Posts
My First Hunt!
by Heather Robertson
I am a 32yr old Mother of 2, this was my first hunt. I had done some target shooting but had never been hunting. My husband and I put in for Coues deer in unit 23 in Eastern Arizona where we live. He had always hunted cow elk always hunted for the meat. So when we both got drawn for deer in late October we started talking to Whitetail hunters every chance we got. Well my husband did some scouting and we hunted the first two days and I didn’t even see a deer. On the 3rd day I stayed home with the kids and he got a little forked horn. We were thrilled as everyone told us if we didn’t have $1000 glasses and spotting scopes we would be lucky to even see a Coues Buck. My husband spooked him out of some brush and dropped him at 250yrds running.
We knew a guy who said he knew a spot where the deer would come for water and I felt more confident taking a shot from a stationary position so we decided to check it out. We hiked in and sat the tank but saw nothing but bluejays all day. On the hike out I fell and hit the scope on the 30-30 I was using. We tried to sight it back in but only had 4 shells with us so the next day I took my husbands 30-06 out instead. Now I shoot left handed and I didn’t even shoot his gun to see if it was on for me. We went to another water hole and my husband and friend left me there with a walkie-talkie and instructions not to move. I was laying on my stomach on the side of this tank and at about 10:30 I looked up and there froze half behind a pine tree was a huge Coues buck. I mean compared to the one my husband brought home this guy was a monster!! I kept thinking it had to be a mule deer it was so big. I watched him through my scope as he walked toward the water trying to see his but to make sure it was a whitetail. Remember this is my first hunt and the only whitetail I’d seen was a doe running away from me at about 50 miles an hour and the little one my husband had brought home. So I was worried I would shoot the wrong kind of deer. I finally watched him long enough that I was sure it was one of the biggest whitetails in unit 23 so I took my time, got my sights right behind the shoulder, broadside, standing still, 30 yards, Perfect, took a deep breath, squeezed the trigger……and MISSED him. In complete shock I watched him spin in his tracks and in one leap disappear. I ran around the tank and desperately looked for a blood trail… nothing.
Over the radio my husband says “did you get him?” Man, was it hard to say “I missed him” Well they were just over the hill and came to see what happened. We looked and looked but could find no sign I’d hit him. “How could you miss?” my husband asked. “I don’t know” I said feeling about 2 inches tall. “Get over there where you shot from.” he said. He picked up a rock about 4 inches square and said “Can you see this?” and set it right where that deer had been standing. “Shoot it” he said. I blew that rock to pieces first try. How could I miss a deer many times that big? Now convinced I had to of hit him we scoured the area, followed his track for 100 or more yards and still found no sign he was even slowing down. My husband got on his quad and started criss-crossing the area and almost ran into two more bucks, we ran up there but they were gone. So we decided to go back to the tank and see if something would come on in. But first my husband dug the bullet out of the dirt and said “Here’s your antlers” as he dropped them in my hand. They left and I waited, amazingly about an hour later a spike buck came in.
I decided to wait and watch him for a minute because he kept looking over his shoulder so I was hoping there was a bigger buck still coming in. I watched him for at least 5 min he wandered around sniffing at where we had shot and walked all over and then went for a long drink. He was starting to walk away and I had to decide if I was going to take a shot. I couldn’t do it. There was no way I was going to bring in a spike after the monster I had a chance at earlier. So I radioed my husband and said I was done for the day. I told him all I saw was a doe. I didn’t want him to know I’d passed up a buck of any size. The next day I went back by my self at 6am about 35 degrees determined to get a buck that day to redeem myself. I was so cold I laid down in the sun and after shivering for an hour fell asleep. I woke up hot and sat up to take my jacket off . . . and spooked a nice buck that I hadn’t even seen or heard. So I quickly laid back down in the shade figuring, I had blown my chance for the day. I was so disgusted with myself thinking I had no business being out there. When I saw movement in the trees about 150 yds. across the pond. I watched hoping it would turn and come in for water, I could tell it was a buck and a whitetail but that was it, the brush was so thick. He kept going finally I couldn’t see him off to my right anymore. I knew there was a road there and was hoping he would turn around and come back. He did. I watched him come back just a few yards closer and finally crossed an open spot. I quickly saw antlers, and whitetail so said to myself “here goes” and shot. He jumped straight up in the air and ran. I couldn’t believe it, I thought I missed him. Then I heard breaking brush and thought to myself “I didn’t hear any brush breaking with the other deer, maybe he’s wounded.
So I walked around to where I shot him and again no blood… I started following his tracks and just when I was going to give up, go home and rip up my tag there he was…Perfect shot behind the shoulder, he ran about 40 yds. I field dressed him and loaded him on my quad. I knew he was bigger than my husbands deer and he had 4 points on each side so I thought he was an average sized deer. As I came into town with him strapped to the rack on my quad, hunter’s and friends kept stopping me and telling me that he was a great buck. I kept getting more and more excited. We live just down the road from a taxidermist that has hunted Cous in Arizona for 30+yrs and he had given us lots of advice on hunting these elusive “grey ghosts”. We had already told him if we got one he would be mounting it for us. I stopped at his place to let him know I had filled my tag, He was floored. He told me it was “a buck of a lifetime” and that most hunters in Az would never even see one this big. I don’t think my husband has ever been so proud of me. The buck measured 100 3/4 and I am now addicted!!!
