Jump to content

Yuma Outdoorsman

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    461

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    10

Posts posted by Yuma Outdoorsman

  3. Posted · Report reply

    36 minutes ago, creed said:

    Went antelope scouting Wednesday. I have no idea how to access my hunting areas. It is a quagmire. They have been getting rain everyday and are forecast for rain every day as far out as they forecast. I have never  seen that area even close to being that wet. 

    That is crazy but we could sure use all the rain. Been a great monsoon season thus far. 

    • Like 1

  6. Posted · Report reply

    2 hours ago, bonecollector said:

    Been in the area I hunt in Aug the last 2 weekends, water everywhere. Should keep the deer spread out and not sitting ducks coming into the water holes. Hopefully keeps units open longer.

    I hope they are spread out. Makes the hunting tougher for road hunters! 

    • Like 2

  10. Posted · Report reply

    I have been addicted to watching the doppler that last few weeks and watching all the rain in the desert. I finally got a chance to drive through some of my favorite areas to hunt this past weekend and there was standing water on Sunday from rain on Thursday. That is awesome to see. Usually, that water is soaked up in a few hours but to see it still there days later means the washes have been running and the desert has been getting plenty of water. Let's hope that translates into some big, fat, healthy bucks for us all. 

    • Like 4

  12. Posted · Report reply

    9 hours ago, Heat said:

    If anybody believed that there wouldn't be game cameras out there after that rule passed they are delusional.

    I knew they would be out but I was just curious if there would be less. It sucks for us desert rats because it seems like most of the camera issues/problems are way north of us and have little to no impact on what goes on down here. I had a camera on 3 waterholes last year from August-October and I never saw another camera on any of them. Sucks to not watch all the animals coming in to drink this year. 

    • Like 2

  17. Posted · Report reply

    I’ve had bad luck with tags in the mail. Interestingly enough, The last 2 years I had to get ahold of game and fish to ask where my tag was. I’ve updated my address the previous 2 years in person with them when I got my tag and the following season I did not get it in the mail and had to go to the office to get one. Hoping year 3 is my lucky year!

  21. Posted · Report reply

    42 minutes ago, HighschoolHunter said:

    Some great stories in this thread, great topic. 
    2015 was my first year putting in for the draw at 13 years old, drew my first choice and shot a doe on the kaibab road hunting. 2016 I didn’t draw, 2017 I drew a yth hunt on the border but I could only go for 1 day cause my dad had to work that weekend. We saw some does but no bucks. 
     

    By 2018 I was getting to be a better pig hunter than deer hunter, and every year I went pig hunting we would see nice Muley bucks in the desert unit we hunted. Of course, yth pig season is in January every year which is why we always saw good bucks. So I put in for the yth deer tag in that unit and drew it. There was certain little bowl that we always jumped deer out of on our hike into our pig hunting area, so we headed there first. Well, of course, our first time not spooking deer out of that bowl was when we were hunting deer and not pigs. We kept hiking up the hill and glassed down the other side from the top for a while, and at about 8 am I turned around and glassed back down the way we had came in, looking right into that bowl. I was basically glassing right into the sun, but I instantly picked up 2 or 3 deer at just 400 yards, making their way into some thick mesquite thickets. I called my buddy over and he broke out his spotting scope. We found 4 deer total, one of which was a little 2x2 Buck. I wasn’t comfortable shooting at that distance yet, and by the time I decided I was going to take him they had moved off into the trees. We knew the general area where they were though, so we started our stalk down the hill into the thickets. I had my gun loaded and ready as we headed into the trees, and sure enough, as soon as we got to the spot we had last seen them, we had a doe staring us down at 40 yards. As I was racking a round in my 243 getting ready the other 3 deer stood up and they all began to bound away. At about 80 yards they stopped and looked back at us for a few seconds but I couldn’t see antlers. One of the deer was noticeably bigger than the rest, but, and I still don’t know why to this day, I couldn’t make out the horns on his head. My buddy kept whisper-shouting at me “shoot the buck, shoot the buck!” I had him in my scope, and was almost certain it was the Buck, but since I couldn’t make out the antlers, for fear of accidentally shooting a doe I never pulled the trigger and they all bounded away into the desert. I was devastated. 
    After a few minutes of arguing about which one was the Buck and kicking myself for not being able to see the antlers, we took off in the general direction it seemed they had run, but we were in the flats at this point and didn’t know where to go. We got up on a little knoll and glassed from there for a few hours in hopes we would pick them again, but we didn’t. So, we decided to head back to the bowl we had originally glassed them up in, where we always jump them with pig hunting. This time, right as we got to the edge of the bowl, sure enough, we heard the sound of rocks slipping and sliding, and looking down into the bowl, we saw 4 deer making their way up the other side, and this time, I could see the little rack on the 4th deer in line. I got my gun set up on a boulder and followed him in my scope as he trotted up and right when they got to the top of the other side, they all stopped broadside and looked back at us at 150 yards. I took a shot at the Buck and missed right over his back. He spun around and ran about more 10 yards to the right, as I quickly racked another round. The does began to bound over the ridge, and just as he was beginning to follow them, I shot again, and he fell over backwards! It was all woohoos and hi fives and hugs as we made our way over to the buck and skinned him out. We ate backstrap tacos in camp that afternoon. I had seen much  bigger bucks in that area before but I was just so excited to have bagged a deer I didn’t care about the antlers. I was 16

     

    2B886EB0-7965-473E-B1F1-E9709E9419DB.jpeg

    4AD18FD3-44A8-4364-BEA9-6C1EAA34685F.jpeg

    Great story and congratulations! 

