.
Mitchell set up to look where we’d seen deer the day before, I hiked back a bit to look directly beneath us for closer deer. Almost immediately I saw a doe walking up the drainage beneath us. Trees were in the way so I couldn’t see if there was a buck with her and she quickly disappeared. We both grabbed our bows and rock hopped around the trees to get a better view. We caught a glimpse of three deer still moving up the drainage but still couldn’t see well. We both about ran across the rocks trying to get way around in front to get a view. We didn’t see the deer so I told Mitchell to head back and glass and I’d wait them out for a bit. I snuck down into the basin a bit but never saw them again. I don’t know if they beat us up and over, turned around, or just laid down in the thick brush.
I got back to where Mitchell was glassing and he’d already relocated the doe group from the day before. There was a medium sized fork horn with them today. It looked like the big buck had had his fill the day before and left the harem. We watched much closer this time to try and get a good bead on where they bedded down. We kept track of them for an hour but they vanished before bedding again. We worked way around to the cliffs again but went much faster this time. We got over to the cliffs around 12:30 and began glassing.
Mitchell immediately saw the does moving in the wide open. They were feeding and drinking out of a small creek on the bench, slowly heading from left to right. The buck was in tow, slowly following behind. They eventually worked into a line of trees and disappeared for a bit. I eventually found the buck bedded down in an opening. We zoomed in with the spotter and could see him drooling. I put a pin where I thought he was on OnX and started the stalk. I knew the odds were low because of the lack of underbrush to cover my movement with that many does around. I also knew they’d been up on their feet by 4 the previous day so I needed to hurry.
I looped way around, peeking over every once in a while to relocate the buck. The route I took is in yellow, with the red pins before the buck being my planned starting point for the stalk.
I got to the exact clump of bushes I’d planned on starting from and looked up at Mitchell. He signaled to keep going so I started the stalk. The dirt was bare coarse sand and gravel, all of it soaking wet. Each step was quiet but my socks sank in and got soaked. I only stepped on a few cactus as I crawled and glassed up to to a tree thirty yards from him. On the way I’d heard a sneeze so I was fairly confident they were still there. However, it was 3:45 so I knew there was a chance they’d already moved on. I snuck around and all of the deer were gone. I looked back at Mitchell and he waved me back up.
As I came back up where I’d come down the cliff, I snuck over to see if there were deer in the open meadow. I didn’t see any so I turned around and glassed back below me. I turned back just in time to see a big bodied mule deer vanish into the bushes 30 yards in front of me. I think a buck had popped out to check out the noise just as I’d turned around to glass. I mooed and chased after him/her but never caught a glimpse.
We set up camp beneath a favorite cow tree that was clear of vegetation thanks to years of cow poop and sleeping cows. We planned to get up and glass off the cliff again, hoping we’d be able to pin point their bedding better in the morning.
Day 7, 5th day of season, our last day:
I forgot to mention that the night before we’d seen a huge buck at last light on the steep hillside across the valley to our southeast. He had four does with him. Pictures didn’t work do you low light.
We decided to go look into the basin to our East. We saw nothing moving and it was a much colder, thicker basin.
We headed back to the cliff to see if we could relocate the forkie and does. We got back to the cliff and didn’t see anything for a while. We started talking about heading to a couple different spots to glass before I saw a doe feeding a couple hundred yards below the cliff. They’d all been laid down in the sun warming up. They slowly all got up to feed around. One doe took off from the pack walking. Once again, I watched this doe while Mitchell watched the buck.
She headed straight away from us and worked down to the end of the thicker triangle (on the OnX map, brush triangle pointing away from us). She disappeared behind a tree. They all eventually followed and bedded down near the end of the triangle. Mitchell said that he was feeling too homesick to give the stalk enough effort so he told me to go. I started while a couple deer were still standing because it was close to 10 am and I knew they’d moved around noon the day before. I took the route in yellow with the blue crosswind. They were at the most SE red markers.
The stalk started fast as I tried to close the distance as quickly as possible. I dropped elevation to try and get behind the roll of the hill. Once I got inside 150 yards I took off my boots and went painstakingly slow. The wind was weak and the ground was very open. I got closer and closer but couldn’t make out any deer. I heard the buck sneeze again to my right so I veered more that way. I got right up into a thick patch between where the lead doe had bedded and where the buck was. I looked back at Mitchell and he gave me the signal to keep going. I kept sneaking forward until I knew I could see into where they were bedded. There were no deer. I looked back at Mitchell and he waved me back.
The deer had moved off on their own once again, just as I was cutting the distance. Mitchell had told me to keep going because he thought I might catch a glimpse of them. The rutting bucks just don’t seem to like to lay in one spot for very long.
I climbed back up to the top. The deer had walked up onto a rise and saw me at one point as I walked back. Two does were extremely on edge staring down across the flats while the others bedded down. I talked Mitchell into a two person stalk where we’d loop far around, drop our packs on the trail and sneak around to come from the other side.
