Deer Season

[JohnP]

Will be headed out in a couple of hours for a week of deer hunting.  We will be camping right on the border and this is more of an in your face to Homeland Security and the drug cartels than it is a hunting trip, although nobody is going to pass on a decent buck.  There will be about ten of us and needless to say everyone will be well armed.  Hopefully my feet will hold up to the ordeal.  See ya'll when we get back.

[coyote101]

I love what you guys are doing Mr. JohnP.  Good luck, stay safe and take care of those feet.

Pat

[Carolina Coyote]

Good Luck and Good Hunting, and take care of yourself. cc

[KySongDog]

Looking forward to the after action report.   

[pitw]

I'm kinda/sorta looking forward to the pics .  Enjoy the time and don't do anything I wouldn't.

[vvarmitr]

Have a great time & I'll be waiting on the pix too. 

[alscalls]

Have a nice trip John!

[Bills Custom Calls]

See ya when ya get back stay safe

  Enjoy the time and don't do anything I wouldn't.

That kinda leaves ya wide open John 

[bambam]

Hope you have a great, and safe trip.

[FinsnFur]

Sounds like things could get interesting for a lot more then intended reasons
Looking forward to the stories and pics as well....be safe.

[vayotehowler]

stay safe out there. stick it to the man, and fight the power and so on

[Dave]

Good luck with whatever you get into down there.  Can't wait to see the posts and pix.

[JohnP]

I'll give a blow by blow description of this trip, probably tomorrow. 

[HaMeR]

tapping toes on the floor &  waiting patiently

This is gonna be good!!!!!!!!!! 

[FOsteology]

Looking forward to hearing how your hunt went.

[JohnP]

Remember these two signs I posted some time ago?  Well they are no longer there, once our famous Secretary of Homeland Security "declared the "border is secure" the signs came down to be replaced with signs that say "High Law Enforcement Area" and the spin goes on.





We started out with ten guys and pitched camp about 50 yards from the border.  As the days wore on and other hunters came by they asked if they could join us once we told them what we were doing.  Everyone, to a man, said the hell with the hunt lets show solidarity.  We probably ended up with about 20, maybe 25 guys. 

This is the two track headed into the area.



The mountain range belongs to the invading Army to the south of us.



I decided that I would hunt openning morning and maybe everyother day, depending on how my feet made out.  I was on a ridge overlooking a very deep canyon with the opposite ridge about 300 yards away.  All my glassing was directed toward the bottom of the canyon as I had seen a small buck and a few does walking through the dry wash and bedding up under some scrub oaks and smaller mesquite. About 10am I decided to check out the opposite ridge and saw a nice buck about half way up and he was moving up to the ledge top, not down into the wash.  I decided that he was just to good of a coues buck to pass on - sooo.  I got into a comfortable position and placed the crosshairs even on the top of his back.  The recoil from the Weatherby 7Mag made me lose sight of him, but I did'n notice him running off either.  I was pretty confident that I had made a killing shot, but I would have to walk down a very steep canyon wall and up the other side to verify that I had hit him.  Then repeat the process and carrying a rather large buck.  I was sure my feet would not allow me to do so as they had already started to give me problems after about a 100 yard walk from where I had parked my truck.   I went back to camp and told a couple of the guys who remained in camp as guards.  They told me to sit down put up feet up have a cold brew and they would take care of the rest.  Who was I to argue.  Was I suprised when they got back about two hours later.  My buck was skinned, deboned, wrapped in cheesecloth and iced down in my two coolers.  I was grateful for all they had done and never mentiond the fact that I like my game with the bone in and had I known how nice of a buck he turned out to be I would have had him mounted.  They had skinned his head and cut his skull plate so that it could be mounted on a plaque.   He is a six by four, with one of his eyeguards split, making it two points.  Not very high but wide and with a lot of mass.  He green scored 118 but after deductions I'm sure it will be considerably less. 







(Continued)

[JohnP]

Now for the fun part.  On day two we had the Forest Service Ranger stop at camp.  He wanted to know what we are doing, one of the guys replied:  "It's deer season, we have rifles and deer tags and only a government employee would ask, what are you doing".  After a long pause he said we needed to move into an authorized/approved camp site, we then asked why, again his reply "cause I said so and beside that you will just litter up the area and destroy the vegetation."  We replied that maybe he should go get his rules and regulations book and come back and show us where it says we can't camp in "OUR" national forest.  Additionally one of the guys had pictures, very similar to the one FOS and I posted about all the trash the illegals leave in our forest.  After looking at them he turned around and walked to his truck, he then turned around and muttered to us that he would be checking after we left to ensure no trash was left behind. 

A day or so later two BP guys came by and asked us if we knew how close to the border we had camped, we said we did, both had a big grin on their face and said "Good Luck on your hunt and by the way thanks."  They knew exactly way we had camped there.  I guess they have to write up all contact they have as the next day we had a visit by their supervisor and the forest ranger.  The forest ranger guy never said a word.  The BP supervisor asked us to move further away from the border and preferably into an authorized campground.   Not a chance we told him, he then replied that he meaning the BP could not be responsible for our safety.  I then told him, I just turned 70 years old and thought that I could within reason be responsible for my own damn safety.  But if he insisted that we move I wouldn't be responsible for his safety.  Again another red faced government bureaucrat. 

The very next day we saw a dust trail and two vehicles coming down the two track, county deputies.  We decided that we would leave if they asked us to.  There were three of them and one had stripes on his sleeve, big mean looking bruiser and we could tell just by looking at him he was pissed.  As he approached us you could almost see the steam building up in his eyes.  His first words "What the hell are you doing out here -- and -- why didn't you invite us?"  They stayed in camp about an hour just BS'ing and thanked us for caring about the border situation. 

The two BP guys came by a few other times and spent some time just talking, we never saw their supervisor again nor the ranger, to busy I guess sitting at their desk filling out forms and other important paperwork. 

Without a doubt one of the best hunts I been on.  But I did learn that my hunting days are just about coming to an end.  My feet have been giving me fits every day since I been back and only sleeping a few hours a night because of the pain.  Have an appointment with the neurologist on the 3rd.  Don't think there will be many if any coyote/bobcat pictures in the near future.

[FOsteology]

John sounds like a interesting and eventful time afield. Glad to hear you boys stuck to your guns and didn't let the bureaucrats intimidate and bully you.

Congratulations on your coues deer! That buck has some really good mass, and shows some cool character with the claws on the G1 and brow tine.
I've always been interested in hunting the little deer, but the boarder situation has always made me a little concerned and leery....
We have some deer in the West Texas mountains (Carmen Mountains) that I believe may actually be a sub-species of your coues.

Appreciate you taking the time to write up your time afield and enjoyed the pictures!

[bambam]

Awesome story John !! Great Coues deer and kudos to you and the others for what you did. 

[HaMeR]

That sure is a dandy buck Mr John!! Congratulations!!     Sounds like you guys fad a very interesting deer camp & I'm sure glad you all got out of there safely along with the authorities.