My First Coues Deer

by Terry Rugg

NOTE: this is my first hunt, I was going to be happy with any animal!

Thursday morning we arrived at our destination: Pena Blanca Lake. We had gotten the camping spot we wanted to, it was the closest Camping spot near the lake. Well after setting up Thursday morning, I thought I’d fish for a little while and then head up and scout a little bit before sundown. Fishing wasn’t the greatest in the world… actually I didn’t catch a thing. Well at around 3pm me and my dad headed out North West in some large hills and valleys. It was VERY windy, when I mean windy I’m talking about bracing yourself so you don’t fall windy haha. Well as I was glassing one canyon my dad went to glass another and spooked up a BIG W/T buck and that buck had meet up with 2 others. Both really nice size bucks. We headed back to camp, hoping not to spook anything else. Well as you are probably thinking…

Thursday night brought VERY LITTLE if ANY sleep.

Friday morning camp and I headed out to where my dad had spooked those bucks. For 3.5 hours I sat in the most beautiful country/weather. It was awesome. Well it turned out that I didn’t see ONE deer in that canyon that morning. I decided to walk around a little bit see if I could scare anything up. I had been hearing shots all around me all morning and the anticipation was growing.

I sat down in another ridge and glassed up some hunters skinning and gutting their kill. After another 2 hours my dad radioed me and said to head back to camp for an hour or so to eat lunch. Not 5 minutes later I spooked up 3 bucks and a doe. I was VERY excited and rushed the shot at a nice 80″ 4×4( including the eyeguards). I was upset and headed back to camp.

Me and my dad had decided to hike another 3 miles after those deer to see if I had wounded them because the deer I shot at wasn’t running right. After 2 hours and 3 miles, we decided to head back and try another spot.

Well my dad dropped me off about 2 miles from camp and right as we walked not even 100 yards… 3 big W/T does popped out of no where. Well I thought this was promising and my dad went on his way. I decided to walk a couple canyons over and glass. Well that proved to be a VERY smart decision as I glassed up 15 W/T. I could see only 3 bucks but who knows how many spikes there were. They were too far away before sundown so right as I was going to head back to where my dad was going to pick me up, I saw two deer running full speed to my right about 200 yards away. After they disappeared I ran as fast as I could to try and cut them off. When I stopped I couldn’t see them and glassed for 5 minutes when I decided to give a little grunt call. Not 50 yards below me two spikes (one around 8-10″ and the other 4″) were looking right at me. I had yet again rushed another shot and missed the bigger of the two. He took off and I grunted again and the 4″er stopped broad side at 125yards+/-. I got my bino’s up and took a good 5 minutes to make sure.

125yards+he had antlers. Sure enough he did but he started to walk away, so I hit the call and he stopped. I shot a little high and he took off full speed, I grunted again and he slowed down and the shot hit the mark. 175yard shot and now I had a nice 4″ spike for my first deer ever. It was my most memorable hunt ever and I had a BLAST. Not to mention another 20 or so deer I saw after Friday!!!! Well that’s my story, I’m sorry it was so boring I’m not that great of a writer…anyways lets hear everyone else’s stories.

Terry: “Hunt Hard, Shoot Straight, Enjoy the Hunt”