Arizona desert mule deer

[MichaelO]

1st one of these I’ve done but I thought I would share this

So after last years strike out for elk in Colorado dad told me that he had always wanted to hunt a mule deer. So when tag app season came up I looked at our options, they were severely limited since lack of points. Long story short Dad and I drew tags in unit 28 for second rifle season.

got into town the day before season started to check rifles and get eyes on the country. Was pleasantly surprised to find a thousand yard public rifle range in safford. Since our east the longest range you can publicly access within a couple hours is only 100 we had a blast really getting to stretch out and practice at long range



after striking out completely day 1 we found deer on day 1, unfortunately it was all does and one itty bitty spike. This isn’t exactly a trophy hunt for us but I really wanted at least a forky. The doe stood in front of or behind him the entire time I saw them at only 250 yards anyway. We were glad to at least find deer and get an idea of what we were looking for since this is our very first

Didn’t see anything else day 2 but since we had saw these down low in the washes I decided day 3 to hike up the side of a hill and glass down. View was beautiful but I didn’t see anything other than a whole bunch of trucks and side by sides parking and staring at me sitting on the side of the mountain. Which maybe I’m way off but we haven’t seen anything just walking across the sides of these empty slopes. Anyone wants to correct me with some wisdoms or experience please do.



Dad found a herd of does moving from cover to cover across the open but said he couldn’t find any antlers.


went and scoped out a new area day 3 evening. Found some sign but it’s a long way back to that spot and we didn’t manage to glass anything up.

This morning we set out for a spot we picked on the map sight unseen and found deer. We managed to find a whole herd of does and one buck that was a little better than a forky a couple miles from the truck. dad had forgotten his rangefinder at the truck so I took a range right off at 230 and settled in for the shot. They must have winded us or were already moving elsewhere because he quickly moved from 230 to what I thought was 450. I must have ranged the wrong spot because when I shot dad said it went clear over him a foot high.

ranged it again afterwards and it was closer to 320.
Fortunately it was a clean miss and he walked off without so much as twitching his tail up or even taking a single hop.

we backed out of that area and checked out a large area of that range afterwards glassing and moving.

So far we have been having a blast despite not tagging. Seeing deer goes a long way to keep the optimism up and keep us hungry to find a buck to take home. We know this isn’t a high quality hunt but as we have limited budgets and dad isn’t getting younger we decided to take this chance as this unit had good draw odds and a relatively high success rate.



couple take away from the first couple days
1. Don’t come to 28 without a form of 4x4 transportation, preferably side by side or four wheeler. The improved roads end a long way before the mountains do. Thankfully dad brought his, if I was by myself on foot this would be an extremely tough hunt.
2. Bring a tire patch kit of some kind for your 4x4. We have had two flats on the side by side already because of thorns of some kind even staying on the trails.
3. are finding small pockets of great habitat that seems to hold a vast majority of the deer. We have seen some does on the open flats but they seem to be moving between washes and canyons.
4. there is no substitute for putting eyes on the ground in a new area especially when you have never been there.
5. These people down here love to road hunt. Be it from trucks or side by sides the vast majority don’t seem to get too far from there wheels

and if anyone wants to share some tips or pointers for this kind of hunt I would be happy to have them. We didn’t know much about mule deer prior to this trip and would take any advice.

 

[willfrye027]

One of the biggest things to realize out west is that most of the game are in a very small percentage of the country. Sounds like you are already figuring that out. Once you start to get a feel for what habitat the deer are in, focus your efforts there. Don’t waste prime morning hunting farting around unproductive country. If you found a good pocket of cover a mile or two from the road, you want to slip in there at first light to actually get an idea of what it is holding. You don’t hang a tree stand, hunt it once from 9a—11a, and move on…gotta be in there at prime time before they start to get into thicker cover and bed down. Personally I use the evenings to “scout” during the hunt and cover ground more to find those good pockets…and then come back in the dark the next morning ready to kill one at first light. Does will be up and moving in the evening but you may not see the bigger bucks that stay in heavier cover until dark. But in the morning you will often catch them more in the open/not yet bedded. Good luck!

 

[MichaelO]

Had another good morning, saw two does only 175 yards from us in the grass feeding around 8. Backed out and gonna check that drainage out from the other side this evening. Still very hopeful to get it done despite this heat wave.

 

[MichaelO]

Well after some discussion and more than a little bit of doubt beginning to form in both our minds about this adventure we decided to go out this afternoon in the same general area where I had missed that buck for the evening. We decided to come at it from the opposite direction to get a better vantage point and to play the sun and boy am I glad that we did. we spotted two good bucks bedded down in the bend of a wash and with a little work and more than a little luck we got within 100 yards. We tried for a double but that never works out like you hope. Dad got it done though and I never managed to get a shot off. Dropped this beautiful 4x4 dead in his tracks.

Only last week the sum of our mule deer experience was seeing a couple in Colorado last year and neither of us had been to Arizona outside of a trip to the Grand Canyon years ago. All that lack of western experience and this heat wave aside we got it done.


now in the morning we are going back to try to located the other buck since we still have a little time left.

 

[MichaelO]

Alright to wrap out this hunt the last couple days were relatively uneventful in terms of deer. Saw several more does, some javelinas and a whole lot more jack rabbits. I left with an unpunched tag on the afternoon of the last day because of a wild/dust storm blowing up that had even us trying to hide from the wind on the morning hunt.

I did however manage to get one of those jackrabbits. I don’t know who is spreading the rumors that they aren’t good to eat but they aren’t true at all. We marinaded him in some citrus, pressure cooked him and pulled the meat and made some delicious tacos.
all in all this was a fantastic hunt and one I would recommend to anyone who wants the opportunity to harvest a mule deer with a rifle without having to wait years to draw.Got to spend a week with dad and Check this one off his bucket list. I know many people wouldn’t consider this a trophy deer but no one can convince him of that.

It was a challenging and hard hunt but by going about it very methodically we managed to find the deer and make something happen. This was a totally unguided, diy public land hunt.This rented ranger side by side and onX were the real mvp’s of this hunt. It wouldn’t have been possible without them.

 

[Justin Crossley]

Way to grind it out! Sounds like you and your dad had a great trip.