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Bird Doggin’ Coues
by Tommy Hancock
It all started with my good friend Shane inviting me down to his neck of the woods, to try a hand at whitetail hunting in an area that he liked. So I said what the heck, lets get a tag and give it a try. SO as luck would have it I drew and headed down to his place on Thursday. We went out to do some last minute glassing to see if we could find the bucks that he was sure were in the area before opening morning came. About a hour before dark we were able to glass at least 3 and maybe 5 bucks ( the brush was really thick and they were a long ways off, 1,200-1,400 yards away) several were smaller bucks, but one or 2 required a closer examination, that we weren’t able to get that evening as we watched them feed to the tip top of a mountain and out of sight just at dark. With great anticipation for the next day we headed back, were Shane cooked up a great steak, and after lots of B.S. and thoughts of how to go about the next morning we headed to bed. Morning came early and we were back up to the top of the ridge that was to be our glassing spot for the day. We sat the lawn chairs up and got the binos and tripods all ready and watched the sun turn the dark morning to grey, as we begin to pick apart the mountain side. We had been glassing for 30 minutes or so when I finally spot a lone buck at the top of the mountain, we watched him feed to and out of sight in some thick draws. Wondering where his buddies were we continued to pick apart every bush and tree and draw and drainage. Finally to pick out 2 more bucks that came over the top of the mountain and begin to make there way down through the brush. We were in high hopes that they would bed soon so we could make our move on them, as they were still 1,000 yards away. Finally the bigger of the 2 bucks disappeared in a wall of brush in a little cut, thinking this would be his bed for several hours, Shane told me he would stay and watch from the there, and I would make my way over 3 ridges and up to a certain cedar tree were I could then watch from ( and hopefully get a shot from) as I was almost there I kicked out a small 1×2 that I let grow for another day, but the bad thing he was running right to were the big buck was bedded, the little buck ran within 30feet of the big buck and as Shane watched from the far hill he said the big buck DID NOT get up and go with the little buck, at this point I was wondering if the big buck had slipped out on us or was just holding really tight. So I kept on going and I finally made it to the determined tree, to find nothing, the brush was so thick I could not find the buck, I tried picking apart ever inch of the little cut we thought he was in and, nothing it was solid brush….. So I told Shane I would watch while he worked his way over to me, and then we would decide what to do next. So I watched and waited and hoped the big buck was still there, and hoped he would stand up for a noon day stretch. Shane finally got there and we both looked and could find nothing, so we begin talking a little thinking he would hear us and get up… still nothing, by that time I was really thinking the buck and gotten away some how. Well Shane thought the only other thing to do was if he circled to the left and walked up the draw, then if the buck was still there, he might stand and give me a shot, so I said ok and I got ready, Well Shane headed over that way and worked closer, and closer, and closer and closer, and still nothing happened, I just knew the buck and given us the slip, when all of a sudden, when Shane was no more then 25 feet from the buck HE EXPLODED, he come out of the wall of brush like he had been shot from a canon, going a hundred miles an hour from left to right ( which to me is the hardest shot to make) he was jumping brush and clearing rocks and getting the heck out of dodge, well I pulled down on him and let one fly Right over his back, ( he was only about a 100 yards away) the buck had about 30 yards farther and then he would be gone for good, so I jacked one more shell in and tried to follow him hauling butt, up and over brush and the last ½ a split second as he was rounding the corner just before he was gone for good I let one fly. As he disappeared over the edge and out of sight with the recoil. I thought I heard the WHACK, but Shane no I didn’t hear it I think he got away, and I said no it felt good, I had him in the scope I think I got him go look by those two cactus, so he goes over to the first one and says NO, and I says a few more steps to the second one, and so just as he looks over the edge there he lay, NICE BUCK DOWN… we glassed him at about 6:45 or so, and I shot him at 11:00 that was quite the 4 hours we had getting that buck, but having him hold so tight was amazing, he wasn’t getting up for anything, I’m sure it saved his life a time or two in the past, we had to bird dog him like a covey of quail, Shane just needs to learn to point them out before they jump like that and give us both heart attacks. We roughed him out at 95 3/8, He’s got double eye guards on both sides, and a cool “acorn hole” on one side, Not real long beams, But heavy all the way, he has 4″ bases, very nice for a coues. So many thanks for Shane and helping me not only find the buck, but helping me pack the buck off the mountain. It was a hot sucker, but we finally made it back to the truck. I’m going to do a ½ life size mount of the buck with his front feet standing on a rock ledge or something, But I’m very tickled with him. My biggest to date, out of the dozen or so I’ve brought home. And the great thing about it was it was my wife’s birthday, So I told her I needed to hunt on her birthday more often, yea, she liked that Idea ( NOT).
GET YOUR GUN! – My 2010 San Carlos Hunt
by Brandon McDermott
This hunt started out of frustration, after hunting Mexico for 8 straight years and never breaking the 120” mark (112” personal best), and all of the state land hunts I have endured, I decided it was time for a change. I was venting my frustrations to my friend and taxidermist Mike Vacarro, and he mentioned that he had killed a 120” plus Coues on the reservation before, so heeding his advice I decided to give it try. I asked my friend Mark Boulanger (who by my standards is the sickest/best Coues hunter I have ever seen) to join me and he accepted. The months we spent waiting for the season to open gave me the opportunity to put together a new lightweight 270 WBY mag., just the rifle for this kind of a grueling hunt to come. After many trips to the range and some custom ammo, I had the 270 tack driving out to750 yards with a 130 gr. AccuBond, and weighing in around 8 lbs, it was ready.
As the season approached, I began to realize that I only had limited knowledge of the San Carlos terrain via turkey hunting, so I would need a lot more input from friends and tribal guides. I contacted Monster and scheduled opening day with him, this worked out good for me because Mark was unable to make opening day due to work obligations. But unfortunately on Christmas evening Monster called and cancelled due to his truck breaking down, so now I would be solo the first day. Thankfully Monster was kind enough to give me places to start looking and advised on where we could set up camp.
Opening day was uneventful, glassed 6 bucks with the largest 85”. Mark arrived on day 2 and we set up camp and began to hunt area’s that friends recommended for the next 4 days, turning no shooters, we headed back home to recharge and spend New Years eve with our families. While at home, I received a call from Monster telling me to contact a tribal guide named Dewey. When I spoke to Dewey, he told me he had a hunter that missed a teen buck two days ago and that we should go after it, so I agreed to meet Dewey the next morning. The next morning came and it was very cold (9 degrees), as we hiked into the area, the sun started to reveal a beautiful Coues habitat and I became very excited about the prospects of killing a teen buck. By 1:00 pm and 6 miles later, the biggest buck we could find was 90”,and that’s not what I was looking for, so it was time to move on to another spot Dewey had in mind, and by 5:30 we never turned a shooter, so it was time to call it a day.
Mark and I ground pounded the next two days like every other day, leaving camp well before light and returning well after sunset, only taking time to cook a little dinner and have a few cocktails, then lights out at 8:30 (couple of old men!). During these 2 days Mark found a 105” buck in a different area that we would keep for a last day buck.
The big day…My buddy Ray D. came up for the day to lend a hand glassing, now there was 3. With words of encouragement from Dewey (3 days prior), I decided to go back into the first spot Dewey took me to. Only having been there once before in the dark, made it a little challenging to lead this group back into the correct spot. The 45 minute hike turned into a 90 minute trek with me swearing because at one point we were walking on the hillside we intended on glassing*!@%#. Regaining my composure, we settled on to a ridge with a perfect view and a shooting distance 250-450 yards and began glassing, each of us spread out about 70 yards apart with me in the middle. The morning was kind of slow with a few smaller type bucks moving around but very few does. This did not discourage me, in fact around 8:30 AM, I got this feeling that something was going to happen, so I removed the turret & scope covers from my rifle and racked a round. We continued glassing, and at 9:45 while scanning over a piece of real-estate I’d looked at 8 times before, I see a spike with his nose down heading towards a big dead tree, then HE stands up!, my mouth dropped because all I could see was horns! and I began calling for Mark to come quickly. looking to my right, I see Mark heading towards me in a complete panic!, thinking that he heard me calling him, he runs up to me with WILD look on his face and says “GET YOUR GUN!” and follow me, I said no!, I got a giant buck in my binos , he says no I got a giant buck over here, I say no, look at the buck in my binos, he does and says that’s the same buck follow me! We scrambled the 70 or so yards up the hill, and Mark was right, he definitely had a better vantage point to shoot from. Mark’s immediately back in his binos and says, I got him, but he’s chasing that spike around and moving very quickly in and out of the trees. I steady myself on a elevated rock and asked for yardage, Mark says shoot it for 300 yards, and he’s coming from the left to right hold on the next open spot in front of him, I found a opening between two dead tree branches about 2’ wide and hold on it, what seems like forever took all of 10 seconds for the deer to move through the opening, and I fired, WHAP!!…Unbeknownst to me the deer runs about 30 yards and beds down under a small oak tree, did I hit him?, Mark says not sure, but I got him under the small oak tree. As I go into melt-down thinking I’ve just missed the biggest Coues deer I’ve ever seen in my life!, Mark tells me that he’s wounded and just stood up, and to shoot into a small black open hole in the tree, boom!, Mark looks at me very calmly and says 130” buck down (later Mark unofficially scored it at 141)! As we walked up to the deer, I couldn’t look because I still was waiting for something to go wrong. Then the celebration began, we were all in amazement of how big this beautiful creature was! (I will skip the crying part) a lot of man hugs and photos, then back to camp with the bad boy in my lap the whole way, I felt like a proud father coming home from the hospital.
Next day I drove the head back to Phoenix for proper care, then back up the hill to help Mark find a shooter. We spent the next 3 days scouring the reservation for worthy buck. And finally on the last day we decided to kill the 105” buck we left for the last day. Mark made a great shot at 400 yards, I was very proud to have been apart of his hunt with him. The cool part is that I’m going to use his cape on my life size mount, so every time I look at it, it will remind me of our hunt together.
Mark Boulanger with his San Carlos buck.
I would like to thank a few people for helping make my dream come true; Mark Boulanger, without him I would not even be writing this story, Dewey, the #1 guide and for his knowledge of the reservation, Monster, Ray Dorweiler, Mike Vacarro, Jackie McDermott my beautiful and supportive wife.
Our 2009 whitetail hunt
by Loren Merrill
I shot this buck opening morning in Unit 23 of this year. My 63 year old father glassed this buck at about 1000 yards at first light. He was with another buck, and they were sparring with each other as we came up with the best stalking strategy. It was so far and so early, it was hard to tell just how big these bucks were, but it was apparent they were good bucks. My two boys and I decided to hike around the back side of the ridge where the bucks were. My father is not able to hike much anymore and kept an eye on the deer and kept us up to date by radio. The bucks were on a ridge that was about 800 foot higher than we were at the time. The trip around the ridge was even farther than we thought. We went our of radio range, so we just kept moving hoping that the bucks would still be there. As we came back over the ridge, we came back into radio range, and my Dad said the deer had starting moving to where we were planning on coming over the ridge. He said they must have heard us, and moved the opposite direction, he said they weren’t spooked, just moved further up along the ridge.
One of my sons was very anxious, and got out ahead of me, he went pretty low on the ridge because the walking was easier. As I tried to slow him down, my father directed me to the spot where he last saw the deer. My other son and I had to climb up the ridge a little farther to hopefully get a better angle on the deer in the next draw. As we topped out over to see the next draw, one of my sons was about 200 yards lower on the ridge than we were. As with Coues, the terrain was very, very steep. We quietly worked our way over and began glassing for the bucks. I then heard a shot from my son down the ridge. I looked that direction and saw a deer top out over the next ridge. Just then, I saw this buck step out and look toward my son. I hoped that he would see him, and I tried to get my other son at my side to see the deer, but nothing. I had the deer in the cross hairs, waiting and wanting for one of them to shoot. He began to move over the ridge so I squeezed the trigger. He dropped immediately at about 100 yards.
We then noticed the other buck moving two ridges over, about 250 yards away. I got my son to quickly set up on him, but when he pulled the trigger, nothing. He put another shell in, and the same thing, nothing. The gun dry fired twice – what a shame! From what I saw of the buck before he went out of sight, he may have been bigger than the one I dropped.
That buck had jumped out so close to my son, that he could not find the deer in his scope – he still had his scope on 9 power after seeing the bucks so far away. He finally took a shot because the deer was so close, even though he couldn’t see it in the scope. He must have missed.
He was the first to this buck and yelled across the draw that it was huge. I knew it was nice, but it all happened so fast it was hard to know just how big he was.
He scores right at 103 inches before deductions. His inside spread is 15 7/8″, and is very heavy. He is a nice buck and it was the start of a very fun hunt.
My son Austin shot this other 3 point buck at 250 yards with a 22-250, he knocked him down and my other son Jon finished him off with a shot to the head at 800 yards with a 25-06 and a Carl Zeiss turret scope that my brother let him use.
Arizona Coues Deer Hunt—HIGH NOON ENCOUNTER
January 2009
by Paul Navarre
FROM my high vantage point, I could not observe a single field of planted or harvested corn, sorghum, alfalfa, wheat or beans. Not even a food plot and I doubted that any of these conditions existed within hundreds of miles. What vegetation I could identify and some that I could not, was cats claw brush, mesquite trees, barrel and prickly pear cactus, various grasses and other forms of thorn brush. Much of this vegetation wanted to grab or stick you and this seemed like a strange environment to hunt whitetails.
IT WAS mid January and I had just moved my tent camp from a hunting area northeast of Tucson, Arizona to just 25 miles north of the Mexican border. While I had seen four good bucks and quite a few does during my five-day stay, the previous area of open country with parallel grass covered ridges and valleys, scattered mesquite trees and brush, was not very bow hunter friendly and more suited to long-range rifle deer hunting. Archery close was my goal and I needed to find a more suitable environment.
