Sorry for the delay on the post... i have been very busy and just got over the flu.
I would like to start by saying that this hunting season has been very different then our usual seasons and has felt like a weird year.... but was still very good. We were told that our bear spot was taking a year off after new ownership. In finding a new bear spot and shooting one we also found some nice blacktail bucks, I'll talk about that in a minute. I decided to switch over to muzzleloader for elk with my brother and dad to join my cousin and uncles.... so we were hunting elk before deer this year
. to change it up a little more my cousin and I drew Desert A tags for deer and muzzleloader cow tags in january. This weekend i got designated to work and i never work on late buck... I was hoping i could go out and get the uncles a couple deer. Just hasnt been like normal.
Our early elk season didnt work out as planned, had many opportunities but didn't seal the deal, but still have that late tag. I really wanted to get my dad a buck before our Desert permits so we went out every weekend and on the last weekend of regular deer in our new bear spot he got one. We seen some big blacktails earlier in the year but werent able to get one of the big ones but did get a decent buck. we were just about to hike back when my dad spotted this buck coming out of the timber with a doe. i ranged him at 450 adjusted my scope and handed my gun to my dad. He shoots and hits him, he takes a couple steps my dads shoots again and misses but i can tell hes gonna go down. we wait, he falls over, we hi-five. Now i can go on my desert hunt.
My cousin (wildwood) and i headed over 2 days before our hunt to do some scouting. On thursday we made it out to a spot we wanted to look at but got rained and hailed on and didnt see much for deer. i didnt think it was supposes to rain in the desert
must be for mythbusters. The next day we hike in real early to a different spot to sit in the fog for the first 5 hours, luckily once the fog lifted we started seeing deer. Opening morning was crazy, at first light we jumped a nice buck with a doe hiking in and we were sprinting after him before we knew it. he disappeared so we split up. the next time i saw my cousin (ten minutes later) i was sitting down on a dune looking for that buck when he came running by yelling deer. none of those were him so we sat down and glassed some more. Not long later we spotted him 450 yard out but the wind had really picked up (like 40mph) no shot. so we tried to make a stalk on him but he was never seen again. that day turned into a sand storm and we ended up with so much sand in our eyes and everywhere else it was horrible. the next day we went back and it was much better, after the morning bite we started hiking and jumped a buck and a doe. we chased after them got on a ridge to be able to see. the buck ended up running out of some russian olives quartering away then started walking.... my cousin asked for the ok and i said he a shooter. he shot him at about 200 yards off his new primos stick and the buck stumbled and fell. One down one more to go.
We hit it again in the morning....saw lots of smaller bucks then the one i wanted. we spotted this buck at over a mile out. he was a 5x4 with good mass. we spent all morning after him. the closest we got was 700 yards out. by the time we got to where he was after crawling over there he was gone. Then we jumped one.....he was a buck and he was running away. He looked really good especially quartering away with his good side showing. my cousin said thats him... and hes gonna come out in the opening. 1 second later BOOM. he runs over a little hill but we can tell he was hit good. he didnt go far maybe 50 yards. when we got up to him we found out he wasnt the same buck but still a great deer. he was a 3x4 with eyeguards. they may not be monsters or a trophy for someone else but they are definetely trophys for us and we are very happy. Plus we now made time to butcher them up. All in all we had a great time. it was a very fun hunt and we met some great people. If you are looking for 175+ buck this is probably not the unit, most the deer we seen were 130-160. I have been told many times that the desert unit is not the unit it once was but who knows. I would like to thank everyone who had a part in this hunt. I wont say any names but you know who you are. thanks again
oh and i mentioned that 5x4 to a couple guys and camp and they told a couple guys who had a tag......guess what i seen show up to the resort when we we just checking out 2 days later. i took a pic of him, nice buck!
