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This was one of my shortest hunts. One of the most uneventful too, but I’m happy with the end result.

Day before the season opened we packed into the wilderness about 6 or 8 miles and set up camp. That evening we located a water hole and watched it for about an hour; all we saw that night was a mule deer doe but we decided to spend opening day sitting on that hole.

By 6:45 AM the next morning we were behind a deadfall on a wide ridge between two draws, overlooking a third draw and the water. We expected to see elk, but for the entire day all we saw were Merriam’s turkeys. Hundreds of them, steadily coming to the water in rafters of 12 – 20 birds. Merriam’s are some of the prettiest birds around, but I got damned tired of seeing them and started to wonder if they were keeping the other animals away.

Around 5:50 PM, about the time that it was dark enough to let your mind drift away from hunting and on to warm food, the guide grabbed my arm and said “shoot this deer”. He pointed slightly behind and to the left of us; between the dim light and trying to look through/around the guide I couldn’t see a thing. I finally picked up the deer in my binos but I couldn’t make out a rack at all- only ears.

Normally I wouldn’t shoot an animal without being able to judge it, but I’ve hunted with this guy before and trust him. The deer moved another 50 yards or so and over that distance he got in a more open area with better shooting light and fewer obstructions between us. This is the only deer I’ve ever shot that genuinely dropped when he was hit, like the ground went out from under him, but I was loaded with 180-grain TSX in case we found a big muley and that was significant overkill for this little thing.

This is the first time I’ve tagged out on opening day but I don’t think we’d find a 120-inch 8-point no matter how many days we hunted there (New Mexico doesn’t have the quality that Sonora and Arizona do) and I think he’s pretty nice for a first Coues.

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