THREE years previous, I had harvested my first Coues buck, just a forked buck, but a “gray ghost” as many call this small subspecies to its larger whitetail cousins to the north and mid-west. A mature buck may field dress at 100 pounds but 85 to 95 pounds is normal. The Pope and Young minimum is 65 inches, so a 100-inch buck is quite a trophy, especially with bow and arrow. The Arizona state archery record is PY 124 and the world record is 130 1/8.
GROWING up in Ohio, I had continued to bow hunt whitetail deer in Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, and Colorado where I have resided for the past seventeen years, so I am knowledgeable of deer tactics and it was time to put some of those mid-western tactics to work. In my truck was a tree stand and Double Bull blind, but my main equipment and tactics would be my camouflage outfit, boots, knee-pads and then to spot and stalk, still-hunt or to set up in a stationary ambush location. I have always liked hunting off the ground as one can quickly change locations if the conditions change. There is no doubt that Coues whitetails can be hunted in the Arizona timbered mountains, the higher grassland plateaus, and lower river and stream bottoms, usually between 4,000 and 6,000 feet. It was the lower stream bottoms that I would focus on during this second week of hunting. If not successful, I would move farther east to the high elevations and timbered ridges. Also, if I needed to get farther back in a remote area, my backpack and bivy sack would provide home for a few days. Being prepared for all hunting conditions is a key factor when making these long-range trips.
HEADING to a tree-lined stream bottom that I had hunted three years before, I was well aware of the challenge and suspense of hunting public land, in that a hunter may not know what to expect, what quality of animals are in the area or what the competition from other hunters might be. I knew this vast area had potential even though, during the previous three months, there had been both archery and rifle deer seasons. What I did have in my favor was that the month of January was archery only hunting and the deer rut should be in full swing.
AFTER arriving early the next morning, I set up camp next to my truck in a shaded grove of trees. Around 9:00 a.m., I was eager to again explore this stream bottom so I gathered my gear and headed up stream for a mile. Not only was I looking for fresh deer sign, but also for the possibility of finding a suitable cottonwood tree for my tree stand at a good stream crossing where deer transitioned from one side of the valley to the other. I knew of a transitional area just up ahead where two gullies met the stream bottom and were divided by a three-acre mesquite tree flat. One side of the flat ran uphill into the surrounding open countryside and the other side was shaded along a 100-yard wide stream bottom. It seemed like an ideal ambush spot.
WELL, what better deer sign than real deer! I spied them 60 yards ahead, moving away, as I carefully approached the flat. A doe and a yearling I expected, but when I got to my knees for a better look under the mesquite trees, I saw a small 3×3 antlered buck following a doe. I noted the time to be 10:15 a.m. After they moved away, I spent a few minutes, quietly exploring the flat and found two good natural blinds. The use of them would be dependent on the wind direction and I stayed the remainder of the afternoon keeping vigilant for deer, but none were spotted. Unlike the previous week in the wide-open terrain where I could spot deer a mile away with my tripod mounted binoculars, this new location would limit my visibility to less than 70 yards. I liked the odds here! Archery close for sure!
THE hike back in the morning was into a cool northeast breeze and I arrived at the flat just before the sun’s rays broke the eastern horizon. The change in wind direction during the night brought a new freshness to the air and I had high expectations for this day. The full moon of the previous week was waning and the early morning sky was cloudless.
IT was not long before the first doe showed up as she traveled along the opposite edge of the flat. A half hour later, two does and yearlings grazed through just twenty yards away. Just prior to 9:00 a.m., a string of five does followed by the same 3×3 buck I had seen the day before followed a trail to my left. The buck hesitated in a shooting lane and was I tempted to take him but never picked up my bow which was leaning against a tree trunk within arm’s reach. At 10:15 a.m., a doe that was feeding in front of me at 20 yards picked me out. I may have moved too much because kneeling that long had started to cramp my legs. The stare-down began; a stare down that could have disastrous effects later.
JUST then, sixty yards to my left, a larger buck showed up following another doe as my stare-down continued with the alert doe in front of me! I could make out his body parts but what was impressive was his set of antlers and I dared not move too quickly as not to spook the nearby doe. This situation was becoming very intense! The doe that the buck had been following came through a shooting lane at 25 yards but the mature buck’s instincts, once he noticed the alert doe to my front, came into high gear and he froze in place behind some clutter. I slowly reached for my grunt call and gave out four light buck grunts. The larger buck’s head jerked in my direction and a few seconds later he stepped forward a few yards and into the shooting lane. Now or never as I slowly reached for my Martin compound bow, drew the arrow back, estimated the distance and pressed the release trigger.
I MISSED and the arrow sailed just an inch over the buck’s back! My heart, which had been in my throat, was now in my stomach as the buck turned and followed his hot doe out of sight. I closed my eyes, shook my head and sank lower on my knees, deflated for sure! The doe in front of me scampered away and joined another doe on the other side of the flat. The opportunity to harvest a great buck, the largest antlered one I had seen in four years of hunting Coues deer, has just been blown.
BUT LUCK was with me as a half hour later I again spotted the buck following the doe out of the flat. I grunted a few times hoping he would hear and return to investigate but he continued up the hill into the adjacent hillside. The doe that had scampered away and joined another doe was still in view and later, after leaving my backpack behind, I crawled to within 30 yards of them, one feeding away and the other bedded behind some brush. I wished that I had brought along my water bottle from my backpack as the sun was up and it was getting warmer. Fifteen minutes later, the feeding doe had changed direction and was now only twenty-five yards away.
IT was high noon when the large antlered buck showed up again as he came into the flat from the same direction he had disappeared earlier. Maybe he had heard my grunt sounds after all, and thought another buck was messing with his does. He noticed the bedded doe and went right to her but she quickly got up and was not interested in his advances. I was moving a little, trying to see what the buck was doing behind some brush when I noticed the doe in front of me, looking right at me. She was on alert and did not notice the buck coming up behind her. If she busted out, she may take the buck with her. The buck touched her rear, distracting her attention from me. She spun around exposing the buck broad side at 25 yards. I slowly rose up on my knees to clear a limb, let out a breath, and within a half second heard the tell-tale thud of the arrow hitting home. The buck spun and was out of sight within seconds.
TO regroup and calm my nerves, I retrieved by backpack and returned to my shooting spot and then to where I had last seen the buck but was unable to find any tracking blood. Later, I searched the edge of the flat and then followed three different trails up into the surrounding arid hillside for fifty yards; still no blood. I knew the shot was slightly high, as I had seen 10 inches of the broadhead end of the shaft sticking out of the opposite hip. I believed most of the blood was being trapped internally, once the arrow had penetrated just behind the shoulder. Next, I began to develop a twenty-yard search radius from where the buck left the flat, being very vigilant because of the many shallow depredations in the rocky landscape. To my good fortune, on the third circle I found him! The gray ghost of this strange whitetail habitat was down having traveled 125 yards from where he was hit. Losing him was not an option and I guess forty years of bow hunting had taught me some tracking skills and developed within me, a never give up attitude.
Paul’s Equipment, * Bow: Martin Cougar III * Arrows: Goldtip * Broadhead: Magnus Stinger * Sight: Spot Hog * Release: Tru Fire * Rest: Whisker Biscuit * Optics: Cabela’s 10×42 * Camo: Realtree and ASAT * Boots: Rocky Boots * Grunt call: True Talker * Range Finder: Bushnell * Camera: Panasonic FZ5.
About the author: He is 69 years old and retired, but his passion for bow hunting, usually solo, is still burning within. For the past six years he has served on the Colorado Bowhunter Association Board of Directors as the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s Liaison, and he has also harvested the “Colorado Big Eight” big game species. Paul encourages all bow hunters to join their state’s bow hunting organization.
Everything that could have gone wrong didn’t…
by Mark Brock
I started my hunt off all wrong. I didn’t book a place to stay so I had to spend my scouting evening before opener looking for a hotel. Yeah, I should camp, but I’m getting too old and soft I guess. I didn’t sight in my rifle properly until the day before, but at least I got it done.
I drew 36A, which is an area I was somewhat familiar with, although not from hunting it. I got up at 4:15AM on opener but I was an hour away from my desired location and had to stop for gas to boot. So the short of it is I got to my destination a lot later than I had wanted, but at least it was still early enough I kept telling myself.
As I’m locking up the truck and shouldering my gear a very nice young lady from AZ Game & Fish pulls up and asks to see my tag and photo ID. She writes down my name, and I see I am about #8 on the list. I had passed quite a few trucks and jeeps on the road out, lots of smiling faced hunters anticipating a good hunt. So she tells me this isn’t a bad area, and that most folks make the mistake of leaving too soon if they don’t see something. “Be persistent” she says, and I make a mental note to stick it out.
So I head off into the hills, covered with Oak and Juniper and lots of grassy areas between. It seems like good deer country to me. I hike about a mile off the road, maybe a little more, and pick a spot half way down a slope that gives me a view of the facing slope, which is a slight bowl shape offering me a pretty wide expanse for glassing. I had to move once to find a space between the trees on my side that offered the best view.
This is my first Coues hunt, and I’ve heard “glass your behind off” more than once, so that is what I intend to do.
I got settled in and then start to diligently glassing the far hill side and within 20 minutes a spike buck steps out into my field of view. This is the first deer I’ve ever glassed, so I’m pretty please with myself. A doe and a fawn step out with him in the next minute. He’s about 220 yards off and I’m somewhat tempted. I should say it’s been 15 years since I’ve hunted and I’m anxious to have some success and bring home some meat to help offset the small fortune I’ve invested in gear this last year. I reach for my rifle and find that I haven’t really thought this part out. I’m precariously intertwined with my binocular tripod, and the rifle is too far away and facing the wrong direction. By the time I’ve got hold of it and brought it to bear on this spike he’s a good 250 yards and moving away into some dead branches. I’m doubting I can get a shot and debating with myself when a rifle cracks in the next canyon over and he’s quickly 300 yards out and moving faster. I give up on him and am just glad to have seen him anyways.
I continue glassing as the sun is beginning to climb into the sky. Every 15 minutes or so I hear the distant, or not too distant crack of a rifle and think someone is going home with meat. It gives me some confidence to hear this sound as it surely means there are quite a few bucks in the area. I glass that hillside diligently, as I should, for another 2 hours or better but I’m not seeing anything at all now. The sun is getting much higher and it’s nearing 10AM. It’s finally starting to warm up a bit, and I’m thankful for that as I wisely decided to fore-go the jacket and heavy boots. I’m beginning to feel like it’s getting late so I start to get a lot more casual about my glassing. I reach for some snacks and a drink, and then the words of the Game & Fish lady come back to me, “Be persistent.” So I get back to my binoculars and decide to give that hill a thorough going over. I’m using Nikon 8.5 x 50’s and I’m really happy with them. I start to swing the glass from the top left corner of the slope, which is where my field of vision begins on that hill, and also the direction the 3 deer I’d seen early came from. I swing about 50 yards and bam! There is a nice buck standing broad side to me, and he’s staring very hard right at my glass! Holy smokes, how did he get there without me seeing him? I hold very still as I’m sitting in the middle of a patch of grass with absolutely no cover. I’m wearing pretty good camo, and the wind is hitting me in the face, so scent wasn’t going to be an issue. After locking eyes with me for a good 3 or 4 minutes he resumed his browsing and slow ascent up the slope. I reach for my rifle, which was now much closer, and facing the right direction, and leveled it on top of my binoculars tripod, but to no avail. He’d gone into the dead branches, and I could barely make him out. I watched in agony as he slowly worked his way up to the top, and finally he disappeared into some trees at the crest. I mentally kicked myself for getting so lax and blowing a perfect broadside shot on what I call a nice buck. It was difficult to make out, but he was at least a nice fork, and it looked like he had another point or two in the mix.
I was sitting there debating trying to put a stalk on him, knowing that climbing the 100 yards up that hillside through brush and grass was not a very likely success story, when I saw a doe about 50 feet to the left of where I had first spotted him broad side. She was browsing on shrubs and oak leaves and not looking like she was going anywhere, so I decided to sit tight. If I tried to stalk him she would most likely bust me. As I watched, a second doe came out from behind a tree, and then a fawn. Wow, this is great I’m thinking to myself. Surely he’s part of this group and he’ll come back out into that open grass area and give me another broad side opportunity. I am an optimist by the way.
I should have been looking all over that hill side just in case any other bucks might come wandering along, but I was intent on “my” buck and I didn’t cover more than a 40 yard area where the does were and where I’d last seen that buck. I watched those three deer for another half hour, just about ready to give up hope that he’d come back, when suddenly there he was, not far from where I’d first spotted him, and sure enough he was broad side to me again, but this time he wasn’t looking at me.
I slowly reached for my rifle and scooted back just a smidge on the hillside I was sitting on, raising me up a little bit so I could get a good rest on my tripod. I found him in my view finder, my heart beating at a pretty good clip and was just drawing down on him when my rifle went boom!
This was a new rifle for me, a Sako 308, with a very light trigger. I didn’t have time to think about what happened, I saw that he hadn’t move, except to look at me again, so I jacked another round and drew down on him again, being more careful with my trigger finger. I placed the cross hairs on his rib cage, and squeezed off another round. I just saw him for a second, and he was gone, but I felt much more comfortable with the second shot and was pretty sure that he was hit.
I didn’t move and spent the next 20 minutes watching the does, who continued to feed after settling down. Then something odd happened. One of the does started bobbing her head and looking at something in the grass. She went up to it and then all three deer bolted and were gone. At that point I was pretty sure he was down, so I started up the slope. After 15 minutes of searching around I found him about 20 feet from where he was shot. The round had gone right where I had hoped it would and he was done for. He was a three pointer, not counting the eye guards. A very small three point buck I guess, but he seemed very respectable to my rookie eyes.
