Success in Mexico

[Hunting6]

DESTINATION: Mexico

GOAL: Buck….A Good Buck, one that will make me work hard to obtain so that I will never forget that, it is the blood, sweat, and mental as well as physical duress many of us put into our hunts that makes it so special in the end. And of course, there is always “luck” involved when the goal is finally met.

DATE: Friday Jan 16th arrival to the ranch 10 am.

WEATHER: Freakin HOT !

Headed out to a portion of the ranch where I knew a very good buck lived and began the search mission only to find a few smaller bucks and one that would score over 100”. I was there the weekend before this current trip, and my friend and hunting partner Steve Shooks glassed up a big buck right before dark, but it was too late to make a run for him. We went back and looked for him the next day but to no avail, then had to come back home where I would resume the search the following week. The thoughts of that big deer stirred in my head for another week, and I couldn’t wait to get back down there to seek him out. 2 other hunters had seen him in prior weeks and had given descriptions of the buck with no doubt it was a jaw dropper of a buck that would score in the high teens.

On this current trip, my close friend and hunting partner Danny Lee, of Artist’s Touch Taxidermy came down with me to lend a hand in the optics department where he continued to prove, he has the talent behind the glasses to find deer.

We continued our search for the big buck for 2 full days without getting a glimpse of him. The 100” plus buck was always easy to locate and was just asking for it…. One of those deer you can’t seem to get rid of as if he is taunting me to take a crack at him. We left him and his Doe, and headed back to the ranch for lunch and to listen to most of the Cardinals/Eagles game.

That evening we decided to glass a mountain where we heard another good buck had been seen a few days earlier and right off the bat we see two bucks one of which we figured would be in the 90-95 inch class, and another in the 100 plus class with giant eye guards. That deer was beat all to heck, he could hardly move, and whether it was from rutting so hard, or he was just an ancient deer I’ll never know. He bedded down in a spot that would have been easy to stalk and shoot, but as tempting as it was… we decided to move because it was starting to get late. We headed around the mountain and we see another buck right before dark several hundred yards and rutting hard. He was a good buck from what we could initially determine but we weren’t sure just how big because we were quickly losing light, and he was moving so fast we couldn’t get the spotting scope on him in time.

 

The next morning we made a plan to head up to this big ridge that would enable us to expand our view of the mountain range where we last saw the good buck the evening before, and also another mountain range on the opposite side, so one mountain range on the West and the other on the East.

I chose to look at the West and Dan the East. I saw a few small bucks but not the one we saw the prior evening. It was close to 10 or 10:30 am when Dan yells over to me, he spotted what he would call a good buck and I went over and took a look through his spotting scope and said, “yea he looks like a good buck”. The distance was over a mile away with heat waves, and all you could see was a good main beam. I told Dan, since there is nothing else going on and it is getting late, I figured that the buck would bed somewhere near the top of this mountain, and he wasn’t moving particularly fast so it was worth a try at this point in the game.

One hour later and nearly all my energy spent from climbing this straight up beast, I was 720 yards from the deer.

I found him and his doe….. when I looked more closely, my mouth dropped, my hands started to shake and I thought I was going to melt. I could not believe what I was looking at, “no not this big, no it can’t be” but it was… He was big and I was too far away to shoot. The wind was gusting way too much to try a shot like that, and I had one more mountain I needed to climb to get a closer shot.

I quickly grabbed my stuff and shoved it in the pack and headed out with the word “ get over there quick” in my mind.

I headed over and I hoped, and I prayed he would still be in the same spot when I got there. I snuck along the backside of the ridge straight across from him and popped my head over and took a brief look to see if he was still in the same spot. He was gone from where I had seen him last, and panic stricken, I moved over the top and sat by some thick brush to be able to glass more confidently than I had just did before. But before all else, first I got my rifle, range finder, and extra bullets ready to go if I needed to move on him quickly. I found him again not too far from where he was and he was moving slowly down hill towards this nasty dense brush, no doubt to make his last bed for the day. I didn’t want to take the chance of losing sight of him in that crap, and decided I needed to take the shot while he was still out in the open and broadside to me.

