Bryant's Buck

After helping good friend Robert Wise with his coues buck, now it was Bryant's turn.  Like Robert, Bryant had pretty much always been a mule deer hunter, but this would be Bryant's fourth coues deer hunt, and he had plans of topping Roberts 103" buck.

Deer after deer were glassed up with lots of does and smaller bucks and on the evening of the second day, a decent buck was glassed up.  The bunch watched the buck until dark, but Bryant decided to pass in hopes of finding something a little better in the coming days.  On the morning of the third day, Bryant glassed up the same buck as he was trying to chase some does around in the brush.  Bryant still decided to hold out, but tried with no luck to get another buddy to shoot the buck.

More and more deer were found every day, and late on the fourth morning, Bryant finally glassed up a group of five bucks feeding high up on a hillside, and one looked good enough for a closer look.  Tomorrow would be the last day of the hunt, and all he had was the morning of the last day to hunt before he had to head to California, so Bryant and a friend with an unfilled tag jumped on the side by side and headed around to a location that the two would begin their hike.  Meanwhile, Robert stayed where he was and kept an eye on the feeding bucks.

After a 45 minute hike, the two found themselves across a drainage from the bucks.  Immediately Bryant Glassed up two bucks as they worked across a open hillside toward a saddle.  Neither of the two bucks were what Bryant was looking for so they continued to search for the rest of the deer.  Quite a bit of time had gone by, and the pair was thinking the rest of the deer must have gotten out of the country without them seeing them, when Bryant finally glassed up the left ear and left antler of a bedded buck.  Bryant decided this buck was a shooter and set up for the 275 yard shot.

When the gun went off, the buck came rolling out of his bed and a smaller buck jumped up and began looking around nervously.




Bryant had his coues buck, but he would never the end from Robert for not topping his buck.

Coues #1 for Robert...

Robert has always had a hankering to go after a good coues buck.  He grew up and has always lived in mule deer country, and mule deer has always been Roberts first choice for a hunt.  2011 found Robert with a coues tag in his pocket, now he was going to get his chance.

The morning of the first day of the hunt, Robert and his hunting party glassed up something other than coues deer.  The crew watched as four lions, a female and three yearlings, hunted along a hillside for about 30 minutes before they finally disappeared into the drainage below.  It was no wonder no coues deer were found that morning.  Four lions in the area would have any of these little deer hiding out.

At about mid morning, a couple bucks were finally glassed up.  Turned out to be a small 3 point and a spike.  Robert decided to hold out, since he had five days to try and find a good buck.  A quick lunch and a nasty hike put the bunch up on a high rim trying to glass up some deer in 40 mile per hour wind!

Robert glassed up a good buck feeding in the thick brush below, and that's when things got crazy for Robert.  Buck fever set in, Robert could hardly contain his shakes or his breathing.  A couple buddies tried to calm Robert down, going through some breathing exercises, and telling him "it was okay, it happens to everyone".  Robert was so excited he fumbled with his gear dropping his binoculars and nearly knocking his rifle over.  Stumbling and tripping, Robert finally sat down to try and relax.....

Okay, maybe that's not exactly how it happened...

Robert glassed up the buck and started to look for a way to get a little closer for a shot.  The buck was feeding in a small wash, and we were all in the only high spot that would allow us to see the buck in the thick brush.  With no other options, Robert set up for a shot.  Laid across his pack on top of the rim, he was probably as steady as if he were at the shooting range.

As Robert was set up, we watched the buck as he fed through the brush.  This is where a little frustration probably set in.  The buck would hang out behind a thick spot and feed, but any break in the brush that would allow Robert a shot, the buck moved through quickly, then hung up behind another clump of brush.
This went on for quite a while before the buck finally stayed in a small opening long enough for a shot.  And that was all it took.  The gun went off, it looked to us like Robert had hit the buck, the buck stepped behind some scrub oak and tipped over.

Robert had his first coues buck!  At 103 1/8", his first buck will a tough one to beat.

Not a bad start to a coues hunting career...

 

2011 General Mule Deer...

Imagine a deer hunt like this...  Sitting on a vantage point looking at a handful great bucks as soon as theres enough light in the morning to make anything out.  A day or two later, setting up on a huge typical buck and wondering in your head "its early in the hunt, should I hold out?"  After passing the huge typical a monster non-typical comes out that evening just before dark and leaves you unable to get much sleep that night wondering  if he will still be there in the morning.  Looking at buck after buck, just waiting for the magical 200" buck to pop up, day after day.  Some days you lose track of all the big mature bucks you looked over before the sun set behind the ridge...

This was not one of those deer hunts...

P.T. had a handful of bucks located during the summer months of 2011.  At times there were up to seven bucks hanging out together, with no sign of anyone else for miles.  P.T. watched the bucks grow all year until, that is, the middle of September.  That is about the time the bucks decided to disappear!!  No big deal right?  After all, that's how mule deer hunting usually goes when the bucks begin to get hard horned.  Problem is, P.T. knew where the bucks went, and their new location was going to be very difficult to hunt.  With thick cedars that left him with a vantage of less than about 30 yards, gravel covered ground making it impossible to stand still without sounding like a herd of elephants, and the hoards of deer hunters that decided to stake claim to this particular piece of ground made things a little tougher than usual.

Finally, P.T. glassed up a handful of bucks from a high spot overlooking the bucks new home.  They just happened to be in one of the four or five small openings he was hoping to catch them in, but they all slipped into the thick brush before P.T. could size them up and decide exactly what they were sporting on top of their heads.