After a few cell phone photos I field dressed him and started the long drag back to the truck. Coues area small deer, but this one wasn’t too light, and oddly he seemed to gain about 50 lbs before I got him back to the road. I had been very generous in estimating how far I could drag a deer through this country, and I paid for that, but I made it back alive.
It was a great hunt and I look forward to drawing another tag in this area again.
Opening Day – Dream Come True
by Clay Price
I woke at 1:30 am and was out and on the road by 2:00 am. I was first headed to pick up my friend Andrew out in the hills. After we got to the blind the waiting began. We had lots of wildlife come in every half an hour. At about 6:00 am we had some coyotes come in and Andrew shot and missed. Then a nice big jack rabbit came in and Andrew redeamed himself and got the jack. Then it happened at 9:30 on the dot we spotted 2 deer comming in to get a drink the first was a nice 2 point buck. The buck stopped right in front of the blind at 18 yards Andrew wanted to shoot so he drew back and guess what happened? He jumped the string. Andrew was soo disapointed he wanted to. I talked to him for awhile and calmed him down and said there will be more. At 10:00 a doe came in and we saw a nice looking buck behind her. But the buck did not want to come in. We watched with anticipation as the buck walked behind some brush and just stood there. After about 15 minutes we thought he had left and to our amazement he was still there we were excited so much we had forgot to keep looking around. As I slowly turned to look at Andrew I saw legs out his window and my first thought was, it was the Doe. As I lowered my head more and more to see his head THERE HE STOOD. The buck I was after was right there. All I could think was please let me get a shot. His tine length took my breath away. I slowly moved to position to take the shot and he acted like he was going to bolt. I drew my BOWTECH back (he was at 21 yards) and put the pin right behind his shoulder and realeased. Now that arrow seemed so fast that it looked like it went right in behind his shoulder but to my amazement that little booger jumped my string and it went in right behind his ribs and out right behind his other leg. WAHOO I had just shot my first archery and biggest buck yet at a perfect quartering away shot. He had only went 60 to 75 yards and expired. He has an extra kicker on his left G2 and his bladed eyeguards were 1 1/2 thick. This is what dreams are made of and if you think you can’t do it you can. Thanks for reading.
Dreams do come true.
He scored 103 1/2 gross & 101 net.
I forgot to add he was an opening day buck 8/21/09 at 10:35 am.
New Mexico Unit 23, Jan. 2009
by Christopher Madrid
The year of 2009 was an odd year, due to the fact I didn’t put in for the New Mexico draw. I found out the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish had left over archery tags, that where available for purchase. I was lucky enough to get an archery tag for whitetail in unit 23 in January. The weather had been really good leading up to the hunt. One week before the hunt we had a good snow fall that dropped the temperature to about the low 30’s, so I walked in search for tracks and rubs in a well know area in unit 23. I found a good funnel where the whitetail were crossing and and rubbing. I decided to concentrate on that area. On the first day, I passed up some respectable bucks in the upper 80’s to the low 90’s, but I didn’t find the buck I wanted. On the next two days I still passed on opportunities on different bucks. By this time my confidence was high on taking my first archery whitetail. I thought hunting by spot and stalk would be the best tactic on the fourth afternoon. I had seen a very nice nine point that caught my attention, which involved me to make a stalk on the deer. Unfortunately I came up short. I had hit a tree limb about five yards after the release, which made the horrible sound of a crunching carbon arrow crashing through the trees. That is the worst sound to an archer, or at least in my eyes. That made my confidence drop knowing how smart these animals are. When the fifth day of the hunt came around I hunted the same area where I missed the nine pointer. With my confidence low I picked my self up and hunted harder. Knowing that was the dominant buck he would come back to check his rubs. Around 7:00 am on Jan. 5th I started walking slow through the Pine trees with no luck. I headed back to eat my breakfast and take a break. During my break I started eating and began to hear deer running. First thought was to swallow my sandwich and grab my bow. Following a small game trail I grunted with my Primos 5 in 1 grunt tube not knowing what would happen next. It was only like maybe a minute or two before I seen that same nine pointer coming in to my grunt call .” This is not happening” was the last thought as I released my Easton Epic St arrow out of my Primos Fred Bear Truth bow at forty yards. My Thunderhead 100 did the job. I let the old rule of thumb come into play and let the buck lay down and bleed out. About three hours later I had a 107 3/8 whitetail down and going home with me. Lesson learned: Timing is everything along with faith and hard work. Thanks for reading my story. official score 107 3/8.
My 2009 Archery Buck
by Pierre Rutherford
Hello folks, hope all is well!! Got a ‘lil story for ya….
I was doing some spot and stalk hunting for coues deer here in AZ on 9 Jan 2009. I spotted a 6 pt. chasing some does up the side of a mountain, so I went into billygoat mode and decided to give chase myself. Well, I followed that rascal well over 30 minutes, playing hide-and-go-seek and never got a good shot angle, due to all the pines and does that accompanied him. So I headed back down the rocky slopes and decided to try another spot back towards the entrance of the canyon. Not too much longer I spotted another buck crossing the unimproved road moving into the woods, so of course, there I went again. The woodline was full of deer, but as you might guess they were all does. I had allowed the Buck to slip by me. It’s absolutely amazing how ghostly these dudes are. So anyway, I started making my way back to the woodline when I just happened to look up, and across the road was a glorious sight… There he was, an 8-point, in all his “buckness” staring right at me!! I was busted!! And I thought I was gettin’ my creep on…
So luckily he was more interested the “softhead”. I slowly followed behind them for about 15min. when they started up the back of a draw.
That’s when I knew it was now or never. I hurried up and ranged a tree that I figured he was gonna pass at 40yrds and sure enough, he stopped just passed it. I took a deep breath, settled my 50yrd pin behind the shoulder and let physics do the rest. The good Lord blessed me and 60 or so yards later and no blood trail whatsoever, I found him with my Goldtip still stuck in his heart. YEAHHHH BBBOOYYYY!!!!!!!! XFORCE BABY!! He dressed at 93.5lbs and he’ll be my first P&Y Buck…
Follow up to “The Long Story Buck”….. Now, “’Ol Wide Boy”
by Cody Goff
I finally decided it was time to get up the nerve and post a story for once. I graciously had my friend Tim post the original story of this Coues buck in November of 2008. I didn’t know much about the site, nor did I have much time to spend on it. Anyway, on with the story. Tim first introduced me to this buck in 2007. He had located this buck a few years before, but the buck always managed to disappear before the opening of the first rifle season in October. We each tried several times to stalk this buck with a bow, but he loved hanging out and bedding in wide open country that had burned years before and the area didn’t lend itself to doing much stalking. In 2008 I decided to put in once again for the early rifle hunt, and prayed we would find him once more; and we did. I luckily drew the tag again, and immediately started trying to locate him, as well as a non-typical buck we had seen the year before. We never did find the non typical buck, but we did find ‘Ol Wide Boy.
Tim managed to first locate the wide buck again in early August. From that point on, either Tim, or my good buddies Cody and Erin and I were out keeping tabs on him until the beginning of the season. I was fortunate enough to get good photos of the buck from over a mile away through my spotting scope in both velvet, and then hard-horned before the start of the hunt. You can see copies of these photos attached at the end of the article. As opening day approached, I could not stand it any longer. I needed to be out there with that buck, and watching his every move. The day before the opener I was by myself, in one of the same spots I had glassed him up from several times. To my surprise, while sitting in the hot sun with no cover for an entire day, I did not find him. I was starting to get nervous. Had he disappeared once again before opening day?
My plan for the opening morning was to have Cody, Erin, and Tim all 3 positioned at different vantage points glassing for me. Unfortunately, Cody had to work, and Erin had to leave town for a family emergency. Now I was getting really nervous. I had made a call to 2 other friends, Jay and Darr. I have helped them both on several hunts in the past, and I begged them for their assistance. I knew in order to pin this mature buck down, we were going to have to triangulate him to even have a shot. The country was just too vast to cover with only 2 guys. They both excitedly offered to come and help, but could not be there until opening morning. I wanted to be in position long before first light, and we had several miles of hiking to cover to be within vicinity of the deer.
As opening morning approached, we were all in position before sunrise. As we glanced back up the mountain before light, we saw two other head lamps coming our way. The year before I had 2 hunters walk right up on the non-typical buck in the dark, even though I had asked them to hike around or wait for first light. Needless to say they spooked him and we never found that buck again. As luck would have it, it was the same exact 2 hunters. After some choice words were exchanged over the radios, Jay cut them off and warned them that I was on top of another good buck again, and that if they hiked in on me again, I wasn’t going to be so kind about this time. In the beginning they did as they promised and hiked out around my position. But, they ended up climbing right up on top of the bluffs overlooking where I had last seen my wide buck. I could not believe this was happening yet again. After about 20 minutes they finally continued on further East to a point that none of us could see them from our positions. After another 30 minutes there was still no sign of the wide buck, and we heard a shot. I sat continuing to glass for another 10 minutes, but I just couldn’t take it. I had to see if they had shot this deer. I moved as quickly as I could to get over and on top of the bluffs, but still being cautious not to spook the buck if he was still alive. From the top of the bluffs I glassed off to the East and could see that they buck they shot was not the wide one. Thank God! Since I was now on top of the bluffs I decided to move over to the South edge of them and see if I could glass down to locate my buck bedded up out of site. As I worked my way through the top I heard a sound over the radio; “stop moving, the buck’s up and running down the finger”! Ahhhhhhhh! Now I was really getting frustrated.
My whole plan was unraveling quickly. Luckily Jay and Darr were able to keep an eye on the buck for most of the way, and Darr watched him bed down probably 1500 yards further down the mountain. We made the decision for me to get out out the bluffs, and come back across to the other side of the canyon across from the buck. After a few hours of stalking down the opposing finger across from the buck, we were finally able to find a suitable area to shoot from. After a lot of frustration I was able to locate the buck bedded in a dark, shadowy, and very thick bunch of brush. We estimated the yardage across the canyon to the buck at over 450 yards. I did not seem to have a clean shot, so I kept waiting to see what he would do. In a moment of clarity my eyes came unfogged, probably because my heart rate had finally subsided, and I could see an opening of the brush exposing his front shoulder closest to me. I poised myself, with a lot of help from Jay, and prepared to take the shot. Of course the buck finally decided he was safe and stood up. My heart began to race again, and my lungs felt empty. I got myself repositioned quickly and prepared to take a quick shot before the buck moved out of site. The shot was not only across canyon, but was also down hill from our position so I knew I had to adjust. I let the first shot go, and “wham” I could hear the crack that you love to hear as a hunter. I heard Jay yell, “he’s down”.
I couldn’t believe it. We finally got him. One shot, right through both lungs, and my trusty .257 Weatherby had done its job. When we got across the canyon to the buck, I was astonished. He was a little smaller than I had estimated him, but man was he wide. He is the second widest Coues Deer I have ever seen. In previous years all of this deer’s tines were as long as his eye guards. We discovered that he was a very old buck, and didn’t have a tooth left in his head. Although he was on the decline, it was an incredible feeling to finally harvest a buck that I had targeted for so long. You will see in the photo of the final mount the photos I have of the buck in velvet, then hard-horned, and then finally down. It was incredible to be so blessed to have all of the photos to go with the trophy. I want to give special thanks to Cody Nelson, Erin Bittner, Tim Coonen, Jay Scott, and Darr Colbrun for all of their help and assistance in achieving my goal. I couldn’t have done it without their help. And special thanks to Clay Goldman out of Payson for the beautiful work on the mount. I couldn’t be more pleased.
My 2009 Mexico Coues
by Jay Scott
My hunting partner, Darr Colburn and I were invited by our friend Randy Ulmer to hunt a ranch in Sonora, Mexico. Randy and his nephew Zach, turned me on to this buck and I was able to harvest him. I hunted a total of about 11 days and this was the only buck I glassed up over 100 inches. The temperature was very hot and conditions were extremely tough for Coues deer movement. I glassed this buck up on Tuesday morning bedded at about 2.5 miles away. I quickly put the 40X’s on him only to watch him get up and walk directly away out of my view. I moved positions and glassed all day Wednesday and never relocated him until Thursday morning. I had made the decision that I would be sitting on a small rock point above where I had spotted the deer on Tuesday. I figured this would put me in shooting position if the buck were to retrace his steps. Well as it turned out, thanks to the Lord, as light appeared that morning I glassed him bedded very near the same position he was bedded on Tuesday. He was 440 yards out facing away from me. Three shots later and some shaky nerves he was down. I had hit him on the first shot and he stood up behind a bush. I shot thru the bush with no connection and then he took two steps facing me. My third shot was true and the buck was down. Unfortunately, my friend Darr was not with me when I harvested this deer he had other obligations that week and could not make it. Without the graciousness of Randy and Zach, I would have never even seen this deer. This trophy is as much theirs as it is mine. Lots of fun was had by all. Special Thanks to Randy and Zach for turning me on to a buck of a lifetime!!
This buck grossed 134 inches as a non-typical!
My Birthday Buck
by Jim Wilkins
I had a huge surprise party for my wife’s 50th birthday in July 2007. Friends and family members from numerous states came to celebrate with her over the three day weekend and it became “the event” in our family for the year. My wife, Jean, was extremely appreciative of the effort and decided she wanted to do something equally special for me. After consulting with the life long best friend, Mark Walter, Jean decided to arrange for me to go on a special hunt for my 50th. With Mark’s assistance she ended up getting me a Coues tag for unit B on the San Carlos Indian Reservation for this last December and early Jan. 2009. Jean made sure this hunt would be extra special so she purchased a tag for Mark as well.
