firstcoueswas80 Report post Posted February 3 This year yielded an alarming low number of bucks, let alone mature bucks. This is spanning from October deer hunt, November deer hunt, and four days spent chasing pigs with my son. I am genuinely concerned about the number of bucks seen, this is as bad as it has ever been. There was a big fire in one of my spots so I definitely take that into consideration, however my two other main spots don't see much pressure, nor were they effected by the burn. One spot was a completely dry hole, the other we saw a couple of mature bucks, but not nearly the norm. Has hunter success gotten to the point where it is having a meaningful impact on overall coues numbers, or was the summer THAT bad that the horn growth was extremely affected? What did everyone else see on their hunt? A big thing we noticed (besides the overall lack of bucks), was what appeared to be a missing age class. We saw little bucks, or decent bucks. IF I recall, we only saw one or two in the 60-80" range. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sky Island junkie Report post Posted February 3 Definitely an odd year as far as activity goes. We saw a normal number and age class of bucks,doe and fawns but had to find them. What was really strange to me was the high daytime activity during daylight hours during the full moon phase in October though. Despite the poor summer rainfall all the perennial shrubs and trees put on normal growth and podding where we were hunting. This winter precip is a life saver! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bigbuckfever Report post Posted February 3 My favorite area hasn't had many sightings of bucks for a few years now. I think some of the reasons for that are, One: all the sxs's and quads that can race everywhere they feel like going, even if there isn't a road. (this isn't really a slam on sxs's and quads as I owned a quad and loved exploring on it so I have kinda a love/hate relationship with em ) Two: The Anasazi Foundation has been running groups of wayward youth all through some of my best, very remote, honeyholes and camping right in the middle of them during the December rifle hunts. Sucks for me, but it's National Forest so they have every right to use it too. Three: advertising works. When AZGFD spends money paying influencers to come hunt AZ, people come. More hunters = more pressure on the animals and competition for locals, specially at water holes. This past season I decided to check out other areas after not seeing any decent bucks for December archery. In January I went for a few days and spotted 5 bucks just glassing from camp. Nothing big, but my brother and I tried putting the sneak on em. Got close, but no shot opportunities before they left. I got to feel like I was hunting and not just carrying my "class one brush snagging device" through the cat claw. Just my 2 cents worth. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Big Tub Report post Posted February 3 Doing great compared to mule deer. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
maximus Report post Posted February 3 +1 on the quads and SxS's the area i hunt this past october was loaded with sxs and normally you don't see any, where i hunt there this trail that dead ends at the edge of the canyon, i was there in late august and no people for 3 days and saw a lots of bucks in october with all the activity saw no deer at all, the people in the quads will set up for 45 minutes don't see anything and leave and was like that thru the morning and evening. they spook them and became nocturnal of move to another canyon. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Big or Bust Report post Posted February 3 From what I've seen, coues deer are absolutely thriving and spreading into even more mule deer country. Activity was low this summer and some into the fall as I think they were in conservation mode due to poor monsoons which I've seen before and greatly limiting activity. I have not seen any buck or age class reductions from average. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zslayer Report post Posted February 3 It was a very tough year with the exception of October it sounds like. I’ve heard multiple reports from people on the October hunt talking about how great the movement was. I also think we are low on the typical 3yo deer from the 2020 drought year. I remember noticing a very low fawn population in 2020 and saying to myself we are gonna notice this in a few years! What also hurts with low numbers of your branch antler deer is it seems a lot of spikes were shot this year and that’s not gonna help for the future. so I would say I don’t think the population is dwindling but I do think there is a gap in age class. I also believe these deer are masters at survival and maybe with the dry year and lack of water they held up more to conserve and not have to frequent water as much where they were more vulnerable. But that’s just some of my thoughts 🤷🏼♂️ 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HuntHarder Report post Posted February 3 In central AZ unit, the coues deer have moved further into muley country. 10 years ago I maybe would see a couple coues and 20-30 muley a morning. Now its completely opposite. Wt thriving and muleys are more difficult to find Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sky Island junkie Report post Posted February 3 Ebbs and flows. The whitetail are more than fine. Very resilient. The side x side numbers and what some are doing with them sucks for sure but the critters are still there and probably very close. Just sneaky bastards. We were in an area 2 years ago 3 canyons and 2 miles over from the closest two track. One of us spotted 3 decent bucks feeding on a slope 200 yards below a road. Nothing we could do but glass them every once in a while. About an hour goes by and an atv pulls up on the road above them and they all three bedded. There were 4 guys who all set up no further 20’ from the rig. Those bucks just sat there the whole time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dustin25 Report post Posted February 3 It was a tough year for us too, very strange deer movement this year. But the deer are doing just fine Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HuntHarder Report post Posted February 3 Lol, the SxS and quad argument is trash imo. Only guys that notice them are usually the guys road hunting and getting mad at others doing the same. Ive actually used the noise of other SxS's to advance my position on stalks, same with airforce Jets. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
missedagain Report post Posted February 3 I do believe that Coues rely on the monsoon moisture, and we had two years of terrible monsoons in I believe 20 and 21. No way that didn't affect fawn recruitment in those years. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oz31p Report post Posted February 3 in sept in 35a saw several mature bucks and managed to kill one I had trouble in 35a on the jr hunt but I think it was due to the heat and moon. was in 35b after Christmas on the late rifle hunt saw plenty of bucks in the 90-100 range was in 29 jan12-15 bucks were alittle smaller but it was my first time and didn’t really know the area Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sky Island junkie Report post Posted February 3 8 minutes ago, missedagain said: I do believe that Coues rely on the monsoon moisture, and we had two years of terrible monsoons in I believe 20 and 21. No way that didn't affect fawn recruitment in those years. I definitely saw a reduced number of fawns in 2020 in my home unit. This last year’s monsoon for us was very similar to 2020 but our winter moisture was pretty decent last year so all the protein plants did very well all the way through fall. The mesquite put on a 3rd crop of beans and they along with all the acacia and fairy duster seemed to not miss a beat. Very deep rooters. I saw a pretty normal fawn drop this year in here Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
firstcoueswas80 Report post Posted February 3 We saw tons of deer, everyday. Deer hunting and pig hunting we saw north of 30 deer per day. The buck to doe ratio is concerning, as well as the maturity of the bucks. Some of the hunt was close to roads, (mostly pig hunting) but most of the deer hunting was over a mile from roads. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
