GRONG

SIGN ME UP!!! I'll take any kind of Coues sticker, hat, shirt I can get my hands on. Amanda, I'm sending you some new older photos. Josh

Yup, twas I who took the 10 shots. I never claimed to be a good shot but if the deer continues to just stand there I'll keep shooting. I killed him dead with #10. My spotter sitting next to me wouldn't look through the spotting scope to tell me where I was hitting. I'm buying a 20X scope this season and will practice a lot more....I promise! Josh Epperson

Ya it burned in '89 but it REALLY burned in 2000 on the northern end of the wilderness. You should really scout hard in 21 is all I can say. I hunt there all the time and there isn't any easy part of 21. Josh

I saw a coues doe mounted in a guy's house about 10 years ago that he sweared was a doe. It was about a 85" 3x3 in velvet that was killed during a general hunt in S AZ somewhere. I wish I would have taken a picture of it. Josh

Right on Fuentes. I'll go back next week with my new trail cam and set it up. Be putting up a treestand there also. There's never been a blind or treestand on this tank as far as I can tell. I'd like to be off the ground too cause those timber rattlers give me the creeps! Anyone else getting out scouting yet? Josh

The guy that killed it wrote a big long story on another forum about killing it. It was pretty neat. He stalked it and shot it twice I think. Or maybe he missed the first shot, I can't remember. I'll look for the link to that forum. It was over a year ago so I don't know if it'll still be around. Josh Epperson

Brian, I was just considering buying the nontypical camera. Do you get pretty good pics with your camera? If so could you please email me a couple? I'd like to see someone's pics other than the ones on the brochure I have from them. Thanks Josh Epperson antlerboy132@msn.com

Well the heat about killed me yesterday. I hiked my tail off and ended up finding 3 Coues sheds. An old chewed up 3pt, a decent 2 pt and a year old 3pter. Good day but dang it was hot. Josh

Found my first fresh one of the year(better not be my last). It's a fairly small 2pter but brand spanking new. Found on the hike back to the truck about 75 yards from where I parked. I'll send Amanda a picture when I get them back. Josh

Allen, I haven't been able to get out yet. Maybe next week for a day or two. Check out the shed photo gallery to see some new ones that we've bought this year. All are off the White Mountain Apache Rez. Some total hogs!! I need to get out before it's 100+. Josh

I was just curious to see how many Coues hunters shoot older bows or has everyone but me joined in on the Mathews bandwagon. I've shot an Oneida Strike Eagle for years and love it. I know it's a much longer bow than what is out there but I'm an instinctive shooter and the Oneidas are very forgiving when shooting fingers. I was thinking about getting the Oneida Black Eagle cause it's shorter and faster, but why give up what already works. Maybe I'm just stuck in my ways. Josh Epperson

Bret, I know you southern AZ boys hate to admit that a Coues deer could ever live in the pines but it's true my man. Amanda, yes I have looked in those kind of spots but I've never really come across much. I do find lots of beds and rubs in those kinds of areas but I just can't seem to ever find many there. I think that most sheds are dropped in areas where they feed around. I have found a couple where it looked like a buck had bedded there but mostly on southfacing slopes is where I find em. Don't get discouraged just keep trying, I've gone days and days without finding any before. Josh

Jeff, I've never hunted NM for archery Coues but I have taken one with a rifle back in 99 in unit 23. Talking to Dave after his time in NM really gets me going. If I could find the time that time of year I'd love to! Even though the southern AZ boys don't like to hear this, the biggest Coues bucks are going to be killed in the pine forests. Archers just need to concentrate a little harder in those areas and they'll see. Just cause you can't glass the area to see what's there doesn't mean there isn't anything. Josh

I've killed both my bucks with Thunderhead 125's. Both of them zipped through with ease. First buck went down in 83 yards and the second one I watched die at 35 yards. All this talk is getting me revved for this fall's hunts. Josh

Jeff in NM, you must be talking about Dave Boland of course. That guy has more patience than any Coues hunter I know. He was sitting a nearby stand, where I killed my first Coues with a bow, when I shot my 105" buck back in Sept of '99. I was glad he was there with me cause I know he appreciated what I killed as much as I did. I've been lucky enough to harvest two of those little suckers with my bow so far but I have yet to have taken one with hardened antlers. I have tried hunting them in Dec/Jan with a bow but have never connected yet. I did find one heck of a drainage filled with scrapes, rubs and 4 sheds in unit 31 this past January. You can bet your caboose I'll be sitting there this coming January. Josh

I find most of my sheds on south facing slopes and I never pass up a good bench to look around on. A lot of looking for Coues sheds is completly random. I look a fair amount in the pines here in northern AZ and I honestly think that the biggest bucks live there. So if you happen to hunt an area that has a pine forest a little higher than where you actually hunt for them, you might want to check it out. I have found that a lot of Coues bucks grow old and die in the pines because it's not the "normal" place to hunt them. One area, I found almost 10 years ago in N AZ, baffled me. I was hiking around a hill not finding much when I wandered to the northeast side of the hill. It was heavy with oak and in a day and a half I found 16 sheds! There were 5 years of sheds from the same buck within 150 yards believe it or not. I found my largest set of non-typical antlers there too, scoring 106" without a spread. I took my wife with me the second time I went and she found 2 Coues sheds and one muley shed. The key in those spots is to look SLOWLY!!! I mean taking one step and watch, move only a foot or two each step. Those little suckers hide in the oak leaves very well. I walked by a nice 5pt shed several times, with in inches before my wife spotted it. I've been there at least once every year since then and have yet to find a large number of sheds there. I've found a few but I think I just got lucky and hit it when it was good. So I've tried to look for north facing slopes with a lot of oak on several other occasions and it has only paid off a time or two. I haven't really got it all figured out yet and probably never will but my best advice is cover a lot of country and when you find one there may be more. Don't get discouraged too easily, I figure that if I find one in a day, it was a good day. Josh Epperson