Mark and I have been hunting together for over 35 years. However, over the years it has become quite obvious that Mark has an inherent natural instinctive ability to find, get on and take trophy animals that I have never had. Jean’s purchase of Mark’s tag served two purposes. It made sure I would have a fun and enjoyable hunt because I would be hunting with my best friend, and it increased the chances of me taking a nice buck.
When I first learned about the hunt I was both excited and concerned. I have never really hunted these small deer. However, I knew from my prior discussions with Mark that these deer are very smart and elusive. In addition, I am exclusively an archery hunter and I knew this would be a gun hunt. My concerns were twofold. First, because of stories I have heard about Mark’s prior successful hunts, I knew it was possible that I would have to make a shot of 400 yards. Second, because of my complete lack of gun hunting experience, I have a hard time seeing through a rifle scope, and an even harder time quickly locating, within the scope’s field of view, what I am suppose to be shooting at. So, even though I knew this was a great hunt opportunity, I had my reservations.
My immediate hunt preparations began with the purchase of Duane Adams’, How to hunt Coues, book. In addition, I made some web inquiries and consulted Doug Koepsel, a.k.a. redrabbitt . Doug provided me with topos of the area, which allowed me to get an idea of the country. During the summer I had a shooting lesson with Mark. I felt okay out to about 200 yards, but was not at all consistent at anything beyond that distance. Again, notwithstanding Mark’s encouragement, my apprehension about my shooting abilities remained.
My excitement was building as I continued to obtain information and waited for the season to arrive. Through Doug I was able to get Amanda Moors, a.k.a., CouesWhitetail.com, phone number and had a discussion with her. She confirmed that the areas Mark indicated we would be hunting were good spots. She also confirmed that it was reasonable to expect to see 100 inch bucks during the hunt. In addition, I badgered Mark throughout the summer for details of his prior successes on the San Carlos. I became convinced this would indeed be a hunt where I would have an excellent opportunity to take a good buck, as long as I made the shot.
December finally came and on Saturday December 27, 2008 I drove from Fresno to Phoenix to meet Mark. We got an early start Sunday morning and were headed to San Carlos by 4:30 a.m. We saw a little buck on the way into camp, and spent the rest of the early morning getting the trailer and camp set up.
Sunday afternoon we took a hike up the mountain to the triple saddle area Mark was very familiar with. We spent several hours glassing, saw several deer, but no shooter bucks. We did see one “big buck” , but he had broken off a large portion of his left side. We figured that was a good sign that the rut was on. However, this was too early in the hunt to be thinking about taking a busted up buck. Because my pre-hunt efforts confirmed that San Carlos has very nice coues, I set my goals pretty high. I told Mark I was looking for a buck which would score around 100 inches.
Monday December 29, we spent the day going to various vantage points to glass for rutting bucks. Again we saw several deer, a few nice ones, but no shooters. To our surprise, the deer did not appear to be rutting very hard. We saw several does with no bucks, and a number of bucks without any does.
Tuesday December 30 we were up on the mountain in the triple saddle area glassing at sun up. We did not see any shooters in the morning. However by mid afternoon Mark spotted 3 bears and then, he spotted what look like it might be a shooter, who was hanging around a doe. We closed the distance to about 1500 yards and spent some time studying the potential shooter through the 20×60 Swarovski spotting scope. It had good mass, great eye guards, great width, but was only a 2×3. Mark said he knew the buck would be near 95 inches, but could not be certain it would make 100. We also saw another nice, but smaller 3×3, trying to get on the doe but that larger buck was keeping him at bay. This was the first real sighting of good rut activity.
After considerable debate, and studying those great eye guards, I told Mark I wanted to see if we could take this buck. Mark put together a perfect plan for a stalk. We ended up getting to within 100 yards from where the shooter buck was bedded but could not see the buck because of the vegetation and terrain. We decided to stay put and wait for the buck to start feeding out in the open area once the sun started to go down.
Unfortunately the wind started to swirl, which continued for the hour or so that we waited for the shooter to surface. By the time the sun was getting close to setting, no deer were feeding in the obvious open area where we expected to see them. Mark went down to where the buck had been bedded and it was gone. We packed up and headed over the ridge to get back to the truck. As we topped the ridge, and were making our way through the saddle, we saw the shooter buck off to our right. I quickly set up and Mark reported the buck to be at 300 yards. I took the shot, which was a clean miss. It did not move so I shot again with the same result. It headed over the ridge and we went to check on whether there was any evidence of a hit. After looking around for 30 minutes or so, and finding no blood or other evidence of a hit, we headed over the saddle and down the mountain with the use of our flashlights.
So much for my first effort to take a coues deer. I was disappointed, and again concerned about my ability to shoot at distances in excess of 200 yards. As expected, Mark told me not to get down on myself and explained that he has missed similar shots as well. I thought to myself that Mark was being honest, but I suspected his misses were probably made a long time ago when he was much younger.
Wednesday December 31, New Years Eve 2008, we went to another area and were glassing by sun up. By late afternoon we had seen a number of good bucks, but no shooter. We packed up and were headed to the truck when we saw a mature buck standing in a clearing about 150 yards out from the truck. It was staring directly at us and we could not get a good look at his rack. We had this stand off for about 5 minutes, when it finally turned its head slightly and Mark declared: “Jim that is a shooter get your gun”. By the time I got in position to shoot, the buck was on the move and it did not stop until it was at 300 yards. I shot and was sure I hit it. I climbed up the hill only to find the buck staring back at me about 100 yards out. I quickly aimed free hand and missed again. I spent the next hour trying to find something to show I had hit the buck. However, all I did was confirm what I already knew, once again I had missed a good shot at a nice buck. By the time I got back to the truck I was convinced I would never hit anything that was not tied down and less than 100 yards. I don’t remember seeing much the rest of that day. I was beginning to feel some pressure because I knew Mark was putting all his efforts in getting me my buck, and that his tag was going to have to wait to be filled.
Thursday Jan. 1, had us back up on the mountain at the triple saddle area before first light. We only saw a couple of does early, again no bucks anywhere near them. We concluded that the rut activity was inconsistent because it was early. Later, we moved up to the next ridge and were glassing different canyons when I spotted a couple of deer I thought Mark should take a look at. When we set up the scope, we were more than 1500 yards out, Mark quickly confirmed that one of the deer we were looking at was the shooter buck I had missed on Tuesday.
We continued to watch the deer, 6 in all, 5 bucks who were all keeping watch on a doe that must have been pretty hot. One of the other bucks was a decent 3×3, and the others where much younger and smaller bucks. The previously missed shooter buck was clearly the dominant buck in the group and the only one the doe would allow to get close to her. We watched the dominant buck and doe bed under a big mesquite.
Mark then made a plan for what turned out to be the perfect stalk. We had to come off the ridge we were on and get to the backside and below the saddle where they were bedded. We then would have to get up on top of the ridge immediately above the saddle. An hour or so later we were on a ridge directly above the buck.
As we peaked over the ridge I was surprised how I had completely lost perspective, from this vantage point, of where the buck had bedded with the doe. Mark looked over and stated that he believed the buck would be in one of the mesquite trees directly in front of us. As I put my 10x42s Swarovskis up I immediately saw the buck exactly where Mark had indicated it would be. Mark ranged the buck at exactly 200 yards and then patiently coached me through the shot preparation, doing his best to make sure I was relaxed and calm. I took the shot and before I could get back on target and reload I heard Mark say: “Congratulations Jim you got a great buck”. I asked Mark how he could know so fast and be so certain I had hit the buck and he stated: “well he is down and he is not getting up.” I was thrilled as I made my own personal observation of the situation.
We then began the work of quartering and caping the buck out. We managed to fit the entire buck in the new Eberlestock J107 Dragonfly Pack my wife had bought me for Christmas, especially for this trip, again after consulting with Mark. We headed off the mountain with the weight of the building pressure I was feeling on my shoulders completely lifted, by the new added weight on my back.
For the next 3 days, we hunted hard for Mark’s buck. We continued to see numerous deer on a daily basis, and a couple of really nice bucks. The weather started to play a role as we got rain, snow and very low clouds that made glassing difficult to impossible much of the time. Mark ended up taking a nice buck in the rain late Sunday afternoon, but that is a story he will have to tell.
My buck is my first Coues, and the first big game animal I have taken with a rifle. We rough scored it back at camp at 98 inches. I could not be happier about that buck. Of course I have to thank Jean for a great Birthday present. However, there is absolutely no question that without Mark’s expertise, patience, and guidance, I never would have taken such a nice buck.
“El que porfia mata venado”
by Rafael Quevedo
There is a saying in Chihuahua that goes “el que porfia mata venado”, that means ” the one who persists kills deer “, this came true for me.
Had a very restless night and a gut feeling, so I got up at three in the morning and took off to my ranch, got there at six a.m. and went looking for a deer I had spotted earlier on august, then missed it on Dec. 31. Anyway, after a three mile hike, I sat down, and started glassing for about an hour but saw nothing, decided to go a little further and ended up going one more mile but nothing, again.
Then started grunting and rattling but with very little hope, all the time I kept looking over to my left, to the north facing slope, when I was about to leave, turned to my right and saw a doe looking straight at me, took my binoculars an noticed another three deer, and one appear to be big, by then they were moving up the mountain with the big one leading the way, it all happened very fast, I rested my 22-250 against a rock, aimed at the buck that was very close to jumping over the other side, it stopped briefly, and I knew that was a very far shot so aimed about 10 inches over the shoulder, held my breath, and possibly my heart beat and pulled the trigger.
For a split second I lost sight of it, so I took the binoculars again to see if I could find it, but only saw the other three deer going over after one stared at its side for a moment. I really thought I had missed, but I had to make sure, to this day I have been fortunate enough to never loose a wounded deer, took the range finder that I could not use before and read 553 yds.
It took me almost 40 minutes to get there, I started combing the area, and there it was, dead, right where I shot it, it did not move at all! I was excited in disbelief, turned it over but could not find the shot, later when I was field dressing I found it behind the right rib cage, it shattered its liver. That was the longest shot I have ever taken, and my biggest buck.
Thank God for this amazing hunt, the buck scores 120 5/8″ with a spread of 13″ and very nice mass.
The Knack
by Nathan LaCost
Dec. 2008
In the beginning, there was a tiny drop of water. In that water were two tiny amoeba. The start of whitetail hunting was born…..I think that’s pretty much how all deer hunting obsessions began. I began hunting and fishing since age 4, since my father was a game warden for the state of Michigan. My mother also helped support my love for the outdoors. I started out really getting into archery deer about 12 years old when my father and stepdad would teach me travel patterns,and deer behavior. Hunting ethics was always instilled and stressed such as what angles and distances were acceptable. Through trial and error,I managed to successfully bag some decent animals along my travels.
My methods of deer hunting whether it be archery or rifle,are the same as most. I really enjoy treestand/blind hunting but my real passion is stalking/stillhunting.Michigan whitetails have the same behaviors as Arizona Coues. The travel patterns of going from bedding to feeding areas is the same…with one slightly larger factor,Coues whitetails tend to cover the thickest steepest terrain known to man. Manzanita thickets and scrub oaks are not the archery or rifleman’s friends in the high mountains. The terrain in which they survive such predators as mountain lions, bears, and smaller predators as coyotes and even bobcats is a maze. Deciphering the maze and sticking with what the basic needs are is essential. Food and water are still the top priority and eastern whitetails and Coues both seem to follow water. Rivers, springs, waterholes will produce deer anywhere. I used this knowledge to scout an area in Arizona and successfully pursue some very large Coues deer.
December 23rd I decided to take a breather from archery Mule deer in Unit 21 to hunt whitetails. I was bummed out from the previous days hunt. I had stillhunted up to a 25″ wide muley with heavy mass and long high tined rack. I drew back and released my arrow. I hadn’t noticed a small twig at about 30 yards out and my arrow deflected and stuck in the ground at his feet…After that fiasco I figured I would go with what I am comfortable with. I knew I had to get up where the snow belt was and soon found myself in a perfect mountain range and elevation I had never hunted before.
The area was teeming with ponderosa pines, oak trees overloaded with acorns and thick expanses of manzanita. I immediately began the task of finding travel patterns and water routes. I discovered a spring that forked off and at that junction were huge rubs and scrapes filled with alot of tracks. I began moving a little slower and with more purpose. About an hour later while stillhunting I caught some movement and 4 deer materialized from the manzanita and strolled into shooting range. Unaware of my presence, I drew back on a beautiful wide racked typical deer in the 100″ class. I misjudged the distance and my arrow zipped harmlessly over his shoulder into the rocks behind him. He swiveled toward the sound but seemed undaunted as the does started moving away from me. I knocked another arrow for a second shot but just could not make it happen. I continued on, and decided to return with reinforcements, my friend Roger Frost.
Roger is a successful hunter and I was wanting to get him hooked on whitetails with archery gear. We decide to set up stands on December 27th and Roger got the area where I missed the nice buck. I continued to scout and found a saddle where the deer were traveling between bedding and feeding areas. There were tracks following a spring in front of my stand about 100 yards out, it just seemed like the place to be. I set my stand in a juniper tree 8 feet off the ground…Roger chuckled as I set up. He was sure I needed to be higher. I knew my leafy camo suit and use of cover would prove to work. There were 4 runways converging as well as a secondary runway that paralleled the main ones, I knew the bucks would want that one…
December 28th, we were 7200 feet elevation, dealing with bitter 9 degree temperatures and no wind. The roads were very dangerous with ice and I decided to walk almost 3/4 mile to my stand. The sun was up already and I picked up the pace. I had just been on stand about 10 minutes when I noticed a hoof movement on my left. I gripped my bow a little tighter then saw brow tines! I knew he was a shooter and hooked the Trufire release onto the string. I didn’t have time to stand as he sauntered up the saddle, head lowering to clear low hanging oak branches. I drew my BowTech Patriot as he did this and as he stepped from under the tree, he stopped at 12 yards. I didn’t have time to process antlers, just focus on the shoulder..stay calm and pick a spot I thought…my pin was on and the release was good. I knew as he swirled around a cut a 90 degree turn he wasn’t going to go far. The Thunderhead 100 broadhead and GoldTip arrow were buried to the fletching…he collapsed 40 yards from my stand.