My 2007 Archery Coues!
by Phil Cramer
Its not my biggest coues but I think I might be more proud of this one than any other.
Well I was finally able to close the deal the day after Christmas with my trusty bowtech. I actually got a little bit of a late start due to some issues with a land owner so I had to take the long way into where I wanted to hunt but it turned out for the best. I left the truck and made a mad dash to the top of the mountain and before I could even get set up to start glassing I started spotting does and my hopes soared. I was thinking that the rut might be kicking in and any minute I would spot a buck with the two different groups of does but I was wrong for two reasons….1. the bucks didn’t show up with the does and 2. there was no sign of a rut going on. I put my binos down for a quick moment and happened to catch some movement off to my left and only a little over a hundred yards away, I thru my binos up and instantly knew that I was looking at a really good buck. I made a quick check of the wind, grabbed my range finder out of my pack and started crawling towards the buck using what cover I had available. It was slow going but the buck didn’t seem to be in any hurry as he was just feeding up the slope towards me and I didn’t want to rush anything so I took my time in stalking the bruiser buck. Everything was going great when out of a small draw between the big buck and I another buck showed up. He caught me right as I had came out from behind a small yucca and I was nailed down. We stared at each other for a while and then he started feeding quartering towards me, I quickly ranged him at 52 yards and made the decision that he was good enough for me. I let the arrow fly and it hit its mark and I got to watch the buck go about 40 yards and pile up. The big buck just stood where he was and watched all of this happen, he was joined by yet another buck and they just worked their way down the mountain. It was a great day for me and I couldn’t be happier with the buck that I took especially knowing that the big buck is still out there waiting for another day.
This buck scores an even 80″ gross and nets 77″.
My 2007 AZ Coues Hunt
by Amanda Moors
(originally posted in the forum)
Well, I was fortunate to draw a Unit 27 WT tag again this year. Last year was the first year I hunted that unit. I put in for it because my friend Scott Adams lives out there and knows the unit very well and said he would show me around. Last year we had a great hunt, but I had set a goal of a 100 inch buck or better and only found one that I thought was that big and I couldn’t get him (although we came fairly close). Anyway, after going home last year empty handed, I decided that this year I would definitely take a buck. I wanted a nice one, but wasn’t aiming for any particular score. I figured I would hunt for a big one early in the hunt and if that didn’t work out, I would take a smaller buck later. I love having a freezer full of venison and so I really wanted a buck this year.
I planned to get out to the unit on Thursday evening before the opener, but this year I had spent too much time away from home Sept – Nov and really needed to get things in order before I left. So I didn’t get out of Globe until Saturday afternoon. Scott had to work that day and the next, so I went into a spot alone. I ATV’d into an area and setup a small camp and glassed a little in the evening with no luck.
In the morning I glassed some of the same country and again found no deer, so I decided to go higher up on a big ridge. I didn’t get up there until 8:30 am and it was already really hot. I was sweating buckets and was all scraped up from having to fight through the brush to get to this rocky saddle. But as soon as I put up my glass, I found three bucks moving quickly in the brush about a mile away and 900 feet below me. I looked them over and decided they weren’t big enough to go try and get them. But I took some photos through my scope and after looking at the photos later, I think the largest buck was a pretty nice one. Here are some pics of him.
Photo showing the view from my glassing spot. The bucks were way out there….
I found a few more deer that morning (does and bucks) but nothing exciting. I hiked back down the ridge and up to camp deciding to pack it up and go to Scott’s house to get a shower before going to church with them that night. Monday morning we hiked into an area that looked great and although we were a bit late getting to our glassing spot, I spotted three does right away and soon Scott found two bucks on the next ridge over using his 30 power binoculars. He called me over and said I should really take a look at the largest buck. So I did and I liked what I saw; we planned a stalk. We didn’t have any really good options to get on those bucks though. The slope they were on was steep and brushy and trying to see the bucks if we got on that slope didn’t look like it would work. So we opted to go on the opposite slope, which was not a great option either since it was wide open grass with only a handful of juniper trees on it for cover. We got to the juniper nearest the bucks and decided it was too open to get any closer and too far to get a shot. We had a young man with us who also had a tag and we were hoping to take both bucks. One of Scott’s sons and a friend had stayed back at our original glassing spot to keep track of the bucks for us. It was a windy and cloudy day and the bucks were jumpy and nervous. They would stand and stare uphill of them as if mortally afraid of something. Scott had to work later that day and so he and the boys had to leave, but I would stay and try and go much farther uphill and sneak down what looked like a better line of junipers to get closer to the buck. It was about mid-day and the bucks were still up feeding and being nervous. The hill was very steep and rocky but sneaking down the juniper line was fairly easy even though it was very open and if they bucks looked my way they might catch me in the open. I waited until both bucks were looking uphill before I made my moves. Eventually I got down to a great old juniper tree that put me about 370 yards from the bucks. They were now above me rather than directly across. I got my rifle setup and the big buck turned and came downhill toward me…..perfect! But then something frightened the smaller buck and he ran uphill and the big buck followed him. But they didn’t go far and they were still around 370-390 yards away. I got my rifle steadied with my tripod under the butt of the gun and the front end of the stock on the heavy tree branch. It was rock steady. I was about ready to shoot when I started to worry about the heavy winds and where the bullet would hit. I had a good idea where my bullet would hit elevation-wise based on the distance, but I didn’t really know how to calculate windage and this would be the longest shot I had ever taken. I know when I sighted in my gun there was a light breeze and it seemed to move the bullet a few inches. I figured a stiff wind like this one would move it more than ½ a foot at this distance, but I was just guessing. Plagued with doubt about that wind and not having anybody with me to spot the animal during the shot, I decided this wasn’t the time to try the longest shot I had ever taken on a buck. UGH…… I had the crosshairs on the buck for a long time and was all setup, but I always am greatly worried about wounding a deer and not recovering it. It was early in my hunt and I had planned to backpack into this spot and stay for the next couple days and figured I could find him again and get a better opportunity. The bucks didn’t bed until 2 pm that day! It was a nice cool day but the wind definitely had them on edge. I watched them stand almost tail to tail watching vigilantly for threats for very long periods of time. I assume there must be a lion working this country and that is what they were worried about. The sound from all the wind would definitely make it easier for something to sneak up on those bucks.
