LAST EDITED ON Oct-03-09 AT 09:31AM (MST)[p]I don't tell this story often, butt...
Way back in the early-1970s, I was hunting deer with a friend and my grandfather in AZ's Unit 1. When we got to the hunting area, I dropped Pop off at a good spot to ambush a buck. My friend and I split up to do some spot-&-stalk hunting.
About 1/2-hr. passed before the coffee kicked in with a call to Mother Nature. So I found a nice cozy butt rest against a fallen ponderosa. I rested my rifle against the tree, dropped my drawers and concentrated on the task at hand.
About three minutes passed when I heard a shot on top of a hill that ended on the flat right in front of my perch. It sounded as if the shot was at least 1/2 mile away. Two minutes later, a 4x4 buck, with tongue hanging out, came racing through the brush. He was headed right at me, now at about 100 yards.
I quickly grabbed my rifle, pushed the safety off and rested the gun over the tree trunk at the perfect height. When I shot, the buck was a mere 20 yards away. The bullet nailed him in the brisket between his shoulders, and he piled up right on the spot.
I finished what I had started, then field dressed the buck. There were no other wounds, so I assumed the earlier shot either missed or the hunter was shooting at a different deer.
I headed back to where I had dropped off Pop and left my 1946 Willys jeep. On the way, I crossed an old 2-track that headed up the hill where the deer had come from. If I could find where it started, it would put us within 50 yards of where I had hung the deer to cool.
Now here's the amusing part.
My friend had heard me shoot and met me just as I was getting to the Jeep. So we all piled in and set out to find the road. We drove around the mountain and 20 mins. later sure enough found the old logging road.
We drove about a mile and came to a deep wash. There was an old Chevy 2-wheel drive truck parked in it with both rear wheels in the air about a foot off the ground. A downed tree about 6 inches around was holding it up under the rear bumper.
The two hunters were sitting on a bank trying to figure out how they were gonna get unstuck. They explained that they had started across the wash when the engine stalled, causing the truck to roll backwards and up over the end of the tree.
They said they had shot at a buck on top of the mountain and might have wounded it. So they were heading to the other side -- where we had just come from -- to look for it. They didn't realize that the road went completely over the mountain and down the other side until I told them.
At that point I explained what had happened, but I left out the part about having my pants down when I killed the buck.
They said they had heard me shoot, too.
I then told them the least I could do for them acting as my bird dogs was to help them get unstuck. So I hooked my log chain, which I always carried, to their front bumper and towed them off the log and out of the wash.
We then went on and picked up my dead deer. My friend named it the POS buck.
TONY MANDILE
How To Hunt Coues Deer