  23. Posted · Report reply

    I am sure this topic has come up before but I tried searching it with the search feature and didn't see anything. 

     

    I'll start though. I first started putting in for deer when I was 13 years old. That was in 1999. We drew unit 39. I had the opportunity to get a giant but buck fever got me like crazy. The following season, I got drawn for a different desert unit in the 40's and I was just looking for a forkie. I had the chance to shoot one and just flat missed. In hindsight, I am glad I missed but at the time I was so bummed. It is crazy what a 115lb fork n horn mule deer buck can make you feel when you are 14 years old. I was shaking like crazy. Another year and another missed chance. In 2001, we hunted the same unit where I had missed the fork n horn. My dad had tagged out on a buck on Thursday. He was walking a wash on fresh tracks and kicked a buck up. By the time he saw it, the buck was too far to shoot at. He gathered himself and decided he should just stay on the tracks. He quickly realized he had not spooked the buck too bad as the tracks indicated the buck was walking again and he was able to catch up to it 2 miles later and it hopped out and stopped at 75 yards and he dropped it. A nice 3x4 that I unfortunately do not have a photo of. Fast forward to Saturday morning, we cut a set of fresh buck tracks crossing a road about 1.5 miles from a waterhole. It was a single set of tracks and I told my dad to let me out and I think would follow them as best as I could. This is the day I learned how much fun tracking deer in soft desert terrain can be. I get on the tracks and I can remember walking for what seemed like an eternity and it was only 1 mile. The tracks were mostly in open terrain at the start and I was eye balling every single tree in the nearest wash just waiting for the buck to jump out. I got close to the mile 2 mark and the deer tracks started circling trees more and more. I remember following the tracks into greasewood thickets that were atleast 6ft tall and were too thick to even see through. Had the buck been bedded in them, he could've jumped up and I never would've had a chance. This whole time tracking this buck, I was headed west. After about 3 or 4 of those greasewood thickets and 3 miles on these tracks, the buck's tracks turned and start going northeast. These are desert flats I am walking where the nearest hill is probably 4 miles any direction at this point. I took about 4-5 steps following his tracks northwest and I looked up and through some scattered greasewoods 50 yards away is a lone ironwood with enough shade to hide a buck. I remember picking up my gun, which was a .243 and through the scope, I saw a giant rack slowly turn and look at me head on. The adrenaline rush was instant. I put my crosshairs right where I thought his chest was and I am pretty sure I closed my eyes but I pulled the trigger and all I saw was dust and legs kicking. I quickly jacked another shell in and fired another round. Then, boom, another round. I saw after the 3rd shot, I saw that he was still kicking so I moved up to 30 yards and put another round in him to finish him off. I walked up to the deer and remember radioing to my dad that I got him. He asked how big he was and I had no clue. I couldn't even count. I was shaking so much. I had no idea at the time but my little brother and dad were about 1.5 mile away on an open malapai mesa watching me. They had pulled off of a road they found and just got the binos out to watch me. My brother told me they were cracking up watching me walk in circles around the greasewood thickets trying to follow his tracks. They thought I had lost them. They made there way down that malapai and we were able to get some photos on and old disposable camera and get him gutted and loaded up into our old Bronco II. This was the start of what I can only describe as an obsession with desert mule deer. After getting this buck in 2001, I do not think I harvested another buck until 2009 or 2010. You can learn a lot about the desert hunting and not harvesting. I sure did. I now have a pretty good idea of what I am doing after MANY years of failing. We do not kill the trophy quality type bucks that most dream of but we have shot some dandy desert bucks. I have lots of stories of my most recent kills but I still have yet to harvest a buck bigger than my first. I have never had him scored but I would guess him to be around the 165-170 mark. He is a 4x5 with a 1.5" kicker on his left side and is 27 1/2 inches wide.

     

    One more thing I want to add is that my dad, brother and I have killed all of our bucks with a .243. They are light to carry when walking and are deadly accurate out to 250 yards. I could not imagine using another rifle for the way we like to hunt. I know a lot of people ask what caliber is best for the kid's starting off and man a .243 is just hard to beat. 

     

    The first 2 photos are from 2001. Gotta love them old cameras. The wall photo is the buck at my house. I had some friends surprise me with a shoulder mount and the taxidermist they new was new and he used a doe insert instead of a buck. It does make the rack look bigger though 😂

    muleybuck.jpg

    firstbuck.jpg

    mybuck.jpg

    • Like 13
    • Great Buck! 1

  25. Posted · Report reply

    It is seasonal, but in the winter there is a guy in Quartzsite that makes killer buffalo burgers. The name is Randy's Burgers. He used to open up a shop at Stone Cabin (25 miles south of Quartzsite) and sell burgers and all sorts of souvenirs but the windows and door got all busted out of the old building there so he just sets up shop in Quartzsite every winter.  I don't know if the burgers are really that good or if hunting most of the day and running in for a burger makes them taste better than they are but dang its good eating. If you have never experienced a January day in Quartzsite, you will meet some interesting people and be able to eat some really good food. It is a pretty happening town in the winter. 

×