TerynItUp
Active Member
- Messages
- 631
Since we had been discussing what the rut was like and reminiscing on Geno's buck from 2022, I figured I would circle back and give a recap of my January hunt.
Each time I draw a tag, I feel like the the summers fly by and my hunts sneak up on me real quick. Well this year was quite the opposite. I went on an archery antelope hunt with my Dad in August, helped on a barbary hunt in October, did some scouting in November, and no matter what I did, the time moved as slow as my kids getting ready for church on Sunday mornings. The anticipation was pretty high and I tried my best at tempering my emotions by reminding myself of how difficult it is to kill a deer with a bow, especially in January, and more so in the unit I was hunting. I am 36 and had yet to kill a buck with my bow (although I did kill a doe in High School on a depredation hunt).
I went on a scouting trip Thanksgiving weekend and was really pleased with the results from that one day. My cousin and I turned up 4 mature bucks, found good pockets of sign, and had some private river bottom land in my back pocket if we couldn't find them in the PJ's and rimrock. Things were dry and the roads were good. Boy how things would change.
I left Placitas on NYE pretty early and headed to get some scouting in hoping to have a buck located that I could chase on opening morning. It had been raining/snowing the previous couple of days and temps were especially high, so if you know what that does to clay roads, you know what was waiting for me. It was a mess. We found some fresh tracks in the snow in an area but had yet to turn up a single deer. Just before dark on NYE, something caught my eye on the ridge about 30 yards above the road. Looking closer, I saw blood in the snow and a deer down behind some sagebrush. My cousin had his hounds with us in case we cut a lion track and he got excited thinking it was a fresh lion kill. When we saw the deer lift its head he got even more excited because he figured we jumped the lion off his kill as we drove up and we would have a fresh track to hunt. After further inspection, there wasn't a lion track anywhere around, so I looked closer and saw a bullet hole high in the shoulder that looked to be from a small caliber bullet. We called the game warden in the area and he came out to look things over. He killed the deer (small button buck), and then confirmed by skinning that it was in fact shot. I would be lying if I said I have followed every letter of every law in my 25 years of hunting, but as I have matured and now strive to follow the letter of the law, I cannot come close to comprehending the mindset of someone who would go for a joy ride to shoot a deer and leave it to die like this. It is infuriating.
By the time we called the game warden, waited for him to arrive, and helped/chatted as he did his stuff we stayed well after dark and I rang in the New Year without a real solid plan for the morning or a buck to hunt.
Opening day, we went back into where we saw the most sign the evening before, put on miles, glassed, put on more miles, glassed more, and we never turned up a buck. I am willing to hike with the best of 'em, but conceded to the fact that in the crunchy snow, it just didn't make sense so I had no qualms being a road hunter this go around. Midday came, made a trip into town to drop off my cousin for some stuff he had to take care of, and I was back out in a different area glassing from some rimrock in the rain to just get wet, cold, and only see deer in my mind. This was very likely the only time in my life I had gone a whole day without seeing a single deer while hunting. I still had 7 days left and I was in good spirits, I was ready for the morning.
I was solo on the 2nd morning and went back to the same general area I was the evening before. I had seen good fresh sign, there was lots of bitterbrush and four-wing salt brush for them to feed on so I was certain they would be in there. I got on a different vantage point and was set up with my spotter and binos on the tripod as first light came. As the dark turned to gray, I was able to make out a snow squall headed my way. I had about 20 minutes of visibility before it hit and erased my hopes of glassing up a nice buck. I waited for a few hours hunkered down and hoped that the storm would blow through but eventually retreated to my truck. As it was snowing, I figured I would use the time to check out a new area I had my eyes on. The snow stopped while I was driving and the sun popped out for a while. It was a really wet snow so it started melting off FAST. Once I got into the area I was headed, I started looking for tracks that looked to be a few days old or newer and found some that looked to be from earlier in the morning. It was about noon so I figured I would follow them to see if they might take me to some bedding areas that I could still hunt. While following those tracks (looked to be does and fawns), I cut a single BIG FRESH track in the mud. I figured it had to be a buck and started following it. I was moving awfully slow at first and followed it for roughly a half mile being as quiet as possible. The buck wasn’t feeding or slowing down and the track appeared he knew where he wanted to go and was just travelling. I started second guessing how fresh it was and convinced myself I probably wouldn’t catch up. After about another ¼ mile of following the track, I had gotten sloppy. I wasn’t looking ahead 40-50 yards to find the track and move slow, I was just head down following the track at a good clip. You can probably guess where this is headed, I caught up to the buck, only problem was he saw me well before I saw him. I heard *thud *thud *thud and look up to see him stotting away. I didn’t get a great look but he was definitely a mature shooter. I followed his track for about another mile and he eventually joined up with some does and I bumped them one more time an hour or so later. I felt really good about that area and was looking forward to being back in there the next morning when I stumbled upon someone’s camp. I was disappointed but still plenty motivated for the remainder of the hunt.
