AZHunter
Iowa Boy At Heart
My son drew the late youth hunt in 33 down in SE AZ. We'd be hunting east/southeast of Tucson. Opening day was the Friday after Thanksgiving. We made a family plan to head down Wednesday, picking up our daughter up at UofA, and have a family camping trip followed by a deer hunt. Our good friend, Christian, drove down Thursday night to help out. He's like a little brother to me and a great mentor/role model for Jacob. Our daughter even asked me to throw her hunting gear in so she could help glass Friday before heading back to UofA to study Saturday. We glassed up a couple dozen does, a handful of spikes and forks, and a few 70s bucks Friday. We got chased out by rain Saturday morning, right as we found a buck Jacob liked. We watched the bucks bed down, so we went back to camp to wait out the storm. The rain let up a few hours later and we were back out glassing, quickly relocating the bucks from Saturday morning. I was sore from a steep, rugged hike the day before, so Jacob and Christian put a plan in place to stalk up into the steep area they were and I stayed back to glass and talk them in. Something in the canyon bottom spooked the deer as they were setting up and two deer turned into about 9 running all over. By the time they settled down, the objective buck was nowhere to be seen; however, this young fork presented a perfect broadside shot at 248 yards. As was told to me, Jacob said "I didn't hike all they up this $h!t to not shoot something!" Good for him! He ended up packing it all the way down the ridge and up and down the next three ridges. He earned every bit of this young buck, but now he says he's holding out for 80s or bigger moving forward (bigish by Coues standards; 100+" is BIG for Coues). Again, good for him! 248 yards is officially his shortest shot at a non-javelina or turkey game animal. I'm super proud of his determination and grit.
There's a Coues buck in this pic!
My glassing view
Red dot is about where the shot was. Blue dot is where the buck started before being spooked.
Hiking back up to the Pioneer
Coming out heavy!
Moonrise over camp
Thanksgiving dinner
There's a Coues buck in this pic!
My glassing view
Red dot is about where the shot was. Blue dot is where the buck started before being spooked.
Hiking back up to the Pioneer
Coming out heavy!
Moonrise over camp
Thanksgiving dinner
