CouesWhitetail

AZGriz must have typed that in wrong. I am pretty sure the two mule deer tags went for about 125,000 each while the Governor's coues tag went for $16,000. Thanks to everyone from CW.com that went to the banquet. We had a good group at the table although they all were joking that our table was in some kind of "win-free zone" since no one at our table won anything! Sorry guys! We had fun anyway. CHD you might be interested to know that while we were there Josh Epperson and I scored a huge set of NT muley sheds from northern AZ that probably are the new world record set of sheds. Josh has the scoresheet but I think the net was 264 and some change. Of course that is without a spread since they are sheds. Had like 111 inches of NT points all over the place. Amanda

All three of those are good units. I would look at draw odds too and see which you have a better chance of getting drawn for. I think that for the November hunts in those units, it's about 100 % chance of draw, but the Dec odds are much lower. And I think 36C is the lowest odds for that Dec hunt. I just got back from a javelina hunt in 36c. It was my first time in that unit, and man I couldn't believe the amount of deer. The WT were everywhere I looked. Didn't even have to try to glass them up. Even saw a decent buck harassing does. here are some photos of him. He was wider than his ears, but you can't really tell from these photos. I had a hard time concentrating on looking for javelina with all the WT around me. Amanda

Hi Everyone, I just got back from three days hunting on the San Carlos. I was fortunate enough to have a friend who couldn't use his tag, so I ended up with it. Unfortunately, I only had a few days I could hunt. I spent the first two days in some low elevation Coues habitat where I have killed some big deer and some other people I know have killed some 110 and 115 inch deer before. Unfortunately, after some serious hunting I only saw a few deer and all the bucks I saw were small. The largest one, which only my hunting buddy saw, was about a 85 inch buck but was broken off 1/2 way up one side. Wish I could have found the one who broke him off!! The weather didn't really cooperate. Lots of wind and rain for the first two days. We did get to see one lion on the first day. My buddy heard a deer blowing a bunch of times and was glassing to find it. He saw movement, but it was a lion. Then he found the doe nearby. She had busted the lion (by scent I think). And she eventually moved away. Then we watched the lion go uphill and there was a cow (cattle cow) standing about 15-20 yards from the lion. Apparently the cow was too big for the single lion to attack, so he/she didn't make a move on the cow. Instead it walked farther uphill. We watched it sniffing around some places and moving up and downhill as if following a trail. We kept hoping it would jump some deer that might have been bedded there. No luck and eventually the lion moved out of view. It sure was fun to watch him. Of course both of us had opted not to buy a lion tag..... The next day we moved to a place nearby where I had killed a 103 inch buck in years past. Glassed and glassed, but found no deer!!! I did glass up two more lions though. I caught movement in the brush and thought it was a deer and then found out it was a light colored lion. And then saw another larger, darker lion with it. That lion jumped up on a boulder and laid down. They were about 350 yards across a small drainage from me. I had left my pack about 50 yards back and my buddy was glassing the other side of the area, so I went and got him and we went to my pack and got my camera. The lions were gone by the time I got back, but eventually we saw them again not far away. Then watched them curl up and nap together for quite awhile. I got a few photos of them. Look under the left side of the dead juniper. They are curled up together facing to the left side of the photo. The lighter colored one which is closest to the dead juniper has it's head resting on the side of the darker one. Here is more of a closeup. The darker one is larger and I believe it was a male. The lighter colored one was a female. At first I thought they were siblings, but when they moved off she peed and he went over and checked it out and got all excited about it. I just didn't think a male and female that were breeding would be so peacefully spending time together. But if they were siblings would he have gotten excited by her pee? Maybe some of you guys that hunt lions have more info on this. Here is another one, you can see her lighter color better. She is sitting up with her head behind some branches. She was definitely the more alert of the two lions. Anyway, after glassing and walking tons of beautiful country and seeing little sign or deer, I decided to go to a high density deer area for the last day. In the morning we glassed up a bunch of whitetail. The first group had two bucks in it, but they were small. Then we saw two large bucks on the flat below us. One was a really nice buck with excellent mass and eyeguards and decent 2nds. Wide spread and good mass throughout beams. But only a 2 point. But I wanted him anyway. He was doing this awesome swaggering display to keep a large three point away from a doe. I left my buddy to keep an eye on them and started to stalk them. The only way to approach was to walk up a flat on the next ridge and hope they fed over that way. Well, they did. They kept calmly feeding my way while I continued closing the distance. The problem was that there was almost no cover. The flat they were on and the one I was on was tall grass and prickly pear with only a handful of junipers and oaks. At about 300 yards, I could see what I thought was the buck looking my way. So I froze and waited for him to start feeding again. I couldn't set up for a shot because the slope of the land would have put me too low to get a clear shot when I sat down with my bipod. But he moved so there was a group of oaks blocking his view. So I closed the distance using those oaks as cover. Getting by those oaks would put me 100 yards from the deer. Once I got to the oaks I stepped out and was ready to shoot. But there were no deer!!!! I tried my grunt call hoping that maybe they just moved into some cover in the drainage and he would come out. But no luck. Finally I radioed my buddy and he said the deer