Just now getting around to douing this.. Shot him 2nd day of season at around 120yrds. Heres the story.
My dad and i got drawn for this hunt, we were prety stoked and happy that we got a nice deer tag. Although it ruined all our prescouting for other units for august's archery hunt, it was a tough summer not being able to do much. It was to far and costed to much to go back and forth from kaibab, but we have hunted up there alooot of times so it wasnt to big of a deal.
So starting in august i helped my good friend Brandon Hunt get his first deer, we went up for 3 days, we hunted it pretty hard with alot of walking and saw a few niiice bucks, that either one of us would have taken, even though i had a kaibab tag. on the second day on the evening he harvested his nice velvet mulie. You can see the rest of his story in hos thread.
Then came October, in october i helped a friends friend on a Jr. elk hunt (which didnt turn out so good) i was sick all that week, and told them i couldnt help opening morning, but that afternoon i could. So they got up here that afternoon, and i took them to a hill that we could walk hoping there would be elk on it. I had a camera on another hill that had elk on it every weekend, but it wasnt late enough to get on that hill, so we burned some time and then finally got on to this other hill, as soon as we get up to the top, there they are a herd of about 10 cows. We get setup camera and all and he shoots, miss. I said thats alright i know were they are going, so we get onto the other side wait for them to cross, and they did, but none offering a shot, so we start walking into the little gulley and we ran into a road, that we walked up about 50yrds and there they are and we get setup, and BAM, he shoots, she runs MAYBE 10yrds and dropped.
Fast forward to my hunt, on the 21st.. Now thats its my turn behind the gun im suuper pumped and ready to go. My dad and i rolled up to camp on the 19th, and a took us an hour and ahalf to find a camp! We get camp setup and go to bed, its about 11 o'clock by then, we wake up have something to eat, and head to the burn, were we glassed the majority of the day, with not good luck, only does. And tooooons of people. We headed back into the pines were our camp was and decided what we were going to do opening morning. Opening morning had us walking in the pines, and in little burns, we passed on a few little forkies, holding out for a 4x or bigger, didnt see much but forkies,does and fawns.
The second day had us walking the same area, but more into the little burn in the pines. We saw mainly does alllll day, and i was very discouraged, the weather was horrible for this hunt, i wasnt happy with the way it was turning out, but thats part of hunting, right?
I had a pretty good area picked that i wanted to walk right beore dark on the second day. so i had my dad drop me off at the bottom, and pick me up on top. As i walked up this huge mountainy hill, i glassed # does going across the top, i was liike okay, kept walking, i get to the top, and i talk to my dad he said there was a truck that just drove threw there hauling buttttt, with a grin on his face, just trashing his truck.. So i get in the ranger and we decide to drive up the road, before our way back to camp, because it was almost dark, about 175yrds are so up was the other side of the hill were the does went up we saw a bunch of deer standing 120yrds off the road. i tellmy dad keep going those are just the does! He goes, nah lets look at them. i pull up the binos and its a bachelor herd of decent bucks!!! i jump out and get a better look while they STAND there and graze! i put my cross hairs ona little 3x, getting ready to take him, and decide to wait for this other one to come around the tree, he does and hes BIGGER so i waited, for a good shot, and BAM nailed him, he kinda runs up the hill and back down towards the group, and is limping and swaying about to fall over, and they all just start grazing again so my dad pulls up and tried to shoot one but missed, adn they all ran, he went about 40yrds and piled up. i walked up to him and was stoked!! So happy i got a respectable deer, not the toad i was looking for but i was completley happy with him.
We hunted the next 3 days for my dad with seeing nothing but forkies and spikes, and a stalkk on a nice 3x3 that went bad. The weather was horrible and we both have had enough, he winded up just shooting a forkie. I really wanted to get him a bigger buck, but maybe next year.
Also the on the 19th we went waaaay down low to see what was going on down there, and decided to drive the 213 road back up (if any of you know this rd, its crazy haha) we took a few wrong turns and get a little lost and winded up getting back to camp laaate, we did the road in a 2wd truck. We got to see some awesome terrain on the way from the bottom up. My dad lost his phone for 3 days, until we finally found it under one of the seats, we got a nice dent in the front fender of the truck, and a fatty dent on the trailer also. It was pretty stressfull, but was all fun in the end.
I appreciate the help from other members on here and other sites for info on some spots, and how the deer were doing this year. I also appreciat Double Buck Taxidermy for doing my mount for me!
Bryan Bence
