My son Keith and I are outta here in 15 mins. to head to the N. Kaibab on our mule deer hunt. We're prepared to stay the 10-day duration, and won't have internet access during that time.

Good luck to everyone else out there hunting.

Good luck Tony! There have been some giants hitting the ground this year so far

Tony should be back soon.

He's back but somewhat dejected.

The hunt was a big bust for me. I never left camp after my sinuses plugged up solid the first day we arrived and a bout of bronchitis set in. At that altitude, I couldn’t walk 10 steps without gasping for air. So I spent five days in the RV.

I probably could have gone out road hunting like many others seemed to be doing after it snowed 9 inches, but that's not my style.

My son hunted hard, passed on several small bucks and missed chances at a couple of good bucks. He didn't hang a tag on one, though.

As it turned out, he had to get back to work for TG day and with a pending snow storm in the forecast, we left early.

At that point, three of nine hunters in Duwane Adams' camp had tagged out. Two of the bucks were decent.

Sorry about your bad luck, you cant win them all I guess.
What kind of success is usuall for that area, any idea?

Sounds a bit like the blow-out my friend had with that tag last year. He's taken book bucks on public land before so he knows what he's doing. He scouted a ton and had others scouting while he was hunting and it was a bust.

I know there are monsters taken out of there, but from recent accounts I'm not so sure that tag is worth waiting the 12 or so years for.

Bummer! But, that's deer hunting. Sometimes things just don't work out as planned. Lady luck will probably shine on you during your next hunt. Glad you made it back safely.

theback40,

The late hunt generally has a success rate of more than 60%. I didn't see it, but my son and a couple others from our camp were at the check station the 2nd day when a teen came in with a buck that rough scored about 230. He killed it at 75 yards right next to the road.

I'll soon find out how the other six guys did after we left. They still had 5 days to hunt.

Below is one of the bucks killed in our camp. The others were a nice typical 4x4 and a dandy 4x4 with front forks that turned downward.

Duwane Adams on the left and the hunter, Allen Taylor on the right. It wouldn't score great, but it had super mass and very dark-colord antlers. Allen killed it in the middle of a snowstorm at a RANGED 410 yards.



P.S.

Kyle,

Yeah, a real blow-out. I was hoping a big buck would walk thru camp, but alas it didn't happen.

I would guess from the tales, all the hunters in our camp, 'cept me, passed on at least 50-75 bucks over the time we were there. Some would be considered trophies anywhere but on the NK. Over the first two days, my son passed on two 160-170 4x4s and missed one buck that would have scored in the 180s. He also either blew stalks or shots at two other big bucks.

We eventually found out his .270 was shooting way right. So he used my .300 WM for the rest of his hunt. But the only chance he had at another good deer was the last afternoon. Unfortnately, the buck was content on staying hid behind several does until it meandered over a ridge.

Here's another of the three bucks killed on the "blow-out" hunt before I left. The 3rd one with the turned down front forks is even bigger, but I don't have a photo yet.




More photos and hunt story here:

North Kaibab Hunt

This is the 3rd buck killed before I left. His name is Bill and a client of Duwane's.



Side view:

Just finished talking to Duwane on the phone. All of his clients -- 9 in all, including the three above -- wound up killing bucks. They were all tagged out by Fri. evening.

He said they were glassing 27 shooter bucks at one point on Thurs. afternoon, and had only two hunters near enough to come shoot one.

The smallest buck of the latter six grossed 165, and the largest, a 5x5, 31" buck killed on the east side, was 197.

If I get more photos, I'll add them to this thread.

Thanks for the report Tony! Nice deer all, scores dont matter if you like the looks of him, it's a trophy. They appear to be very large bodied deer, much more so then most mule deer I've seen.

Sorry about your problems.