ScottAdams

I was helping my cousin Duwane out several years ago in unit 36C on the Oct. hunt. As we were walking to our glassing point in the early morning Duwane felt something "soft" under his boot, looked down and saw he was standing on about a 4 footer. Don't let Duwane ever tell you he can't dance because he can. I some him do the ole anti-snake dance that morning! What a sight! Scott

Nice to have you join up Alan! We do all get along here and are all passionate about our Coues deer. There are some very knowledgable people here, I know I rarely go a week that I don't learn something by reading over the posts. I've made some great friends here also. Glad to have you along. Oh, I live in Morenci in Eastern Arizona and work for the copper mine here. Scott

What a beautiful buck Andy!! I have to agree, I'm not much for sitting stands and prefer to be a little more proactive when it comes to hunting. Great deer and welcome to the the site. Scott

Break out Allen! It's killin' us. Scott

I'm all ears!! Maybe he's "Gone Huntin'" Scott

Beautiful deer Brian!! I love it when a plan comes together. Oh yeah! Scott

Thank you Ernesto. It was a lot of fun. That area is literally infested with the wiry haired muskhogs. Scott

Man that's exciting Josh! I'd like to see the photos. scotron@aznex.net Scott

Allen my hunt fell through. I never left the state. Scott

Very nice Amanda!! Great story and awesome photos to go with it. I loved it!!! Thanks! Scott

Shane, I think your Sony should work. I use a Leica Digilux 1. I don't have any special adapter to mount my camera to the binoculars, so I just prop it up on my knees to hold it steady and hold the camera right up to the binocular lens. I also have a black blanket I throw over me when I'm taking pictures so I can see the display better. I usually use manual settings on my camera when shooting through the binoculars, and adjust the exposure setting otherwise I might get a whiteout photo. I also use the manual focus and can usually get a clearer photo that way. In the future I may upgrade with a digital camera that adapts to a spotting scope but until then this is how I do it, and it works. Hope this helps, let me know if you have any more questions. Scott

OK guys, I'm back. I went up high today and hiked in about 2 miles. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate. The only thing moving was the wind, and lots of it. As usual the Coues deer weren't out in it. There was a couple of inches of snow on the ground on the north slopes, and on my way out it really started snowing pretty good so I didn't waste any time getting out of there. The area I glassed. Here's my end of the hunt self portrait dressed in all my big buck killin rigalia. So with the hunt now officially over, it's been fun. I know I saw at least 13 different bucks and maybe a couple more. A few of them were pretty nice but I had decided early on to hold out for an exceptional one, and while I never saw an exceptional buck that certainly didn't detract from the hunt. I saw some new country and hunted with some new friends. The country was absolutely breathtaking. There's nothing quite like the excitement of setting up to glass in the predawn light. The butterflies you get when a nice Coues buck materializes in your binocular's view. The thrill of finding a nice shed. The tension and sheer exhilaration of the stalk. All these and more make the hunt a part of the fabric of life to those of us who've experienced it and keeps us coming back again and again. It's been fun. Scott

Crazy and I are finally back from our 2 day hunting trip. Monday morning found us atop a ridge looking up a long canyon. It looked whitetailish as all get out but the place was packed with muleys! I think every ridge had some mule deer on it. We only saw one muley buck with all the does in the that canyon and man was he a dandy. He was probably a 170 class buck and the crazy thing headed over the ridge and out of sight before the sun came up. I took a photo but it didn't turn out. I just didn't have enough time to adjust the settings on my camera. This is me freezing to death overlooking that muley infested canyon. Tuesday we were joined by 300 WSM who wanted to go along, check out the optics and point us in the right direction; and the right direction it was. Right off the bat this morning Tommy locates 3 coues bucks across the canyon from us. One is a small 2 point, one is a BIG 2 point and the other is about an 85 or 90 inch 3 point. I was going to try to get a photo of them but we decided to make a run for them and try to put Tommy on the 3 point. However the deer had other ideas and went back into the trees to bed. It was a nice trip in spite of it all. The weather was artic cold on Monday with morning temperatures dropping into the single digits and Tommy and I only able to glass about 20 minutes at time before we had to get up and walk around a bit to warm up. Tomorrow I'll make one last trip into an area I haven't been into yet. I'll let you know what I find. Scott Where we saw the Coues bucks.

Yea, I know what you mean Allen. I did like Duwane said and walked if off, so while it's not 100%, it'll do. I'm out the door and planning on being gone 3 days. I'll catch y'all up when I get back. Scott

Congratulations Mike! My first Coues deer was a 2-point, that was 17 years ago. I'm still proud of that buck. Can't wait to see the photos!! Scott

Jason, I think he was a high nineties buck gross. But was pretty uneven and probably wouldn't have scored well net. He is a mature Coues buck that probably doesn't have the potential genetically to be a "monster buck". Scott

good luck on your backpack hunt Amanda. As for the goats I haven't hunted anywhere this hunt that I need them to get in...yet. Scott

