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vegasmike

Central AZ archery rut hunt - advice needed

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Hello all,
 
Very new to both the forum and hunting in general.  This is actually my first season, I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to successfully hunt a friends farm in Oklahoma & just recently in NY as well.  I'm hoping to apply what I've learned during my first two archery hunts and see what I can make of an OTC AZ archery coues deer rut hunt.  Two very different worlds I know.
 
I currently reside in Las Vegas, so hunting one of the central units would allow me to make a pre hunt scouting trip.  From researching GOhunt, OnX, AZGFD, google earth, & podcasts I'm thinking Unit 6a will be best for me.
 
Seems most people spend countless hours glassing and playing the spot and stalk game.  I'm super excited to spend a day or two attempting some stalks but I'm thinking building a natural blind and sitting water is going to give me the best opportunity for success considering my "greenness".  Bear in mind success for me would be simply filling my tag, and I'd probably be fairly happy with just some encounters I can learn from.  I'm planning to build a blind on three or four different water holes during my scouting trip I can sit during my hunt.
 
My biggest handcuff will be my lack of 4x4 vehicle.  I'm stuck hunting from a car lol.  My current plan is to AirBnB a place in Camp Verde and hunt the water tanks off RT260/General Crook Trail. My largest concern is the majority of the water holes I have access to seem pretty close to the main road (all less than a mile) and have ATV tails leading to them.  
 
While I consider myself pretty physically fit I know how steep and deep those canyons can get so I'm not going to even pretend like I have the sack to attempt a long backpack hunt or a 4 mile 1,000ft ele change hike....this year at least.  
 
Some have said its not a bad idea being im not looking for a trophy class buck and others said its a waste of time and funds.  Any thoughts and or advice would be greatly appreciated.  

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Being a nonresident of AZ but hunting Coues deer for 9 times and killing 4 plus one in Mexico I can understand your predicament and issues.    I have not spot and stalked one to the kill but I have tried a few times without success.   All of the bucks came from a natural blind, tree stand, or a tent blind (Mexico) over a funnel (bed to feed, bed to drink, feed to drink, shade during mid day heat and all were killed during the January bow hunting season.  The last buck I killed came in to horn rattling and buck grunting.  Being a solo hunter without a ATV and willing to hike in a mile or two, like I do here in Colorado for elk, I have no issues to hike onto an area, and even stay the night or two.   I do this mainly to get away from other hunters and to also find more remote and un molested deer.    Finding  one or two remote water holes would be  ideal and with indications that deer are actually visiting the area.   With the aid of Google Earth, one should be able to find some of these.    As far as spending "countless hours glassing".   Well, this is the name of the game where one can find a good location and glass the areas for a day or two to determine the deer patterns and what bucks might be in the area, what time there are moving, and then slip in to ambush from a ground blind or tree stand.   Setting on your butt and checking out the area with bios and/ or a spotting scope will be good time spent and I would highly recommend it.   Just remember, the very first time into the area, once you determine the deer movement, is the very best time to kill a deer.   I have not hunted Coues in "central" AZ but hunt them farther south within (sometimes, eye sight of the Mexican boarder).    So keep at it, and with some hard work and some good luck you will one day get the draw on a Coues buck.      I will be back down to AZ this coming January.                         my best,   Paul

coues deer clean up 2012.jpg

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You're on the right track. Last year I went through the same thing you're going through now and learned a ton. It's fun to be able to glass and see bucks chasing does on one ridge and bucks running off smaller bucks on another ridge and the does caught in the middle of it all. One valuable lesson I learned is when the bucks are on their feet chasing it's really tough to anticipate their movements and get in position for a stalk (some guys on here are pretty good at it but it's definitely a learned skill). However once they are tending a doe they stick real close and can provide you with a chance to make a move. Otherwise if you find a good water source like you mentioned and have sign like Paul said it's probably worth sitting on. Good luck and have fun. Desert rut hunting is a lot of fun and the weather is usually great. Let us know how it goes.

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That is a very popular hunt but not as crowded as some of the rifle or elk hunts. A big plus for you is being able to make a few scouting trips and 6A has some car friendly areas to scout. Don't rule out renting a truck from Enterprise for a while. Just stay away from the F150 as it does not have much ground clearance with that front air dam.

Glassing will help so I would suggest you could get out around the hills near Vegas and do some so you get a feel for it.

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On 11/24/2018 at 7:36 AM, PRDATR said:

That is a very popular hunt but not as crowded as some of the rifle or elk hunts. A big plus for you is being able to make a few scouting trips and 6A has some car friendly areas to scout. Don't rule out renting a truck from Enterprise for a while. Just stay away from the F150 as it does not have much ground clearance with that front air dam.

Glassing will help so I would suggest you could get out around the hills near Vegas and do some so you get a feel for it.

Definitely not ruling out renting a truck.  I'd bet after a scouting trip that'll be the route I take.  As I dive further into OnX and google earth the majority of the spots I'd like to hunt aren't accessible by car.  I'll use my AirBnB budget for a truck and my tent will have to replace a nice warm cabin. 

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34 minutes ago, vegasmike said:

I'll use my AirBnB budget for a truck and my tent will have to replace a nice warm cabin. 

This. Commuting is wasted time. Many people I know have killed a buck in or just outside of camp. 

