Got up there on Tuesday night which gave me two full days to scout (plus 2.5 days a couple weeks prior). I hunted this same unit with the muzzy tag last year so i felt pretty confident with respect to familiarity of the unit, etc.
Overall, it was kind of tough for me. I had no problem seeing deer (mostly early and late) but when they bedded it down seemed like they were really in the thick stuff. I wasn't able to glass up as many bedded deer as last year.
I had one honey hole picked out where i saw a total of 4 4x4s in back to back glassing sessions (not monsters, just decent bucks pushing 150-165 ish maybe)...figured i'd start there opening morning. The night before the hunt i decided i would not pass up a decent 4x4. I was humping on a dirt road glassing canyons and bedding slopes... with the naked eye at 250 yards i saw what looked like a deer staring at me....he saw me before i saw him and he was the only buck i'd seen on this session up to this point. He started moving up the hill to go over the ridge and as mentioned earlier i decided I would not pass up anything i'd be happy to shoot on the 4 or 5th day of the hunt. One shot one kill at 300 yards. Packed him out by myself which was kind of cool.
I roughed him out at 150" with a 22" spread. I figure the next time i hunt mulies i'm going to be going for "the one" or nothing at all....
My buddy arrived Friday night (after all the packing work was done of course lol)....we then hunted a few extra days for his tag but couldn't find anything big...so on his last night we road hunted and shot a dink right off the 225 like clockwork lol. I'm by no means a road hunter, but he just wanted meat in teh freezer so this method was a high confidence maneuver to get him something with a super easy packout.
In summary a good hunt and i'm happy to have meat in the freezer, happy we went 2 for 2, and i'm happy to have officially broken in my custom 7rem mag. I wish the temps were a little cooler and there was more moisture...it was hot and dry for the most part. I saw two bigger bucks taken by fellow hunters on the east side...maybe 185ish and 175ish...but no giants (>200"). I was surprised that in my ~5 days of scouting and 4 days of hunting i never set eyes on a 200" buck....I know they don't grow on trees but usually you spot a couple monsters (getting on them can be a different story as you all know). The game and fish had pics going at the check in station and there were definitely some bigguns taken. The G&F guy told me you had to be at 21" to crack the top 10 and 31" was top buck...not clear if that was the east side or total total for both sides.
Anyway, thanks to those who consulted me about this hunt (LK).
Oh, on a final note, i put a camera on a guzzler and let it sit for a couple weeks. i figured with the dry weather the bucks will be on water hard...but i only say the same handful of does and dink bucks. I did see one pretty good buck show up one night...but literally 15 seconds later a mountain lion was hot on his tracks...so either he got whacked or was smart enough never to come back to that watering hole. That cat was hitting the water regularly and patroling the tank waiting for prey to come in..it was pretty cool footage but sucked since that tank i had decent hopes for was pretty much f'd up. I'll post those videos in the tail came section when i get around to it.
cheers
Miles
