king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Hunting Illustrated April/May 2008 - Index

times and killed three good bucks
- a 50% average. I could have
killed a “buck” every time I went;
however, I was always hunting for
Mr. Big. Every hunt is a different
experience. There are always a few
new problems, but the quest for my
big dream buck was always in the
back of my mind. If an individual
stays the course, always doing their
very best, putting themselves in
spots where there are odds of killing
a ‘Mr. Big’, the day will come when
that dream will be realized.
On January 2nd, 2008, my
good friend Clint Argyle and I got
on a plane and headed to Sonora,
Mexico. We hoped to kill the buck
of our dreams. This was Clint’s fi rst
time hunting in Sonora. I told him
to always have an open mind on all
the comings and goings, because
you never know what to expect. We
landed in Hermosillo at 4:00 p.m.
Right away, we encountered our fi rst
problem - our guns didn’t make it!
Since we didn’t have our guns, we
had to leave our bullets at the airport.
After fi lling out the paperwork, we
left with our guides and headed to the
place we would be hunting for the
next six days. Our guide told us not
to worry about our guns because he
had some we could use. He told us
that we would probably get our own
guns within two days. As we arrived
at the ranch, supper was ready and
our every need was attended to. The
guide gave me a 300 Win. Mag. with
a Leopold dot. It wasn’t my light,
25-06 with my Redfi eld 4-plex, but
it was a gun - that alone made me
happy. Clint got a 300 Ultra Mag.,
plenty of gun, but he is left-handed.
It’s hard to fi nd a gun anywhere for
an old lefty. I just gave him a highfi
ve and said, “Clint, remember,
you’re in Mexico.” He smiled.
Day one started at daylight.
As I climbed up in the high rack of
the truck, my mind said, “Yes! It’s
good to be back here again hunting
big muley bucks.” Within the fi rst
mile, a nice 4x4, 26-inches wide
crossed the road in front of us.
Wow! What a good sign! A very nice
buck right out of the gate. I knew that
at the end of the fi rst day if I had seen
over eight deer that would have been a
good day hunting deer in Sonora. After
day one had ended, I had seen exactly
ten deer - a very good day of hunting,
indeed. Clint saw over 25 deer in one
day and that’s more deer than I have
ever seen in one day hunting in Sonora.
Day two also started at
daylight, and we headed back to the
same place we were the day before.
There were quite a few fresh tracks in
quite a few different spots where we
hunted. One never knows when old
‘Mr. Big’ might show up, especially
when the rut is on. However, day two
was hot and dry, and we didn’t see very
many deer – two at the best.
Day three, we hunted until
noon and saw nothing. We decided to
go back to camp. Siesta time in Sonora
is from noon until 3:00 p.m. Our
Mexican guides told us that the deer
sleep, so we might as well sleep too.
We decided to head for town and the
airport to see if our guns had arrived.
At the airport, we found that our guns
had arrived, but that they had moved
our bullets to another place. They told
us that we would have to come back the
next day to get the bullets. We went
back to where we had been hunting.
Despite the problems, I still had a smile
on my face. After all, the worst day
hunting is still better than the best day
at work.
Day four brought us back to
the vast Sonora desert where the land
is endless and where big bucks live
and die every year. I’m sure some of
those bucks never see a man. This is the
place where a man’s dream of killing a
monster muley can come true in a blink
of an eye. Half an hour after daylight,
we saw some deer running down a
fence line. One looked like a very
good buck. Just then, a doe jumped
the fence 100 yards down the road and
right behind her, a big buck followed.
I saw him for a split second before he
was gone. In my mind, I knew he was a
very big buck. My driver was a young
man and since I don’t speak Spanish, I
5MULE DEER5
had a hard time telling him to hurry
up and get down there to ‘Mr. Big’.
Ten minutes later we fi nally made
the hundred yards – well it seemed
that long. And yep, ‘Mr. Big’ was
nowhere to be seen. Two hours
later, after poking, walking, and
riding around in the area we still had
not seen anything. But nothing is a
waste if you are looking at all the
different options and layouts of the
land. Someone had built a twentyfi
ve foot tower right on the fence line
where we had seen the big buck. I
told my guide to take me back to the
tower. I climbed up on top and could
see fi fty-percent more desert, out to
300 yards, but I still couldn’t see
the buck. We hunted the rest of the
morning. We got stuck in some sand
April/May 21