talltines

Way to go man! That is one heck of a nice buck. Thank God it all pull together for you, usually those branch reflections don't result in the recovery of a monster coues like that toad!

Ha! Man Gino with the year starting out the way it is you better be buying your Powerball tickets everyday! Congrats to your bride for sticking a huge rat. Way cool!!

Too awesome seeing both those studs side by side.

Congrats Jason on downing the widowmaker! Very sweet buck.

Sounds familiar. A lot of breeding can be done under the brite moon. I'm hoping these coues get love drunk and happy hazarldy roam without sleep in search of the next hot doe, or buck that wants to rumble.

Have any of you noticed any relationship with the full moon and rutting activity? Back in my home state of MN the hard rut has been associated with the Nov. Full moon, we call it the rutting moon. I was wondering if any of you long time resident coues hunters have noticed any heated activity around this Jan. full moon? I'm heading back up into my tree Tuesday in 24A in hopes that the rutting activity has increased since last week. I'm a data collecting fool and curious as to your observations on coues and the moon phases. Thanks all...

I'm with you on the "Let em' go so they can grow" mentality!

I'm hoping you're on to something with the rut thing. The bucks have been real scarce so far for me. Seeing many does with fawns keeps my hopes up that the best is yet to come. The squirrels in Arizona are quite inquisitive to say the least. I've had them within a foot... Literally!

I'm having a hard time determining what's going on right now in 24A. I watched 14 doe, 6 fawns, and 3 bucks in the last two days walk underneath my stand and the bucks were cruising solo. 10 days ago I watched a young buck chasing a doe around. I'm thinking the warm weather has most rutting activity taking place in the dark. Hoping for a cold front soon. I'll be back at it next Tuesday. Sure wish the snow could have stuck around.

Great buck and great story from a great guy! Way to go Coues n Sheep...

I was in Milaca, MN. I used to own and operate Rum River Whitetails. Collected and sold whitetail urine for attractant scent. Needless to say it wasn't lucrative enough to keep pursuing. I had a blast learning the ins and outs of the deer scent industry and of course the up and personal contact with the actual deer.

I raised whitetail for 10 years in Minnesota and also have been an avid trialcammer for 20 years. By looking at the hair on the rump end of the does you can pretty much determine if they've been bred recently. Of course daily observation is key here as there are other reasons for the rump hair being disturbed (fighting, pecking order type play), but if you have been watching the deer closely via trailcams, or physically viewing them you'll be able to determine by the activity of the deer and the disturbed rump hair. When the doe came back from being chased by the 6 pointer I could obviously conclude that she wasn't bred. Believe me, you'll know by the rump hair if you pay attention. The bucks hoofs will ruff up the hide good when breeding. My opinion after many years of witnessing whitetail behavior.

Wow! What a stud buck! Lucky hunter for sure...

I just spent the last couple weeks in 24A and can tell you that the rut is not happening as of lately. I sat in a treestand for many hours and had multiple does with fawns in tow. In all the hours sitting I witnessed a smaller 6 pointer chase a doe away from a group of 3 does and 2 fawns. The following day I had the same does and fawns back in minus the doe that was chased. It wasn't ten minutes and the doe that was chased the following day was back in with the group with no buck in tow. By the looks of her backside she wasn't bred. I think the young buck was premature with chasing her and abandoned mission was he realized the time wasn't right. My $.02 on the rut in my area is it has yet to begin. It can only get better in the next few weeks.

Well with my first archery coues whitetail season winding down I can say I gave it my all and will be eating tag soup for 2011. My season started with an amazing high when I tossed an arrow in a sweet "9" point buck in January that would have made book for sure outside of the fact that I never was able to recover the brute. Throughout the year I was able to catch a couple nice bucks on the trailcam but was never blessed with an opportunity for redemption with the stick an string. All I can do is keep at it in 2012 if time allows. I'm definitely a life long fan of chasing these little gems in the snow capped mountains for sure. A big thanks to "coues&sheep" for trying to help me locate my buck in January. This site is a phenomenal tool for newbie coues hunters such as myself.