I ranged him at 519 yards, set the rifle up, found him in the scope and watched him until he made his next stop… he stops, I slowly squeeze and Ka…..BOOOM !!!! C…R…A…P !!! I missed and I thought Uh…Oh, here we go to a rodeo now.

I found him again, tightened up my body and let it fly again. All I could see was him running down hill about 15 yards into the dense brush, and again… I was thinking I missed. I watched the area closely and saw his leg kick a couple of times through the brush, but I wasn’t so sure it was a solid hit, so I sat there and I waited for close to an hour, rifle at the ready and focusing on the spot where he ran into just in case he came sneaking back out. Finally, I put the spotting scope up to 60 power and all I could see was a dark shape, but not a good enough view to know for sure he was down. I watched for a while totally focusing for the slightest of movement behind that bush. Nothing… I had to go over and check it all out and take the chance of a jump shot which I don’t like to do.

I marked him and headed to where I would come out and over top of him at 50 yard or so. I slithered through the area as quietly as I was able, and began moving towards where I had last seen him. Nothing…. Crap, he is gone. I forgot about that trying to be so quiet stuff, and began moving throughout the brush, and There…. 30 yards down hill, I could see him laid out with no life in him. As I walked up to him, a great thanks came from my breath, and I approached him and the shaking started all over again, I could not believe my eyes…!!! Truly, the most magnificent deer I have beheld lying at my feet. And there, a perfect shot that killed him humanely before he ever knew it, and I was worried my shot wasn’t true enough. It sure makes a difference with a spotter along for the ride in situations like this, but that’s the chance you have to take. This amazing deer gross scored 128 6/8 unofficially.

 

Looking back and realizing the other good buck I was looking for was evidently not in my cards, I can honestly say, I am extremely grateful I couldn’t find him. My thanks to both Steve Shooks and Danny Lee for the immense help they provided in my search for a good buck, I owe you both. And also my thanks goes to the ranch owner, Juan Pablo Donnadieu who allowed me to hunt his beautiful ranch. All in all, some good bucks came off of Juan Pablo’s Ranch, as well as the adjacent ranch he had tags for, where 2 of the guys took 2 incredible bucks. If interested for any of next years’ hunts, Juan Pablo normally can be reached on his cell phone when not working on the ranch as no cell service exist there, so it can take some time to get a hold of him. Ph# 011-521-637-104-4207

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

 

 

Congrats on a Fantastic buck and great story! Thanks for Sharing!

[Chef]

NICE!!!

[Atrain]

Way to go Mike... heck of a deer... you just keep racking up those big ones. Are you going to have Dan do a lifesize on him??? It would sure look nice..

[Hunting6]

Allen, I probably will as I don't think I will get another opportunity for a Deer like this one.

Thanks Buddy

[Coues Sniper]

Holy _____! Awesome buck man. What a frame on that deer. Much congrats!

[huntswnm]

That is an awesome deer!!! Great job on writing up the story too!

 

Jeff

[Birddog]

Great story and a great buck!

[willhunt4coues]

That is a big buck congrats.

[AZcoues_addict]

Now that's a stud buck right there, awesome! Congratulations on tagging the big buck that so many others couldn't! Thanks for sharing your story and the pictures!

[palivs2hnt]

Sensational buck and great story. Thanks for sharing and big congrats!

[WHT_MTNMAN]

Hey a huge congrats, Cade showed me those you sent to his email, what a great buck. Nice job man.

Houston

[Hunting6]

Thanks for the kind words from all of you. it is still a surreal sensation and as always, its being in the right place at the right time, and I am grateful I was in that "time frame", and able to deal with the situation.

No doubt there is hard work involved that goes along with the time frame thing.

[Hunterdan]

WOW! That is a Great Buck. Love that big typical frame.

[azcouesandelk]

That is a huge typical!!! Great job on a great buck!