Hunting6

The time had come, November crept into December and the only thing on my mind was Coues deer hunting in Mexico. The plan was to leave for the border early December 26th and stay down through Jan 1st, unless I found a good deer early on. Little did I know before the hunt just how many good bucks I would see this year. I was supposed to have two friends go down to hunt with me as well, but each had backed out due to personal reasons. So I was off on my Own this year. I met the ranch owner, Juan Pablo at the border, and it took all of 20 minutes for the Border Police and then the Military Commandant to sign off on my rifle permit, then it was off to the ranch. An hour later I was unpacking my gear and food. Juan Pablo and I took off to do some late afternoon glassing and ended up seeing several bucks and a nice one that would fall into the 105-107 category, but nothing in the class I was looking for. The weather was cold… mornings were in the 20’s, and afternoons were in the 50’s. Perfect temperatures for deer hunting. The only drawback was wind, the wind would blow between 15-20 mph most of the 6 days I was there, with exception to two. The rut was kicking in hard for this time of the year and it was normal to glass close to 20 bucks a day even with poor wind conditions. The deer on his ranch were doing well and we saw plenty of 70-80 inch deer, and quite a few that were in the 90-100 class range. The second day was similar to the first evening, with exception to one particular buck… One of the cowboys tagged along for the trip and he mentioned a certain buck that he had seen on several occasions while pushing cattle in the same area each time. The cowboy and I left Juan Pablo to glass another area, while the two of us climbed up this mountain and then started walking and stopping to glass from its uppermost ridgeline. Wind was blowing hard so I kept my attention down in the pockets below us. We hadn’t walked 400 yards along the top of this ridge when I spotted a buck below me. Soon after, 2 more bucks emerged out of the thickets and one was a good one. I pulled my spotting scope out to get a good look at his antlers, and after close scrutiny, I figured the buck would end up right around 110 inches. He had great back points, just over 8 inches, but his fronts crabbed out on him and it was hard to tell if they would end up at 5 inches or under. He had a very good 14.5” - 15” inside spread, and good mass throughout. But to me, he just didn’t have the look I wanted. Now don’t get me wrong… had I seen this buck on an Arizona hunt, I would have dropped the hammer on him in a heartbeat. But this Ranch has an unbelievable opportunity to see a Great Big Giant Buck. My buddy Tom had taken a 124” the year before, and I myself have taken a 128” off of this ranch a couple years earlier. After the 3 bucks disappeared, we went to another part of the ranch for the evening but didn’t see anything but small to medium size bucks. Last year I took a really nice 112” inch typical 3 point, and this year my goal was to try and locate something unique, but also big. That night, I mulled over the buck from earlier in the day thinking maybe I was making a mistake by passing him up. But I also thought, well…I still have a few days left and if I needed to, I could go back in there and probably find him again. Juan Pablo had to leave the ranch on the 28th so one of the cowboys named “Chino” would end up accompanying me for the rest of the hunt. I will say one thing about that guy, you give him a pair of cheap $30 dollar binoculars and he is going to make good use of them. He is an amazing glasser, and I would bet dollars to donuts he would blow me away if he had a decent pair. He made a couple of good spots on good bucks during the hunt. One in particular was a giant super duper Tall and Heavy 2 Point with big eye guards. The only problem was this buck was only about 11 inches wide. He was a really cool looking deer, but he wouldn’t score real well if that is what a guy is looking for. He definitely fell into the unique category, but I have already taken a buck similar to this one a few years ago. On that trip we also glassed up another buck that was pushing the 110” mark, but I elected to back out after a lengthy 20 minute mental debate with myself. Now that was hard, but it would become harder over the next few days. The Rut was really going strong now, no fighting yet, so all the antlers were still intact for the most part. We only saw 2 bucks that were broken up, and one of those bucks would have been a good one had he not lost his whole right side down to the base. The next morning we hiked up this mountain where there is a spectacular glassing point. The wind was blowing hard, but with that much area to glass, you could find pockets where the deer were sheltered from the wind. That morning was pretty amazing despite the wind. We saw plenty of bucks and 3 of those bucks were in the 110+ category. This was the hardest out of all the hunts I have been on inside of this ranch over the years. Never in my life would I have thought I was going to have to make decisions like this. In the end, I passed up all 3 of those deer. With the spotting scope, I scrutinized the heck out of each one. I would end up going from one, then back to another, then back to another again, and again, and again. Chino, thought I was crazy, that much Spanish I could understand, but like I said, something “Unique” and “Big”. I had plenty of time, and if needed, would come back down for another full week in January if I couldn’t find something during this trip. The following day we hiked into another area and saw quite a few deer, and one that I only caught a glimpse of. He was really big, that much I knew from just a glance. He actually had seen us, and was sneaking his way down into thick brush that feeds down into a deep canyon. We quickly hiked over to where we could see farther down into the canyon, but by the time we hiked around. The buck never re-appeared again, so we lost him. Other than that deer, everything else was small by comparison. This particular area has a buck that I have been looking for over the last few years. The 2 Cowboys have talked about seeing him over and over again during each cattle season. Every year, I normally spend a couple days in the area looking for him. All the cowboys would say is “Primero” or “”Macho Macho” about the buck. So I knew the buck had to be pretty big. And after four years of them saying this, I kept wondering if the buck was even alive anymore. But Chino had seen him again in early December. I did see a couple of 105 inch type bucks back there, but not him. Needless to say, New years eve passed and the morning of January 1st rolled around. I had the morning to hunt, then I would have to load the truck and head back to Phoenix. I told Chino that I would like to head over to where he had last seen the big buck in December and glass that area for a couple of hours then head back to Phoenix. He elected to come along and we were soon glassing from a point just off the road next to the truck. We glassed for about 20 minutes and saw a couple bucks here and there and I turned my binos over to a small ridge line straight across from us. I see the tips of deer antlers just over the back side of the ridge and they were moving forward. A few seconds later, I could see the full Rack on this deer and It was a really good one. I directed Chino’s tripod and binos to the spot and when he looked through them he said “Primero no?” I said, “yeah, Primero”. I grabbed my spotting scope and put it on the buck. He was now standing at the very top of the ridge on some boulders scanning the area below him. He was simply majestic skylined and standing on that rock pile. He was really heavy, and he was a big and unique buck. There were non-typical points on one side and the buck held a ton of character. The buck slowly made his way over the ridge and he decided to bed down not more than 15 yards from the top and out of the wind. I turned to Chino and told him I would shoot this buck if an opportunity comes my way. So I quickly packed up everything and stuffed it in my pack, then grabbed my rifle and the two of us hauled butt down the hill we were glassing from. The idea was to sneak around and behind another hill so that when we emerged, we would be straight across and below him, and hopefully within rifle range. As we rounded the bottom of the hill to a point where we would have visibility of the deer, we stopped to check on him. We were actually sneaking through a small arroyo that was full of catclaw and crushed granite, and the noise was overwhelming. We had to slowly sneak a couple of feet at a time because that buck could literally hear us down there. I wanted to head up the side of the hill in front of the buck, but we would have been completely exposed, and the amount of catclaw was too much to sneak through. I found a small opening through the catclaw in the bottom. All I needed to do was break a few small branches out of the way and I would have a clear shot at the buck. I set up the rifle on the deer, and then range found him. Then I waited, hoping he would stand up and give me a perfect shot. We waited for about 20 minutes and I was getting concerned because the Sun was moving closer and closer in the direction of the hill, the buck was bedded on. If I moved my rifle scope just a few inches to the left, the sun would completely block out my sight, so I had to make a decision whether to shoot this deer in his bed or try a different approach before it became too late. There weren’t too many options, so I decided to take the shot. The Buck had catclaw and brush surrounding him, but I had just a small tight window on his vitals, so I needed to make the shot count. I took a few breaths of air, relaxed my body, and slowly squeezed the trigger. The rifle went off, the buck jumped up and ran about 6 yards, then laid down in the catclaw where we could not see him. I already had another round jacked in the chamber and I just put the scope on the area we last saw him and waited. We sat there for about 10 or 15 minutes, then decided to head down the arroyo, and up the hill where we last saw him. He was piled up 15 yards from us, and the two of us shook hands. The buck was what I was looking for, he had so much character and I had never seen eyeguards that were located so far up the base. The eyeguards almost look like they could be the G2s from the pictures, but they are clearly not. This was a great hunt. I had the whole ranch to myself and seeing so many bucks on it gives me a lot of confidence that next year is going to be good as well. Thanks for taking time to read my story and thanks to Juan Pablo for allowing me to hunt his ranch. Mike

