Joe's 2009 AZ Archery Mule Deer

Well Joe was able to get his 2009 mule deer mount picked up a few weeks ago. Chris Favour at Mount-N-View Taxidermy, http://www.mountnviewtaxidermy.com/ , done a great job on this mount. Joe had a great hunt last year and despite tough conditions, was able to harvest a beautiful typical buck.

This hunt started out several days before the opener with Joe, Arthur, and Shane doing some glassing and checking out water sources. We were able to locate many good bucks and followed a buck we named "Cash". We estimated this buck to be around 220" and during the hunt Joe had several close calls with this buck. On the morning of the second day, Joe was within 50 yards of Cash but bucks don't grow that size by being fooled easily and he was able to slip away again. That afternoon brought a heavy rainfall which shut the deer down for a week. Talking to other hunters, the story was the same with everyone, most folks had spotted big bucks prior to the hunt but the rain put them all in hiding. Those hunters that only sat water done great on the first day and half, then had no activity for over a week. Our strategy stood the same, glass, glass, and glass. We would find high points to glass sage flats and when we located a buck, Joe would put a stalk on. Joe stuck with it and passed many opportunities at bucks up to 170". Joe was set on harvesting only a buck that would exceed 180". Well, it all came together when Mark spotted this typical feeding in a sage flat. Joe put a stalk on and was able to get ahead of the bucks and let them come into archery range. Joe's arrow found the mark and he was able to drop this 33" wide, 187" gross 4x4. This deer was opposite of the other big bucks that we'd seen. Most other bucks were narrow with deep forks and extras. Regardless of its genetics, its a truly awesome archery buck. Joe is a hard core hunter and left us shaking our heads as he let those 170" bucks walk on by. He is truly deserving of a buck of this caliber and this hunt will go down as one of our favorites. Special thanks to Dad, Arthur, Angel, Mark, and Shane for helping Joe on this tough hunt.