I hadn’t realized just how big he was until I grasped his antlers. When I noticed double drop tines and I was having a hard time fitting my hands around the bases, I began laughing out loud. I thanked the hunting Gods and tagged him immediately and then the rush of adrenaline hit…I dragged my deer to the road and was going to go to the truck…As I walked to the truck, I decided to let Roger keep hunting. I was almost back to my deer when a vehicle with mountain lion hunters pulled up. They offered me a ride to Roger’s truck and there I waited patiently until he came out of the woods. Roger had a fork horn 20 yards from his stand that morning..so I guess you could say we both had a successful day…This buck would later score 132″ gross and green net at 123 5/8″ making him #2 Pope and Young… since then Roger has seen more bucks and does from his stand, and I have seen and drawn back on 2 more 100″ bucks or better from that same stand. I think we will continue hunting our new honey hole…
14 Years of Trying!!!
by Kevin Clements
Nov. 10, 2008
Finally, after 14 years of trying and 17 unfilled tags I finally got one of these “grey ghosts”. I was hunting area 35B, the sun was setting and I was just getting ready to put up my optics and start the long hike back to my truck. Then I spotted some movement on top of the ridge across the canyon. I took a closer look with my spotting scope. It was this buck feeding under a tree. I pulled out my Leupold range finder and checked the distance. It was about 419 yards to the tree he was under. As I was sizing him up for a shot he moved under a tree just a few yards closer. I ranged the new location at 410 yards. I then removed the spotting scope from my Outdoorsmans tripod and braced my Remington 700 in .280 cal. on it. I took only one shot with my Federal 140gr. Accubond bullet and the buck fell in his tracks. I was so excited considering it took me 14 years to get my first Coues buck. Even more impressive to me was that I never shot my rifle at more than 300 yards and I just took this buck in one shot at over 400 yards.
This is where the real fun started. I radioed my hunting buddies to let them know I had a buck down. They came over to where I was sitting and asked me to point out where I had shot my buck. When I looked through my spotting scope again to point out where he fell, I noticed a buck moving and feeding around the same two trees. However, it was not the buck I shot, he was smaller. One of my friends already had his gun up and on his tripod. He asked me if it had antlers. As I said yes, BANG! He dropped the second buck in its tracks.
When we arrived across the canyon at the trees where we had shot the 2 bucks it was well past dark. We each found our buck and they were not more that 10 yards apart. We field dressed them and packed them to our trucks. We then returned to camp at about 10pm where no one believed that we had taken two bucks on the same night or even in the same hunting trip. Our group has never filled more than one tag on any one hunting trip in 14 years.
Neither of them were the bigger bucks we had seen during scouting but I am still very proud of my buck that was a culmination of a 14 year long journey. This experience has taught me a total new respect for this magnificent little deer of the Southwest. I look forward to many more years of hunting these desert whitetails with my friends and family. And if I am blessed enough I will be able to take one of the bigger bucks we see during our scouting trips without another 14 year wait. But if that is what it takes, rest assured I will be out there looking to fill another tag and enjoying the great Arizona outdoors.
110 or Nuthin’, Buddy!
by Gino Wullkotte (writing about his friend Erin Bittner)
“One-ten or nothing, Buddy!” That was my “pep” talk to my old friend, Erin, as his Dec. Coues hunt began. “Don’t weaken… whatever you do, don’t shoot one under one-ten!” Was my speech on the phone as the second week of hunting got underway. Erin had two goals for the hunt, “I don’t want to hunt alone this year, I want to hunt with my friends.” and “I’d like to beat my other two bucks that I have taken in this hunt previously.” His best public land, late hunt buck is a 104+ inch typical…. A fantastic buck….. but not unbeatable.
Erin hit the hills as his hectic holiday schedule would allow, hunting with any of his “coues nut” buddies that were available for the day. The weekend before Christmas, Erin and his buddy “Goff” hunted a day with me and the guys that ended in a blizzard and nothing bigger than 105-ish being seen. By Sunday the 27th he had 7 days in the field, and had been from one end of the unit to the other it seemed, but the clock was ticking! That Sunday morning was crisp and cold…. we sat on the rocks above a large basin that is one of my favorite coues deer spots. There were four of us, Erin & myself and my two buddies Tige & Stuffy, glassing our eyes out, for very few deer. We spied another friend, Brian, on the opposite side of the basin and the texting began… HaHa… It passed the time considering that there was very little going on below us. We headed back to a piece of country that had high deer numbers for the afternoon hunt so we could, remind our eyes what deer look like. At dark, I was first back at the ranger and as I waited my phone rang….. it was Brian, “Hey, I seen a really good buck tonight. You guys ought to go shoot him in the morning. He’s a first day shooter”. “Where at?” was my response. “You know that one spot…… well I was there and he was here-“ I was floored!! “That is right where we were gonna be in the morning!” “Well, he’s in the brushy cut, down pretty low and he’s gotta hot doe, he’ll be there.” “Thanks for the tip, B-Dog!” It is one thing to go to one of your good hunting spots looking for a biggun’ and hoping he’s there, but it is altogether different knowing that a guy you can trust has already seen the buck you’re looking for on the mountain you are planning to look at!
Monday morning (day 8), Erin barely slept thinking about what might come. As we sat on the hill he looked over and passed a solid 95-100 incher first thing at about 500 yards. We picked the country apart… no Big Buck…. The hours rolled on and Erin’s patients were wearing, looking at the same deer over and over. “I have never hunted this many days without seeing a Shooter!” He admitted, and I told him, “Relax, there is a “hot doe” over there. He will show. He is right here, we can wait him out.” Mid-afternoon had us glued to our glasses in the same spots we had been all day, but now Tige and Stuffy had our backs. They were perched behind us with a larger field of view, so I began picking apart the stuff I knew they couldn’t see and by 4:00 pm Erin and I had a Whopping 15 deer under our belts… a great day for the country we were in! We had been watching a high 80’s buck for several hours right on the edge of the “brushy cut” when Erin says, “There is a doe now and he is rutting her in the open.” This went on for a while and then the lil’ guy froze, turned and started leaving the country…. BIG BUCK!!! There he came, head down and nose up, straight out of the cut! “Erin, grab your gun and your range finder!” I barked as grabbed my bino’s and tri-pod. And we were running! A half mile to close and the end of day was coming. To the bottom of the canyon and up the bottom…. The rutting continued…. We popped up on the face opposite the buck and the doe, they were at 375 yards. Dead-eye, Erin with a less than perfect rest and me with the buck in my bino’s repeating the words, “Shoot him, Erin. SHOOT!” I am not sure how many times I said it, and then there was the bark of Erin’s .257 WBY! The buck humped and jumped forward two steps…. As Erin chambered another, the buck flipped over backwards! I could hear the Whoops and Hollers form my friends nearly a mile away… and from their perspective the buck was going over backwards when the report of the rifle finally reached their ears!!!! BBD!! We had a nasty uphill climb to reach the buck, but it was worth every step! Erin let out a gasp and a sigh as we ripped the antlers from the brush… there would be no ground shrinkage today!! It was long after dark when we reached my truck. We had only our guesses as to how big he was, but we really did not care what he scored, only that we all got to watch a Thumper hit the dirt…. and the celebration was on!!
The next morning, even the quarter inch steel tape could not shrink the buck or our excitement over the hunt. Green, gross score was 119 1/8. Thanks to Erin, for letting us tag along on this premier hunt and for letting a circle of friends pull a rabbit from the hat in the fourth quarter! And to my friends…. always Great to share a hunt with you guys, thanks! And to “Goff”, you are the measure of a true friend! You hunted your butt off with Erin and I am really sorry that you were not with us on the day all went down!
Unfortunately, Erin e-mailed me mostly pics of me, the guys and his kids with the buck… and very few of him so I hope you can overlook my mug in the all these pics! HaHa!
Here is one of the “A Team” as Erin puts it! A Motley Crew I’d say!
A few more with me… I would not post them but that buck even make my Mug look good!
…and last…. nothing but horns…..
MY BEST DAY OF HUNTING EVER!!!, 12/27/08
by Jason Scott
I have been going crazy trying to find time to get out and do some archery hunting. I have not done much hunting this year so I was getting anxious. I was finally able to get out yesterday for a day trip and what a day it turned out to be! My intentions were to find some rutting muleys and shoot the first buck that gave me the opportunity. After abandoning the first spot I drove down the road a short distance and parked the new truck. I hiked a short distance to my glassing spot and found this cool frozen waterfall.
I set up to glass overlooking awesome muley country but of coarse it’s hard to break old habits so the first thing I do is point the glasses way up the farthest mountain and immediately find 3 coues bucks a mile away and up on a steep open hill side. I watched them for a bit and then decided I’d better find some muleys a little closer. The spot I was at is an old honey hole of mine and I used to hunt it a lot. I would always find a lot of muleys and see a couple of coues up high. Well of course now I can’t find any other deer anywhere. I decided I would move the truck closer to the 3 coues bucks and try glassing from there. I was able to park the truck 1000yds. directly below the 3 bucks. I tried to locate some muleys from there but finally decided I’d better give the coues bucks a try. I didn’t feel like my odds were very good because there was no cover where they were. I left my backpack behind and just took my bow, binos, and rangefinders. I was able to get to 200yds. of the middle sized buck (a decent sized forky) but could not see any other deer. He walked closer and bed down at 175 yds. I decided to try to just stay low and try and close the gap keeping prickly pears between the buck and I. I got to 100yds. and all of a sudden a deer came down from above the buck and they both trotted about 40yds. and stopped. I’m not sure if I spooked them or they were just running around like I had seen them doing all day. They fed away slowly just out of sight so I got up off my knees and quickly made my way over to where they had just been. I had about 10yds. to go to get to a tree I had picked out and I looked to my left and the forky is standing at 70yds. looking my way. He had turned around and was coming back when he caught my movement. he was unsure so he circled down wind of me and held up behind a small bush at 45yds. I needed him to take a few more steps but instead of taking steps he bolted and ran off the direction I had come from ( away from the other deer). At this point I didn’t know if all the other deer had run away or if they were just over the little rise ahead of me so I slowly walked towards it. I had gone maybe 40 yds. and all of a sudden a doe appeared out of nowhere feeding towards me. I was stuck standing upright in the wide open with the sun shining on me. I was trying my hardest to grow spikes on the doe when I caught tines coming from behind the doe. The biggest of the 3 bucks, a nice 3 point was coming from behind the rise! As he came up behind the doe she took off running towards me stopping at 20 yds. and pegged me! I could see the buck out of the corner of my eye just feeding but I was locked eye to eye with the doe. She stomped and head bobbed several times before bolting and letting out a snort on her way. The buck was now stopped behind a bush at 40 yds. Then the third buck a small forky came over the rise and stopped broadside at 50yds. Should I take the shot or wait for the 3 point and risk him bolting out of there. I decided to wait for the 3 point. Finally he stepped out looking my way trying to find what had spooked the doe. His vitals were just clear of the bush so with him looking right at me I drew put the 40yd. pin on his vitals and with buck fever now in full effect punched the release. MISSED! The buck ran and stopped where the small forky had been standing while the small forky ran to where the 3 point was just standing. I already had another arrow knocked and drew once again with the buck looking at me. This time I composed myself and put the 50yd. pin on his vitals and released. The buck leaped high into the air and as he was at the peak of his jump I saw my arrow fall out of his opposite side shoulder! As he came down his shoulder was broken and he face planted and did a forward roll. He ran less than 50 yds. and crashed!!! The small forky didn’t know what to think and came to 22yds. of mee staring curiously. After a few minutes of messing with him I walked over and retrieved my arrow. I turned and followed the blood trail down to my buck. It took me 13 years to kill something with my bow. I have missed a few, wounded a few, passed several, wounded a mountain lion at 5 feet, missed a coyote at 10 yds. This was long over due but well worth the wait.
Sorry this story is so long, hope you enjoyed it.
P.S. all I had in the field was my cell phone and it died after one pic. but my wife snapped a few when I got home. Thanks honey for putting up with me!
The Birthday Buck
by Sam Larson
I found out that I had been drawn for deer in July and started my preparation immediately. It was a unit in southern Arizona that is known for good Coues deer hunting. I had hunted it a couple of times before but I still wasn’t real familiar with the area.
I spent most of the summer and fall scouting and had found some good bucks. Everything was looking good for opening day on November 28th (my birthday).
About a month before opening day I was sent down to work and live on the U.S./ Mexico international boarder fence project. We were working seven days a week sun up to sun down. The odds of getting time off to go on my hunt were looking slim to none. We were told that we would have the 27th off, Thanksgiving Day, and that was all. Needless to say my plans were heading south fast. When I called my brother, Matt Larson, to tell him what had happened, he told me that he had to be on call that weekend anyways and couldn’t leave Sho Low.
Matt works as a lineman for the power company in Show Low, Arizona. He told me he could get someone from work to cover his on call time but since I wasn’t going, and he needed the money, he would just take it.
Now I was really bumming! The whole week before the hunt I was miserable at work. All week my buddy Jason Gutman was harping on me to just ask the boss for the time off, but since we were under such a push to get the job done, I was reluctant. I was glad when I finally took Jason’s advice and asked my boss for the weekend off. My boss told me he was wondering when I was going to let him know about my hunt because for the past five years the only days I had taken off were to go hunting.
