CouesWhitetail

Speaking of landowner relations.... I am hoping several people from CouesWhitetail.com will come down and help with an annual trash pickup on private raches in units 36a, b, and c. It is a great way to help keep good relations with private property owners. Let's make time for it. Amanda Here is an article detailing it: March 6th, 2004 is the 3rd annual ?Trash pick up Day?. The event will be held in units 36 A, B, & C, at the corner of Hwy 286 and Arivaca road. The event is scheduled to begin at 8:00am, but you are welcome to come the night before and camp out with other Arizona hunters. The trash cleanup will focus on ranches in the unit 36 area that have given hunters access. We will be showing our thanks to the ranchers who open up their land to us, by cleaning up their ranches. This is a great family event. Bring the kids and get them involved in giving back to the sport we love so much. We will begin going to ranches in the morning, then returning to camp for a wild game BBQ at lunchtime (we welcome any wild game meats for the BBQ), and then back into the field in the afternoon. You don?t need to bring anything but yourself. The Arizona G&F department, State Land Department, and the Buenos Aries National Wildlife Refuge are donating all of the trash bags, gloves and related items. Food and drinks will be provided, but feel free to bring your favorite wild game or dish. The Arizona G&F department will have the wildlife officers for the 36 units on hand, as well as the Land Access Coordinator, available for you to ask questions regarding hunting in these units or in Arizona. Come join us for a great day of fun and work. Events like this will help ensure our hunting future in Arizona. This cleanup is organized by Lance Altherr and supported by the following groups: Arizona Deer Association, Arizona Bowhunters Association, Safari Club Tucson Chapter, The members of the Arizona Bowsite, and the Arizona G&F Department. Any questions, please contact Lance Altherr at (520) 751-8823 or e-mail shedhunter@worldnet.att.net

Allen, Yes, he has lots of hormones raging during the rut, but I can't say I have ever noticed a difference in the taste of the meat. Anyone ever tasted a bad Coues deer? I have had meat that was overcooked and tough, but never with a bad taste. Amanda

Shane, Regarding using your camera to take pics through your scope... I rigged up an adapter that attaches my camera to the scope, but it's not perfectly aligned. There are some manufactured adapters that work better, but they are generally pretty heavy and costly. If you get a good adpater, then you can use the timer on your camera so that once you hit the button, most of the vibration from that is gone by the time it snaps the picture. It works ok for stationary objects, but I don't do that much with deer unless they are bedded. For moving deer, I usually just manually hold the camera up to the lens and shoot. I use autofocus, but I press the button half way down, which allows the camera to try and focus and then I use the focus knob on the scope to fine tune it more. I find that works better than if I let it try and focus itself. But whatever you do, the images will not be as good as you see in the scope. You can clean them up quite a bit using Adobe Photoshop or some sort of program like that. You can improve contrast and lighting and sharpness that way. I also take pics through my binoculars with the digital camera. That seems to work even better. I guess there is less distortion because of the shorter lens than with a longer scope. I have been meaning to write an article for people on doing this. But haven't had time. You can search the internet for "digiscoping" and learn more about it. There is lots of info out there on it. Amanda

Scott, Here is a link to a page about shed hunting that I have on this site: shed hunting info It gives some very basic info. I tend to find sheds a lot in oak/juniper flats and also in drainages and around springs and waterholes. Coues drop their antlers in April and May. But of course, you can find sheds anytime of the year since they last several years on the ground. Shed hunting is a great way to scout out an area to find out what kind of bucks have been around there. And while you are walking around looking for sheds you can see deer sign (tracks, scat) that tells you what areas they are using most. Amanda

Ernesto, I can't say I have noticed a difference in taste from Nov bucks compared to Dec/Jan bucks. Personally I think field care of the meat influences taste the most. But maybe other people have different experiences. Amanda

John, You can email me the photos so I can post it in the photo gallery. Or if you need to you can mail them to me through the postal service and I can scan them for you. Once they are posted in the photo gallery you can make a post here in the discussion forum and link to it so it shows up here too. Send me an email with what you have and I will get it done for you. amanda@coueswhitetail.com Congratulations!!! Amanda

CB1, Yes, I have hunted the San Carlos several times when I was working there. It's an awesome place. There is some potential that I may be hunting it this Jan since a friend I know with a tag can't make it. Maybe I will be able to hunt in his place. I am crossing my fingers. Amanda

