AT Hiker

A look at his mass and dark antlers. His body was bigger than I expected too, so were our packs!

He literally died feet away from a very large drop off, not that it mattered too much though. We had to walk down it, back up the other side, back down another, etc, etc, etc. 4 hour pack out trip, worth the effort!

Here was camp the first morning, heck of a thing to wake up to in the desert!

Here is my first coues! Had a blast, cold and snowy weather made for a different experience of Arizona hunting than I expected. I missed this buck on my first shot at 175 yards, killed him a few seconds later when he got out closer to 300. I though he was a lot further the first time because he came down the mountain chasing and popped out in the one area I didnt range. Of course I missed one, not once but twice, that would easily go over 100". I shot over him, both times as I grossly misjudged my hold over. I will get some more pics up soon, sorry to leave you guys hanging! Happy New Year!

Im back home with a bloody pack, cactus needles in my legs and a few less bullets. Had an absolute blast and I cannot wait to get back to AZ. Thanks to everyone that gave me advice, it really made the trip a success. After the busy holidays I will get a write up posted but for now Im going to enjoy the delicious taste of hard earned coues deer steak. Merry Christmas!

Im in Tuscon! Wife and daughter fly out tomorrow and my buddy flies in. The trip out here was nice, swung by the Alamo and was headed to Carls Bad, NM until my daughter got sick. We had to bee line it to Tuscon to get her into a clinic. A few doses of antibiotics later and she now feels a lot better. We visted the Desert Museum and the NP today. We have also managed to sample a few microbreweries in TX, NM and AZ. Headed to the unit tomorrow afternoon. Right now Im planning to go in for one night in the SE portion of the unit and if it does t rain and mess the roads up I will head North to the Wilderness and find a access spot.

I sure hope so.

Hopefully this fits in here, if not I apologize. As some of you know I drew my first AZ coues tag this year for the late 31 hunt. That hunt has been on my mind this entire fall and I havent really focused much on hunting here in my home state of TN. Although I have gotten some hunting in, it all has been very non agressive and low impact. Meaning; no scouting, trail cams, hanging new stands, etc. Same for my KY place as well and it paid off in a way, I killed a nice mature 9pt on my second sit. Just goes to show how pressure (in this case, lack of) can affect deer. He grosses 133'' and is missing his left main brow and has a 3'' kicker (or extra brow) coming off his bases, only 16.5'' wide with tons of mass. He was a solid mature buck that was busy that morning establishing dominance over the younger bucks in and arounf the thicket. Now time to focus on my upcoming AZ trip. Enjoy

On each base he has a point coming out, very neat. Also, once I caped him out I found a spot that is either a bone spur or possibly an antler trying to grow. It is dead center between his main pedicles.

7mm Funny you mention all this. I purchased this gun from a very good friend 9 years ago, since then I have killed everyone of my Western Big Game (mule, pronghorn) with it. Other than its ear deafening BOSS on the end and its heavy weight it is a great gun. My buddies father passed away a few year back and I just found out that his father purchsed this gun for him, how I found out his father bought him the gun was because of this picture. My buddies son contacted me a couple days ago and told me the picture brought back memories (for his dad) so he purchsed the gun back from me to give to his dad for Christmas. I told him my only stipulation was that this gun had to go to AZ with me, its a heavy sucker to pack in but man has it treated well! I really didnt want to sell it but Im glad to help him get it back into his family. I owe that to the gun too, a gun that nice has been on some serious adventures and its time for retirement.

OK, so here is my situation. I opted out of upgrading my bow, backpack and sleeping over the past couple years to save up for a pair of high quality glass. My hunting style; -Backpacking away from the truck is my ideal world, although I do glass from the pickup occasionally for pronghorn/mule deer -Lighter weight gear is preferred -Im not a long range hunter, so I need to close to the distance with a rifle -I do archery hunt and will likely pick it up more -I have a Vortex Razor 11-33x50 spotter, I often pack it in with me. I gave a brief introduction of myself on the AZ Coues hunting section, I drew a late 31 tag. Here is what I am looking at, my price range WAS $1,500 max. Vortex 10x42 Razor HD Swarovski 10x42 SLC After long consideration about the quality and investment I decided to look at the SLC and up my budget. Well, once I went into that price range I discovered the 10x42 EL and EL Range. Way over my price point, BUT I am willing to sell a kidney to possibly consider them as a purchase. I love the idea of range finder/binoc combo. However, I have read that close ranging is not always possible. So that is a MAJOR drawback, as archery hunting gets the most range finder use from me. Im not dead set on range finding binocs, but if Im do purchase some EL's I figured the few extra hundred bucks might be worth it. What do you guys think? Any other ideas, sadly I am not in a area where I can go and look through multiple pairs. Also, Im not stuck on 10x42 but research leads me to believe these are the best bet for my style of hunting. I have an old pair of Nikon 10x50 but they are so obsolete its not worth mentioing. Thanks! **I should add that I will try to add a stud to use these binocs on my tripod.

