Team DIY Strikes Gold In Arizona
My watch has been running a bit slow lately. I am running behind with some of the great stories from DIYbowhunter.com. I have three of them to report on. Team DIY Pro Staffer, Eric Welsh connected on an Arizona muley a few weeks back.
It all started when Marlon Holden of Gray Light Productions invited me to Southern Arizona on his annual mule deer hunt. I didn’t even hesitate to accept, knowing all the big deer that he has seen and taken in the past.
I was there for six days and every day was tough! Marlon is an animal! His sights were set on a huge buck, and that meant hours of glassing and driving. We covered a lot of ground every day. It was killing me to glass up the smaller bucks when he wouldn’t even give them a second look. I was ready to go after them. I could now see why he was so successful.
We both had a lot of close calls and some misses. On the last day of the hunt we were on our way back to the lodge when Marlon spotted this buck with a couple of does about 300 yards off the road. We planned the stalk and it was on. A while later I found myself at 53 yards from the buck and I let one fly. He went less than 20 yards and fell.
This is my biggest muley so far with a bow. It was a great opportunity to hunt and learn from such a great hunter.
Thanks Marlon!
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Young Bowhunter Connects With First Big Game Animal
Cy Weaver is no stranger to archery, but his javelina hunt in Arizona produced his very first big game animal with archery tackle. Here’s what Cy had to say over at DIYbowhunter.com:
I know that it looks like a gut shot and that it was a bad shot and all that, but it wasn’t. If you take a better look I “quartered it” into the liver and destroyed the lungs. It was an instant blood shot, and it has a hose line blood trail so it was easy to find.
I have had the pleasure of working with Cy’s dad, Jon Weaver of XAddict Archery, and it’s very apparent that Jon’s work ethic has been passed on to his son. It is truly awesome to see our young hunters getting out there and getting it done. With some guidance and practice Cy laid it down! Great job guys!
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Javelina Hunt With Family and Friends
Gabe Erautt, brother to Team DIY Pro Staffer Eddy Erautt, loves hunting and sharing the experience with family and friends. He recently filled his Arizona tag (see photo for confirmation) and wrote up the story of the hunt below. Awesome job, Gabe!
The first morning of my hunt, Eddy spotted a group of pigs, just like last year, about a mile and half to 2 miles away. They were headed east feeding and bedding as they went. They were not in a hurry so we took our time on the hike to get there, watched their progress, and planned the route to them.
We made it to the south end of the bowl where they were and checked the wind. Eddy settled in to watch from 426 yards away while I moved in. I circled to the backside of the bowl and swung way around to the west and got up high before coming back into the bowl where they were. I moved in slow with plenty of stops to look for the herd. I finally saw a cactus moving about 60 to 70 yards in front of me and about 20 yards below. I watched them for a while when I saw a pig that separated from the group and was moving my way. I lost site of that pig in the brush but Eddy was able to let me know about where he went.
I started looking for a spot to ambush and would need to move lower so that I would not need to shoot the HARD downhill angle. I moved down about 10 yards, ranged a couple of spots that he could poke out at, and waited. The javelina changed his mind and exited the bush on the backside and was headed up hill and to the west. Oh boy. There I am, squatting down, no way to reposition with a pig at 25 yards, behind brush, moving toward my wind. I had an opening that I needed to stop him in before he was back behind more brush. I woffed at him a couple of times and he stopped. I hammered him at 20 yards through the shoulder and he lit out down hill and stopped after about 50 yards and laid down. None of the other pigs spooked and Eddy signaled me to move down and get another arrow in him since he looked to be doing too good. I started moving down and he jumped up and took of. The other pigs started to react and run as well but my pig came back to me and stopped in an opening, down hill at 20 yards.1 more arrow put him down quick.
I do not know how big he was, but he was heavy and I needed to get him down off that slope which is not fun. Cactus, rocks, and STEEP. Why cant I find a pig in the flats? The trip to Arizona for javelina is always fun, it just sucks waiting another year to do it again.
The gear that I used was a Hoyt bow, Maxxis arrows, Rage broadheads, and Danner boots. I have had those boots for at least 5 years and love them. Good traction, not loud, durable and I have not had any of that cactus stick my feet.
Wow. *picks jaw up off the floor* That is one beautiful muley. I've ALWAYS wanted to get one of those.
You DIY boys sure get some good looking animals…. any female DIY pro-staffers?
🙂
HLYH
We don't have any yet, but that doesn't mean a thing. 😉 Anything can happen! Shoot Eric a msg. over at DIYbowhunter.com.
Great looking site. Congrats on that great looking deer and I really enjoyed the javelina story. I actually picked one up at the beginning of the season with my recurve. Keep up the great work and fantastic content.
Ben
Hey, Al! That's an awesome muley for Eric! We did a DIY hog hunt one year in Texas. The javelina were all over the place, but weren't in season during our trip. Could have shot several of them.
I've passed along an award to your blog if you're interested.
http://www.heybjk.com/2011/01/fifteen-blogs-you-should-visit.html
Great stories! Those javelinas look like some fun huntin'. Maybe someday.
Congrats to Eric too. What a great shot on that muley! Too sweet!