Successful Christmas Break

[RackTracker]

After a very long wait since January, it was finally here. Archery deer season is by far my favorite time of the year. Each year I am counting down the days and dreaming of big mulies chasing does. I got back to Tucson a week prior to the opening day of season and spent my time scouting my favorite spots. In that week, I only turned up two small bucks and a bunch of does. Pretty disappointing, but opening day was finally here. I hunted with my friend Cole (C.S.Davis) who was still looking for his first archery deer. On December 18^th he got it done. Hopefully he will post up his story soon.

Fast forward to the morning of December 21^st Cole and I located a couple solid four points only to watch another “hunter” unknowingly chase them out of the country. I was very frustrated to say the least. Midmorning we located a decent buck and watched him bed down with a smaller buck. I decided I was going after him and left Cole on the mountain to spot. I made my way down to my target Saguaro and dropped my boots and pack and slipped on a couple more pairs of socks to ease the pain of the desert floor. I slowly moved in closer reaching my next couple of landmarks until I saw an ear flicker in front of me. I raised my binos and there he was bedded 52 yards away facing away from me. The wait began. After a very long hour and 45 minutes he stood up and turned perfectly broadside. I settled my 50 yard pin on him and sent the swhacker downrange. He jumped the string and turned to run off. I could see the fletchings sticking out of his right hip angling towards his front left leg. He went about 30 yards and bedded under a tree. I backed out and went back to my boots and pack with a plan. I circled around to the other side of this small ridge to be slightly above him. Once again the pack and boots were off. I crept up there and found his antlers only 30 yards away. I went to full draw and took a couple steps to create an opening on his body only to see him get up and bust out of there seconds before I could shoot. He went only about 60 yards before bedding again. I snuck down to the tree Cole said he was bedded under and jumped him again at less than 10 yards. I went back to my pack and put my boots on. Cole watched him bed one last time and guided me into a spot were I could see him bedded. I could see his head and part of his neck bedded underneath a palo verde tree at 65 yards. I put my 60 yard pin at the top of his neck and touched the release. This time he did not have a chance to jump the string and his head fell over like he was shot with a gun. My 2017 deer tag was filled. Thank you Cole for all your help and keeping your eyes glued to your binos for hours watching my buck.

 

The new year was here and my dad and I each had a target deer picked out. After a few minutes of glassing, I located my dad’s target buck below us only a couple hundred yards. My dad grabbed his bow and dropped off the mountain after his deer. The buck knew we were there already and turned and ran up and over a mountain out of the country. We glassed for a couple more hours with nothing to show for it. We made a plan to hunt the big buck we saw at first light. I climbed up the mountain to try and glass him up in the flat below and my dad circled around the mountain to get the wind in his face. I found about 10 doe and a small two point but no big buck. About this time we get a text saying my sister is in labor and headed to the hospital. We were now in a very big rush. My dad continued his walk which was headed towards the car when he jumped my target buck and a couple does. He very quickly walked there direction and actually got a shot at the buck at 50 yards through a small opening. He barley missed which probably was a good thing considering the situation. He grabbed his arrow and we jogged back to the car to get to the hospital. On January 2 at 8:27 am Daxton Ollie Duke came into this world happy and healthy! We left the hospital to give them some rest and decided to go back out hunting. We got to out glassing spot around 2 and not 20 seconds later my dad found two big bucks. One buck was my target buck that he missed the previous day and the second buck was a very big four point we haven’t seen before. My dad was nice enough to let me go after this buck. I got down to the flat where they were and found them 100 yards away. I slowly moved in closed and eventually had one walk into an opening and spot. I made the huge mistake of looking through my binos to see which buck it was and then ranged him at 60.0 yards away. I clipped on my release when he took a few steps and went out of sight. I knew that was my chance and I completely blew it. 5 or 10 minutes later I ended up busting the two bucks. That night I had a nightmare that someone else shot the big buck and I am still sick to my stomach about blowing my opportunity. Fast forward to January 5^th and it was my last morning to hunt. I had to be back in Phoenix at 5 for work and school was starting back up Monday. My dad and I went to our favorite spot where we have had success in the past. Not long after glassing we found two small bucks fighting below us about 60 yards and a big bodied three point a couple hundred yards away pushing a doe. I decided to go after the old buck. He had four does with him and a smaller 4 point that kept his distance from the larger buck. I circled around to get the wind in my face and closed the distance. I got about 20 yards from one of the smaller bucks but could not find the bigger buck. The small buck started to walk off when the bigger buck came out from behind a tree to chase off the little buck. He stopped around 40 yards in an opening and just like that my 2018 deer tag was filled. He ran straight down hill about 50 yards and crashed. The arrow sliced his heart and cut the windpipe in half where it meets the lungs. After some pictures, my dad and I quickly packed him out in time for me to go visit my nephew for a couple hours before driving back to Phoenix for work. What a day!

[SO I HUNT]

Congratulations

[olmos1010]

Congrats on a couple of nice bucks.

[Beaton]

Freaking awesome! Love those archery desert bucks.

[goinhuntn]

congrats on your deer & your nephew!!

[Heat]

Congratulations all around!

[Roosevelt Mark]

Nice job forsure.

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Awsome congrats

[Delw]

Nice buck

[BOHNTR]

Very cool.....congratulations!

[Arizona Griz]

Great story and buck. Congratulations.