First, thank you for this forum! I found this place way more helpful than any other forum. Awesome place for first time hunters!
We are first time hunters for hunting anything. My son was drawn for Unit 20b Oct 09 - Oct 15. We did some scouting around Cleator and Horse Thief Basin area(Prescott National Forest)and decided that it was the place to hunt. We headed out on Sunday Oct. 11, it was a long rough ride in and found a spot to make camp and started an evening spot. 15 minutes into us glassing and my son spotted two monster Muley’s and in the excitement we broke some branches trying to setup a shot and the bucks darted off over two peaks, we attempted to stalk but came up very clueless as to where they might have gone. The next day we spotted a small herd of Muley’s north of our base camp that had two spikes. Again I tried to setup a decent shot for my son and they got spooked and took off. Same thing happened on the third day. I could see it on my sons face that he was very disappointed and he was looking very fatigued. We had a long talk and we decided to pack it up and head home. So no deer for us this season. Make no mistake WE PUT MILES ON OUR BOOTS and glassed until our eyes were dry! I am so proud of this young man!
The positives: we (just the two us) saw Muley’s on our very first hunt, great father and son bonding, and more motivation for next season.
There are monster Muley’s in 20b. The northwest area is a solid location. We went about 5 miles south of Cleator. The road is rough but the deer are in there. We will get one next time. Good luck to those we drew this season!
P.S. we did check out wickenburg, constellation rd area, but a lot of it looked like the fires got to it first.
