sneakem33

I thought that I would share some pic's of my OTC deer. I usually don't hunt mule deer in Arizona as we have plenty in Colorado, I try to stick to coues. Unfortunately, I Missed a nice coues buck my first day out, he jumped the string, I gave him a nice racing stripe. We continued to hunt for coues predominately but actually turned up a few decent mule deer bucks. As my hunt started to draw to a close I decided that I would take a mule deer if the opportunity presented itself. The last day I put a 2 hour stalk on a great mule deer with a buddy. I stalked the buck bedded and he waited in ambush for me to blow the deer out of the country. Fortunately, I was the lucky one to end up getting a shot....

Not saying anything about working your butt off to afford to do this. I'm just being realistic and honestly I have my own opinions about the donate to betterment of wildlife hunt. I can tell you I have been on both sides of the ball. I've been the guy with the paid hunter. I have also been the guy on the other side of the fence. I once found a huge antelope in Wyoming (pushing 88-90) and went after him during archery season. Opening morning of the hunt I found the buck where I had left him (after a couple months of watching him). I stalked within 60 yard of him and was about to crest the dike on the water tank and stick him in his bed. All of the sudden a truck comes flying down a two track within 80 yard of the antelope and I... scares the buck off. Commissioners tag hunter with a guide that I recognized. They watched me stalk the buck, and as I was about to seal the deal they decided that it was best to interrupt. We exchanged pleasantries and they proceeded to drive over the hill and shoot the buck with a rifle... Me personally, I'm rooting for the dude with the raffle tag. I understand the suck of having a deer shot with your client there and missing out on a paycheck too... Obviously it becomes a shoot show when you have the pressure to deliver on these tags and I'm sure some crazy crap happened and it was a foot race to this deer. Anyone remember the several month long story about a certain elk in Utah..."spider bull"... it happens all the time.... half of Utah was after that bull... Some people just need to pull up their big boy pants, give their feelings a big hug and wipe the tears from their faces. Congrats to the hunter, sweet a$$ deer....

Maybe I'm still confused.... but apparently this deer is irrelevant because its a hybrid.... but the A3 guys knew it was a hybrid because of the metatarsals, but still elected to put a big $$$ client on a deer that couldn't be entered into the book?? And then they are pissed that someone else killed the buck that couldn't be put into the books. Call me crazy but if I spent $80,000 on a deer and the guide costs etc, I would think one might want to shoot something that makes books or be pissed that my guide put me on a deer that they knew I couldn't enter? So much drama... such a twisted mess of a story. Sound like the guys that originally found the buck work for Adams and when a bunch of dudes showed up looking for this deer in January in an out of the way spot with rifles, they figured hey, we know Duwane has the raffle tag hunter (because we work for him) and we'd rather kill this buck than watch a big $$$ hunter pop him they went after him instead of keeping him to themselves....

It's a heck of a deer anyways! Even if it were a hybrid, just makes it more rare, even more desirable IMO. Pretty sure you couldn't see those glands on a shoulder mount anyhow...

The internet....;)

Sweet bow buck, congrats!

I got 108ish as well. Regardless, a beauty!

Great story! Congrats to both of you on your deer!

Sweet buck! Great persistence too!

Congrats!! Way to persevere.

^ That might be the best piece of truthful advice I've read on here in a while. Plenty of deer if you walk far enough from the few access points, tons of people are crammed within two miles of any public access, but after that you're alone..

Access is limited... plenty of people crowding the few points that you can access. Jackson Cabin is a decent access to the wilderness, the road in is a rough sob though...

Just thought I would share a few photos from my hunt. First of all my hunting partner is either the luckiest guy alive or killed the dumbest coues on the face of the planet. We jumped this buck during the first day of the hunt, he ran out to about 40 yards and just stood there... it was quite tempting to drop this buck as it'd been my first, but I let him shoot as a knew he'd likely not get a shot as good as this with his bow. I was a little nervous about finding another good deer after seeing mostly smaller deer but managed to fill my tag the next day. Pretty buck that I couldn't pass up... I had a few people offer up some advice on where to go, I am very thankful for that... in the end I wound up hunting my own choice of spots but still am appreciative for the input...

Yeah definitely a very cool bonus as I walked up on him. There are at least 8 burrs/points that aren't scorable but are 1/2". PS...Watched a few of your videos too, several times, got me all jacked up with coues fever..lol Thanks for the congrats from everyone, I was pretty excited to tag a solid buck for my first....

Waiting until the Christmas week myself, sure feels great that its coming up...the wait sucks!

Great bucks. That first one looks 103-105 to me. congrats! 18 days until I'll be chasing, stuff like this gets me excited.

Very unique deer. Congrats! I saw a piebald buck once before, even though he was small I would have gladly taken him if given the chance.

Congrats to you both. Love those velvet bucks!

Couple of really nice bucks. Congrats!

Love the palmation.

Awesome buck!

Great buck. Watching all these bucks hit the ground has me pumped for December. Makes waiting even harder.

Congrats!! Not too many people are willing to lend a hand anymore. Good on you!

Another for the Swaros... I have plenty of friends that say their binos are comparable to Swarovski... that is until I spot a deer 30 min after shooting light and hand them my binos after they can't see it... difference maker.....

Unit 32 Late December...exciting..