Toco and I were sneaking through the mesquite and cactus plants on the desert floor on a beautiful sunny day at the end of December 2017. All of a sudden, Toco tensed up and pointed, “You see?” I looked over his shoulder in the direction he was pointing but could not see anything except mesquite branches and cactus. Things look much different on the desert floor than when you are looking down from a “lomito” top. (Lomito means little hill in Spanish.) I could tell he was getting frustrated with me not seeing the buck, and not understanding Spanish well did not help.
The plans for my hunt had all started just a few short weeks before when I saw an ad under the Wild Sheep email. It said, “AGUA Dulce Outfitters, Fred Trueblood, Hunt Big Mule Deer in the Sonora Valley Desert. Have a few hunts left.” Right, I’d heard that story before. I gave it a thought for about two days and decided, what did I have to lose? I gave Fred a call, and that was the beginning of our plans. He gave me a couple more days and called again, “I don’t want to rush you, but if you want to go, it takes two weeks to get your paperwork done for your gun." He told me to arrange my flight from Sioux Falls, South Dakota and arrive in Tucson where he would pick me up. That made me much more comfortable as I did not want to do border crossings alone.
When I got to the airport in Tucson, Fred was there to pick me up. We drove to his home, met his girlfriend, and waited for Santeago, our Mexican connection. We enjoyed lunchtime, and I met Jim, my hunting partner. We crossed the border with no problem. It was about a three-hour drive to the ranch. The ranch house was very comfortable. We each had our own rooms, and our cook, Chappo, was fantastic. The desert was so green, and there were many more plants and foliage than I had ever imagined. The Sonora cacti were a sight to behold.
On the first morning, Fred, Toco, my guide, and I took off on the High Rack, which worked well. We were high enough to see over all the mesquite and foliage. We saw a lot of tracks from mule deer and also some javelina. We spotted a few Coues deer with one pretty nice buck but decided to wait and look for the mule deer first.
On the second day, we left early and stopped to talk to the ranch hand who was working on a fence. He told us he had seen a good mule deer buck with some does go up the canyon, so we decided to check it out. We drove up the canyon a little ways, and Fred stayed with the truck. We climbed the hill to glass from the top where we could see the canyon we had come up and also the canyon on the other side. Toco and I started glassing the canyon we had come up, and then I went to glass the other canyons. The desert floor was picture perfect, and I thought it would be great to spot that buck. It took about 10 minutes before I spotted a doe lying under a mesquite tree and then I saw one more doe, but I did not see a buck.
I went back to get Toco and showed him where. He looked for a short time and spotted the buck under the mesquite tree with some prickly pear cacti in front of him. All we could see were his horns. Game on! The wind was right as they ranged it to be around 600 yards, so our plan was to crawl close. We started down, which was very rocky and a lot of cacti that helped for cover. We made it to 280 yards, and all we could see were his horns. The doe that was in front of him moved behind him, which was a miracle. We did not have a shot, so we moved down further, but now we could not see him due to the heavy vegetation. The wind was still in our faces.
This is when Toco has asked, “Do you see him?” Toco moved me a little to the right, and I looked over his pointing finger and under the mesquite tree. I saw the buck turn his antlers a little bit, and then I saw the black face looking at us. What a thrill it was to take this majestic desert buck! Only God could create a beautiful scene like this.
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