First Archery Deer

dalbo

Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2012
Messages
256
Location
Mesa, AZ
I've been chasing deer in Arizona with my bow off and on for the last twenty years or so. Three years ago I decided to get serious about the January archery season and learn a few new areas close to home and was rewarded with several blown stalks and one missed shot.

I was able to burn some vacation time and schedule 4 day weekends throughout January. I spent the first three days of the year with friends at our javelina camp which is always a blast. I had one run in with a small mulie buck on the last morning but he was about ten yards out of range.

The second weekend I decided to dust off some of my old backpacking gear and do a quick overnighter in an area that usually has good numbers of deer and javelina. A delayed start on Friday meant I couldn't get as far in as I wanted before dark but still gave me a big head start over guys coming in from the trailhead.

DK10.jpg

At first light I climbed to a vantage point behind camp and was greeted with a beautiful sunrise and a big, orange-antlered whitetail buck chasing a hot doe up and down a canyon about 3/4 of a mile away. There was another taller tined buck with him but he was so intimidated by orangie that he would tuck tail and walk off every time orangie got within 20 yards of him. The deer settled down and went back to feeding after an hour so I decided to make a move. Back at camp I discovered I could have stayed in my sleeping bag, had coffee and watched that whole thing unfold from the tent. Oh well... I found a decent place to cross the swollen creek then climbed the western ridge above the small canyon where the deer bedded. Some of the does would get up and feed periodically but after three hours the bucks never revealed themselves. I had to call it quits at 3:30 so I could keep a date with my wife. On the way back to to trailhead at dusk I spotted a herd of javelina rooting on the cut bank, unfortunately they were on the wrong side of the creek. I talked myself into crossing it again but was less successful at staying dry. I ended up missing a relatively easy 32 yard shot. Seems I didn't account for the steep uphill angle and the arrow shattered on the rocks just under its chest. No tags were filled on this otherwise productive day but the bright moonlight made for a memorable hike back to the truck without needing my headlamp.

DCcampview.jpg

Heavy rain was forecast for the third weekend but the temp was going to stay mild so I made preparations to spend three days out there. With an early start on Friday I was able to go in a little deeper and set up camp on a little flat that offered panoramic view of some good looking habitat. I glassed up a few does from a hill behind camp then by sheer chance I saw two big bucks skylined waaaay up on a peak. There was no way I could have made it up there before dark so I returned to glassing areas within striking distance. I was picking apart these 2nd and 3rd floodplain flats at a base of a hill and two monster javelina stepped out into an opening. I've seen a lot of javelina over the years but I've only seen big boars like these one other time, they were long-legged, long-bodied monsters. It would be like comparing a 3.5 year old to an eight year old bull elk, they are almost a different animal. I had just enough daylight left to cross the canyon and try to relocate them. I guess they headed for parts unknown instead of feeding in the flat because there was no sign of them once I got over there.

DCsockedin.jpg

Saturday morning I went to a hilltop halfway to the peak where I saw the bucks but didn't turn up anything up there. About 11 the rain started to hit then the lightning. It was cloud to cloud lightning but since the clouds were just above my head decided to drop down and glass from camp.

DChome.jpg
DCtarpglass.jpg
DCbinoview.jpg

I spent the rest of the day glassing from under my leaky tarp. I spotted two small whitetail bucks and a very nice three point hanging out with a doe about 400 yards from camp on the other side of a creek. The big buck looked like he was enjoying the rain as much as I was. He had his shoulders all scrunched up and would stand under a juniper for a bit then get frustrated and false charge the doe then reluctantly follow her out into the rain. About 4:30 the rain let up and I decided to cross the creek and try a stalk. Just as I got up out of the creek bed and onto their hillside the clouds unleashed a deluge of rain and lightning on us for about 20 minutes. Once it let up I carefully snuck from cut to cut where they had been but they disappeared on me.

At last light I spotted a deer butt disappear into the catclaw choked flat where I saw the javelina on Friday. Sunday morning I made a plan to hunt that flat/hillside and hopefully run into one or the other.

Once at the flat at the base of the hill I could see a small buck and some does feeding up towards the top. I didn't like the wind or trying to stalk directly from below them. I decided to sidehill through the thick junipers to the backside of the hill then climb up to their level. I eventually popped out of the thick stuff at a long, steep cut that looked amazing. It just looked like a deer and javelina paradise. It had open grassy areas, soft dirt rooting areas and pockets of browse. At that point I went into granny gear and inched my way up the edge of the cut. After a short time I spotted the backline of a deer in the tall grass above me on the opposite side of the cut. The deer popped out into an opening and I could see it was a 1x2 whitetail. He fed downhill my way but was still a hundred yards out, I gave my best attempt at a doe bleat but the buck didn't look over or swivel an ear. He did however make a beeline towards me. He passed through and opening at 55 yards, I ranged more openings below him. The buck stepped into the next opening at 47 yards, I came to full draw and stopped him with another bleat. My 40 yard pin settled behind his shoulder and I sent the arrow on it's way. The lime green fletchings streaked through the air like a heat seeking missile headed right for his shoulder. He tried to spin and run back the way he came but it was too late, the arrow hit high in the shoulder and exited just behind the sternum. He fell in the bottom of the cut then slowly walked up the other side and disappeared from view. Turns out he didn't make it much farther than that, he collapsed into the next cut and wedged into the rootball of a blown down juniper. A long, heavy pack out never felt so good, my twenty year quest was finally over.

DCatl.jpg
DCbuck.jpg
 
Last edited:
Congrats on your harvest. Well done with the bow! I'm starting to get inspired into putting in for archery this season my self.
 
Very Nice. That first deer with a bow was my biggest hurdle in hunting I think. Took me a couple of seasons to finally connect and when I did it was like everything just fell into place. Mine was doe and I tanned the skin and it rests on the back of my chair in my office now.
 
Great post! Thanks for sharing. I gotta get after coues deer sometime. I went to nursing school in Tucson but never had a chance to go hunting when I lived there.
 
PEAX Trekking Poles

Forum statistics

Threads
110,817
Messages
1,935,468
Members
34,889
Latest member
jahmes143
Back
Top