Hey guys, Well, I came home empty handed. Like Scott, I didn't see the buck I wanted, so I just held off. I passed on lots of bucks including one small 3 point that gave me multiple opportunities to kill him on the last day. But he just didn't "grab" me. Sometimes you see a buck and you know that's the one for you, but this year, I didn't see him. But the two guys I hunted with killed deer. One is Martin Guerena (who killed a really nice 2 point on a day I wasn't with him! I posted the pic of his buck in the photo gallery several days ago) and the other is Mark Healy who decided to kill a smallish buck out in the middle of nowhere just so he and I could work off the extra calories from Christmas and Thanksgiving! I glassed up two bucks early in the morning and it took us almost two hours to get over to the ridge where they were. And then it took quite a bit longer to find them again. Mark finally located them and took the shot. It took us over two hours to pack that thing back out in the dark after Mark boned it out. That evening, while Mark was boning out his deer, I did some glassing nearby and saw a really large 2 point that I would have gone after had there been enough time left in the day to get over there. But my legs were tired and the sun was setting. I hunted several different places and found a couple decent sheds. Here is a pic of the largest one, which was about an 89 inch deer if he was perfectly matched. I had a very enjoyable hunt with lots of extremes in weather. One day it would be freezing cold and then others in the 70s! One of the days when Mark and I were backpacked in, we woke up to 16 degree weather with winds ranging from about 15 mph to 40 mph. Brrrrrrrrr........ My water bottles froze solid and stayed that way all day, my stove quite working because the fuel wouldn't flow well enough, and even my contact lenses froze in their case. What temperature does saline (salt water) freeze at? It must be below 20 degrees because I never had that happen before in a camp and I have certainly camped in some freezing weather. There were many days of high winds in my favorite area where I really expected to find a huge buck. So the wind hampered the deer activity in there, which was disappointing. But overall I had a great hunt. I had good people to hunt with in some beautiful country and I saw lots of deer. I could have harvested a buck on almost every single day of the hunt, but opted not to. But I had a great hunt and thoroughly enjoyed it. Guess I will have to wait until I hunt Mexico in January to get my big buck. I hope everyone had an enjoyable hunt this year!! Amanda

Congrats CouesTaxi! You lived up to your "handle"!

I agree that Coues meat is less gamey than Muley meat. Personally I prefer Coues deer meat, but I enjoy most any game meat. Javelina is quite good. I made some javelina tenderloins that were to die from my pig last year. I marinated them in Lawry's Citrus Grill Marinade overnight. And then grilled them on the grill. It was soooooooooooo gooooooood!!!!! Of course with all game meat you have to be careful not to overcook it and it helps to marinate it with something that has some oil in it so it stays moist. Amand

Hey Travis, Someone once told me that you have to be careful with having your scent on the antlers you are training with. Because maybe the dog is just sniffing out the thing with your scent. Maybe try wearing some rubber gloves or something like that so that the dog finds antlers that smell like antlers instead of you. Just a suggestion. I don't know how important it is or not. I tried training my dog for a while, but like Josh's dog, mine got really bored since the antlers weren't alive! I found a couple nice sheds during my hunt this year, and my dog loves to carry them around, but I don't think she gets the idea of hunting for dead things. I really hope your dog gets it. What a blast that will be to shed hunt with a good dog! Amanda

Thanks for continuing the story Scott. I hope you end up getting a great buck. I am leaving tomorrow morning for another 5 days backpacking. The weather has turned colder and I expect some good deer activity. Can't wait! Nice photo of that elk shed, that's pretty cool. And hey, what happened to the goats???? Amanda

Wow, that's pretty intense!

Maybe Scott fell asleep at the keyboard! Wake up! Wake up! Keep typing! You're killing us here man. What did you get?? Amanda

Bruce, I know it has to be the correct size or it won't allow it to be loaded. Have you edited the file so that it is 64x64 pixels or less? Then try and upload it. Other than that, I can't tell what might be going wrong. JPG format should work fine. If you can't figure it out, you can email me the photo and I can mess with it and post it online somewhere so that you can link to it. Amanda

Mike, Send me an email and I will give you an address to mail your pic to. amanda@coueswhitetail.com Congratulations on your buck! Amanda

AZShooter, You ask a lot of great questions. I don't know the exact answers, but I can give you what I think based on my experience. Hopefully some others will chime in too. The temp range that I think Coues will be out in the open alot is about 40-55 degrees, when they have their winter coats on. I find that when it's cold enough for me to have to wear a coat, hat and gloves, then there is much more deer activity. If I am comfortable in a tshirt, then the deer will be less active and in the shade. So I would say at about 60-70 degrees they start wanting to be shaded a lot. And when it's near freezing out, then I have seen them delay getting up in the morning until the sun has been up for an hour or more. I think temperature is extremely important to these deer. There movements seem highly dictated by it. However, finding a place that is 50 degrees in the Arizona summer is pretty impossible. Luckily they lose their winter coats and get much thinner hair on in the summer. Maybe some of you summer bowhunters have a better feel for their summer temp range. I know they can be seen coming to water at mid-day in 100 plus temps. You ask about wind, and it is very important. Windy conditions will restrict deer movements regardless of temp. I think this is because they feel less secure since they can't hear predators coming. Also, scent gets blown around so much it's probably much harder to detect and figure direction it's coming from. They get extremely nervous if they have to be out in the wind. Preferences for ridge height is variable. Their decision on where to be is more dependent on habitat type and temp. than on height up a ridge. The place I am hunting this December is showing this. I have deer on low parts of some ridges, right next to place where deer are almost at the top (all at the same time). And there are ridges where the deer are scattered all the way up. At first light, I try and look for open areas that are near thicker areas. If they have been bedded and have just gotten up, that's where they will be. Look for a patch of trees or brush, that has some open grassy areas near it. Deer will frequently be in the same area at the same time of day, day after day. So if you have an area where you have seen a group of does or bucks in before, there is a high probability they will be there again the next day. This isn't always true, because factors such as wind and temp change things up quite a bit. In general the deer will be in the more open southern and eastern facing hillsides in the morning, and on the northern/western facing slopes in the late morning, early afternoon. But this isn't always true either. It really depends on what type of shelter they need at the time. I have seen deer bed and feed and bed again, spending all day on the same north facing slope. Again, wind and temperature drive where they will be. If the wind is out of the south, then they will probably be on the northern slopes. If it's cold out, they will probably be on the southern exposures. For your last question, you ask about bucks and water. Bucks definitely change their behavior in relation to hunting pressure. So yes, they may go to feeding and watering at night, if there is enough pressure. If we hunted does that hard, they would do the same thing. When bucks feel threatened, they will restrict their movements and stay in thicker brush. Hope that helps! Thanks for the questions. Amanda