Things were starting to look up a little bit but now Matt couldn’t get off of his on call schedule. He told me that a guy he works with had that same hunt so he put me in touch with Eddy Keenan.
Eddy had recently moved to Arizona and had never hunted Coues deer. He was going to meet me on November 27th at my dad’s house after he was done doing Thanksgiving at his sister’s in Phoenix.
As I was eating Thanksgiving dinner with my family, I was telling my brother Luke Larson how tough I thought this hunt was going to be seeing how I was going to be doing all the glassing and didn’t know the area as well as I would have liked. Immediately he jumped at the idea of getting out his binos to do some glassing for me. It was almost like a weight was lifted off my shoulders, because we all know that for every set of eyes you have on the side of a hill it seems like the chances of getting a buck doubles.
I was supposed to meet Luke at 4:30 a.m. but of course he was late as usual. When he showed up around five he had his partner Howie Stough and there friend Matt Landerche with them. It was almost like a dream come true for me seeing as how Luke and Howie were both successful on their Coues deer hunt only a month earlier and Matt knew the area I was hunting very well. Now this was starting to turn into a real whitetail hunt.
On the drive out to my unit we went over some different areas to hunt, but Matt had had the hunt before mine and said the unit was pretty congested and the bucks were moving to more remote areas away from the pressure. He said he knew a good spot where he didn’t think many people would be hunting. I was all for it. We ended up driving through my Brother Matt’s father in law’s camp to get back into where we wanted to start glassing. We started glassing before sun up and the first thing I picked up was Matt’s father in law and his son going up the side of the hill. Not thirty seconds after they crested the top of the hill Luke whispers “There’s two bucks.”
They had jumped the bucks and never saw them. We could tell they were nice
Deer but they were about a thousand yards away and side hilling at a rapid pace. Howie told me and Eddy to get to this little knob at the base of the mountain as quick as we could. He said the bucks had started heading down the mountain and if we hurried we could cut them off or maybe catch them moving through the flats for a shot. By the time we hit the top of the knob the adrenaline had worn off and I was dead tired. There was two draws that came down the mountain and split the base of the knob we were on. We were certain the two bucks had gone down the draw to the south of where we were now, but we could not seem to pick them up again. Howie said he was going to check the draw to the north of us just to make sure they didn’t try to slip out that way. As soon as he crested the other side of the knob he yells “There over here.” The first buck slipped away down the draw into the flats but Howie had gotten there just in time to turn the bigger of the two back up the mountain. I sat down and took a good rest on my shooting sticks, and by now the buck didn’t have anywhere to go but up so I knew he would present me with at least one shot. I waited for him to come out in a clearing about 200 yards away from me when I took the first shot. It had missed. I racked another bullet in the chamber and sat there as my dream buck was slowly getting farther away from me while keeping himself concealed behind junipers. When the buck stepped out for the second time at 300 yards I knew I had to make this one count. I let it rip and I couldn’t see what had happened because of the recoil of the 7mm but from Luke, Howie, and Matt’s reactions I knew he was down.
After what seemed to be a thousand high fives and “fist pumps” I got to see my birthday buck for the first time. He was everything I had spent my whole life hunting for. I sent a picture to my brother Matt back in Sho Low and not two minutes later he called me and said he got someone to cover his on call for the rest of the weekend and he was on his way down to Tucson. That evening, after Matt got into town we went out for the night hunt and I spotted up two mountain lions. I got a shot at them but need less to say I missed, but just seeing those two lions caped off an already perfect day.
Looking back it is amazing to see how my hunt went from non existent to a huge success, and how a few good friends pitched in and gave me the best birthday gift I have ever received.
Thanks guys!!!
Sarah and Rebecca’s 2008 hunt
Here is a picture of my daughter Sarah and her friend Rebecca. Both girls are 14 years old and hunted the Juniors Any Antlered deer hunt in Unit 33 this year. Both girls harvested their bucks on opening morning about an hour apart. We had hunted this area the previous year and saw several bucks. The first three deer we saw were does. Daren spotted two bucks right beneath us at about 325 yrds. Both being pretty small bucks, we decided to stay where we were and continue glassing. I spotted a buck off to our left and watched it close to within about 190 yards. After glassing for a while we decided to head down hill to look for the two smaller bucks. We spotted three deer and watched them for about an hour to see if the one that was partially visible was a buck. Then after about an hour we found out that all the deer were does. Once again we saw more deer. One being a button buck. He was snoozin’ off and on and chewing his cud. We watched him, trying to decide if Sarah should take him or not. Just when she was getting positioned for the shot I spotted a deer bedded about 350 yrds, this one being even further away. All we could see was a big heavy body in the sun. The deer’s head was hidden by leaves and branches from a small tree. Finally I saw a large set of antlers move through the leaves. I directed Sarah to him and she repositioned for the shot. Sarah took her first shot and the buck ran toward us and stopped at about 300 yrds. She then took a second shot. This time we saw blood and the buck walked to a small tree and bedded down. We decided to get closer for final shot. Daren and Rebecca stayed on the buck with their binoculars while we crossed the canyon. Sarah took her closing shot at 90 yrds. While Sarah was taking her deer out, I spotted a buck right above us and called across the canyon for Daren and Rebecca. Rebecca took the buck after a short stalk with her dad at her side. He was a 3×2. Sarah and Rebecca were both very excited with their bucks. Sarah’s buck is a symmetrical 8 pointer that measured 86 5/8, and it’s her first deer. What a great hunt.
The sweet spot
by Jay McMahon
(originally published in Trophy Hunter magazine)
The opening morning of the 2008 coues deer season began with a fresh blanket of snow and that bone-chilling cold that freezes toes (though snuggled in the best insulated boots) and cuts through long johns and every layer of fleece.
My childhood friend, Brian Woods, had drawn an early deer tag for the 2008 deer season and he had invited me, along with his older brother Danny, to share in his opening day hunt. Since we were kids, Brian had always been one of those meticulous hunters who spent the preceding months out scouting as well as countless hours at the range in preparation for a 500 yard shot. But as we pulled-off the road that morning, little did we know that today would provide the highlight of Brian’s 25 years of dedication to this fine sport and a marvelous trophy of the elusive grey ghost.
The previous evening, Danny had glassed a few doe and while gloating that we “owed him a round,” for spotting the1st deer, the brothers simultaneously whispered “buck,” as two deer emerged from beneath the tree line and about 30 yards from the doe. Though we were roughly a mile away, they determined that is was well over 100”. “That’s a possible shooter” Danny said, “but it’s opening day so we have plenty of time!” Well it got dark rather quickly so we called it a night and decided that we would hike into the bowl early the next morning—set-up and hopefully catch a better glimpse of the two bucks. On the way home, Brian stressed that he wanted to be ready to glass before sunrise so we needed to be on-the-road by 4am.
The next morning was pitch black as we proceeded to hike about a mile through the snow and to the brother’s favorite “glassing spot.” (Their oldest brother Jimmy had taken a buck the year before that scored over 120”so they were convienced that there were some “good gentics” in the area.). This was indeed a spectacular vantage point where we could glass two separate ridges above our position, or simply look at eyelevel for a sweeping view of the entire valley.
By eleven we were all a bit apprehensive but excited as we had seen: Mule Deer, several herds of Elk, a few doe but of course—no bucks. Brian decided to hike over to the opposite ridge to get a different look at where we had seen the deer the previous evening. We were planning on meeting Brian at the truck, for lunch, around 12:45 but Danny decided that we should grab a couple of burritos and hike them over so that Brian could get in as much “glassing” as possible.
By the time we reached Brian it was around 1:45 and as we slowly advanced towards the GPS coordinates, we noticed that Brian was well camouflaged beneath a large Cedar tree. The terrain was very deceiving on this side of the mountain as Brain sat a mere 50 yards away from a steep canyon, which separated us from where we had seen the two bucks.
As Danny and I were taking-off our backpacks, Danny noticed some movement on the top of the opposite ridge. He immediately sat down and used his field glasses to reveal the two bucks that we had seen the previous evening. “Oh yea bro, that’s a WHOPPER!” he exclaimed. Of course we were all excited and as I fumbled for my binoculars, the look on Brian’s face spoke volumes. I literally saw his jaw drop, his eyes widen and his fists clinch, and as I focused on the buck, I immediately understood his reaction—I can only describe the sight as exhilarating—that unique lump in your throat which suddenly appears when you hear a patriotic song or happen to witness a brilliant sunrise.
Thankfully we hadn’t spooked the deer so as Brian calmly collected his thoughts and began loading his rifle, Danny quickly and quietly set-up his tripod. Danny whispered for me to “stay focused” and to “keep your eye on the buck”—while he and Brian advanced towards the canyon to find a better vantage point.
You could feel the tension in the air as they stopped about every 10 feet to analyze their position. I continued to watch this deer in awe and I realized that though I had no idea what he would score, I knew that he was thick, had an enormous spread and was by far the biggest coues deer that I had ever seen through any binoculars.
Brian and Danny finally maneuvered themselves to within 300 yards of the deer and as Brian settled-in for the shot—time simply froze—until the stillness of the day was broken by the crashing echo of the 25-06 rifle blast. I watched as Brian centered his first shot directly in the “sweet spot,” just behind the shoulder, sending the buck leaping into the air and then he immediately came crashing down and landed directly into the nearby brush. We all sat there for a moment, each replaying the past few seconds in our minds—enjoying that special silence—void of everything but your own subconscious and the utter magnificence and wonder of mother nature.
Brian and Danny decided that I would man the optics while they hiked over the edge of the canyon; cross the river and hike up to where the deer dropped. After about fifty minutes, I saw the boys nearing the thicket of trees where the deer had fallen and so I radioed that they were “right on top of him.”
Now maybe I’m biased here, for the Wood’s family introduced me to hunting some 20 years ago during my first Javalina hunt. But as I watched them wade through the brush and come face-to-face with the deer, I witness an incredible sight—the kind of raw emotions that gets filmed when you have no idea a camera is present, or perhaps the unexplainable feeling of a kind act without reward.
I saw two brothers embrace in a way which only the admiration of something truly appreciated and earned is expressed. For there are those who find nothing but fault with this passion we share for hunting and no matter how ethical, just and compassionate we approach this passion, they will never get the opportunity to experience what we all felt that special day. Here were two men who shared a deep-seated admiration for nature, and a respect for that delicate balance of life which transcends mere rankings and record books. In short, everything which makes them true ambassadors for this unique sport
When I finally caught-up with Brian & Danny, I quickly shared in their excitement as lying before us was a magnificent 5×7 coues deer with a cool looking cheater on the left side. The deer was much bigger then we originally thought and it ended-up grossing 122 7/8”.
In the true spirit of family, which is so ubiquitous to this unique pastime, no less then fifty people came by Brian’s house that night. There were: neighbors, friends, relatives and more then twenty children, of various ages, waiting to take pictures with the deer. They had all come to share in the same blessings—to see this majestic animal; to listen to Brian’s story and to toast to his success.
Diablo!
by Brian Fisher
It all started in January 2007. I was helping a friend scout for his upcoming rifle Javelina hunt. I took him into an area of 36B that I had seen Javelina in before. We hiked the mile into a big canyon and I set up my 15X Minox and started glassing.
After about an hour of glassing and seeing one herd of Javelina and several nice 3×3 Coues bucks I caught movement on a ridge about 600 yards away, I fixed my binos on the area and peered through them. I could not believe my eyes! I was watching a very nice Coues walk up the ridge then slowly disappear over the other side. Right then and there I was on a mission!
The draw came and went and much to my delight I had drawn a November Coues tag for 36B. I went out and bought a trail camera in August and placed it on the ridge I had seen the buck on. I would make the trip to check my camera twice a week, 180 miles round trip each time. At first I got several decent bucks on the camera. Then on the 29th of August I made the long trip to check the camera, after a 1 1/2 mile hike into my camera, in 95 degree heat I sat under the tree that the camera was placed on and reviewed the photos. I could not believe my eyes! There he was, a huge 3×3 with long main beams!
I ended up getting over 40 photos of the buck that was now named “Diablo”. I just hoped that he would make it through the first season in October!
A long 3 months passed until my season began. My son (Levi) had drawn a tag with me. I would send him photos of the bucks I had on camera so he was ready to go opening morning!
Opening morning found us at our parking spot with plenty time for us to make the hike into the area we wanted to hunt. Much to our surprise there wasn’t another soul in the area, now for any of you that have hunted an early hunt down south that is pretty amazing in itself! Not wanting to spook any deer off the ridge we took the long STEEP way into a vantage point to glass from. We slowly made our way to our glassing spot, the excitement was almost too much to handle! I couldn’t get my tripod and glasses out of my pack fast enough!
As we started scouring the adjacent side of the canyon something told me to move up the ridge a little further and glass back to the West. I made my way up the ridge and set my tripod and glasses down, took a quick look around and settled in. Without moving my tripod I peered through them and something caught my eye, it appeared to be the hind end of a deer. I got comfortable and studied the object which was about 1500 yards away. It moved! Not only did it move but it had a massive set of antlers attached to it’s head as well! I looked for a few more seconds then picked up my gear and quickly made my way back down to where Levi was glassing. Levi turned and seen me coming down the ridge and he immediately knew what was going on!
I guided Levi to where the buck was, we watched him for a couple of minutes (which felt like a whole lot longer). I asked Levi if he wanted to make his way over there and try to get into a good shooting position and I would stay put and guide him in. Levi turned to me and said “that is your buck” I asked one more time if he was sure and when the word “yes” started to leave his mouth My pack was going on my back!
I was down the ridge and through the bottom in no time at all, I had landmarked some rocks that I though would put me right where I wanted to be.
