coueselk

To all, what do you think this buck would score?

By the way, this is the buck that has Ernesto's name plastered all over it.

A Zeiss 20-60x 85mm spotting scope, Scopetronics camera adapter and a Sony DSC-P32 digital camera. I have been putting a lot of practice into it also. Mainly changing settings on the camera. I change them at least 3 times when taking pictures. That way I know at least some of the pictures will come out. Amanda will posting a story soon on these bucks. Then you will really know who's bucks these are.

You better hurry up and post another reply.

You guys are close on him, but underestimating him. It is a 2 x 3 not counting eyeguards. Both eyeguards where identical in size. Here is another buck to drool over. This one is still chasing the does, so I don't know the score of him. What are your thoughts?

I use a Zeiss spotting scope with a scopetronics adapter and a Sony DSC-P32 camera. Here are a couple of pictures I have taken.

Ernest, Great job on getting a nice one. I'm the hunter you guys ran into on the second day. We never went after that buck I had spotted. Found a couple of different ones. I can see that it was tough for you as well. Did you guys ever see any rutting? Besides the little buck early in the hunt. Was wondering if anything had picked up after we left. I'm glad you got one. Hope you got some good footage as well.

Ok, well the hunt didn't go quite as well as myself and Rusty had hoped or dreamed about. So here is the spill day by day. This is gonna be a long one, so I'll break it down into replies by the days. December 16th: Morning started out ok, we were glassing up numerous whitetail does and fawns all over. But no bucks to be found. Observed a large muley buck with does behind where we were camped. Rusty had to leave around noon to head back to Safford for evening activities with his daughters and would return the following day. I decided to jump on my quad and head for the southern part of the unit. As I went up the first road and approached the mountains, I decided to stop and glass. Just as I put my eyes up to the glasses, I spotted a nice 2 point buck bedded. (Sorry, picture was a little rough since I was looking toward the sun) He had some long tines, but wasn't what I was looking for. I then went up another road, kicking out a small forky and glassed up a small 3x3 on top of a ridge. Deciding to try one more road for the day and then come back in the morning to hit it hard on foot. As I came up to the end of the road, I kicked out 3 does. They ran about 150 yards and then started feeding. I started glassing the nearby ridges when I saw this boy. He was a nice 3x3, but wasn't quite what I was wanting. I glassed the surrounding ridges and peaks until dark, only to spot some other does. But I kept looking back and view this buck. Just to make sure he was still there and to be sure that I wasn't passing up something that I shouldn't.

Last day, day six, December 22nd: We are on our way home, but not before doing a little coyote hunting first thing in the morning. Here is the 3rd coyote I took. I can honestly say that this was an interesting hunt. It was way too hot and way to much traffic. I do believe that we will not be putting in for the southern units for many more years. Until all of the traffic is almost stopped. All the trails that we drove over had fresh tracks over ours everyday. And I mean trails, not just one or two but around 20. The deer are there, but having to worry about leaving stuff out of sight isn't worth it. I carried a side-arm also, which is added weight that shouldn't normally be needed. But it was advised by the rancher and some BP agents.

Here is some more pics.

Here is Rusty's harvest. A fine buck.

Ok, well we were on our way to look for the buck I had found on day one, when Rusty asked me if there were any roads into some lower hills. I said yes and we decided to go and have a look. We came up into the hills and spotted two small bucks. A 3x3 and a 2x2, but not shooters. We also kicked up a couple of whitetail and muley does. We stopped and glassed numerous times, but not seeing anything. It was really, really hot. We were commenting on how come we were hunting in July. Well, we kept going and seeing more country. We came to a gate in the road, which I had never been through. I told Rusty I wasn't sure where it went, so we decided to see. We drove about a 1/4 mile and stopped to glass some ocotillo covered hills. I threw up my binos and immediately spotted a buck bedded under a mesquite tree. We got the spotting scope out for a closer look. He looked good. Rusty said that this was his buck. We ranged him at 440 yards, but lots and lots of Ocotillo was in the way. Rusty was going to try and stalk up an ajacent canyon to get a clear shot. As he was making his way up, I noticed another deer laying to the right of the buck. I turned my attention to see if it also was a buck for not more than 20 seconds. When I saw it was a doe, I turned back to see that the buck had disappeared. I searched feverishly all over, but the buck was gone. I notified Rusty that the buck had went over the ridge, and had done it quickly. He made his way higher to get into the canyon the buck went into. I kept a close eye on the opposite ridge, in case the buck decided to go over it as well. I then spotted two does feeding on it. I could see that they kept looking across back up into a spot I couldn't see. Rusty no sooner made his way over into the canyon, when I spotted the buck running up the other ridge. I saw a big poof of hair fly from him and I heard the report of the rifle. He went down and attempted to get up. One more shot and he was down for good. Continued on next reply.

