Hey y’all sorry it’s taken me forever to finally get to this, but it has been archery season for the last month and I’ve been playing catch up from my rifle tag…
I ended up scouting and hunting what felt like most of the country between the 17 and the river, and all the way from Bartlett to a little bit south of camp verde. I was planning to finally have a hunt of a lifetime with the opportunity to pass on multiple mature bucks. That didn’t pan out. This hunt was grueling. I was able to hunt with some friends a lot though which was a lot of fun. Being able to have friends along because it was close to Phoenix was one of the reasons I stuck with the tag.
Another reason I put in for the tag was because I’ve hunted 21 in October a bit in the past. Granted it had been a few years but I didn’t think it could be that different. It should only be better in December. I couldn’t believe the drastic change from back then to now. Places where I used to see tons of muleys now held 1 or 2 does.
We put in a lot of miles hunting hard to access places, easy to access places, and places I thought would be overlooked by the masses. We glassed up coati, javis, lots of white tails, and more mountain lions than 4 point mule deer.
About a week into the hunt I passed on the first 4x that I saw. He was pushing a doe so I felt confident I had nothing but time, with the rut kicking off, so why end it now? I regretted that decision a few days later when it was clear that he was the only mature mule deer chasing anything that I could find.
I had glassed up a good sized 3x at one spot a few times and I was ready to throw in the towel and go shoot that deer. I hadn’t seen the family much for Christmas and had the kids home from college. The hunt was 10 times harder than I thought it would be. The morning I decided to go look for that 3x, my buddy and his daughter convinced me to try a different spot one more time. We’d hardly even seen does there yet, but decided to give it one more try and found this guy hiding in a thicket with some does and smaller bucks. Couldn’t hardly believe it!
Literally ran 3/4 of a mile to cover ground and get closer. Had to top a little finger 130 yards from him to actually get eyes on them. They must have sensed something because as I went up the back side of the hill they blew out. Caught back up to them a few hours and a few miles later.
The events of that morning honestly seemed too easy, and it’s crazy to think if someone was watching me that morning it would have looked so quick and simple. But all told, I hunted 10 solid days before finally tagging out (actual hunting days in the field and not counting scouting). It was hard fought and hard won, and I’m glad I got to earn this deer.
There’s no way I would have gotten this deer without the help of my buddies who were amazing to hunt with.
The steaks have been great! Took the hide to Weller’s in Tucson and can’t wait to get it back!