My old binocs were Nikon, not EDG, and they were OK. When I switched to these SLCs I was blown away by the clarity and the lack of strain they cause on my eyes.

Well I made the leap and purchased a pair of new pair of Swaro 10x42 slc. Got to take them to MT and wow is all I can say! I cannot wait to try them out in AZ in December. Thanks for the help everyone!

Technically I have a budget of $1500, the extra $300 for SLCs is possible. The ELs are $800 over budget but I can part with the extra $$ if its the best investment. Im just not sure if the ELs are the right fit for me. I have exhausted the research button on Els vs SLCs and it keeps coming back to a toss up, the best thing is not one single person has complained about either. Im going to speak with a rep here in a little bit and hopefully they can shed some light for me.

I was out of internet range and didnt have access, thanks for the link. Maybe they are still available.

Thanks again everyone, heres to praying for water in the streams! Im still waiting on a biologist from AZ G&F to call me back. Its been 2 weeks, do they usually take this long or should I give the office a call back? I dont want to be that guy bugging them.

Hello all! This year will be my first year hunting Coues. I lucked up and drew a late AZ 31 tag and in my research I stumbled upon this site. Im anxious to get invloved in this community and learn as much as I can about these critters. A little bit about me; I live in Nort Central TN. I grew up hunting whitetail in both TN and KY, about 6 years I ago I discovered Western hunting and have been addicted ever since. I usually try to get in at least one DIY Public land hunt in each fall, mainly for mule deer in WY. Backpack hunting is my favorite style by far but I love spot n stalk pronghorn and the occasional rutting mule deer private ranch hunt in MT me and my grandfather do. One of these days I hope to draw a elk tag but for now my deer addiction is plenty for my family to handle! This year I started out bummed because I did not draw any tags, with the exception of MT general deer. However, I was surprised by a call from AZ G&F telling me I drew a Dec Coues Unit 31 tag. Score! I only had a few points and did not expect to draw anything... Fast forward till now; maps have been delivered, a call has been put in to AZ biologist, a few emails back n forth from people who have "driven" through the area and now I discovered this cool site. I would be fooling myself if I didnt think about coming on here and asking for any help with 31, of course I will take all the help I can get. But I also want to learn about these deer and become as proficient as I can. My long term AZ plan was to start archery hunting them this Jan, mainly to learn the country and how to adapt my techniques of self taught Western hunting to hunting AZ coues then be ready by the time came to realistically draw a tag. This plan is of course altered a bit but for the better, I just have to fast track my learning curve. As of now my plans are to backpack into one of the wilderness areas (or wilderness study areas). I have a non hunting buddy tagging along for support. I plan to glass, glass some more and glass a little bit more after that. I was hoping they would be rutting but from what I read that is likely not going to happen. My main obstacles right now in planning are this; A. Access to these wilderness areas, it appears access to Santa Teresa is limited B. Access into the Pinalenos is better but some of the roads will be closed post mid Nov C. It looks like the Pinalenos is going to be hard to make a backpack hunt out of it with all the roads, maybe not though D. Water, I think of AZ as a dry desert with NO water to be found. My map has springs located but I know not to trust them fully Anyone care to shed some light on my intial plans? My skin is tough so have at it please. Regardless, I am anxious to read and follow along on this site. Im just as anxious to share my experience after my hunt. Thanks to all!

Yes, I have a normal (and very affordable) range finder. It does the job for me and a good job at that. Basically I use a range finder for archery, less than 50 yards. I will use it on rifle hunts but since I rarely shoot past 300 yards its not all that important. It ranges out to 500 yards so I use it a lot in stalking too.

Thanks so much for the help so far. Will I have trouble finding water, for me to filter for myself, while out backpacking? I hope to focus my efforts in the higher elevation, specifically Santa Teressa if I can get in there.