The trip began on 1/6/12 in Tulsa with myself and a friend, Chad Compton, driving his loaded Tahoe with a loaded trailer to Nogales to meet our friend and outfitter Rodrigo Gamboa so he could help us clear our guns. We then drove to Hermosillo to meet the 4th member of our party who was flying in from Tulsa. All 4 of us then drove to Empalme to pick up the outfitters truck so we could all drive to the ranch. It was a very long 2 days on the road.
The ranches we hunted were very green this year. This coupled with adequate water holes and the full moon the first week of our trip made for tough hunting conditions. My friend Dale managed to kill a decent Coues on the forth evening. Unfortunately a few days later he missed a mule deer that was estimated to be a bit better than 30 inches wide.
The mule deer above was killed on the 8th day of a 12 day hunt on a place named Agua Caliente. I had a bad sinus infection and high fever that day that caused me to have to visit a Mexican doctor and spend the next three days laying around trying to recover. I still managed to spot and kill the buck while he was bedded. I was shooting my M-70 30.06 loaded with Hornady factory 165 grain Interbonds. I shot the buck in the neck and the bullet exited his off shoulder. He never got up after the shot.
The snake was killed by my friend Chad after a too close encounter in the bush.
The Coues buck was killed on our base ranch called Huichori on the last day after I finally recovered enough to hunt again. The kill was the end result of one of the best tracking jobs I have ever taken part in. A mexican cowboy they call Chui Loco tracked the buck up and down 4 different ridges before I could finally close the deal. I was shocked it was the same buck we had jumped just after daylight that morning, was not going to waste the fine tracking effort and considered the hunt the trophy, especially on the last day. Plus, the meat was needed for the next group of hunters who were due in the next day. The shot was taken with the same rifle and was offhand at about 150 yards while the buck was running up a steep canyon wall. The shot was nearly straight away and hit the buck in the spine between the shoulders. It was not as difficult a shot as it sounds. That rifle and those loads have never disappointed me in nearly 10 years of hunting whitetails, mule deer, pronghorns and coues from Wyoming to Mexico.
I also shot a coyote and a cull buck for meat for the workers at one of the ranches we were hunting.
The knife worked great on the trip, kept a nice edge and cleaned up easily. Chui really liked it. Thank you Carl for allowing me to take it on a great hunt.
Perry
Last edited by PWN; 01/24/12.