had left a few minutes ago!!!!! He said he really didn't know why. They never flagged or snorted or acted alarmed. The doe just decided to run back across the flat, perhaps trying to lose her suitors. But they pursued her of course. And they proceeded to run up and down the large mountain for the next hour or more. I followed as best I could, but they were covering 1/2 mile each time they decided to run. A few times, my buddy would tell me they were headed right back to me, but then they changed direction again. Eventually they ran straight up and onto the top of the mountain. No way to get them up there. They covered miles with barely a break. It was very disappointing to have been a few minutes from killing a good buck to being nowhere near them. It was now about 10 am and getting very warm out. I stayed up on the mountain and my buddy stayed on the other side. I glassed a really nice bowl, but saw nothing. He hiked quite a ways up a ridge and saw nothing. Eventually, I decided to head back toward the ridge where we saw the smaller bucks early in the morning. On my way over there I crossed several ridges, jumping several groups of does on the way. They were very close to me 10 yards for some, 50-75 yards for others. But no bucks with them! Eventually my friend spotted a few deer on the ridge where he had seen them in the morning. I looked too and saw the buck briefly and thought he was decent. But neither of us saw him very well and he proceeded to bed in a very open slope. The evening before my buddy had seen a really large bodied deer in the same spot and so we were both hoping it was him. It was about 1pm. The only way for me to approach him was to head to a boulder pile above him. Unfortunately I could see a doe bedded right near there and I would have to spook her on the way. I had watched her come past the buck and he left her to go back and bed down. So it was very possible that when I spooked her she would head right back the way she came and take the buck with her. The wind picked up quite a bit and I figured the buck would stay bedded all afternoon. So I finally decided to head over the rock and try and make sure I spooked the doe in a way that pushed her uphill and not toward the bedded buck. It worked. I got within about 10 yards of her and she stood up and looked at me for awhile and then ran uphill. I got to the rocks and glassed where the buck should have been and could see nothing! But the grass was tall and it was possible he was still there. The wind was blowing hard, so odds were he had stayed bedded. At this point my friend couldn't see the buck anymore either. Said it had moved a little and bedded behind some prickly pear. My rock outcropping was an excellent place to be for the evening. We had seen deer there several times and I had 100-300 yard shots in most directions, except to my left, near where the deer should be bedded. If he got up and went to the left a few yards, I wouldn't be able to see him. If he moved anywhere else, I had him. I ranged the juniper/prickly pear he was last seen at and it was 112 yards. Well, I huddled behind the rock as the wind raged. My buddy was glassing from the opposite side and could see better, so I was relying on him to see the buck. I glassed occasionally and saw nothing. 2 o'clock. 3 o'clock. Wind howling, temperature dropping and no buck. This was the last day of my hunt. I tried using a buck call and estrus doe bleat can a few times. Nothing got up. 4 pm I peer over the rock again and glass. Finally I see him!! He isn't where we last saw him, but maybe 15 yards closer to me! He is bedded and I can barely see his antlers and head. But it looks like he is looking at me. I see him get up. He looks alarmed, but doesn't flag. He swivels his head back and forth and of course he decides to move left, into the only area I can't see!!! I radio my buddy, but he can't see him either. I decide to grab my gun and move across the slope above him and hope to see him sneaking away. I walk somewhat slowly so I don't completely scare him in case he wasn't really alarmed by me. I move about 20 yards when I look down and see a deer in the prickly pear. It's about 40 yards downhill from me. Maybe less. It's a doe. She sees me and is standing rock still staring at me. I look for the buck and find him just a few yards to the right of her. He is a small buck, but it's the last hour of my last day and I decide to try and take him. I am in the wide open and yet they let me put up my gun, I take aim and shoot. Click!!! I forgot to take the safety off! I quick take off the safety and aim again. Shoot and BOOM!! He drops immediately and never takes another step. I can't see him, the grass is too tall. But she is still there staring at me. I wait a few minutes and then radio my buddy that I have my deer down. I wait some more and with no movement I figure he is dead and I go back to the rock and get my pack. The doe finally runs away. I got down to where he was and he is indeed dead. A perfect lung shot. He is only a small two point, but he is beautiful and I am glad to have him. I had passed on several bucks like this and much bigger in my state land hunt and this San Carlos hunt. But I didn't want to go home without a buck this time, so I took him. Where these two deer had bedded all afternoon, I never would have picked it as a spot for them to bed. It was a very open slope of mostly grass and prickly pear. It was directly in the wind and the wind was howling. They could have easily moved to either side of the ridge and been more out of the wind, but for some reason chose not too. Anyway, thanks to Martin Guerena for helping me out on this hunt. He is a great guy to hunt with. He even packed out my deer for me . San Carlos has some great bucks and if I had more time, I am sure I would have gotten a large buck. But just being out there and seeing all the other wildlife is great. We saw three lions within shooting range, saw several herds of javelina. Even saw an odd looking Coues buck that seemed to have a left front leg that was about 10 inches shorter than it should have been. It hobbled along feeding. I can't imagine how he evades lions. It didn't look like a bullet related injury. Perhaps just born that way or broke his leg somehow. Anyway, it was a great hunt, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Here is a picture of my buck. Amanda

