Headed back to unit 2 for deer for the 3rd year in a row (late archery this time) and also picked up a Gila second archery elk tag. Just a crazy few years of luck in NM!
Overall it was another year for the memory books and I can’t wait to see what’s in the cards for 2024.
Good luck to everyone in the draws and on your next hunts!
Chris and I couldn’t believe how big she was as we walked up on her, much bigger than I had even hoped for. Edit for clarification: I did put one more behind the ear when I walked up to end it quickly, I am not a “Right in the fuggin’ head” HUNTTALKMAN prodigy or anything.
Her horns measured...
Opening morning found us driving into the same area as scouting day along with a few of our closest friends. We opted to climb a small knoll just off the road, and that slight gain in elevation allowed us to see a group of 6-8 oryx feeding about 600 yards out in the scrub. We determined that at...
The last hunt of the year finally rolled around in December. I managed to draw a good Oryx tag down near Alamogordo. We went down in time to scout the day prior. We saw about 15 animals on scouting day including a couple of nice bulls.
The pack out was pretty rough, especially when I led my dad up the single steepest incline I have ever attempted with a full pack. We made it out in time for a nap and one more hunt.
We hunted the last evening and actually found another slightly smaller 4 point buck in another drainage down...
On the last day, we made one last trek into the most promising portion of the unit and immediately spotted a 3 point buck that we would have shot if we weren’t so far back in there. About 15 minutes later I spotted a good buck right in the bottom at 850 yards. I left my dad up top and took off...
Next up was a date with destiny. I drew this deer tag last year, and this year my dad and I drew it again as a group (very long odds). The previous year was a good one and I passed quite a few 4 point bucks and hunted a giant old 3 point (pictured below), but I never punched my tag.
This year...
This was a pretty emotional moment for us as we had worked pretty hard and dad knew it meant a lot to me to get to be there when he killed what will probably be his best buck ever. We didn’t have the buck aged, but Mike knew he would be at least 7 as he had been a similar antler structure for...
The next couple of days after that were also very slow with only a couple does and small bucks spotted. On day 6 we went to a different area where Mike had scouted a good buck that they knew was super old. We spent the first hour and a half of daylight glassing without seeing any deer. Finally...
My next opportunity to get back out in the woods was to help on my dad’s rifle mule deer hunt. My dad has always loved hunting mule deer and this was going to be his first good opportunity to chase bucks in that upper age class, although this was a low deer density area.
The first couple of...
I started out the year spotting for my Uncle on his archery mule deer hunt. We had the pleasure once again of working with Taylor Price as our outfitter and also spent a ton of time with Mike Wood who is a big buck spotting machine. The 3:30 AM wakeups were rough, but we spent every morning and...