Day six, December 21st: We started this morning with going to a totally different area. I dropped Rusty off for him to go to a vantage point and I proceded to another one. Again, lots of does being spotted. I glassed up a small 3x3 muley feeding across from me. As I was glassing, I then spotted a small 3x3 whitetail. He was a real dink though. I then glassed up a couple of more small bucks feeding but nothing over 70". We spent all morning glassing deer in every direction. But these were the only bucks to be seen. The afternoon took us to the quads again. This to be continued on the next reply.

Day five, December 20th: Rusty and I decided to go to a ridgeline across from where I had taken my buck. Maybe spotting the one that got away. This peak offered a really good view of a lot of country. We were picking up does right away, but no horn. Rusty finally picked up a small 3x3. Nothing more exciting for the rest of the morning. On the afternoon, we decided to hit some lower hills. I mean really, really low. We saw both muley and coues running together here. But looked as if all does. We saw a couple of bowhunters walking through and Rusty thought that he saw a flagged deer with antlers run over a ridge, but wasn't sure. He then picked up a couple of whitetail on another low hill. I looked at them through the spotting scope and seen a dink 3x3 and a doe. We just didn't have good luck finding decent bucks on this day.

Day four, December 19th: We started this morning out like we did the first. Glassing the flats and Cerro Colorado mt. Again, we were seeing lots of does, when I spotted a small forky. The day was starting out a little better. Rusty decided to bust some small hills and I would pick him up on the far side. As it would be, only does where coming out of those hills. I did glass up a spike, but no mature bucks. As I was waiting for Rusty to arrive at the meeting place, he notified me by radio of a change of plans. He had spotted some illegals and was gonna have to change direction. When he got to the truck, he showed me where they were at. Standing up on a hillside. I took out my GPS and placed a waypoint on the topo of thier location. We went back to camp and called Border Patrol. I gave them the location and then hung up. About 30 minutes had passed, we were eating lunch and heard a truck coming. It was BP. We told the officer where they were at, he was a little new to the area, so we jumped on the quads to show him. To make this a little shorter. We ended up catching two of the five. Three of them ran over the hill when he was handcuffing two of them. This blew the middle of the day. When then decided to hit the hills that my daughter had taken her buck off of this year on the evening. Well, this ended with only seeing 6 whitetail does. No bucks.

Day three, December 18th: Rusty decided to go and give the big muley buck a try with his bow on this morning. I drove to a hilltop overlooking a small dirt tank and began glassing for the buck. I couldn't find him or the does anywhere. I decided to turn around and look into some flats. As I turned around, two coyotes ran in front of me not 50 yards. I pulled my rifle from the truck and crept over the hilltop. I spotted one looking at me 200 yards off and let one fly. Here she is. The other one took off, I took two more trys at it, but didn't lead far enough on either one. I then turned my attention back to finding deer. I finally spotted them. They were on a different hill than the previously spotted location. I notified Rusty and the stalk was on. Here is the buck. The end of the morning hunt for Rusty was 3 does coming up behind him just when he got to within 50 yards of the buck. He didn't have a chance then. Does blew and everything ran off. We decided to hit the quads and head back down into the hills where I had taken my buck for the afternoon. This proved uneventful. Only spotting does and no bucks.

Here is a couple of photos packing him out. This finished my hunt and day two. Day three to continue with Rusty's.

Ok, I had to dig out my flashlight as I approached the tree I had shot at him under. I searched all around, looking for him or blood. I couldn't see anything. I was getting really frustrated. I turned and looked uphill and saw him laying there. Relief overcame me. I walked up to him and realized, this wasn't the buck I was after. I shot the wrong darn buck. He was a good buck, but not the one I had hoped for. My fault for not taking the time to make sure it was the buck. If you notice, this buck had not even rubbed off all of his velvet. He showed a little sign of rubbing near his eyeguards. But the rut isn't on in 36A. Rusty showed up about an hour later and we boned him out and started on our way. Hoping that that the quads where still there.