Days of hard glassing and creeping through the thick patches finally found P.T. on the side of a steep hill with a good buck within rifle range.  As luck would have it, the buck only gave quick glimpses of bits and pieces of himself through the thick cedars as he fed below.  As the light finally failed, P.T. slid and stumbled back to the base of the hill, to the truck, and back to camp... Again!

Heading back to the glassing area P.T. was in the prior evening, he made a few stops to glass the country below him, hoping the buck would reappear... and he did.  This time, P.T. was able to get a good look at the buck.  It didn't take long to realize this was a mature buck, and a shooter.  A mad dash to get set up finally put the buck in the crosshairs, and one shot was all it took.

This time after P.T. slid and stumbled down to the base of the hill, he had a dead buck waiting at the bottom.  At 29" wide, this 3X3 was a great ending to what proved across Northern Arizona to be a slower than average year for the general mule deer hunters.

Maybe next time we can get a smile out of P.T.

Sherri's Bull

Sherri Roose has done a lot of elk hunting across Arizona over the years.  Listening to her stories of her past hunts, about the endless miles spent chasing elk, the long hours put in while hot on the trail of elk, the terrible weather encountered while elk hunting, and her well deserved bragging rights, showed us she was motivated and above all excited for her first bull elk hunt during the rut.

Having spent the entire month of September archery elk hunting in two states had the MuleyBull bunch ready to switch it up, and trade in the archery equipment for something that shoots a little further.

Day one put Sherri in some broken up Unit 10 country.  Up to this point, the rut seemed to be lacking a little excitement this year.  The archery hunters had packed up camp and headed home, many disappointed in the low rutting activity.  However, things seemed to be trying to pick up.

Just before daylight on day one of her hunt, Sherri was sitting next to the truck listening to a few bugles off in the distance.  All were sitting quietly listening to the elk scream back and forth to one another, once we had an idea on which direction we wanted to move, we geared up and started in.

As usual, the elk were moving away from the hunters.  Sherri crossed several draws and canyons, when finally the bunch stopped late in the morning to take a break. With ADD kicking in, P.T. decided to drop down into some country where the elk were last heard.  As P.T. crept through the thick cedars, he finally got his eyes on some elk.  Moving quietly through the thick trees put P.T. within easy archery distance of a handful of cows and a 6X7 that was feeding, occasionally chasing a cow or two.  P.T. pulled out his video camera and got a few minutes of tape before returning to where Sherri was located.

After watching the footage on the video camera, Sherri was game to go after the 6X7.  A short time later put her in the area where P.T. had filmed him.  One bugle from P.T. was all it took.  The bull immediately answered and started to move toward Sherri.  Within minutes, glimpses of the bull could be seen as he closed the distance, grunting and glunking the whole time.

Sherri barely had time to get set up when the bull began to round a cedar tree at 40 yards!  As the bull came around the tree, Sherri set the crosshairs where she needed them (this is about the time P.T.'s video camera died), and wait for the bull to stop. The bull cleared the tree, stood there looking for the intruder bull that had pulled him off his bed and BANG!!  It was as fast as that!  The bull went strait to the ground without so much as a twitch of an ear!  This is where things really got loud!  Sherri jumped up screaming, hollering, jumping and spinning.  This was the first time she had ever seen a bull come to a call, and was her biggest bull to date.

A great time was had by all.  Sherri and her bull made an appearance in the Williams Newspaper, and the Lake Havasu City Newspaper, not to mention the hundreds of picture texts that Sherri sent out to her many friends.

Quick Lion Hunt for Chad Rhoton

You never really know what you might run into while out hunting.  We had a little surprise of our own while archery elk hunting in Northern Arizona's unit 9.  This particular day of hunting is one that rarely comes along.  The early morning hours found us smack dab in the middle of  more screaming bulls than you can shake a stick at.  We called in a 380 class 6X6 to about 60 yards for our hunter, but he was unable to get a clear shot.  Within minutes of this bull leaving (to chase a smaller 6X6 to the south of us) we got on another monster 6X6 that we figured would beat the 400'' mark by a fairly large margin.  While we couldnt get closer than about 80 yards from this bull, it was still a sight to see.  About 45 minutes later, we cut off a bull and his cows.  A 370" class 6X6 came within 45 yards, but as luck would have it, he hung up behind a cedar tree, preventing our hunter from a clear shot. 

With a great morning behind us, we headed out early for the afternoon hunt.  We called in a few small bulls, along with one 6X6 that was around the 320" mark.  Soaked from the rain that had just cleared out, the hunters friend got our attention and said he just saw a cow run off.  He said he just caught a glimps of elk color, and she was running hard.

We headed over to where he thought he saw the elk run off, and came up on a very fresh lion kill...

As it turns out, it wasnt an elk the guy saw run off, but a lion.  We had jumped the lion off its kill with only about 45 minutes of daylight left in the day.  Anyone that has ever hunted lions can tell you that a fresh kill like this is a very good starting point for the next morning.

We contacted a friend of ours, Chad Rhoton.  Chad had an elk client of his own up in unit 9, but was on a few days off before his hunter showed up.  Chad jumped at the opportunity to switch gears and do a little lion hunting.

The next morning found Chad and the MuleyBull bunch unloading a pack of hounds to begin the hunt. 

As it turned out, the lion had returned to the kill that night, gorged itself on elk meat, and layed up too full to go very far.  The dogs trailed the lion, jumped it up, and treed it in record time!

After a few pictures of the treed lion, Chad filled his lion tag with his bow.

Congratulations are in order for Chad and his success.  Game and Fish aged this lion at 12 years old.  Makes you wonder just how many deer and elk have fallen prey to this killing machine!

You can watch this hunt on MuleyBull Outfitters "Just Hunting Volume 2" found at:

Amazon.com

Coming August 2014!