The desert muleys are a special animal to me. They have droopy ears, dark foreheads, and massive frames! I’ve made the trip to Sonora, Mexico, several times before to hunt mule deer. Mexico gets a bad rap, but it’s somewhere I’ve grown to love, and Sonora specifically is home to some of the biggest mule deer on the planet. Hunting in Sonora is something that never gets old to me. Each desert sunrise and sunset is prettier than the day before, and the hunt is never the same.

The Sonaran desert skyline is unlike anything else.

This year, I experienced hunting in Sonora in a way I had not previously. I made the trip the first week of October, a month earlier than I typically have in the past. This gave me the opportunity to find a muley in full velvet, which is something I have always wanted. However, it also meant that it would be a lot hotter than I was used to. The desert is typically known for hot days and cool nights, but I was not ready for temperatures touching triple digits. The heat made the hunt tougher on me physically and mentally, but it also changed the way that the animals behaved. In effect, the heat shortened our time to hunt because the deer weren’t moving as much. We had less time in the mornings than in the past and much shorter windows for movement in the evenings. On top of that, there was an ongoing drought, with the area seeing less than an inch of rain for the entire year to date. The moon also wasn’t ideal for animal movement. All of these factors changed the way we had to go about the hunt and presented challenges I hadn’t faced yet.

After 5 hunts of sweating, glassing, and striking out, we decided to call it a morning and head back to camp. I was hot, tired, and hungry. I had no objection to that call. One of the cool things about hunting mule deer though is that it can happen fast. Real fast. I was half daydreaming when we spotted a big buck under a tree on a ridge line up ahead. That woke me up quickly, and it didn’t take me long at all to know this was the deer I was after. He checked every box. I ranged him at around 230, grabbed the .300 PRC, and took my shot. The buck dropped his head and seemingly went down. After hiking up to the deer following the shot, we noticed he had since moved. We had to track him another 75 yards up the ridge, and he was laying under a tree. I put another in the chamber and finished the hunt. After examining, the first shot hit his shoulder bone. I think it paralyzed him, which made sense why he wasn’t moving anymore as we walked up to him. Had I made a better first shot, I have no doubt the .300 PRC would have only needed one attempt."

This buck had it all for me, big frame, deep forks, extras on both sides and fuzzy velvet.

By the end of that fifth hunt, I was starting to come to terms with the fact that it was more likely than not that I was going back to Georgia empty-handed. I had one evening hunt left. That's something I'm sure every hunter can relate to, and it's certainly part of the experience—those times when you come up empty-handed make the successes that much sweeter. The way it all was able to come together made for a good story, and I appreciate you taking the time to listen to it.

For anyone needing gear for an early season desert hunt I suggest the following items: