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Category: Hunting

Published: Sunday, 11 October 2026 18:40

Written by Greg

Dry Gulch Buck

It was 5:15 in the afternoon when we left camp on our 4-wheeler. The sun was still scorching the desert floor even though it was only a couple of hours before sunset. In any event, it was time to move up into the foothills if we wanted to have any chance of catching deer moving before dark. From camp the drive was a few miles across the dusty sage flats until we’d reach the rolling cedar hills that rose up to the rocky cliffed-out mountain top.

         Cliffed out top of mountain                      Looking back at 2-track cutting across a dry gulch

We had just come down off a sage covered bluff and reached the bottom of the gulch when Carson asked me to stop for a quick bathroom break. The dry sandy bottom of the ravine ahead didn’t look like water had flowed through it for years, but clearly over time the runoff from the mountains had carved a 6 foot deep cut where the 2-track we followed made its way across and up the other side.

  Sunset as day came to a close without seeing a deer

I turned off the 4-wheeler and we both dismounted. We had been chitchatting for about 15 seconds when Carson said there’s a deer. I whirled around to look but couldn’t see anything. Frantically Carson repeatedly began asking “where’s the gun, where’s the gun, hand me the gun, hand me the gun! Within a couple of seconds we were both at the 4-wheeler retrieving the gun. In a rush Carson headed toward the ravine that was about 40 yards away. In a totally confused state I watched Carson weave his way through the sparse sage brush toward the ravine. In my mind, I figured there must have been a deer that was now running down the bottom of the ravine.

Glassing - have only seen a single doe within first 2 days     Found these while hiking, broken arrowheads?

Seconds later a buck popped up and out of the ravine right in front of Carson and took off up the other side of the gulch. Carson raised the rifle and took an off-hand shot and hammered the buck! The deer only ran a few more yards and piled up under a lone cedar tree.

       Deer barely visible tucked under cedar                         Glad to have deer meat this season

Had we not stopped, I don’t think we ever would have seen the deer. After talking to Carson, he said the deer popped its head up out of the ravine and then ducked back down. It wasn’t until Carson hustled over and jumped the buck that it bolted from its hiding spot. I think the fact that we stopped and were talking back and forth is what caused the buck to get nervous to the point it revealed itself. In the end it doesn’t matter, Carson got his dry gulch buck!

     Only the second deer seen during the hunt