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I was fortunate enough to go down and help out on the early AZ season. I have a pretty big family, we usually get 2-3 tags for every coues season except for the late hunt, in which case we hardly get any. I lucked out and drew a late tag so I volunteered to be chief packer, and subguide for some of my lucky relatives. My cousin had a deer tag in 33 and 2 of my uncles have tags in 36C. I couldn't make it till Saturday morning. 2 of my uncles had not seen a buck in 36C opening day so it was decided the best use of my meager help would be there. My dad and uncle went to 33 with my cousin. We all split up, the unit 33 guys went North and we headed for Sasabe. We went and set up in the cold Baboquivari morning in the spot they felt like glassing and it was a pretty good day.

 

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Here is one of my lucky tagholding uncles telling me it is a good day and a big one lives down in that mesquite thicket somewhere. And to not worry about the cold and dew soaked clothes I have on and to stop shivering brrrrrrbrrrrrrrrr :lol: .

 

Here is is the thicket I am supposed to find a shooter buck in.

 

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Do you see any 110 inch bucks in that thicket? Me neither. I looked all day and came up with 20 something does and 10 or so weener bucks. Needless to say my Mr. Magoo like uncles didn't come up with anything better.

 

Here is a buck that really fooled me.

 

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He really had me all fired up about 30 minutes before dark. He stood in a tree for 20 minutes and never moved. I could not see his head, only his body and his body looked huge for one of these "jackrabbit sized" deer. Finally after a coons age he moved out of the tree and I saw he was just a big 2 pointer with 4 inch eyegaurds. This picture does not do him justice but I figure he was a high 80's and maybe even a low 90's 2x2. That is big for a 22 pointer for around these parts. After he came out and some short judgements we decided not to go down and kill him.

 

We hiked out of our spot and hit the truck at dark and made the long drive back to Tucson. The unit 33 boys had a little better luck than us. My uncle got and has video of several PIGS that he had seen while scouting with my cousin over the last few weeks. They tried to kill the biggest PIG opening day and were foiled by the very large and wary coues buck. They connected on the one below Saturday. This is not the biggest of the bunch but it will do. I am happy to say that I got to skin it out and get my grubby paws on the rack. This deer has 5 inch H1 measurements. How many typical coues deer racks have you held with those? Yeah very few or none, I thought so, I was in that same boat until yesterday. It also has 6 and a half inch G1's. We all stood around the skinning tree in awe and were very happy for my cousin as this is his biggest coues deer to date and the biggest of any that Team Mattausch has whacked in a quite a few years.

 

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Here is my cousin Kurt, the shooter, my uncle Ben the spotter and my dad Bill the brushbeater. All three of those roles came into effect during the demise of this awesome buck. So many times on giant deer that are not rutted up you see them for a minute or two, then they go into almost impenetrable holes or cuts and you have to sacrifice someone to brushbeat through the jungle and kick them out. That was the case here.

 

And finally here is your tired author/skinner/photographer (ME) along with the shooter

 

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and the very unfortunate gorilla sized coues buck.

 

This morning I toiled away in the Baboquivaris behind the glass again only to see a bunch more does and weener bucks up to about 80 inches. Tomorrow, I go to New Mexico like a pirate looking for 100 inch coues deer plunder. If I am lucky, I might be able to tie my cousin and shoot a 113 incher like he did, I probably won't be that lucky or patient though. But whatever happens, it will be nice to walk the hills again with a rifle in hand and a tag in my pocket. Good luck to all still hunting.

 

 

Bret M.

Edited by bullwidgeon

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wow, what do you say, awesome buck guys!! thanx for the story and pix keep em comin' -mike-

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Hey Bret that is one awsom buck. You guys did great, and yes you do look tired. Maybe we can kill a couple of toads like that on our late hunts.

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That buck is awesome. He would be on the wall for sure. Thanks for the pics and story Bret.

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that is a toad, congrats, look at the bases on that thing, if i can just see one like that this season i would be tickled to death, even if i cant throw some lead at it, or knock it down thats awesome! are u sure that buck ONLY :lol: scores 113?? he looks a lot bigger than that to me!

Edited by firstcoueswas80

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Your cousin Kurt has reason to smile. Great mass and nice browtines. All of the big bucks were behind you, cuz ya know the coues aren't down on the flats with the carp ;) .

 

Doug/RedRabbit

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Talk about disturbing. 2 days of glassing flats and foothills and 0 carp sightings. Much like the dodo and passenger pigeon, the big fat floppy-eared prehistoric looking desert carps will be a thing of the past in the not too distant future if this drought keeps up. Kurt killed the buck at a whopping 40 yards after he busted out of a mesquite and catclaw patch that looks eerily similiar to the one we were hunting and tryed sneaking over a little ridge. They knew he was in there, they saw him go in there, they waited on him most of the day, he did not come out, they sent a man in making hellacious noise and put the shooter in a good spot and out came the coues buck at 40 yards. Cat and mouse was over and the cats won :lol:. He really "only scores 113". G2's and G3's are short for a deer of this size. He has a short mousey looking little head on him which makes him look bigger but he weighed over 100 pounds, he was just kind of disproportionate (I don't think that is word ;) ) looking. Thanks guys and gals for all the comments except for you Lark. I know you probably think it is a carp being as you have never seen any deer of either kind this big and very few elk even of this size :P , good luck spike shooting next week :lol: . I really am going to NM now that I am all packed.

 

Bret M.

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aw man, my mistake. i was thinkin' in the last picture that there was a carp in it. only it turned out to be you. do you have an appetite for doughballs? hahahaha. i am just too funny. that is a very nice buck. wonder if the drought has anything to do with it having small points, like the bulls all have small 5th's this year? good luck in new mex. you're lucky, because this year it's spike only over there. Lark.

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Bret, great story and pics. Thanks for the effort. I can only dream about whacking a buck that big. Maybe next month?

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