That evening as I was headed back to the casita I was staying in, I decided to swing by the private I had permission to hunt and look for tracks. When I got there, I saw some deer a ways out in the field but it was too dark to tell if there was a buck or not. Snow started really coming down that night and I didn’t want to mess with the roads the next morning so I decided to hunt the private that was only 5 minutes from where I was staying.
I woke up to 3” of snow the third morning and it was still coming down, something about that weather really got me excited. The private I had permission to access was a combination of ag fields and river bottom. I’ve hunted waterfowl there enough that I know the deer like coming into the fields in the evening and then heading down to the river bottom as the morning progresses. There isn’t a great place to glass the fields so I waited until it was light enough to see and just drove around them looking for deer. It was still snowing right at first light and I found two deer bedded in the far corner of a field. I pulled up my binos and saw a nice tall mature buck facing to the North and a doe facing to the South. There was a row of trees about 15 yards North of the buck that I planned to use as cover as I stalked in close. I planned on getting as close as I could and then reevaluate once I could see what those trees were like close to him. This is where I messed up. I should have realized that I saw 8-10 deer the night before and was only looking at 2. As I got to about 90 yards I see 7-8 does stand up on my side of the tree row and I was busted. They all blew out of there and took the buck with them.
Before the stalk, I had called my cousin to let him know I found a buck and was going to make a move on him. He decided to head that way and watch it all go down. After the deer blew out of there, he was able to watch them cross into another field that we did not have access to, turn back West, and then re-enter a field at the edge of the river bottom that I did have access to. The deer were about 70 yards from the landowners house and he had previously asked that I don’t shoot one right next to his house and stay in the river bottom or the fields. I had pretty much conceded that the gig was up with those deer because they had settled down and were awfully close to the house, luckily my cousin is more persistent than I am. He suggested I drive around, hike down up river a ways and he would push the deer to me once I got set up. Once I was in the river bottom I found a cottonwood that seemed like a reasonable place to set up. If they deer hugged close to the river I would be about 50 yards from them, if they came further in they would come right at me, if they followed the arroyo they would be about 50 yards. Felt good. As I was thinking he would be pushing them any minute, I saw a doe making her way right to me. He never had to push them because they came on their own and were not boogered. Soon enough, I saw all the does feed down to the river edge and then turn heading towards me. I caught one glance of the buck with them as he weaved through some willows.
