Opening morning couldn't come quick enough and we got up a couple hours before light, had a full breakfast and told hunting stories until it warmed up enough to start the truck. The real reason we had to get up so early is half of us couldn't sleep because of the the snoring, snorting and farting, so we finally gave up and called it a night. There were some other guys in camp that were pretty loud sleepers (not Steve and I of course). Luckily I found some earplugs and a nose plug for the second night. They made Dan sleep outside in the snow (I didn't know it snowed in AZ either), so I was thankful to Clay for that.
Once we got loaded up and out hunting, we found a lone doe thanks to Steve's eagle eyes and two more does which I spotted out of the truck on the way in. I was tempted, but knew Susan was going to get some corn fed deer in Nebraska (and my tag said buck only) so I held off.
It was a little too cold that morning to actually get out of the truck and hunt (plus Dan and Steve had the glassing covered anyhow), so Trevor my guide and I went up and drove around Mt. Trumbull a little later in the morning. We found the a good buck with his nose up harassing a couple does. I got excited and shouted "buck", but Trevor didn't even slow the truck down. I finally had to get him in a choke hold to get the truck stopped and take a picture. He said he'd seen bigger does. As we headed back to camp, we saw another deer hanging in someone's camp that looked pretty big, but since they outnumbered us and were all drinking beers and had weapons, we decided not to try to tag it. Plus one guy had a cowboy hat on and looked kinda mean.
After a relaxing lunch back at the lodge, we all got in a decent nap. With the short days this time of year it wasn't as long as we wanted, except for Dan, but Trevor managed to get us up and out for the afternoon hunt.
We decided to hunt nice and close to camp to be the first ones back for dinner, so we drove a couples miles out to a nice glassing hill. Steve and Dan picked a hill even a closer to camp once Dan woke up (and not near as much of a climb by the way). Trevor was having a lot of trouble getting up the hill, so I had to take his pack and pull him up part way along with my rifle, pack, binoculars, the glassing chair and the hot chocolate.
Anyhow, we made it and after I got on both coats and my hat and the snow stopped for a minute, we had a nice rainbow out in the valley. I was enjoying it when Dan interrupted us and said Steve and he had spotted a buck. We searched and Dan talked about it being near a bunch of different trees and fences and tanks and light spots and dark spots and crevices and dead trees and those type things, but we never did see it. Trevor was still hurting from the climb up the hill, so he wanted to make sure it was worth getting a closer look.
Dan finally coerced us off the mountain with some foul language and we went after the buck sight unseen. I backed the power off my scope from 9 to 5 and we started hiking. What we couldn't see from the apex of the mountain peak we were on was about fifty 10 foot deep gulleys on our way to the deer. Every 50 yards we had to slide down into these crevices, then claw our way up the other side. Anyhow, we finally made it to the area where the deer was supposedly hiding, taking signals from Dan up on the little knob.
As Trevor rounded a juniper tree, he froze and I froze right behind him. Apparently the deer was about 80 yards in front of him standing broadside looking at him. Of course I couldn't see him through the juniper tree, so I stepped out to get a better view. About that time he decided to bounce off through the junipers. I jumped out to try to see him and he was gone, but we ran to the other side of the tree and there he was bouncing away.
Trevor said "Do you want him"? I was too busy trying to get my rifle ready and unfold my shooting sticks to pay any attention. He finally grabbed me and made me look through the binoculars. All I could see was an elk bouncing away from us like mule deer. I said to Trevor, "I can't find him and you need to tell me anyhow because I've never hunted deer this big."
In no time the deer disappeared and we were back to taking signals from Dan. Apparently the deer had stopped out a ways and we were sneaking back and forth trying to see it. Eventually we found a clearing through the junipers and Trevor spotted the deer. He was standing there looking at us and I asked Trevor if I should fling some lead.
He gave me the go ahead, so I set up the shooting sticks and dropped to the ground. I pulled up my rifle and steadied it on the sticks. Unfortunately, all I could see was a lot of sagebrush through the scope and a couple sticks in front of a tree way out there. Unless I planned to shoot at a horn and stun him, I was out of luck with the sticks. Trevor unclipped his binocs from his tripod and I got on my knees and could now see about half the buck in the scope.
I asked Trevor for yardage and he said "477". I found the deers chest, settled the third reticle on him and squeezed the hair trigger - Kaboom. The deer didn't move. I jacked another shell in and - Kaboom. Still nothing. I was starting to think this was one of those game and fish stings, but Trevor said "your shooting over him". Kaboom. Nada. About this time he sauntered behind a tree.
Fortunately he walked back out for another look. Just as I pulled the trigger once again he began to move behind the tree again. Out of some stroke of luck I hit him. I heard Dan talking about how well he could track a deer, so I decided to shoot off his back leg to test the theory. The deer disappeared and we were back again with the signals.
This time Dan and Steve were having a hard time watching the deer and watching us and we were running, no sprinting, back and forth to try and see the deer. The deer was also covering ground at a run and I heard something crashing through the brush, but Trevor was focused and didn't hear it. Dan finally got us headed in the right direction and we ran toward a fence. Just as we reached it, we saw the deer, I pulled up, leaned against a post and shoot the deer running offhand at about 150 yards. To my surprise it dumped him. Trevor was equally amazed and we did a little celebrating.
We then climbed the fence and started walking toward the deer. As we closed in on him, he got up one last time and I shot him on the move once again at about 40 yards. I jacked one more shell in and shot in it the air just for good measure, which gave Trevor a bit of a scare. Actually not sure what happened there although I was excited and the gun has an extremely light trigger, I was just happy I had the gun pointed up. We walked up to the deer and I was overjoyed with a great deer.
Now I know that's quite a story for a days worth of hunting, but I tried to leave out the boring parts. All in all, it was a great week and a lot of fun. I exaggerated a little here and there, but it was one of those weeks when everything seemed to go wrong, but turned out pretty good. The hunting was amazing and Clay Bundy knows his deer like no one I've ever met and he and Trevor put in the time to know where the big deer were hiding (and Trevor didn't have any trouble getting up the hill as I'm sure you've figured out). If you ever draw a tag on the strip, he is the one to call.
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