I slowly climbed up a sheer rock face, placing my rifle above me on ledges then climbing up to it. As I reached the rocks I took my pack off and caught my breath. I then radioed Levi and asked him for an update on the bucks position, he answered back “he just laid down”
I snuck over the hill straining my eyes to catch any movement at all on the next ridge. I then settled in beneath a small tree and began to scour the hills with my 10x Leicas.
I am sure you all have been there before, nothing looks the same! What was once two dimensional from 3/4 of a mile away seems to take on a whole new look! I radioed Levi again and asked for another update, Levi answered with “he’s laying behind the half dead Yucca” I looked back at the hillside and there were no less that 5000 dead Yuccas!
After an hour of eye bulging intense glassing I caught a slight movement! I focused on the area and finally made out two long tines sticking up over a “half dead Yucca! I immediately ranged the buck, 232 yards! I settled in to wait this buck out.
After almost an hour I had played a million different outcomes to my situation through my brain. The beads of sweat were now rolling down my brow and seemed as if this buck was never going to move! I weighed my options and concluded that it was going to be now or never!
I could now see the bucks entire head and about 4 inches of the right side of his neck. I thought long and hard and decided that I was going to shoot for the neck. I radioed Levi and told him of my plan, there was a long silence then an answer “it’s up to you boss”
I figured I would have only one chance at this deal, I set my mind right knowing that I could hit that spot all day long on paper, so what’s the difference. right?!
I flipped the bipod out on the .300 win mag and located the buck in my Leupold, checked the range again, yep! 232 yards! I got in and out of the rifle 3 or more times until it felt comfortable, slowly squeezing the trigger I felt the recoil of the rifle against my shoulder. Before I could regain my sight picture through the scope I heard Levi screaming from 1500 yards away “you got him! you got him!” I looked through my scope to see the bucks legs now sticking up over the “half dead Yucca”
Not until I made my way over the downed buck did I realize that this was “Diablo”, the buck I had watched through the summer. I stood over Diablo with a mixture of overwhelming happiness, a sense of achievement, a little sadness knowing that the buck that had consumed my summer scouting had just fallen.
I My 2007 season was everything I had dreamed of over the months prior and who better to share it with then my son Levi!
Next year you can shoot first Levi…………I promise!
My Dream Come True
By Dan Lunsford
Hunting Coues deer over the years in my home state of Arizona has produced many bucks ranging from 80 to 109 B&C. I have always dreamed of breaking the minimum B&C mark of 110. As most serious Coues hunters know that true trophy Coues deer are hard to find and breaking the B&C minimum is no easy task.
Reading stories and seeing pictures of some of the deer being taken out of Mexico over the years has me wanting to go to Mexico and chase big Coues deer. In the summer of 2007 I received a call from good friend Steve Smith who had been helping guide and hunt on Enrique Zepeda Ranches over the years in Mexico. Steve explained that there were a couple tags available for Coues Deer in January 2008 if I was interested. Knowing of some of the big Coues that they have taken over the years I jumped at the opportunity. The opportunity to hunt with Steve made it even more special as he is one of the best Coues deer hunters in the sport.
When the day in Jan. 2008 finally arrived to make the drive down to Mexico I was beyond excited. The ranches we hunted had low coues deer density as it is on the far western edge of the historical coues habitat. The country was low scrub desert full of organ pipe and saguaro cactus. There are a few small hills holding the Coues deer. If you have hunted Coues deer you know how important it is to have good optics. We spent several days glassing behind our Swarovski 15×56’s seeing an average of 2-4 deer per day. We seen a couple of bucks during the week that would have scored over a 100 inches but we keep holding out for a buck that would make the 110 plus mark knowing the area has produced exceptional bucks over the years.
On the seventh morning of the hunt I was glassing on a knob overlooking a basin when I seen a doe on a ridge across from me out of the brush came a buck following her. When I seen the tine length and extra points he had I knew right away this was a book head. I took off across the basin and into the next canyon where he was to try to get a shot at him. When I came over the ridge he was standing in a draw with his does. I was able to get a quick rest on some rocks and make the easy 150-yard shot. The shot was true and the buck was down. When I walked up to the buck I was overwhelmed with excitement. I knew the buck was over 110 but I did not realize how big he truly was. The buck has 14 scoreable points and lots of character.
Chip McBroom who was in our camp hunting mule deer and is an official scorer for SCI, scored the buck at 138 3/8 SCI. He has been unofficially green scored at 132 net B&C non-typical which should put him in the top 35 bucks of all time. I want to thank God for allowing me to harvest a buck of this caliber, let alone see one. I also want to thank my friends and new friends I met on the hunt for all their help. Steve, Daryl, Chip, Enrique and Alex.
Dan won the Mexico Non-typical category in our CouesWhitetail.com contest for the 2007-2008 season. His prize was a custom coues deer bronze made by Jason Lewis, one of our forum members who goes by the name Foundryman. Here is a photo of that bronze.
Mr. Mass – aka the Velvet Trickster!
By Josh Epperson
Well, most of you know I have been watching this buck for the last three years. I have lots of photos of him from trail cameras.
Saturday morning I decided to look for the buck in a spot that I thought quite unlikely for him to be in. I spotted a lone doe and watched her feed and mill around for about 45 minutes while half-ass glassing the slope of the canyon thinking he just couldn’t be in a place like this. I was thinking about going for a hike and just still hunting through the trees when I glassed higher on the ridge and spotted two nice bucks together, about 800 yards away. Soon as I realized what and who I was looking at I completely turned to an absolute ball of adreneline filled jello! I completely fell apart and could hardly stand confidently on the rock outcropping I was on. It was one of the worst cases of buck-fever I can remember. I barely even got rattled shooting my first bull elk this past Sept but these dang coues bucks just tear me up. I gathered up all my stuff back in my pack and made my over to a small ridgeline and crept close to 400 yards in the wide open undetected. They stood still for the past 20 minutes as I stalked them but soon as I was getting set up to shoot they decided to head into some thick brush. I was still trying to regain my composure from my serious case of buck-fever and quickly got the buck in the crosshairs. I didn’t feel very steady but felt as if this was my only chance and I squeezed the trigger. TOTAL MISS!!!!!!!!!! Both bucks were now on high alert but had no clue what was going on but figured they better get a move on and turned and went for the ridge top. I tried getting him back in the scope and when I did I sqeezed the trigger again and nothing! The rifle had the safety on luckily cause I don’t think many people have observed someone excited as me jerking the trigger as hard as I did. I couldn’t have hit a school bus at 50 yards I jerked the trigger so hard. I laughed to myself and was glad the gun didn’t go off as I watched the bucks disappear over the ridge top. Thoroughly disgusted with my self I sat there thinking what the heck am I gonna do now. I decided to hike well over a mile back to my quad and have some lunch, take a nap and wait for a couple friends of mine to show up and help glass with me. I was pretty confident the bucks weren’t that spooked and that they’d reappear in the evening.
Around 3:30 my friend Chris “Chappart” Gravatt and I hiked out on a point to do some glassing. My other friend Dave “Shifty” Brown showed up after Chris and I bailed off on a point and glassed for me from another point. A couple does with fawns showed up and and Chris spotted a small 2pt buck (this was the buck you all might remember that was giving another small 3pt the mid-air bitch-slap at my salt lick this summer). We sat for a while and I ended up spotting a whitetail shed, about 500 yards down the slope, hung up in an oak tree. I told Chris that it was the right antler off of Mr. Mass from 2 years back. He knew better than to call B.S. on me though as I’ve got at least 30 pictures of that buck from that season making scrapes and hitting my salt lick throughout the summer. Anywho, Chris finally says to me, “Dude I think I’ve got your buck. Yup, it’s definitely him!” I finally picked him out of the brush about a half mile away and said “LETS GO!” We scurried to the edge of the ridge and I bailed off on the same small ridge down on them and got there just as it was getting pretty dang dark. I got within 285 yards of the bucks but just couldn’t pick them out of the danged trees and brush that was all around. Dave kept telling me the buck is standing in the open but from his angle it was and from mine I couldn’t see jack squatt! Darkness came and I hiked back out of there confident we could find them again in the morning.
Sunday morning found Chris and myself right where we were when we left them. I spotted both bucks with 2 smaller bucks right off the bat and it was game on! We were already at 460 yards but needed to get closer. We got to a small rockpile another 30 yards closer but it was still to far for my shooting abilities. As we watched them they fed to the bottom of the canyon and went behind a couple of big trees and we never saw them come out. We sat there for about a half hour when I happened to back off the 15’s and look to my right. There was a really pretty cinnamon colored black bear about 50 yards away just standing on a small pile of rocks looking down the way we were. Wasn’t a big bear but pretty nonetheless. It just walked off into the brush never knowing we were even there. Back to the deer…… We waited and waited and nothing! I snuck farther down into the canyon and closed the distance another 100 yards to 330 yards. After I got set up Chris came down to me so that we wouldn’t miss a second of watching those trees. We sat there for another long while and I decided to sneak down farther. I like my shots as close as I can get them, especially when it comes to a buck like this one. I snuck farther down the ridge, where the 15’s were a tad much actually, to 195 yards of the two trees. Here I found myself completely out in the open on the bare slope baking in the sun. Time was around 11:00 AM and I was prepared for the long sit. After about 15 minutes I took off my long-sleeved camo shirt and tried to shade myself under it as best as I could while still being able to watch those two stupid trees below me. A few minutes later I thought I heard a rock flip across the draw to my left. I looked over and saw a buck standing there! I looked through my 10’s and quickly realized that this was the big guy I’d longed to see in my scope!!! Somehow he’d made it out of the trees, over a 100 yards up the bottom of the draw and lucky for me he kicked a rock over or I might have never seen him. I pulled up my old trusty 30.06 and this time hit him square in the back as he was trying to get up the ridge. He rolled over and stood back up and I put one more through this shoulders at 115 yards! It was definitely an excitement that I hadn’t felt in a long time and I couldn’t wait to get over there to him. I waited for Chris to come down to me so I could make a loop down and try to push out the big buck, that Mr. Mass was hanging out with, in hopes that Chris could take him as well. But it wasn’t meant to be as we didn’t see anything.
After a long photo shoot we hiked over and found the shed that I’d glassed up the evening before and just as I thought, it was the exact antler that I thought it was. It’s been a fun and exciting few years getting all the pictures of many different bucks but I’m glad it all worked out that I finally got him. Thanks to ol “Chappart” for all of his help in glassing and carrying all my optics and tripod out for me as I packed out my buck and all the boned out meat and rifle back to the quads. I hope you all have enjoyed the past pictures I’ve posted of this great deer as much as I have had in sharing them all with you. Here’s a few more pics for you all to enjoy. Thanks for reading and all your support.
PIC- Remember this shed? This is my boy Isaac’s first shed and it is off this buck, shed about 3-4 years ago. Just one more reason why this buck is extra special to me!
I almost forgot one of the coolest moments of the whole ordeal! What’s wrong with me!?!?! On the way home my Dad was texting me telling me how much Isaac was excited to see my buck so when I got to Dad’s house to pick up my boy, Isaac was so excited to see my buck. It was so cute!!! He just kept grabbing onto the antlers and saying, “Daddy’s buck!”. Oh man it was awesome. I can’t wait till he gets a little older so he can hike the hills with me. Can’t they make the hunting age about 5? I can’t wait to see him hammer his first coues!!
Long lesson learned
by Mike Bool
Hunting as a little kid in Arizona, I never really thought about what it would take to get a book whitetail. After growing up and getting into hunting more seriously, I started making the decision to put in for some premium hunts. After about two years of getting nothing, my dad surprisingly told me that I drew a great Coues Whitetail tag.
As my hunt grew near, my dad, Mark, and I started to make plans on backpacking in and camping out. I told my dad that I wanted one of two things, a book buck or a non-typical. One of our good friends, Mike Sacco, informed us that he wanted to help us out on the hunt. We planned on taking in water, food, and some other stuff and setting up our base camp. Well the weekend before, my dad and Mike made two trips into the country and dropped off 15 gallons of water, dehydrated food, and enough food to feed an army. Now with the camp set, it was time to have some fun.
We started hiking at 7:00 a.m. and were in glassing position by 8:30. The day started out slow but it picked up by noon. We glasses up a good buck. He might have been a shooter but not on my first day. The deer had great mass, length, and width but his G-3’s on his left side were very small. We decided to pass him up. We went back to camp and had lunch and set up our tents. By 3:00 or so we were back up glassing. The night really didn’t produce that much but right before dark we spotted a nice buck. We could not tell anything but we could tell that it had a fork on his right G-2. That night I split a wonderful dehydrated meal with Mike.
The next morning we were up and out early. The first buck we spotted was the one we saw the night before. He was a good, mature buck but smaller than the big deer of the first day. We saw a lot of small bucks and does when my dad spotted a potential shooter. It was about a mile away and walking around. We could not get a great look at him but we could tell that he was really good. My dad and I decided to go ahead and put a stalk on him. By the time we got to where he was hanging, Mike told us that there were several smaller bucks with him. That made it a lot harder. After making some adjustments, it was time for me to try to get a bullet in him. At a distance of 380 yards I let one shot go. I didn’t hit him. The buck didn’t seem to even notice the shot. The only thing he cared about was the doe. After a few more shots I could tell that he was hit in the lower front leg. He bedded down in a little cut. It was getting late so we left him alone for the night. As I walked back to camp, I could not think of anything but the missed shots and the wounded buck.
We woke up even earlier the next morning. The plan was to go right back to where we were the night before. As my dad and I climbed into position on the mountainside Mike settled into a great glassing spot on the opposite side of the canyon. We spent about two hours glassing and could find nothing. My dad told me to keep looking while he went down to where we last saw the buck and looked for sign. The one thing I remember Dad telling me before was that if the deer was here, we would have to walk right up on the deer before the buck would get up and run. My dad walked around for a while and tried to locate the deer. He came back up to me and we packed up my stuff and walked up the canyon a little more. As we came back down, my dad stopped by a juniper tree and told me to get ready because if the buck were still there he would be around here. We both walked around a tree and split up. I was almost ready to get a drink when my dad started to yell for me. As I walked up to him he told me that we had walked within 15 yards of the buck. We ran up to the tree and had Mike try to get us on the deer. As they were talking, I spotted the deer 60 yards away and motioned to my dad. As the deer turned I shot and the buck fell right to the ground. We walked up and my dad was talking to Mike on the radio as I picked up my deer and I almost wet my pants. After my dad was done with Mike he picked up the deer and admired it. Then it happened, my dad ran right to me and jumped into my arms and almost knocked me over. We took a lot of pictures and the real fun began. We de-boned him right there and walked back to camp. We broke camp and filled our packs to the maximum. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the road.
I learned a valuable lesson on this hunting trip. That lesson was to always stick with everything. We took this buck into the taxidermist and he grossed this buck at a little bit over 112 non-typical. I would want to say special thanks to Mike Sacco and my dad for helping me on this hunt and taking the time to pack everything in the weekend before. I don’t know what I would of done with out your help.
Ryan’s first Coues Buck
by Ryan Feringa (aka azryan)
(originally posted in the forum)
Day 1:
I had a bunch of people up helping opening morning… Christian came up Wed night to help me out through the weekend…My buddy Brandon also came up and then my dad and two of his buddies also were up there to enjoy the outdoors. We get up before sunrise get out to our glassing point in the dark and we waited for that great moment waiting for it to get light enough to glass. Christian and Brandon went to one spot while my dad and I headed to another spot to glass. No later then thirty minutes in, Christian drove over and said they had a buck located. S o we headed over there to take a look. The buck was a decent forky that would score around 50″. I decided to pass him up, but it was hard to do so, especially with Christian and Brandon urging me to shoot it, but I did not give into the peer pressure very easily, later on this decision paid off. We ended up glassing a bunch of does, which was basically the story of this whole trip. Lots of deer but the wrong gender. After we decided to stop glassing at the one spot, we decided to go for a hike to get into some good glassing territory, that turned up nothing. The rest of the day was spent hiking our butts off in some very nasty stuff, and glassing.
Day 2:
We kept glassing from the same spot hoping to turn up more bucks, but it never worked out like we wanted to. We were already tired from all the hiking we did the day before and we decided to call it an early morning. Christian got some really bad allergies and was miserbale so he headed out Sat afternoon and Brandon had left Friday night. My dad had to take his buddies back into town. So it was just my dad and I the rest of the weekend. That afternoon I went down into some lower elevations to glass a hillside where I had seen some bucks scouting. I caught some movement behind a tree not far up the hill, and saw it was three coues feeding around at 2pm. I narrowed it down to two of them being does and one spike. I was debating whether or not to shoot that spike. I decided to pass him up as well. The rest of the evening I only turned up four muley does. As it got dark I started to become a little discouraged after two days of hunting. Not finding any bucks and just does.
Day 3:
We were back in the same area where we had seen that forky. I was hoping to find him and try and shoot him, but we could not find him. We only found more does. After glassing some more areas and turning up more deer of the wrong gender I decided to go home that afternoon and recharge my body. Four days out there was enough for me. So I left discouraged about how opening weekend went.
Day 4:
Brandon and I headed out into a different part of the unit to some areas that predominatley held mule deer, but there were always a few whitetail hanging around. That morning we glassed and glassed only turning up 5 mulies. I knew we were taking a chance hunting these lower areas due to all the mulies in it, but its always worth trying. That afternoon we hit a different area and hiked to the highest peak we could find to glass. When we got up to the top we setup our glassing perch and started picking apart the hills. After a little bit of that we both passed out and took a little snoozer. I love glassing and taking naps in the process. It is refreshing. After our eyes were refreshed we found a herd of piggies right below us. Brandon then says he has a buck bedded right below us, So my heart starts racing, but he di not mention whether it was a coues or muley,ended up being a little forky muley. Then we finally found some whitetail way up on a far mountain side. We put the spotting scope up and it turned out to be three does. Just our luck!. After all the glassing we have done the whole hunt we only turned up two bucks. the rest of the evening we glassed up two more whitetail, a doe and fawn. At the end of the day I started to regret not shooting that forky. But I was still determined on finding a good buck. I knew all this work would benefit us in the end.
Day 5:
I slept in and got a really late start. My buddy Cody or aka Napolian had the next couple days off so he came up to help me out. We headed into am area that had been burned years ago that held some whitetail. We got out there just as the light was fading and had about twenty minutes to glass, we only turned up one doe.That night we made a call to Brandon and he was going to come up in the morning.
Day 6:
We waited for Brandon to show up then we packed our gear and headed out to look behind more glass. after awhile of nothing, Brandon says he has a deer, the problem was it was at least a mile and a half up hill in the next mountain range. We confirmed it was a buck, and we headed out after him. We knew it was going to be a very very low chance of finding him again. Well after an hour and a half of hiking some rough country we made it up to a hill that was across from where we saw the buck. We set everything up and started to pick the hillside apart. we had a really good idea of where he bedded but it was to thick to even see in. Then all of a sudden Cody yells “Buck, Buck, Buck” the two deer were 200 yards below us. But Cody jumped to conclusions and they ended up being does. He states that he does not like these little deer, but deep down inside he has a passion for them He only wants to shoot mulies. So after he got all our blood going we were dissapointed again. Brandon had class that afternoon and had to leave. So Cody and I went to another spot that turned out to be money. We get up to our glassing point and start looking, after a little nap here and there I spotted two deer, but confirmed them as more does. It was frustrating seeing all these does. About twenty minutes later it was about 4:45, Cody yells “Big Buck”, sure enough he glassed up a really good buck with the El’s, we were thinking in the 80-90″ range feeding at the top of a little mesa. This deer was a long long ways up at the top. He was pretty much in sheep country. He was located at the top of some sheer cliffs. There was only one way up to him. I decided quickly which route I was going to take to close the distance. My plan was to end up right on top of him.
This image does not do justice of how steep this country was. Below the deer was a sheer drop off at least 200 ft. The image does not show it well at all
I knew I had to go quick because I had a little less then an hour of shooting light. So I went up these steep steep hills as fast as I could. I have never been on hills that steep for that distance. I knew I was crazy going up this stuff, and at one point I almost gave up, I did not physically think my body could do it. It seemed impossible to make it up in time. But I kept going because my adrenaline was going. I ended up to the top in about 30 mins, which I was amazed at. I finally got to the top and started looking for him below me, I had about 15 mins of shooting light left, and I started to worry that he was gone some I look back to where I left Cody and the 15’s, I look back at him through the El’s and could hardly see him but I saw his arm pointing right. So I slowly worked my way to the right, but nothing. I then looked at him again and saw his arms come out. I interpreted it as he is gone…start heading down, but he really meant “what the hell are you doing”….I turned around no more then fifty yards up from me was the buck. I turned the safety off and let the led fly. I missed him the first shot, then he started running, my second to last shot hit him, then I let another one go and it dropped him. I was shaking alot, I was so excited yelling at the top of my lungs. I could hear Cody yelling ” You got Him”…it was a great experience. When I first put my hands on him I was so relieved and the feeling that it was over was awesome. This buck was my first, and My friends and I worked our butts off for him. We did not get back to the truck till 5 hours later packing that little guy out of the hills.
Sorry I do not have any field pics, because I did not have my camera with me. Christian came up with a gross score of 84 3/8″…not bad for my first
I would like to thank everyone that helped on this hunt, especially Brandon, Cody, and Christian. They helped me out so much, they busted their butts for me when they did not have to. I shot Cody’s .300 short mag, the same gun he dropped his Kiabab buck with.
Josh’s 2008 Archery buck
by Josh Epperson
(originally posted in the forum)
Josh and Andy with Josh’s buck.
Truth be told, my good friend Andy Knowlton found a few nice bucks on Friday and called me and invited me down for some spot-n-stalk, southern AZ style. Long story short, I glassed one of the bucks up at 11 AM on Saturday morning as he was following a doe. Andy and I crossed the canyon and got above the bedded buck and his doe. We slowly peaked over the ridgetop and found the doe feeding but no buck. Eventually spotting the buck after he’d already seen our ugly faces at a mere 75 yards! We backed out and opted to try again on Sunday. Sun-up found us glassing again and as the hours went by Andy finally says, “I got a bedded buck!”. Now this wasn’t just your run of the mill spot Andy pulled out of nowhere, this was an AWESOME spot he made on this buck. At nearly 3/4 of a mile Andy saw this bucks head and antlers sticking up as he was bedded. SHEESH!! Eventually the buck moved to a better and more stalkable bedding area and our stalk was on. Four hours later found Andy at approx 45-50 yards of the bedded buck with his longbow, while the buck was facing him no less, and myself at 120 yards away in a different direction. We had studied the area prior to our stalk and we both had a good feeling what this buck was gonna do when he got up …He was either gonna go in Andy’s direction or down the draw towards me. Lucky me he opted to come down the draw. After rubbing his glorious antlers and feeding his way down the draw, I had about every rock and cactus ranged and was as ready as you can be for a buck like this.
Lucky for me I was sitting down as he came by at 47 yards. Had I been standing, I think the jello, my knees had turned into, would have made for one very unstable shot. Well ol Grongulous takes the first shot and shoots right over the buck’s back. The buck ran 15 yards, stopped and looked around like what the H was that! I slowly got another arrow on and readied myself for another shot. He relaxed finally, turned broadside again and I let another one go. This time the expandable blades on the broadhead deployed rather prematurely and made for a beautiful whizzing sound as it landed at the hind legs of the buck. LOVELY!!!! Now the buck is getting antsy and is about to get the S out of Dodge. I slapped a 3rd arrow on, pulled back, guessed the yardage, grunted to stop him and let her rip. I hit him a tad far back but could tell the arrow entered him and skewered him lengthwise. Just a few inches of arrow showed. Andy had been filming the whole ordeal from his vantage point and got it all on camera! We waited a while and then went to look for blood…. NOTHING! Could barely even find a track in the gravely rocks. Anyway, I stalked down the draw he ran into trying to find something but only found a couple running tracks here and there. About ten minutes later I spotted his head and antlers laying against a big boulder deader than dead!!!! I screamed, Andy screamed, hugs and various other pleasantries were exchanged as we realized what we had just accomplished. It was truly the absolute most awesomely planned and executed stalks I’ve ever been in on and to see it come through successfully with a good friend like Andy just made it that much more special. Thanks Andy, you are a true friend and I hope we have many more fun ventures in the woods together like this one!
The 142 buck!
by Jay Jones
My name is Jay Jones. My friend, Clint Hill (who is an avid coueswhitetail.com fan/poster) told me there was some interest in a special Coues buck I was lucky enough to harvest this year.
Here are a few pics of my 142 gross Coues (unofficial). Below is a short story about taking the buck.
I feel very humbled and fortunate to have had the opportunity to harvest him with a 506 yard shot. Lots of respect for this old monarch. We estimate his age to be 6+ years old.
My hunting buddies/guides were Nick Forsythe and Ted Byfield. Ted spotted the buck over two miles away and announced excitedly, huge buck way up high in the bowl. This is the same bowl my hunting partners, Greg Lucero, Nick, Clint Hill and I spotted a huge buck two years ago and were thinking this must be the same one.
Ted and I drove over and climbed the back of the bowl. We crawled up a steep manzanita and shale face. Nick covered the front of the bowl in case the buck tried to slip out. Nick and I had climbed the same route up to the bowl the day before. When we reached the top yesterday it was covered with deer sign and we knew it was a worth the climb. We spotted several deer but not the one we were looking for.
This time, Ted and I arrived at the bowl crest at 1pm careful not to skyline and maneuvered into position to glass the dark north facing slope of the bowl. Within 10 minutes, amazingly Ted had spotted the buck bedded next two a feeding doe under a juniper. He quickly ranged the buck at 506 yards.
I extended the Harris bi-pods on my Weatherby .257 to shoot in a sitting position because the mountain grass was so high. I turned the elevation turrent to 500 yards on my Leupold VX-III Long Range Tactical 6.5×20 outfitted with a Leupold bullet drop compensating dial (highly recommended).
I settled the crosshairs on the buck and tried to concentrate on a smooth trigger pull. Seemed like I was squeezing way to long and hard when I realized the safety was on. Happens to the best of us I guess! Got ready again and got a good squeeze, this time with no safety on, sending the 115 nosler ballistic tip on its way. Ted advised, you hit him…but he’s up and moving.
Two hours later after some very anxious moments we had my buck of a couple lifetimes. Initial gross score is in the range of 142 and will probably net just south of 135 placing the buck somewhere in the range of top 5-10 all time typical Coues bucks ever taken.
It is hard to put in perspective a trophy like this buck. My ambitious goal for 30+ years of Coues deer hunting had been to get a buck exceeding the Boone & Crockett minimum of 110. I have several in the 100-110 range. Lots of good, very capable hunters never break through the 110 barrier. Obviously, I far exceeded my expectations. Again, I feel very, very lucky.
I can’t thank my hunting buddies Nick Forsythe, Ted Byfield, Greg Lucero and Clint Hill enough. They all played a major role in helping make this possible. I have learned much from them. We are childhood friends who come together every fall to continue our quest and passion for chasing these little gray ghosts around the Chiricahua and other mountains.
Greg was the first one in the B&C club. Larry Osborne joined Greg and now I finally broke through. Nick, Clint and our buddy Tim Gomez are next to join. You can be sure we’ll be there trying to help them make it happen every fall.
