White Flags in the Tall Grass: Part IV

View from the Sky Islands

After watching Jon and Joe take two great bucks, and just watching Mike drop a buck in his tracks, I was ready to put the crosshairs on a buck of my own. After hiking up to take some pictures with Mike’s deer, Joe and I decided to keep hunting for another deer for the rest of the day.

 I was semi-determined to at least explore around if nothing else. I have this bad habit of wandering as some may call it- I like to call it getting to know the lay of the land. However, this need to explore often leads to many long days and later nights. Whenever I hunt a new area, I like to explore because to me I get to discover something new, see something I have never seen before, and oftentimes find the magic spot in the process.

Sitting in the glass - this is Coues hunting!

I was glad to have Joe with me on our afternoon walk-a-bout as it provided another set of eyes and good company. By mid-day we found ourselves making our way up a canyon toward the highest point we could reach in the range we were hunting.  Along the way we jumped a peccary who was feasting on a patch of prickly pear in a small close quarter ravine. He jumped out right under our feet and stopped at fifteen yards; dropping his hard earned succulent to let out a snort-grunt as awkward as his miss proportioned body. It was the first time I had ever seen one up close and by the way he acted I think the encounter was mutual. He seemed as surprised and curious as we were.

We continued up the mountain seeing only a few small bucks and does. We passed some of the best looking country I had seen all trip including a few pockets we figured had seen very little hunting pressure. We tried a push in one of the pockets to see if we could bump out a well hidden buck, but all it availed were a few does. We felt that the push was enough to scare any close deer out of hiding and did not garner a patented Mike Marchese warning shot.

Remi ready for the long pack out.

We continued on to the top curious to see what was over the next rise. When we reached the top we setup and started glassing. I spotted a few does over 800 yards away and watched them feed around a small tree cluster. I continued to glass for a buck but nothing materialized. I looked back at the does to see if they were still there and to my surprise there were now three bucks right where the does had been standing. As I watched, different bucks would appear and disappear. It was hard to keep track of them as they seemed too appear and vanish out of thin air. After watching for a while I concluded that there were at least five or six different bucks including one decent 4x4 buck. He was a neat deer but I wanted to look around more and decided to pass on him.

Check out how the main beams wrap outwards!

Knowing it was going to get dark on our way out, I took advantage of our elevation and plotted a way back to the truck. From our vantage point we could see that the wash we were above weaved its way through the cactus covered flats back to where our truck was parked. This would make it easier to navigate the long distance back to the truck in the dark, just as long as there were no surprise cliffs or illegal immigrants hiding out deciding to improvise an ambush for our guns and food.

The sun was starting to set so Joe and I decided to head down the mountain before it got too late. As we descended I spotted a couple of bucks across the canyon. One looked pretty good. We decided to get a closer look since it was on our way. Once we got down to their level we setup the spotting scope to tried and relocate them. The sun was starting to go down and the hill the deer were on was covered in shadows. It was hard to pick the bucks out again.

Good to have a camera with a flash for night time photos!

 Once we re-spotted the deer we were able to get a better look. The bigger of the two bucks looked pretty good. He had long main beams, decent tines, and was the largest deer we had seen the whole trip. Joe watched the deer through the spotting scope as I moved up to a spot where I could lay down and look through the rifle scope at the buck who was 500 yards away.

Joe asked if I was going to shoot him. I said “no” figuring we were running out of light with a possibility of not finding him in the dark. Joe told me that he was on the buck and suggested that I take him. I debated for a while and wanted to make sure that if I was going to pull the trigger the deer would drop. I did not want to wound a deer just before dark.

I put my 500 yard mark on the buck and knew that I was steady enough to make an ethical shot. At this point I decided that I was going to take the deer. However, I am not sure I relayed this thought to Joe, who was watching behind me in the spotting scope.

I steadied my breath, took careful aim, and squeezed the trigger. The buck instantly dropped in his tracks and began rolling down the mountain. I made my way across the canyon as Joe kept an eye on where the buck had stopped rolling. It was going to be near dark by the time I got to the buck but Joe was able to walk me right in to where the deer was laying.

We took some pictures and boned the deer out for the long pack back to the truck. It was definitely close to five miles and several hours over unfamiliar terrain back to the truck. Fortunately following the wash worked out for us and lead us back to where we were parked.  We rolled into camp late that night. The glowing fire and warm food back at camp was a welcome sign. Fresh tenderloin for the third day in a row combined with Jon’s amazing potatoes and pork chops were the perfect ending to a long day. We all sat around the fire sharing stories of the trip and regaling in our success. We had all tagged out on great bucks and done so in only three days. All-in-all it was a great trip spent with great friends.