This past year my father and I along with a couple friends from work drew southern Arizona whitetail tags. For this is the third year in a row we have hunted this particular unit and spot. With the number of people showing up every year, the hunting pressure has sure increased fast! Opening day this year started off slow but with Jimmy glassing some bucks up at noon, the day looked hopeful. As we closed the distance on the group of bucks some other hunters seeing that we saw something moved quickly to ruin our stock. We never did locate the bucks but some shots were fired up the canyon from us. As the sun slowly dropped that evening as we all looked over our spot full of other hunters, I glassed a good looking buck a top a mountain about 1 mile from us. Plans to take a look at the buck the next morning were made and we headed back to camp thinking the hunt might not be as bad as we thought as long as we could be the first up the steep mountain. Four thirty in the morning found me and my father climbing up along a narrow ridge that felt it would never end. After the 1 and a half hours of hiking up we reach the top and quickly started seeing whitetail. While slipping through trying to see the deer before they saw us, I noticed a shape in front of a bush four hundred yards away that didnt fit right. After a quick look through my binos I came to realize it was a buck, a good one. My dad was up to bat first with that was the deal we had made prior to the hunt. We crept outta sight and watched the buck as he was watching us and what felt like forever, he finally laid back down. At 350 yards and the buck now looking away, the choice to take the shot was given and i laid back looking through my binos as my dad took rest. Being in an old burn, he chose a burnt cedar as a rest and squeezed the shot off, BOOM, and the bucks head dropped. We both fell over in joy and excitment with what started off as a shaky hunt quickly turned our way with a reward. As I left to cross over the canyon and look at the buck, my father stayed to make sure a follow up shot was not needed, and it was not. While taking pictures I noticed the game face "LOOK" my father had given his self while I was getting over to his buck, and that moment will never be forgotten. This was his biggest buck to date scoring right around 85 inches, something he has been searching for for the last three years, and the game face paint being in the pictures showed us how much fun you can have and if you can't laugh and have fun like this then you need some different hobbies. After some quick cleaning and skinning the hike was on to get off the peak and back to the ranger.
After a conversation it was decided to get back up the mountain the next morning to look to fill my tag. 430 we found ourselves again taking that horrible hike straight up that ridge to the top of the world as it looked to us. With first light finally coming over the horizon three bucks were spotted with one possible shooter. We glassed for awhile and while locating some more deer I decided to put a stalk on to try and harvest this buck. While on the stalk several other bucks where located but with quick sizing up we decided the buck I was after was the bigger of them all. At one hundred yards we found ourselves above the bucks that now were feeding around un aware of us. After about 30 minutes the buck finally showed himself and gave me a great shot. With a quick glimpse through the scope to make sure it was him, I squeezed one off only to see the buck go about twenty yards and crash. We both looked at each other and sighed as the hunt we did not have much faith in had turned for the better and gave us memories that we will never forget. This hunt was over by the third day, but with Brittany at home waiting to go out on her mule deer hunt that was going on as we hunted, we elected to head home and get a head start on her hunt. Enjoy
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