Sept mule deer hunt

So my mule deer hunt finally came! Noah and I packed everything we might need into the jeep and hit the road. We drove to just past Hobbs NM, and made our first days camp just off the caprock. I spotted about 6 does feeding their way up the side pretty early so we were all pretty pumped up. The only buck we saw that night ended up being a little spike that we didn't think was legal. We did some scouting the next morning and Noah and I found this little place that was pretty cool. When you buy a hunting license, you pay for a habitat stamp. Well this place was corraled in, and had a water reservoir and a watering trough for deer and small animals. It was posted on the fence that it was paid for by hunters and fisherman buying that stamp. It was pretty cool, but I forgot to take pictures. we also snuck within 40 yards from the does we had seen the night before. But still no buck.
So we pushed on the next day and went to Artesia. On the way there, we stopped and scouted an area called Cedar Lake. It was gnarly! I loved it! Lot's of sand dunes, scrub brush, and tracks everywhere! Since we had already seen some big bucks near Artesia, we decided to push through and make camp where we knew there were bucks. Where to camp at was our next obstacle, we drove and ended up off finding a water hole we wanted to glass that night. Once again, we laid camp. That night glassing, I saw about 12 does working a fence line about 300 yards from camp. They weren't bothered by us much, just munching away. Mule deer are so much bigger than whitetails. Looking at these does through my binos, they looked like cows they were so big! We saw some other deer a long ways off, but at a mile or more, it was really hard to tell if it was a buck or not. We packed camp again the next morning, went to town and had breakfast. I swear those were the best eggs I've ever had!
We made camp a few miles away that day, but we started doing some scouting. Noah talked to a pumper and the guy said he'd been seeing two really large bucks every morning in the same place, and that we were the first hunters he'd seen in that area. Score! We were pretty excited and decided to glass that valley that night, we'd been there for about two hours and nothing! I saw a huge yellow coyote and three smaller ones hunting the opposite ridge line, but that was it. Noah said to pack it up, we were headed in early. Headed back to the jeep, we had to hike about a mile through some pretty rough terrain. We still had about 45 minutes of light when we drove over a hill and right in front of us were those two bucks! I though Noah was going to freak out! We were both so excited! The only drawback was they took off running. Oh, that and we were in the damn jeep! So we drove about a mile down the road and ditched the jeep, and started running. Noah had the binos in one hand and the range finder in the other. Those deer had stopped in a little valley and had started feeding again. So we started moving to a position to head them off. Of course it wasn't that easy though, they headed off a different direction and it was to dark to follow.
On a side note here. When Noah and I are practicing shooting, He likes to give me all these scenarios of what might happen. He'll make himself get pumped up to shoot, and tries to make me do the same. I've been running to help get myself in shape, and He always tells me to control my breathing. In fact, just the other day he said "learn to control your breathing, 'cause you never know when you're going to have to run a mile uphill and when you get there, you are going to have to be ready and able to take a 40 yard shot at a monster." ALL I could think about while we were trucking it up there was, "this is happening! This is Happening!"
So now we have seen some huge bucks, Noah and I are not going anywhere! We got up at 5 AM again, and glassed where we knew these boys were hanging out. Nothing! We did some scouting that day, following some tracks.We saw a badger, it ran at us until we stood up and he realized we were much bigger than he first thought, we didn't see deer for 2 more days. By Friday, Noah and I were both ready for a shower and our bed so we packed camp for the last time and started home. On the way we had to drive past Ceder Lake, and the more we both thought about it, the more we both wanted to hunt it. We pulled off and did some driving around looking at fresh tracks. It had rained late the night before, so everything fresh was from that day. We drove across some huge tracks crossing the road and when the road dead-ended, we turned around and headed back the way we came in. I was talking to Noah, and turned my head, and in that instant locked eyes with a huge 3x3! He'd just been watching me drive on by, and when he saw me look at him, he jumped up ready to spook. I told Noah not to stop and keep driving, that it was a shooter buck and "Let's give 'em hell!" So we ditched the jeep again, grabbed what we needed and took off again! About 50 yards from where we had seen him, we started working our way through the dunes trying to sneak up and get a shot. It was so loud, every step crunching. Noah kicked off his shoes and told me to do the same, so now we were both in socks putting a stalk on a nice 3x3 in September! The month everyone told us that we'd be lucky to even see bucks! Can I just say that I felt pretty bad ass and salty! OK, so socks! We're creeping forward and there's just tracks leading off, and there are two sets. So we take off trailing them. I must have stepped on every thorn out there, Noah had them everywhere too. This trail just sort of meanders through the dunes, it was some pretty slow going but our wind is good. When Noah just stops and dropped all of a sudden and is freaking out! The buck I saw is the smaller of the two and Noah just spotted the more mature one, they had bedded back down and that old salty cuss is bedded on top of a dune, on top of a salt cedar tree! He'd gotten up high so he could see. Since Noah has a better view, I get some details and am getting ready to draw when that buck stands and just watches us. He didn't know what we were, and he must have sat there for 4 minutes before he dropped his head and gave me a chance to draw. So I come to full draw just as the younger one is starting to walk off too. All I had was his neck and the top of his back, no vitals. So I let back down and wow, my adrenaline started pumping. We followed those two bucks for about 2 miles still barefoot, till they winded us and took off. We hiked back to our shoes, gave them an hour and tried to track them again. We didn't have any luck.
So back in the jeep, we drove to the caprock and decided to glass again and see if we saw anything bigger than that spike from day one. Noah and I were walking to the truck and I almost stepped on a rattlesnake! He coiled up and started buzzing and striking. (If you know me well, then you know how I react to snakes) I was screaming, jumping, and pretty much lost my ever loving mind! So Noah makes me stand in front of it, to distract it while he circles it. He was trying to talk me into catching it and putting it into the rubbermaid box we were storing our food in so we could take it to Jerid to mount for us. This was hands down, the worst idea of the whole trip! Thankfully the snake had other ideas to, because he took off (I'm still standing in front of it) scared me all over again and Noah was trying to pin its head down with one of my arrows (which I still haven't touched) so he could pick it up. Every time he'd try to pin its head down that snake was striking, and it was so big that it was almost biting Noah. Noah ended up killing it, but that thing was HUGE! It's rattles were 10 and a button. After that, we just went home. I told Noah I was cool with camping till I saw that snake and that's about all I could handle. So we got home, and I've been wishing all week that we were back in New Mexico still. I'm pretty anxious for January to get here for another chance at a mule deer.
Saturday is opening day of whitetail archery season, so that should help tide me over till then. I'm hunting a new location this year, and haven't had a trail camera up so we'll have to just see what this season is going to bring our way.