That thing is awesome! Hope you get a chance at him Allen. Amanda

Here you go. Hopefully Allen will give us the details about this shed, like where it's from and who found it and the score.

Great deer Andy! And for those of you that haven't seen the latest issue of AZ Outdoorsman Magazine, you might not know that an article by Andy is in there. He wrote an excellent story about his adventures getting a deer and a bear with his bow in a very short time. I think it was 2 days? I can't remember but pretty neat stuff and well written. AZOD web site for more info on the magazine Amanda

Standman, Try checking in "My controls". Look at the upper right part of the main forum page and click on "my controls". Then look for Options on the left hand side and click on "board settings". In there you will see a setting for viewing images in posts. Make sure it says "yes" so that you will be allowed to view images. Let me know if this works. Amanda

Welcome to the forum Greenleaf! You certainly have picked a great species to pursue. Are you a rifle hunter or an archery hunter or both? If you hunt with a bow, you are guarranteed to get a tag since archery tags are sold over the counter. If you hunt with a rifle, then you have to put in for the draw and might not get lucky. But there are some units that have 100% draw odds. So if you want to make sure you get a tag, look for those units. Amanda

Hi Everyone, Desert Trophies, the outfitter that I hunted with this past Jan. in Mexico has donated a hunt to the AZ Deer Association. And the ADA has decided to raffle off this hunt! That means you don't have to be a high-dollar bidder to win. But you do have to go to the auction in order to be able to buy a raffle ticket. They will sell the raffle tickets for only 10 minutes at some point during the auction. Tickets will be $20 each and you must be present to win. Talk about a great way to win a hunt! This outfitter has killed many bucks over 110 in the last several years. And you remember the video I posted on this site don't you? Wouldn't you pay $20 for a chance to hunt that buck? If you want more info, check out the ADA web site and look in the list of donated items. You can buy tickets to the banquet/auction by mail if you print out the form on that website. Here is the link: AZ Deer Assocation web site Pretty exciting, don't you think? Amanda