The first half of the stalk took us through brutal thorns and brush. We finally got up onto the flat and it was easier going from there. The wind is shown with the blue arrow. Once we got to the green arrow, we slowed down and started rock hopping. I tried to hang north to play the wind but Mitchell kept angling further and further south trying to get uphill on the rise. As we closed the distance, the deer all busted out from beneath us in the open. They’d already gotten up to feed. Had I followed my instinct and pushed him harder, there’s a good chance we would’ve gotten a shot opportunity. I knew it was a long shot for a quick two man stalk to work so I hadn’t tried hard enough to be careful.
When they took off I immediately ran after them trying to sound like a deer. I actually caught up to one doe. The rest j-hooked back around me and went passed Mitchell. Neither of us saw the buck again.
We separated 100 yards and looked for sheds as we walked back. I found a matched set and a nice four point side, he found a spike skull.
We hiked back to the truck and drove back through the night to oregon. I envisioned much better stalks on this trip, I didn’t realize how much faster you had to move during the rut. The deer would get frisky and randomly stand up and move all day long. It made for quite challenging stalks. I may be able to get back down in August for a few days.
I forgot to mention that the night before we’d seen a huge buck at last light on the steep hillside across the valley to our southeast. He had four does with him. Pictures didn’t work do you low light.
We decided to go look into the basin to our East. We saw nothing moving and it was a much colder, thicker basin.
We headed back to the cliff to see if we could relocate the forkie and does. We got back to the cliff and didn’t see anything for a while. We started talking about heading to a couple different spots to glass before I saw a doe feeding a couple hundred yards below the cliff. They’d all been laid down in the sun warming up. They slowly all got up to feed around. One doe took off from the pack walking. Once again, I watched this doe while Mitchell watched the buck.
She headed straight away from us and worked down to the end of the thicker triangle (on the OnX map, brush triangle pointing away from us). She disappeared behind a tree. They all eventually followed and bedded down near the end of the triangle. Mitchell said that he was feeling too homesick to give the stalk enough effort so he told me to go. I started while a couple deer were still standing because it was close to 10 am and I knew they’d moved around noon the day before. I took the route in yellow with the blue crosswind. They were at the most SE red markers.
The stalk started fast as I tried to close the distance as quickly as possible. I dropped elevation to try and get behind the roll of the hill. Once I got inside 150 yards I took off my boots and went painstakingly slow. The wind was weak and the ground was very open. I got closer and closer but couldn’t make out any deer. I heard the buck sneeze again to my right so I veered more that way. I got right up into a thick patch between where the lead doe had bedded and where the buck was. I looked back at Mitchell and he gave me the signal to keep going. I kept sneaking forward until I knew I could see into where they were bedded. There were no deer. I looked back at Mitchell and he waved me back.
The deer had moved off on their own once again, just as I was cutting the distance. Mitchell had told me to keep going because he thought I might catch a glimpse of them. The rutting bucks just don’t seem to like to lay in one spot for very long.
I climbed back up to the top. The deer had walked up onto a rise and saw me at one point as I walked back. Two does were extremely on edge staring down across the flats while the others bedded down. I talked Mitchell into a two person stalk where we’d loop far around, drop our packs on the trail and sneak around to come from the other side.
The first half of the stalk took us through brutal thorns and brush. We finally got up onto the flat and it was easier going from there. The wind is shown with the blue arrow. Once we got to the green arrow, we slowed down and started rock hopping. I tried to hang north to play the wind but Mitchell kept angling further and further south trying to get uphill on the rise. As we closed the distance, the deer all busted out from beneath us in the open. They’d already gotten up to feed. Had I followed my instinct and pushed him harder, there’s a good chance we would’ve gotten a shot opportunity. I knew it was a long shot for a quick two man stalk to work so I hadn’t tried hard enough to be careful.
When they took off I immediately ran after them trying to sound like a deer. I actually caught up to one doe. The rest j-hooked back around me and went passed Mitchell. Neither of us saw the buck again.
We separated 100 yards and looked for sheds as we walked back. I found a matched set and a nice four point side, he found a spike skull.
We hiked back to the truck and drove back through the night to oregon. I envisioned much better stalks on this trip, I didn’t realize how much faster you had to move during the rut. The deer would get frisky and randomly stand up and move all day long. It made for quite challenging stalks. I may be able to get back down in August for a few days.
Thanks for bringing us along again! Some awesome trips and lots learned. It won’t be long and these trips will have you buying more freezers.
11 arrows fired, 1 elk and 2 deer killed. Working towards a higher efficacy rate next season. Happy with my hunting abilities but I left a lot to be desired with the killing part.
Sorry I took so long to write things down. Life’s keepin me real busy.
Thanks for taking time to post I really like following your adventures
Turkey season is around the corner
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Turkey season is around the corner
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Drew a spring bear tag for April 1 - May 31 and turkey is April 15 - May 31. I also got Tuesdays and Thursdays without class so should get in some action!
Just got to Georgia for some turkey hunting. We only had pictures of two strutters in the flock on my step dads farm and my step brother and his buddy both shot one. I will be waiting for a picture but I’ll probably go out and listen for gobbles anyways.
Spent yesterday building some rabbit habitat
Pile 1:
Pile 2:
Spent yesterday building some rabbit habitat
Pile 1:
Pile 2: