Hunting the Fringe

[BACKCOUNTRY]

I wonder how many of you have had success hunting in the fringe zone a.k.a.. lower elevations,flats, muley areas, in units 31,32 and 33?

I have never shot one in this type of terrain, but I often see nice bucks hanging around fringe areas. One time I spotted a nice young 3 point hanging with 5 mule deer.

Most the time I am just passing through these areas and get caught off guard when I spot a Whitetail in these fringe zones.

Has anyone had any success hunting whitetail in the lower/muley zones in unit 31,32 and 33??

 

LC

[coues addict]

Backcountry

I helped out two of my buddies from San Diego in 2003 in unit 32 last season on the early October hunt. They Both tagged their first Coues bucks. One buck was taken in the typical top of the mountain stuff that you would expect . The other buck I spotted with 3 other bucks in a group of four in a definite lowland fringe area. While my buddy Paul was stalking his buck I spotted eight mulie does and one nice two x three mulie buck about two hundred yards from where I was sitting. I couldn`t believe it. The mulies never spotted us and I found myself watching both groups of deer as the stalk took about an hour. It was really cool. Paul made a nice shot on the Coues Buck and that was that. The fourth day I was helping out my nephew and I spotted two more Coues bucks down in the flats in a totally different area in unit 32 also. He ended up harvesting the larger one of the two. A nice two x three Coues buck. I personally think there is way more coues deer now then when I first started hunting unit 32 some ten or twelve years ago. I hope this helps and good luck in the draw. Coues addict

[bullwidgeon]

Last year my dad killed a deer in 33 that was in the flats. Nowhere near anything resembling an oak tree, or rugged mountain, just prickly pears and cholla with a little bit of catclaw and small finger ridges scattered around. We hunted that place for 5 or 6 days and saw 20-30 deer a day all whitetails and only like 4-5 mulies total. Some of the biggest coues deer I have ever seen in the 36 units were in the flats as well.

 

Bret M.

[falls]

What about extreme fringe areas.

I have seen some excellent sheds from areas like 5b and 4a. Does anyone out there ever try for coues in these areas?

[bullwidgeon]

I have seen coues deer in unit 1. I used to think that was pretty weird, they associate heavily with the creek bottom habitats around Greer alot. I wouldn't be suprised if they were also in a bunch of other places like that in similiar habitat.

 

Bret M.

[Red Rabbit]

On the northern fringe, I have picked up a nice coues shed north of Marshall Lake (by Lake Mary south of Flagstaff), and a skull east of Marshall lake in the PJ. Mount Elden on the north side of Flagstaff has a good coues population. I once stopped while driving over Cedar Hill to put a stalk with my bow on a nice buck.

 

Doug/RedRabbit

[Rembrant]

Mr. Rabbitt,

I haven't seen a whitetail on McMillan Mesa in over three years. Used to chase 'em around too. One good 100 plus buck and others. Think they got road killed out. Have you seen them lately? I have a photo of a Cedar Hill road kill that I think would score a solid 120" (4 x 4). This was back before the new road. Wish I was more inept at whitetail hunting back then.

I have picked up 7 sheds in 5B north out of one pocket, not far from where you have mentioned. One set would score about 90".

One would hope that some of those Cedar Hill genitics would still be around somewhere!

It's nice to know that someone else is paying attention.

Mike

[az4life]

I used to hunt a lot in 4A and 4B above the rim for deer. There was one canyon that was always loaded with them. Big ones were not uncommon. An old timer showed me the area when we were hunting mulies and I think I could find it again but for sure someone else on the board knows where it is.

 

When I started hunting Coues, I had no idea they were in the desert areas. I could not believe any deer lived in the 2000 - 3000 ft levels.

Lately I have seen lots of deer in the lower, flatter, less rugged terrain. I find it harder to hunt so I usually continue to hike to the high spots and glass however,

The last 2 years the biggest deer taken in the areas I hunted were taken in the lower elevations with less cover and flatter contours.

Interesting topic!

[falls]

Water has a large part to do with coues being at lower elevations. Stock tanks that are maintained through these dry years have brought them down.

[300 wsm]

I have seen a few coues right here in my home unit of 3B, I have also seen them in units 3C, 4A, 4B, and in unit 1.

[m1280]

unit 33 happy valley coues run the fringes and washes down to the creek. early season archery the (coues) are in abundance, until that oct. rifle opens up then you better get the hikin gear out and concentrate around the park (saghuaro natnl) area. find a trail and be patient they will still move lower to h2o. got on 2 big mulies w/o a shot and passed on 4 or 5 small 2 to 3 pt coues , again this was early archery. saw plenty of deer each day and while sittin in the creek bottom watchin a trail one mornin saw a mulie doe and fawn goin to h2o they passed from view and about 20 minutes after i saw them i heard a chase, never saw anything, the doe went one way and the fawn was bawlin loud and scared , i could distinguish from the leaves the sound of hooves slicin the clutter and muffled paw prints as this took place. it ended after abut 15 seconds with a crash, frantic bleating, and a quiet growl. kind a put a damper on the rest of the a.m. hunt. about an hour after this with no other noise i got up and went to where the sound was and picked up the trail. very little blood and sign of struggle for the noise i heard. i then lost the trail and started lookin in the tree tops but found nothing. have any of ya'll experienced this or any thing like it? its just one of those things that happened while I was huntin alone and not many people would believe me if I told them. kinda spookes me about huntin alone in lion country. from where i was and where the chase started was about 250 yds or so.

[BACKCOUNTRY]

Oh Yeah!! , M1280, Just last December I had a experience similar to that. I was packing out my 3x3 coues about 2 miles in on Turkey creek, it was around 10am and very cold out (it got down to 15 degrees that morning) when I heard some rustling in the oaks to my left, about 15 yards away. I was not to concerned, I just kept plugging away at carrying this big toad out on my back.

Well the next day a buddy of mine came down the same trail and said he came across my tracks and found Big Cat tracks on top of mine!!!

Talk about watching your back.

[TREESTANDMAN]

Check out www.azgfd.com. 2 bikers were recently stalked and chased by a lion and then the 2 game and fish officers that were sent to investigate were stalked and ended up killing the lion. I used to scout w/out being armed, now after reading all of these Lion stories I prefer to have some sort of weapon.

[m1280]

yea i just read about that in the az "red star" , tucson daily newspaper, it happened up on the edge of sabino canyon of the mt. lemmon area. the paper had it splattered all over the front page tryin to piggy back the controversy that happened earlier w/ the lions in that area. my weapon of choice during the scouting season is my ar-15 with a bull barrel and nice 3x9, just like the beverly hillbillies, it does a good job of lighten matches out to 400 yds. the problem i have is tryin to find a 5 round clip to stay in the good graces of the game and fish any advice ?

[Diamondbackaz]

Actually the lion was killed near general hitchcock campground in upper Bear Canyon. It probably was one of the delinquent lions that they were looking for earlier. It was killed with a shotgun.