Congratulations to your daughter on a nice deer, Looks like a lot of fun and another memory to add to the family album. Thanks for sharing the story

Well Done, you've accomplished another adventure to add to the many. Big Congrats to you...

Nice Job, that is a great Ram ! congrats...

Awesome Job Kevin, it was a blast to be part of the hunt....Pretty intense there for a while but you got it done.

Like you said Phil, it is never a disappointment when you get to experience good friends and the surrounding country, not to mention nice bucks. you will get em next year !! thanks for the pics and story

Josh, Congratulations to you, Jim, and your friends... That is a jaw dropper buck for sure....!!!!!!!!! For Nate to do that for you, wow... good friend for sure. All of those bucks are good ones... Thanks for sharing the story with us. Mike

Tom, Congratulations on 2 unbelievable bucks.... it was a thrill to share that experience with you...absolutely amazing buddy ! You put together an awesome story too.... Can't wait to see them both mounted......

Has anyone ever played with this ? http://www.cerakoteguncoatings.com/ looks like you have the same prep work to do, but you need a sprayer and some type of oven the part can fit into.

He must not have much overhead cost to get a price of $350 for a shoulder mount. I would think after all the required prep work, materials used and a minimum of 2 days to mount it, then going over it while it is drying would take at least... 10 hours total, not including materials, which depending on form quality would run around 100-150 dollars. then consider the tanning cost, unless he tans the hide himself which requires more labor hours, and one would have to include time to skin the head out, then clean the skull cap. I might be crazy but that amounts to about $9 or $10 dollars an hour. I guess, if you are just doing it out of love for the work, then it doesn't matter. You ended up getting what you were looking for so congrats to you.

Cade, Awesome buck man!!! That is some very serious shooting..... Congratulations on another Great Deer !!! Mike

Thats pretty cool... congratulations on your pig... I am leaving in a week to try and get the job done.

Nice write up Phil, and Congratulations on another good year !!!!

Nice Job with some very nice bucks !!! Jim knows the choicest Ranches down there, no doubt about it....

Great Bucks guys !!!! Way to get it done