Ok, ok, ok!! I couldn't hold back that little cruel streak that comes over me from time to time. I didn't pull the trigger. I just couldn't bear to end my hunt yet. The buck, a big mature Coues buck, was somewhat point deficient and I decided to let him go. The hunt continues. I headed to another area Christams Eve night and set up camp. I did some glassing that evening but didn't see any deer. I hiked to the top of a nasty mountain that I never had the opportunity to scout. Man, was that a mistake! The brush was awful! Mahogany 15 foot high and stacked in so tight it was virtually inpenetrable!! I tore my shirt, my pants and the whole time I was sayting to myself "I should've killed that buck. I should've killed that buck." Anyway, I get to the top and start glassing and the wind is howling and the cold is biting my exposed skin. Of course no Coues deer worthy of his compact little rack would get caught dead wandering around under those conditions. So I never saw anything except a lone mule deer doe on ridge out of the wind and whole herd of rutting mule deer about 3 miles out (too far to photograph). I did glass up 2 elk sheds. The lone doe. The big elk shed. The back mountain is where I glassed the elk shed at. Anyway, I didn't get out today due to poor weather and tomorrow I have a funeral to go to (another one, my uncle this time) and Sunday I have church. Sunday afternoon Maldonado and I are pulling my camptrailer up and are going to hit it hard for the last 3 days. I'm still determined to hold out for an exceptional buck and am prepared to come home emptyhanded which is fine, I don't need another set of dink horns laying around the house. Will keep everone informed. Scott

You really can't beat a father and son hunt no matter what size buck or whether or not you kill. That's a buck to be proud of. He probably made it through a lot of hunting seasons before you took him down. Scott

Well I'm finally finding some time to give everyone an update on yesterday's hunt. It started out well when I spotted some rutting mule deer. There was nice big 3-point and a small 2-point dogging a doe. I usually watch these for a little while because more than once I've found a whitetail buck lurking nearby, and I wasn't disappointed this time. Within mere feet of the muleys, I located a small 3-point Coues buck lurking in the shadows. Here are some photos. Small 2-point muley. Big 3-poiny muley. Small 3-point Coues buck. After watching a little longer and spotting some more muleys and 2 Coues does, I directed my attention to a ridge further out. I hadn't been glassing it long when I noticed a doe run out from behind a tree with a very nice Coues buck close on here tail. Man, he looked good but was too far out even for my 30x80 Docters to tell how good. I figured the only way to tell was to hike over there. If he was good enough I'd kill him if not I'd just watch and see if any other bucks were nearby. While hiking over there I twisted my foot and slightly reinjured it where I hurt in while hunting the Kaibab last month. I continued on and ran across 2 of what look like matching Coues sheds. The left was a 4-point and the right antler was a 3-point. That took my mind off my foot and I continued with my stalk. As I topped the rise and searched for the deer, there they were!! The big buck was moving through the trees, trailing the doe and they were coming up to a clearing. I set up my binoculars and shot a quick photo through them then grabbed my rifle, cranked the scope up to 20 and waited for the deer to enter the clearing. As the buck stepped clear of the trees I settled the crosshairs behind his shoulder. I studied his antlers and thought "Should I shoot or wait?" My finger slower started squeezing the trigger.

Thanks guys! I enjoy posting the journal and keeping you guys fired up. I only hunted half a day today, I had some things to take care of this afternoon. I went with a friend today. He took me into an area where he chased a big buck last year. He never was able to connect then and neither were we today, although the big buck is still calling the area home. We did however glass up a lot of does, 12 to be exact and 1 spike buck. I wasn't able to photograph the buck because we spooked him from under where we were glassing and he was tearing up the ground getting out of there. I'm heading back out in the morning and possibly spending the night. I know, I know it's Christmas Eve, but the family's off in Texas with the in-laws so I'm home alone with nothing to do but pursue monster Coues bucks. This was one of the does we spotted. She was hanging tight out of the wind.

It was another productive day. I was able to locate the rutting Coues deer that I spotted on Friday. There were 2 bucks in the group. Unfortunately neither were shooters, a high 70's 3x3 and a high 90's 3x3. I decided to let 'em walk and continue looking. Also glassed up 10 bulls way off in the distance. I'm going to another area tomorrow with a buddy of mine, we'll see what we find there. Scott Here's a monster shed we found This a photo of the bigger of the two bucks. The photo is a little fuzzy. I had the sun directly at my back so I couldn't get a shaded background for the antlers to contrast with. If you look at the bucks shadow you can see the antler size. Here's another photo that shows the buck a little clearer. The ridge the Coues bucks were on. Lastly I thought I'd throw this one in of the buck doing the instinctive lip curl. p.s Glad you like the dail log Jason. Dennis, still not a lot of rut activity. These bucks were rutting but the does weren't ready. Tommy if you were here you'd already have your buck down. Get well soon!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the update Amanda. Yea I about had a heatstroke yesterday. Man was it hot!! Very little whitetail activity. Still having tons of fun though, just hoping for some cooler weather. Almost forgot, I loved your photos Amanda, it's nice to see a little of what people are talking about. Scott

Well guys we struck out today. The first day in 5 days that we didn't find a Coues buck. But I can live with that. We tried to find that huge group of Coues deer that we saw rutting yesterday with that amorous buck in hot pursuit, but were unable to locate them. We probably walked about 6 miles. As hot as it was today the herd may have disbanded pending the next cool front. I did find the bulls again this morning this time there were 4 of them, all good bulls. I posted a couple of the better ones below. I'm taking off tomorrow to go to church and will pick it up again on Monday. I'll keep you guys informed. Scott This bedded doe was the closest we came to a Coues buck. We found 4 does and that was it. This is the big bull I photographed yesterday. I thought he had matching cheaters off of his G-5s but it turns out he only had one on his right side. As you can see I was a little closer today. This is another 6x7 but not nearly as impressive as the other bull.

Tommy, I tried calling you but got the voice mail. Casey, I'm not "the kid" but I'm not above missing a deer either especially a good one that gives me the ole coues buck fever. I don't know how I got the tag 2 years in a row but I was due since I hadn't drawn the tag since '95! Scott