The does eventually ended up about 20 yards from me and settled in feeding on the willows. There was also a little forky that was with them that was awfully tempting seeing as how I had yet to arrow a buck. I decided to be patient and convinced myself that the bigger buck would eventually join them. Just as soon as I was thinking that, I felt the wind swirl and saw the snow blowing from me to them. I saw a sight all to familiar for an archer, a group of deer stotting away from me. They crossed the river and onto private that was off limits. I never saw the buck leave or come out of the willows so I was about to stand up and see if I could find him. Just then I caught movement about 60 yards away and he was heading on the line the does had taken. Luckily he was far enough behind the does that he didn’t wind me or see them booger out of there. He eventually saw the does across the river and shifted his course to join up with them. He was no longer going to be within range if I didn’t make a move. As soon as he went behind some willows, I got up and quickly closed the gap keeping the willows between us. Because I was moving quick I figured he would hear me but I wanted to beat him to the river's edge. As I am coming around the willows I see him standing, ears out wide and head up tall. I thought he had me pinned until I realized he was looking the opposite way! He had no clue I was there. I reach for my rangefinder, $hi+! I left it under the cottonwood. I draw my bow back, take three steps to clear that last willows and he is still watching the geese downstream that caught his attention. I guessed him at 40 yards, he was perfectly broadside and calm, I settle my pin on the crease of his right shoulder and squeeze (I probably jerked the piss out of it knowing me). I watch my arrow fly, hear thwack, and see it slip in him. He whirled away from the river and I saw blood spray out his side and watch my arrow fall out the opposite side. I was pretty jacked up and quickly hustled to try and keep my eyes on him but lost him as he went back around the willows the same way he came from. I found my arrow, and plenty of red snow. I was feeling pretty confident so I called my primo to come join me and walk up on him at the same time as me. 70 yards later and there he lay, my first archery buck!
In hindsight, I think he was closer to 45 yards or so. I hit about 3" lower than I wanted and got a little lucky. I passed through the bottom of his heart and he died quick, but a few inches lower and its a flesh wound leaving a blood trail through private property I may not have had access to. Thank you, Lord.
Here is my main takeaway from this hunt: I learned that the level of my satisfaction has absolutely nothing to do with inches. I have killed some great deer in the past that look a lot better on the wall than this one will, but, I am just as proud if not prouder of this buck than any of my others. I learned that the level of satisfaction I experience is more directly correlated to the hunt’s degree of difficulty and my corresponding level of effort to overcome said difficulty. I have been trying to get this archery deer monkey off my back for a while and it feels really good to have finally done it. I am damn proud of this buck.
I really have to say thanks to my cousin, Russ, he has been a big hand since learning I drew this tag. He lives in the unit and was always willing to chat about ideas, spots to check, would let me know where he was seeing deer, and was there to help me get him field dressed and in the pickup! Thanks, primo!
Each time I draw a tag, I feel like the the summers fly by and my hunts sneak up on me real quick. Well this year was quite the opposite. I went on an archery antelope hunt with my Dad in August, helped on a barbary hunt in October, did some scouting in November, and no matter what I did, the time moved as slow as my kids getting ready for church on Sunday mornings. The anticipation was pretty high and I tried my best at tempering my emotions by reminding myself of how difficult it is to kill a deer with a bow, especially in January, and more so in the unit I was hunting. I am 36 and had yet to kill a buck with my bow (although I did kill a doe in High School on a depredation hunt).
I went on a scouting trip Thanksgiving weekend and was really pleased with the results from that one day. My cousin and I turned up 4 mature bucks, found good pockets of sign, and had some private river bottom land in my back pocket if we couldn't find them in the PJ's and rimrock. Things were dry and the roads were good. Boy how things would change.
I left Placitas on NYE pretty early and headed to get some scouting in hoping to have a buck located that I could chase on opening morning. It had been raining/snowing the previous couple of days and temps were especially high, so if you know what that does to clay roads, you know what was waiting for me. It was a mess. We found some fresh tracks in the snow in an area but had yet to turn up a single deer. Just before dark on NYE, something caught my eye on the ridge about 30 yards above the road. Looking closer, I saw blood in the snow and a deer down behind some sagebrush. My cousin had his hounds with us in case we cut a lion track and he got excited thinking it was a fresh lion kill. When we saw the deer lift its head he got even more excited because he figured we jumped the lion off his kill as we drove up and we would have a fresh track to hunt. After further inspection, there wasn't a lion track anywhere around, so I looked closer and saw a bullet hole high in the shoulder that looked to be from a small caliber bullet. We called the game warden in the area and he came out to look things over. He killed the deer (small button buck), and then confirmed by skinning that it was in fact shot. I would be lying if I said I have followed every letter of every law in my 25 years of hunting, but as I have matured and now strive to follow the letter of the law, I cannot come close to comprehending the mindset of someone who would go for a joy ride to shoot a deer and leave it to die like this. It is infuriating.