Just so people don't get confused, Allen is seeking permission from the owner to post the shed photo, not from me. Whoever owns the shed is welcome to post it here. I don't want people thinking I am holding this up (I have gotten some emails to that effect). We are all dying to see it . If it's the one I have heard rumors about, it's truely an unbelievable monster. Amanda

I imagine it might have to do with the security settings in your web browsers. Perhaps you have a high security setting and it won't let you download images. If you are using internet explorer try looking under "Tools" then "Internet Options" and then click the tab that says "security". Try and find something in there that deals with downloading images. Or maybe just lower the security settings in general and then try again. You might have to change the settings and then reboot your machine so the new settings show up. Let me know if that helps at all. Otherwise I will try and figure something else out to try. Amanda

Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed the story. It was a fun hunt. I am kinda bummed my video camera malfunctioned. Would have gotten much better video otherwise. But at least we got some of that big buck! Amanda

Yes, you can order them through me. There is a paypal link you can use to pay by credit card. But if you would rather pay by check, you can mail it to me. Just send an email and let me know you want to do it that way. Otherwise, just order online with your CC. Also, please remember that you will need an adapter to attach your binos to the tripod head. I sell adapters too, although I don't have them listed on the site. But if you need one, just let me know what kind of binos you have and I can get the right adapter for you. Amanda

Here is the link to the tripod info on my site: tripods I think Tom got the Velbon EFL3A and the Jim White tripod head. I have been using the smaller velbon maxi343e and the Jim White tripod head. The larger tripod is more versatile, but I wanted to go with smaller and lighter weight. It just depends on what you want. Amanda

I voted for him. I got the same error messages, but you have to reset your security level on your browser to accept all cookies. Go into Internet options and find a setting that talks about cookies and make it accept cookies. Then you can go back and vote. You may have to wait awhile and close and open your browser again in order for the settings to work and let you vote. Of course you want to go back after you vote successfully and reset your security settings to your desired level. By the way, it's Tom Argyros' photo that you want to look for. Wouldn't want you to vote for the wrong one!! Amanda

AZ Guide, If you want the photos posted in the regular Photo Gallery of CW.com you can email me the pics or send them by regular mail and I will scan them. Then I will post them with the info you give me. If you only want to post them here in the forum, you can follow the directions given by CouesFanatic. Amanda