Thanks Ernesto!! I can't believe CW.com has survived a full year!! Thanks to everyone who helps make this site interesting! I have a birthday present idea for CW.com, but haven't worked out the particulars yet. I will keep you all posted. Amanda

Sounds like you had fun Bret and Scott. Thanks for posting the pics, it makes it fun. I have a few to share too. I just got back from two and a half days solo backpacking in a great deer spot. But I tell you, it was hard work coming by any deer. It was windy and HOT!!! My thermometer back at camp said it was 64 degrees in the shade!! I was hunting in a tshirt. Whereas a week ago, I was bundled up like an eskimo day and night (you saw those earlier pics...it was cold!). So this time, the deer were very inactive, except right near dark when they came out and I think they fed mostly at night. And during the day they were in brushy shady stuff hiding very effectively from my prying eyes. I did see bucks both days, but nothing I wanted. One of the bucks spent this morning about 250 yards away from me. Here is his pic: I had to walk past this little buck and his doe he was with. I knew they would hear me walking, but might not see me, so I tried grunting a few times to see what would happen. The buck got up and left! I don't know if he ran from me or my call. But he didn't have his tail up, and he kind of slinked away, looking back now and then. I didn't ever see the doe leave. So I wonder if he left because he thought another buck was gonna kick his butt. Here is a pic of a scrape on a trail I walk to get to my glassing spot. The buck made it between this week and last. And then I thought I would share with you this interesting water hole that I found. It's on the side of a steep mountain and I never would have found it except that one day when I was scouting in there, it was so windy I was looking for a place out of the wind. It's a great little spot and it's where I am pumping my water from for my backpack hunting in there. Deer are using it heavily, even though there is a spring at the bottom of the mountain. But this is easier access I think. Makes me wonder where there are other water holes I don't know about! This one is some kind of exploratory mine entrance that they never finished going anywhere with. It's on a north slope that is shaded all day. It's purely rainwater and potentially has water most of the year. Anyway, the last two days of hunting really were discouraging. Way too hot, and I saw way too few deer. I am hoping for better after Christmas! Amanda

Hi Josh, If they are pics you are gonna have me post anyway, then I can just give you the address so you can link them in the discussion forum. Looks like Scott Adams using hunt101.com for hosting pics, but I went there and can't figure out where they have that service. Amanda

Nice pics Scott. Thanks for sharing your hunt with us! Amanda

I really doubt putting out salt can hurt when it comes to attracting deer. It may be that the deer don't need that water source as much as they did the year you first sat it, so they are just not in the area as much. It's hard to say exactly what is going on without knowing more about the area. Anyone else have any experience like that with salt? Also, anyone have any advice on what kind of mineral blocks are most liked by Coues deer? I have heard from some people that they put out mineral blocks and they don't get used. But that is the exception. Amanda

There is also a good article in the Dec 2003/jan 2004 issue of BuckMasters whitetail magazine about calling deer. If someone wants a copy, let me know. It's not specific to Coues, but it talks about the different noises they make and how to use them. Amanda

Nice bucks! Congratulations. Let me know if you want me to post that in our regular photogallery. If you do, send me an email with more details about the hunt. Amanda

Here is the link where the distribution map is: Where to Hunt When you see the state map on that page, click on it and you can see a larger version of it. That will give you some general ideas. And from that page you can look at the draw odds and success rates, which can also help you figure out the density of deer in a unit. And you can look at the survey data from AZGFD. Sorry I can't give you better help, but I don't know those northern units very well. Hopefully someone who does will give you some good advice. In the meantime, you can check out the info I mentioned. Like Wyorawhide says, there are some big bucks that come out of 6A. Amanda