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Evan

Unit 22 Success for my Brother and I.

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My brother and I has spent the last few years hunting 22 with much success, so we were excited to find out we drew tags again this year. Our excitement slowed when we found our favorite honey hole would not be able to be accessed easily do to the road closures from the Sunflower fire over the summer. My brother and I living pretty busy lives, with conflicting schedules, gave us limited time to scout (only two days before the hunt). We headed out to find a new spot two weeks before the hunt. We were lucky, it had rained a few days prior, and while heading up a new road, we stopped to stretch out the legs in a random spot where there was a puddle in the dirt. To our amaze we looked down to see Coues sign galore! We knew this would be our area. Not wanting to give up hope on our old spot we planned to hike up a canyon from the 87 on opening morning to see if we would get lucky and then spent the rest of the hunt in our new spot.

 

Opening morning, we left my truck from the highway at 0330, and spent two and a half hours hiking in the dark to our "original honey hole". Arriving at our final spot after hiking on the top of a knob, sweating like crazy we were encountered by crazy wind, and spent the first hour freezing from the wet and wind. (We're cold wimps from the valley). We spent the whole day glassing, sunrise to sunset, without seeing a thing, hiking back down the canyon again in the dark empty handed. We did get to see a Ringtailed cat in the canyon, which I've never seen before so, the five hours of hiking did have a plus!

 

We now knew we would spend the rest of the time in our new discovered spot, hoping it would be productive. Day two morning we woke up early to a hour quad ride from our camp to our spot. Again spending all day glassing, finally started seeing activity in the bowl around 1530. All does until about an hour before sunset and finally saw this guy!post-8765-0-86388400-1351623448_thumb.jpg

Waited patiently for a ethical shot for about 15 minutes and BOOM, fired a round and he went down about 10 yards from the shot. 358 yards. By the time we got to him the sun was setting.post-8765-0-97852900-1351623630_thumb.jpgpost-8765-0-34453100-1351623602_thumb.jpg

We had seen another buck with this guy that looked interesting but he didn't make much of an appearance for my brother so we knew we would be back on day three.

 

We ran to Payson Day three morning to drop of my deer for processing, returned to camp had lunch, and headed back up the mountain to find my brothers buck. Arriving about 1300, we hiked back to our vantage point from the day before and just like the previous day. Again the mountain came alive with does in the mid afternoon, then around 1600 the other buck from the previous day made an appearance.post-8765-0-95133100-1351623947_thumb.jpg

My brother made a shot, 319 yards as I watched through my Kiabab 15's. He missed just high and the buck tucked behind a bush. I kept my eye on him for over 30 minutes only seeing his rack turn occasionally through the leaves and finally he came back out. My bother fired his second shot, I could see the shock wave though his chest, and he dropped right there. Again a hike across the bowl and there he lay.post-8765-0-06368600-1351624236_thumb.jpgMY BROTHERS FIRST COUES!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Great weekend! , there is so many great thing about Coues hunting I could write forever, but you guys already know why it's so great!

 

 

We made it home safe, and my daughters (future outdoors women) could not get over that we brought home two deer! My younger daughter calls everything with horns Elk, we couldnt stop laughing at that. "Nice elk dad".post-8765-0-86166800-1351624780_thumb.jpg

 

As usual meet some great people on the mountain. One gentleman was nice enough to provide us with pictures of these deer alive, from a week before. He happened to be hunting a half mile from us and didn't even know it. (Thanks Paul!)

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Right on guys!

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awesome!! Glad your new spot produced some great bucks! Great hunting with family as well, thanks for sharing.

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Congratulations on a couple great bucks! Really cool that you were able to meet someone who had live pictures and be able to get them.

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Thanks everyone! That two point does look old, looking forward to see what he scores, my brother was stoked to get that as his first coues! The neck on both these deer were huge!

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Both bucks are fantastic! I love the pictures with the girls, so cute!!!!!

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