By the time we called the game warden, waited for him to arrive, and helped/chatted as he did his stuff we stayed well after dark and I rang in the New Year without a real solid plan for the morning or a buck to hunt.
Opening day, we went back into where we saw the most sign the evening before, put on miles, glassed, put on more miles, glassed more, and we never turned up a buck. I am willing to hike with the best of 'em, but conceded to the fact that in the crunchy snow, it just didn't make sense so I had no qualms being a road hunter this go around. Midday came, made a trip into town to drop off my cousin for some stuff he had to take care of, and I was back out in a different area glassing from some rimrock in the rain to just get wet, cold, and only see deer in my mind. This was very likely the only time in my life I had gone a whole day without seeing a single deer while hunting. I still had 7 days left and I was in good spirits, I was ready for the morning.
I was solo on the 2nd morning and went back to the same general area I was the evening before. I had seen good fresh sign, there was lots of bitterbrush and four-wing salt brush for them to feed on so I was certain they would be in there. I got on a different vantage point and was set up with my spotter and binos on the tripod as first light came. As the dark turned to gray, I was able to make out a snow squall headed my way. I had about 20 minutes of visibility before it hit and erased my hopes of glassing up a nice buck. I waited for a few hours hunkered down and hoped that the storm would blow through but eventually retreated to my truck. As it was snowing, I figured I would use the time to check out a new area I had my eyes on. The snow stopped while I was driving and the sun popped out for a while. It was a really wet snow so it started melting off FAST. Once I got into the area I was headed, I started looking for tracks that looked to be a few days old or newer and found some that looked to be from earlier in the morning. It was about noon so I figured I would follow them to see if they might take me to some bedding areas that I could still hunt. While following those tracks (looked to be does and fawns), I cut a single BIG FRESH track in the mud. I figured it had to be a buck and started following it. I was moving awfully slow at first and followed it for roughly a half mile being as quiet as possible. The buck wasn’t feeding or slowing down and the track appeared he knew where he wanted to go and was just travelling. I started second guessing how fresh it was and convinced myself I probably wouldn’t catch up. After about another ¼ mile of following the track, I had gotten sloppy. I wasn’t looking ahead 40-50 yards to find the track and move slow, I was just head down following the track at a good clip. You can probably guess where this is headed, I caught up to the buck, only problem was he saw me well before I saw him. I heard *thud *thud *thud and look up to see him stotting away. I didn’t get a great look but he was definitely a mature shooter. I followed his track for about another mile and he eventually joined up with some does and I bumped them one more time an hour or so later. I felt really good about that area and was looking forward to being back in there the next morning when I stumbled upon someone’s camp. I was disappointed but still plenty motivated for the remainder of the hunt.
That evening as I was headed back to the casita I was staying in, I decided to swing by the private I had permission to hunt and look for tracks. When I got there, I saw some deer a ways out in the field but it was too dark to tell if there was a buck or not. Snow started really coming down that night and I didn’t want to mess with the roads the next morning so I decided to hunt the private that was only 5 minutes from where I was staying.
I woke up to 3” of snow the third morning and it was still coming down, something about that weather really got me excited. The private I had permission to access was a combination of ag fields and river bottom. I’ve hunted waterfowl there enough that I know the deer like coming into the fields in the evening and then heading down to the river bottom as the morning progresses. There isn’t a great place to glass the fields so I waited until it was light enough to see and just drove around them looking for deer. It was still snowing right at first light and I found two deer bedded in the far corner of a field. I pulled up my binos and saw a nice tall mature buck facing to the North and a doe facing to the South. There was a row of trees about 15 yards North of the buck that I planned to use as cover as I stalked in close. I planned on getting as close as I could and then reevaluate once I could see what those trees were like close to him. This is where I messed up. I should have realized that I saw 8-10 deer the night before and was only looking at 2. As I got to about 90 yards I see 7-8 does stand up on my side of the tree row and I was busted. They all blew out of there and took the buck with them.
