Caliches first deer hunt

[CatfishKev]

First off thanks to the good Lord for the time I got to spend with my boy, it was a heck of a time with plenty of ups and downs.  Can't say enough how cool it is to watch your kids slowly become young men.  Second thanks to @M@tt for coming down to help the first couple days. Great guy for sure. And of course @zackcarp for squeezing room in the walk in to hang the kids buck.  

This hunt started with high expectations, Kiki said he wants to hunt muley's, and so we did.  Started off in an area I thought was a slam dunk. As usual (for me anyway) hunting mule deer made me humble. Spent the first couple days glassing up only forkies and does. Moved the camper closer to home, glassed up more forkies and does.  Luck turned Sunday morning when we spotted a couple decent coues bucks and we went for it.  As they do like ghosts they disappeared while on the stalk. Thought for sure they were heading for thick cover but in retrospect that phrase got me.. "coues are always where you last saw them".  Looked up to see them high tailing it away from us.

Next morning got off to a 15 minute late start, my fault but it could a made the difference.  Got to the glassing point and immediately picked up a herd of muley's.  Saw one that I knew right away was a stud. Bailed off the hill to give chase.  No biggun where I thought he should be though. Had a doe and a spike walk right in front of us and that was it.  I decided to pull out to not ruin a future chance. Came back that evening and no deer to be seen.  

Talked momma into coming the next morning, promised her we were close to sealing the deal. The next morning she was not as gung-ho when 330 rolled around, but she still came.

Got breakfast at Denny's (part of the deal we made) and off we went. Got to the spot early and started glassing in the dark. No deer... Kept glassing... No deer.... Kept glassing... A couple does.... Oof.  I told Caliche even if it's trash deer we should probably go for it since momma don't come out often. He agreed.

Well once the sun was up I spotted one lone coues over a mile away verified he was a decent buck based on overall frame but we kept glassing for a closer opportunity.  Suddenly like clockwork several white rump patches started appearing very close to the coues buck.  We all converse quick and decide there is a chance the big one is nearby and if not we still got the coues.  Bailed again off the hill, while in route momma said the big one is out there.  We got to where I felt comfortable stalking and started to glass and could not find any muley but the WT buck was right in front of us under 200. The wind also started to shift.  Momma said where the big muley was but due to the wind shift and not knowing the location of the rest of the muley herd we quickly decided let's kill this coues buck. Texted momma we are on the WT and getting ready to shoot. Well momma was so mesmerized by the muley she didn't keep eyes on the buck we were actually shooting and she didn't realize what I meant by WT.  So we set up for the shot in a quick and quiet rush, Caliche looks at me and says "dude, this is so exciting!" and a minute later bang! I see the buck in my binos fly backwards and drop.  Clearly we are full of adrenaline and I tell him he dropped, I texted momma "he dropped him". She responds I'm still looking at him??? I'm like no babe he shot the whitetail buck!

So we rack another round and creep in just in case.  we were in tall grass and sure enough the hit was a spine shot. Saw him up flailing and told him put one through his neck high and he did but for good measure had him put another in his head. Hence the bulging eyes.  Once we really stopped and got to look him over I was pretty stoked at the buck he just killed. I assured him this buck was an old stud.  Pretty gnarly horns and big body. Rack had some serious character and we had no regrets shooting this guy over the big muley.  Called momma for the pickup while I showed Kiki how to quickly gut a deer.  We earned ourselves some deer dragging sweat and met momma for some more pics.

As per usual my new hunting partner Bucky the Boston terrier was there for the entire hunt, although not on the stalk he still put on the 12+ miles with us for the rest of it.  

Can't say as a dad how proud I am of Caliche.. out of all of my kids he's the one that seems to be bitten by the hunting bug the most.  He was all in and fully immersed in this hunt.  Even being the first one to pick up deer behind the glass a few times. This kid has grit and he sure makes me proud.  He even caped his buck himself and measured him. He did dam good too on both fronts.  Buck grossed 94" and netted like 88 and change.  Can't wait to do it again.

Got another youth tag this Friday and can't wait.  It's my youngest boy Enoch. I don't think he's gonna embrace the suck though so probably forkies are on the menu, but if he's happy I'm happy.  

Thanks for reading.

Ps. Not gonna lie, we had a hard time not laughing while taking the first few pics. Them crazy Steve Buscemi eyes

 

[mc68]

Good job! Neat buck. Congratulations to all involved!

[wish2hunt]

Congrats on a cool buck

[AZbowhntr]

Congrats again.  That is a cool looking buck.  And great story.

[bigorange]

Awesome buck and story. Congrats again! 😁

[Sky Island junkie]

Cool buck! Congrats!

[stanley]

BIG heck YES!!!!

Very awesome, Kevin!!

[bigbuckfever]

Congrats and awesome write up.  I originally joined this site to hopefully read stories like this.  (wish more members would post up their stories with pics).  Good job setting the hook on his hunting life.  Oh, and beautiful buck too!

[elkhunter]

Congrats to both of you guys, stud buck. 

[CouesPursuit]

Fantastic work to the whole family and pup. Great job and great buck. I'd shoot him over a mule deer any day! 

[zackcarp]

You know how to ruin kids on first great bucks! Congrats again Kiki.

[Coach]

Great job! What a cool looking buck. Congrats on an awesome hunt.

[dustin25]

Awesome story! And a great buck on top of it! Congrats!

[daryl_s]

Great story, great write up, and great buck! Congratulations to you guys and thanks for taking us along! 

[Chef]

Good stuff.  Congrats!