Headed out on my 1st archery hunt

[Devil Diver Down]

Mule deer in Northern AZ. Solo 3-4 day trip in a wilderness area with everything in my pack, so no live updates but I hope to be able to post pictures of something beside tag soup when I return to the land of computers. I hear stalking mulies is tough business and I am a magnet for tiny deer, so don't have great expectations about Toads. It would be nice to get one with stick and string, though, and I won't worry about size this time out.

Best of luck to all of you on your upcoming hunts!

 

[Sytes]

Best of success DDD. Think I have heard it here and elsewhere... "Never pass that which you would shoot on the last..." Though that may explain why I do not have the monster pigs the gurus here have...

Look forward to hearing your story when you return.

 

[choc dogs]

Good luck with the hunt, hope you have a good time. Now, go out there, let the air out of one and come back and tell us stories.

 

[cadman59501]

Best of luck to you. Cant wait for the after story.

 

[Hoggetter]

Good luck DDD, and stick a big one!

 

[texasbucksandbirds]

Good luck DDD, hope you bring home a big one !

 

[Devil Diver Down]

I'm not much on posting pics but I hope this answers any questions about how I did.

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Archery is a tough deal. Saw a few nice bucks, all of which would have been dead on a rifle hunt. Two of which should have been dead anyhow. Hundreds of does, all of which had their eyes, nose and ears on me the whole time and a ton of fawns still bearing spots.

Any of you looking to hunt this wilderness area with a hang glider are SOL.

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Same with the road hunters.

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Moleskin is a beautiful thing.

How many fawns in the pic? Where's your daddy?!?!

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Skunked but can't beat the view. First time I ever hunted deer @ 9000 ft. Or in August.

Did I mention archery is a tough deal? :hump: Hopefully I learned a lot from the mistakes I made. Rifles sure help soften those errors. Don't have 1 friend who bowhunts so it's trial by fire and what I can pick up here & there.

 

[Dinkshooter]

If you killed on your first archery hunt. You would:

1. Piss me off
2. Have no reason to go back

 

[Devil Diver Down]

I didn't expect a kill but I was hopeful--more for the experience of tracking a broadhead wound and that end of it than anything. It's hard to learn by success & I did get what I think are some valuable lessons thru failure. I'm glad I was by myself so that my buddies couldn't hear the numerous mulies as they bounded safely away.

The worst was spooking a forked buck at ~12 yards, waiting for him to decide I was no threat after looking at me, trying to move left through some trees when he started to move left and getting busted, arrow on its way to the rest, by his tall antlered buddy at 15 yards who stared me down for even longer. The larger buck waited me out a while before deciding he didn't like me, let out a hissing bark and bounded off about 20 yards. When I finally got an arrow nocked and around the trees, they had jack pine between me and them. The bigger one took off like a rocket, the smaller one (facing me full on) looked at me and looked down to his left repeatedly, then finally bolted. As I got up cursing, 7 or 8 wild turkeys, including one nice tom, waddled out of the trees where the small buck had been looking. I felt like the biggest turkey in the woods though.

I'll be back after it for sure. I just don't know whether to give up on a planned OTC Colorado elk tag in September and take my lumps with more AZ mule deer.

 

[mtmiller]

Beautiful country.

 

[AZ402]

That's cool you did that all by yourself. Im assuming you saw no other people?

 

[Spitz]

Sounds like the hunt was very worthwhile. Great pics. Better luck next time!

 

[Devil Diver Down]

That's cool you did that all by yourself. Im assuming you saw no other people?

I saw one other hunter when I was preparing to hike in Thursday night (he left his haul line rope at home & I gave him some of my p-cord) and a dozen or so other people--mountain bikers, 2 campers who live nearby & even a jogger. I split my time between a wilderness area and the walk-in only Nat'l Forest area surrounding it (where I saw the majority of deer) near Bismark "Lake" north of the Peaks in unit 7. There aren't any water sources in the Wilderness area other than seeps here and there. At least none I could find. The bulls are way up (10k feet) and only coming out of the dark timber in the evenings so I suspect they have an idea where to get water. I did hear some stumbling by in the dark Thursday night when I was in NF area closer to the water hole.

The NF area and Wilderness area are separated by the Arizona Trail (which just looks like a well-worn game trail) and I did have a stalk blown up by the jogger. I hadn't even realized I worked my way that far down altitude wise until I heard him and his dog running up behind me about 60 yards. Guess who else heard them? Oh well, it's everybody's forest. I could even hear the faint sound of quads way down below and 2-3 crow flies miles. Not quite far enough out of it but next time I'll get farther south toward the Peaks and deeper in the Wilderness area if I can find a water source.

 

[sportyg]

Great photos and a good read. All in all looks like you had a good time. Once you arrow that first deer you'll be hooked for life...

 

[Moosie]

Always a good time when you are out chasing critters. Thanks for the pics !

 

[mconway951]

hats off to you for trying it on your own with stick and string for the first time rifles are fun but nothing beats the rush of sticking one with an arrow.
Thanks for the post and good luck on the next try

 

[texasbucksandbirds]

Sounds like you had a great trip, thanks for sharing it all with us.