Before the stalk, I had called my cousin to let him know I found a buck and was going to make a move on him. He decided to head that way and watch it all go down. After the deer blew out of there, he was able to watch them cross into another field that we did not have access to, turn back West, and then re-enter a field at the edge of the river bottom that I did have access to. The deer were about 70 yards from the landowners house and he had previously asked that I don’t shoot one right next to his house and stay in the river bottom or the fields. I had pretty much conceded that the gig was up with those deer because they had settled down and were awfully close to the house, luckily my cousin is more persistent than I am. He suggested I drive around, hike down up river a ways and he would push the deer to me once I got set up. Once I was in the river bottom I found a cottonwood that seemed like a reasonable place to set up. If they deer hugged close to the river I would be about 50 yards from them, if they came further in they would come right at me, if they followed the arroyo they would be about 50 yards. Felt good. As I was thinking he would be pushing them any minute, I saw a doe making her way right to me. He never had to push them because they came on their own and were not boogered. Soon enough, I saw all the does feed down to the river edge and then turn heading towards me. I caught one glance of the buck with them as he weaved through some willows.
The does eventually ended up about 20 yards from me and settled in feeding on the willows. There was also a little forky that was with them that was awfully tempting seeing as how I had yet to arrow a buck. I decided to be patient and convinced myself that the bigger buck would eventually join them. Just as soon as I was thinking that, I felt the wind swirl and saw the snow blowing from me to them. I saw a sight all to familiar for an archer, a group of deer stotting away from me. They crossed the river and onto private that was off limits. I never saw the buck leave or come out of the willows so I was about to stand up and see if I could find him. Just then I caught movement about 60 yards away and he was heading on the line the does had taken. Luckily he was far enough behind the does that he didn’t wind me or see them booger out of there. He eventually saw the does across the river and shifted his course to join up with them. He was no longer going to be within range if I didn’t make a move. As soon as he went behind some willows, I got up and quickly closed the gap keeping the willows between us. Because I was moving quick I figured he would hear me but I wanted to beat him to the river's edge. As I am coming around the willows I see him standing, ears out wide and head up tall. I thought he had me pinned until I realized he was looking the opposite way! He had no clue I was there. I reach for my rangefinder, $hi+! I left it under the cottonwood. I draw my bow back, take three steps to clear that last willows and he is still watching the geese downstream that caught his attention. I guessed him at 40 yards, he was perfectly broadside and calm, I settle my pin on the crease of his right shoulder and squeeze (I probably jerked the piss out of it knowing me). I watch my arrow fly, hear thwack, and see it slip in him. He whirled away from the river and I saw blood spray out his side and watch my arrow fall out the opposite side. I was pretty jacked up and quickly hustled to try and keep my eyes on him but lost him as he went back around the willows the same way he came from. I found my arrow, and plenty of red snow. I was feeling pretty confident so I called my primo to come join me and walk up on him at the same time as me. 70 yards later and there he lay, my first archery buck!
In hindsight, I think he was closer to 45 yards or so. I hit about 3" lower than I wanted and got a little lucky. I passed through the bottom of his heart and he died quick, but a few inches lower and its a flesh wound leaving a blood trail through private property I may not have had access to. Thank you, Lord.
Here is my main takeaway from this hunt: I learned that the level of my satisfaction has absolutely nothing to do with inches. I have killed some great deer in the past that look a lot better on the wall than this one will, but, I am just as proud if not prouder of this buck than any of my others. I learned that the level of satisfaction I experience is more directly correlated to the hunt’s degree of difficulty and my corresponding level of effort to overcome said difficulty. I have been trying to get this archery deer monkey off my back for a while and it feels really good to have finally done it. I am damn proud of this buck.
I really have to say thanks to my cousin, Russ, he has been a big hand since learning I drew this tag. He lives in the unit and was always willing to chat about ideas, spots to check, would let me know where he was seeing deer, and was there to help me get him field dressed and in the pickup! Thanks, primo!