Second day, December 17th: The morning started out not so good again. I went up close to the mountains I had been the afternoon before and started glassing. Only seeing lots and lots of does again. Not seeing any horn, I decided to go and see if I could locate the buck from the previous evening. So that when Rusty showed up, he could have a look at it. I climbed up a ridge across from where I had seen him the evening before and started tearing it apart with my swaros. As I was glassing a thick cut, I thought I saw the nose of a deer. I put my spotting scope on it and sure enough. There he was bedded with a small 2x2. (This is a good photo for find the deer) I watched them for a while and saw a white pickup coming up the road. I climbed back down the mountain, to make sure no-one messed with my quad. (You'll understand why in a few more days) It was some other hunters. There where 5 guys, only one with a tag. They were trying to get video of a hunt. A few of them were guides. We shot the breeze for a while and everyone was trying to score the buck. It was concensus that he was around 90-95", but hard to tell. They left around noon and Rusty showed up. I showed Rusty the buck, but it was decided to let him be and he would be a backup if nothing bigger could be found. We then took the quads up a rough two track that took us over the mountains. We stopped at the pass and walked up a ridgeline to a peak in order to glass all of the surrounding country. I saw this golden eagle and had to get his photo. I started running my binos around some lower ridges with lots of ocotillo, when I saw a nice buck. As soon as I saw him, I knew this was a shooter for me. He wrapped around really good and had nice forks. He also had a double eyeguard on his right antler. I told Rusty that I was going to take this buck. The buck started moving. I attempted to get pictures, but he was constantly in the ocotillos and none of them showed his antlers very well. Could only get bits and pieces. We watched him feed along the side of a ridge and discussed a plan to get in close. There were numerous does around him, but he wasn't with them. They were all in the area for a wind break. We watched the buck bed and knew this was it. I started down a ridge to get across the canyon to a small ridge across from where he was bedded. As I was approaching the bottom, Rusty called me and said some does had moved below the buck and where acting goofy with the wind blowing. I was trying to hurry, but the cactus was really thick. As I hit the bottom, Rusty called back and said the buck was up and moving. I guess he had enough of the does running around him. He walked to a small saddle and went over the ridge. Rusty lost sight of him as he went over. It was getting late, but I thought I could get on an opposite ridge of a cut he went in and try to locate. I just might have enough light left to get close enough for a shot. I finally made it up close to the saddle where he crossed. I couldn't see him anywhere, I then made my way down a ridge across from the canyon I thought he would be. It was 4:50pm and running out of light fast. I glassed furiously all over the canyon, when I spotted movement in the bottom. I saw the rack, knowing this had to be him. I ranged him, 550 yards. Too much for me, especially with wind blowing. I thought I could close the distance, so I hurried down and across the canyon. As I came over a small ridge, I glassed again where I had seen him. He wasn't there. I kept glassing and found him standing on the side of the mountain behind a yucca and catclaw tree. I ranged him at 330 yards. I knew it was now or never. I setup for the shot, but the catclaw was covering his vitals. I decided to wait as he would surely walk out. Just as I was thinking that, he laid down. Now I couldn't see him at all. I tried to think of something quick. I pulled out my varmit call and blew on it. He didn't get up. I'm almost out of light and ideas, so I thought, I'll just put a round into the tree trunk and he will get up from behind the yucca. I took the shot and he stood up just as planned. I put the crosshairs on him and let it rip. I heard the thud and he went down. I couldn't see him after he went down, but thought I had made a good shot. I let Rusty know I had him and that it was gonna be a late one. I started to make my way up to him to try and reach him before I had to use a flashlight. As I approached below where I had last seen him, I heard rocks rolling and saw him running up the hill. I drew my rifle up but couldn't see anything but black. I hurried and turned my scope all the way down and put him in the crosshairs. All I saw was fire in the scope and heard the thud. Nothing else, no deer running or noises. I was sure he went down with that shot. To be continued on next reply.

Ok, Long Horn Grill at 7:30 Friday evening.

Sounds good to me. Can count me in on being there.

I'm missing a 2001 Dodge 4wd Quad Cab. Was a grey one. I guess I should say that it is Allstate's truck now.

I'm game for a little get-together to meet somemore of the fellow members. Name the time and place.

Here is Kristen's first buck. It is a fine coues buck for being her first deer. She did well. Congratulations Kristen.

Holy smokes. I think this one does beat Ernesto's.