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First learn how to locate deer. Get a tripod and a pair of decent 15s.  Since your new I highly suggest you take a Duwane Adams glassing class. Write down tons of questions before hand and pick his brain. Spending $300 on his class will save you lots of money in the future. He is a living legend and a heck of a nice guy.

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On 11/23/2018 at 5:06 PM, vegasmike said:
Hello all,
 
Very new to both the forum and hunting in general.  This is actually my first season, I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to successfully hunt a friends farm in Oklahoma & just recently in NY as well.  I'm hoping to apply what I've learned during my first two archery hunts and see what I can make of an OTC AZ archery coues deer rut hunt.  Two very different worlds I know.
 
I currently reside in Las Vegas, so hunting one of the central units would allow me to make a pre hunt scouting trip.  From researching GOhunt, OnX, AZGFD, google earth, & podcasts I'm thinking Unit 6a will be best for me.
 
Seems most people spend countless hours glassing and playing the spot and stalk game.  I'm super excited to spend a day or two attempting some stalks but I'm thinking building a natural blind and sitting water is going to give me the best opportunity for success considering my "greenness".  Bear in mind success for me would be simply filling my tag, and I'd probably be fairly happy with just some encounters I can learn from.  I'm planning to build a blind on three or four different water holes during my scouting trip I can sit during my hunt.
 
My biggest handcuff will be my lack of 4x4 vehicle.  I'm stuck hunting from a car lol.  My current plan is to AirBnB a place in Camp Verde and hunt the water tanks off RT260/General Crook Trail. My largest concern is the majority of the water holes I have access to seem pretty close to the main road (all less than a mile) and have ATV tails leading to them.  
 
While I consider myself pretty physically fit I know how steep and deep those canyons can get so I'm not going to even pretend like I have the sack to attempt a long backpack hunt or a 4 mile 1,000ft ele change hike....this year at least.  
 
Some have said its not a bad idea being im not looking for a trophy class buck and others said its a waste of time and funds.  Any thoughts and or advice would be greatly appreciated.  

Welcome to the site & good luck on your hunt. 

I've killed a couple spot & stalk hunting, but most of mine (muleys & coues) have been sitting ambushes.  The same tactics you used in Oklahoma & NY can make you successful in Az.  The main difference is that the deer population & concentration is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay less here than either of those states.  It's not uncommon to sit for a day or two and see nothing but birds & squirrels here, but then other days it seems like every deer in the county is around your stand.  Deer here have much larger ranges than their eastern cousins, so a "good spot" will often not have deer everyday.  If deer pass through it consistently every 3-5 days, it's still a good spot.  Just my experience, but most of my trail cams will show daily use for several days in a row, then almost nothing for 2-7 days, then they're back again.  It's a waiting game and long hours are the rule of thumb.  I've had opportunities at small bucks within minutes of getting in a tree before, but usually I sit for 2-4 days before I kill something.  My buddy that I hunt with just killed a 90" coues deer this August on his third morning.  A few years before that I killed a 113" one from the same stand on the 3rd or 4th morning, can't really remember now.  Last year he killed opening morning and I got mine on the fourth evening.  Just gotta commit and sit it out all day.  Never know when one will show up.  

As you're probably going to have very limited scouting opportunities, it's not a bad idea to set up an ambush in a high saddle or on a ridge top overlooking a trail in a spot where you can also glass for the first couple days.  Scout & hunt at the same time.  If your glassing reveals deer hanging out in a certain area you can either stalk them or switch over and set-up an ambush over there the next day.  There's no rule saying you have to hunt one way or the other, you can mix it up.  I used to glass during the mornings & into the afternoon & then sit in saddles the last 1-2 hours of the evening if I hadn't found anything to spot & spook yet.  

 

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Again I want to send a huge thanks out to everyone for their feedback which has been quite helpful as I continue to plan out my hunt. 

I was able to make it down to the Camp Verde area to do a bit of scouting this weekend.  Although I wasn’t able to put glass on any Coues I did see a lot of tracks, scat (not fresh), and found a shed. I was also able to spot a few cow elk feeding their way up the drainage hillside.

Im a bit confused by what I saw.  I was assuming the deer would be bedding down in the drainages and working them self’s out to feed water and rut.  I found the majority of tracks and scat around the rims of the drainages and even in areas wiped bare by cattle.  I actually found a shed less than 100yards from rt260. Also saw a lot of what I thought were mule deer tracks and scat.    Could they be bedding up top or could this just be really old sign when they were forced to use the tanks by the road to water?  

I also had the downfall of seeing two track roads in the bottom of every drainage I was glassing so I’m definitely going to rent a pickup for the hunt to help get a little deeper in and away from the roads   

 

 

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Mike, sent you a PM.

Coues are often found the top quarter of a ridge. They won't necessarily bed in the bottoms (But they could). Any northwest facing slope is essentially a bedding area. At first lite glass everywhere but start with the southeast facing slopes. As it warms up about 8ish deer will work there way to shade so start glassing towards the shady areas. Finding patches of mountain mahogany will help as well since that should be a food source in January.  

Make sure to dig up some old threads on glassing.

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Keep in mind the weather.  I killed a buck on January 1, 2016 in the northern end of unit 21. It had been cold for several days, and of the few waters holes I checked, they had about two inches of ice covering them. Kinda surprised me. 

58B232DB-3013-4FBC-B1E4-F6CD6424F2E1.jpeg

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