Hi Guys, I got back from Mexico a couple days ago. I had a great hunt. I went down there with my friend Martin Guerena. He shot the video with my new miniDV camcorder. Sorry the quality of the video is poor. I hadn't turned off the digital zoom and Martin was trying to zoom in to show the buck really well. That digital zoom is pretty useless. And there seems to have been something wrong with the camera, you can hear a knocking noise on the video. It made that noise whenever we were recording after the first day. I went down there and hunted with Desert Trophies owned by Marcos Fonseca. (there are other outfitters with the same name run by other people). Marcos is a fan of this website and I will be creating a web site for his business, so you will get to see lots of big bucks taken on their ranches. They have some great mule deer as well as coues deer. The hunt was on a ranch east of Hermosillo and south of a small town called Sahuaripa. Beautiful country with tons of deer. We hunted with a couple Mexican guides, Javier and Temo. We had to adjust to a different style of hunting. Less glassing and more walking of small canyons hoping to spot deer across from us. It worked suprisingly well. I think it works well there because the deer density is so high that there are deer literally everywhere. Tons of tracks and HUGE scat everywhere. Pretty amazing. Water everywhere too in tanks, creeks and springs. Mostly oaks and tall grass, not much juniper. I had set a goal of 110 or higher for this hunt. When we met Javier in Nogales, one of the first things he said was that he had seen a 130 incher two weeks ago! Talk about exciting! On day 1, we still hunted through a small area where Javier had seen a 120 inch buck earlier in the season. We saw a few does and then the fog rolled in very heavy. We waited it out for about 45 mins before giving up and moving to another location. Only to find that the fog cleared back where we had just left and so we went back up. Saw a spike harassing some does. Then Martin spotted a decent 3 point, although probably not 100 inches. It must have bedded behind a tree, never saw it come out again. We checked some more areas that morning, but not much luck. Several does, and some Gould's turkeys. The guides seem to prefer to only hunt the morning and the evening and to go back to the ranch during the middle of the day. That took some getting used to also. But it was pretty hot and the rut wasn't really going yet. That evening we went out and saw several more does, many javelina, and one spike. That was pretty disappointing to see no good bucks on the first day. Day 2 - nice morning. We walked slowly up a road that went through a small canyon, glassing in short bursts. We saw several does, but no bucks until we topped out and then saw a decent 3 pt with a doe. It was broadside at about 200 yards. But I let him go. This was the area where Javier had seen a 130 incher while guiding a bow hunter earlier in the season. Then the guides checked back down in the canyon we had walked through and spotted the monster buck that I posted the video of. Talk about HUGE! I am glad the video wasn't rolling when I first saw the buck, I had several rather heated words flowing out of my mouth in awe. Very wide and massive. Kinda of short points, but still a monster buck. The guide thinks it was about 118-120 inches. The buck was 379 yards away according to my range finder. That video clip is pretty much all I saw of it though, so it was a very short encounter. (Apparently I can't add the link to the video in this forum, but if you go to the main page of CW.com, you can find the link in the "what's new" table.) Then he disappeared over the ridge following the doe. Wow, totally exciting to see something that big. And it was only about a 1/2 mile from where Javier had seen the 130 buck!! Since the ridge he went over was extremely thick and we had many more days in the hunt, Javier opted to back off that buck and go look for others. We moved higher up the mountain and saw several does, but the wind picked up and the deer took cover. We set up to spend the afternoon at a water hole that the 118 buck might come into. No luck. Around 3:30 we started seeing the does come out and they looked like they were going to move down into the bowl where we saw the monster buck. So we packed up and moved back down there. But never saw him or the does there. Still windy. Day 3 - It rained hard that night and was raining hard when we got up. We drove out to the spot where the big buck had been and hiked up the hill across from him in the dark. The rain had stopped. The sun was breaking out, fog lifting. Several does started feeding in the open grassy hill. It felt perfect. But about 10 minutes later the fog and rain rolled in. It rained pretty hard and you couldn't see the hill the does were on only a few hundred yards away. We waited in the rain for maybe 45 minutes. The weather looked like it would never clear so we finally gave up and drove back to the ranch to dry out. It rained and snowed some for many hours. As the weather cleared back at the ranch we glassed from the house. Several deer were spotted, but no bucks. Later in the afternoon we headed out to a place where Javier had seen some deer over 110. There were many rubs and huge scat. And we found a couple smallish sheds, although one had 5 points on it. Later that evening we were walking down one side of a canyon when Temo made an awesome spot on a bedded buck. It was 250 yards away across the canyon. It got up and started feeding. It was about a 108 inch buck. Nice eyeguards and it's 2nd and 3rds were of equal size at about 7 inches long. Decent mass. I decided to pass on that buck since I couldn't get the monster buck out of my head and we had several days left. We walked some other ridges and saw several does, but no more bucks. Weather was very windy that day. Day 4 - Went back up the same hill overlooking where we saw the monster buck. Windy morning. Saw no does at all on that slope. Very disappointing. Then we slowly walked through some thick stuff that overlooked another canyon that was more out of the wind. No luck. Eventually we headed back toward the ranch in the jeep and stopped at several locations to glass. We saw a small buck and several does. That evening we went to a new location that was a great place to glass since it was still really windy out. There was a road that went along the side of a canyon where you could stop and glass into the canyon and see deer that were staying out of the wind down there. Saw several does, but no bucks. Then went to a place where we could glass a long way and found a really nice buck chasing a doe really hard. He was about a 105 inch buck. Decided not to move on him. Then Temo, who was checking another canyon, radioed that he had spotted a buck and he couldn't quite tell how large. We went over and checked it out and saw that it was about a 102 inch buck. It was bedded across the canyon 250 yards away. Decided not to shoot. The sky was full of storm clouds and it looks like that cold front was never going to pass. Very windy out. We checked out some other areas with not much luck. Day 5 - despite the storm still going last night, we woke up to a clear and crisp, cold morning. Stars shining everywhere. We had decided that if the weather was good, we would try yet again for the monster buck. So we headed out there in the dark and setup. Saw several does. two of them spooked. Others didn't. Saw 1 buck trot across the slope where the big buck had been. He was maybe an 85 inch buck so of course I opted not to shoot him. The grass was so tall, he couldn't see the does that he was searching for. He trotted by above them and came back later in the morning. Temo and Javier had go to check other connecting ridges with no luck. Eventually after a couple hours we gave up that location and moved into the thick oak woodland where he might be. Temo and Martin had seen a set of huge tracks and fresh rubs in there yesterday. So given this was the last day, Temo and Javier opted to try and push the deer out of the thick stuff by walking slowly through it while I waited looking into the canyon. They radioed that they could see that it was working and that their were deer moving toward me, but I never saw them. Apparently they cut out before reaching me. Martin glassed up a 2x3 high up on a ridge where the 130 had been. Around 10 am we all met up and decided to go up and glass the east side of this mountain. Shortly after topping out, Temo came back to tell us he had seen a good 4 point very nearby. We headed over and it was extremely thick yucca, mesquite, and prickly pear. We had a bad angle, but eventually saw a deer. It turned out to be a spike and it fed right toward us, probably only 80 yards away. No sign of the other buck. Temo went back around along the ridge to get a better angle and eventually called us back that way. He had seen the deer again, but they must have bedded shortly there after because we never saw them again. It was about noon, very hot out now, clear sky, no wind. I was hunting in a tshirt now. We glassed up another smaller buck, not worth pursuing. We decided to go back to the ranch for the afternoon and then go out to try and find that 108 inch buck again. We got there around 3:30 pm. Glassed for awhile before seeing a spike bedded nearby. Then saw several does in the area where the 108 had been. We glassed that one canyon all evening and although we saw about 6 deer and several javelina, we never saw the buck in there. As night fell, we hiked back out to my jeep. Since the guides had to get out to another ranch to guide a mule deer hunter the next day, we went back to the ranch and had dinner and then packed up and drove to Hermosillo. We got there about 2 am and the guides helped us find a nice hotel. My clutch on my jeep seemed to be slowly failing so I was very concerned about driving out of Mexico in the morning. We got a little sleep and then met Javier at 8 am to go look at some big deer at their office. Then Martin and I started our long journey home. Had some very interesting times driving without a working clutch. Luckily Javier had showed me that you can indeed shift without a clutch, except to get into first gear when fully stopped. Everytime I had to stop in traffic, I had to shut off the car and move it into first gear and then restart it to get going. Talk about nerve wracking! It was so bad that when we were waiting in line for the inspection near Nogales, the car behind us pushed us through the line. As each car moved a few feet ahead, he would push us along. Then he gave us a big shove to get us up to the inspector. Funny times. Anyway, long story short, we made it home and my jeep had a leaking master cylinder (despite being completely new as of about 6 months ago). So, I didn't get my monster buck, but what an awesome thing to see. And the people were very friendly. The cook made some excellent food. T-bone steaks cooked to perfection, shrimp shiskabob with wine/honey sauce, lightly breaded chicken loins, and on and on. Some great food and drink. Spent most evenings drinking tequila shots . What a life! Viva Mexico!! Thanks to Marcos, Javier, Temo and Jesus for a great hunt. And thanks Martin G. for going with me. He is a great hunting partner. Amanda

Great bucks! Congratulations and thanks for posting the pics and story. Amanda

Holy Cow! Great buck and with a bow too! Can't wait to hear the details! Amanda

Great story Stanley! Amanda

I should be scoring both those bucks, but I have been out hunting and haven't had time. Maybe sometime in Feb. I will get it done. Thanks for passing out my number Travis. Amanda

Monstermuleys.com It's a website that has a large discussion forum covering all kinds of game animals. Amanda

I deleted KD's post due to inappropriate language and personal attacks. I don't mind people disagreeing, but please keep things respectful. I am sure Allen is not implying anything negative about guided hunters, just saying that those boys learned to hunt from Lark. Amanda

Did you guys see this buck yet?? What a monster. Nate got it on the last day. It nets about 120 inches. You can see more images of it in Coues Rifle page 16

Good luck Allen! Hope you get some great pictures and a great buck. And good luck to everyone else who is going to Mexico this year! Amanda