a few photos showing the larger buck and his smaller companion:
Well, after deciding to pass on the shot I went higher up the hill to look at other options to get closer to the bucks. There weren’t any good ones and so I hiked back out to the ATV (two hour hike after sunset) and then drove down to my jeep. I was starving, dehydrated and exhausted by the time I got there and really wasn’t looking forward to having to pack up my backpack with all my camping gear and food and go all the way back in there the next morning.
The next morning (Tuesday) I hiked back in there but I wasn’t feeling good after the first hour of hiking and so I stopped to glass some of the lower country before climbing the big hill across from where I thought the bucks would be. I didn’t see any deer (except for a mule deer buck on the way in). It was about 9:30 am by the time I made it up the big hill and the sun was blazing! I glassed the ridge for the bucks and found nothing for a long time. Eventually I found a doe feeding around 11 am. I watched her for awhile until she apparently bedded in some thick junipers. I packed up my gear and headed over the top of this hill to look at some other areas. I found nothing over there and eventually came back to glass the ridge again. Around 1 pm I glassed up a bedded deer within about 30 yards of where I had last seen that doe. I figured it was the same doe so I didn’t think much of it. But then I noticed three deer (two does and a fawn) come out of the same junipers I had seen that doe go into a couple hours earlier. Then I realized that the bedded deer was probably a new deer and perhaps the buck. The longer I watched the bedded deer the more I thought I could see antlers. Eventually he turned in such a way that I was now sure it was a buck and in fact the same buck I had my crosshairs on yesterday. Alright! Well, I watched the buck hoping he would get up and then I could figure out which direction he might move in the afternoon and plan a stalk. Suddenly, around 3:15 pm, all the deer jumped up and scattered. Something had spooked them and they ran in all directions, but not very far. The big buck stopped in the open and stood perfectly still wondering why the other deer ran. After several minutes all deer seemed to decide nothing was wrong and they all drifted back and the buck bedded right back down under the same juniper. Darn! I thought he was going to stay up and feed. Well, I watched the buck for the rest of the afternoon and he never got back up. So I hiked back down and to a tank to fill my water bottles before getting back to my camp under a juniper tree.
That night, I dreamt that my buck was a four point on his right antler. I hadn’t seen that on this buck yet, but I hoped my dream would come true.
In the morning I climbed that same big hill again (it takes about an hour since it is very steep and rocky) and started glassing just as the sun came up. I found deer right away and it turned out to be the same two bucks, two does and a fawn. I was elated to have found the buck again, but then I realized there really was no good way to get in on him. They were on the very top of the ridge and I wouldn’t be able to see them if I got over there due to the thick cover. If someone had been with me, they could have kept track of the deer for me while I stalked in. But with no good options, I watched the bucks fight a little bit and hoped the deer would move to a more vulnerable spot. Around mid-day I saw the does start moving downhill just enough that I thought I might be able to get on the ridge across from them and be able to see them. I watched the little buck follow them and figured the big buck would too. So I packed up my gear and headed over there and got set-up so that I would have a 300 yard or less shot. It was about 2 pm and I hoped that I hadn’t spooked the deer during my walk over there. The grass was waist high and made loud crunching noises when I walked. I searched under the junipers hoping to find the bedded buck. I couldn’t see any deer. Had they gone over the ridge? Had I spooked them coming in? No way to know, so I just waited. Someone in the CouesWhitetail.com forum (was it Shortpants?) had a saying that was something like “coues deer are always where you last saw them”. That quote stayed in my head while I waited without really knowing if they were still there. It was hot and the sun was beating down on me. The light wind was in my favor. Eventually around 3 pm, I saw some does moving and feeding in the mountain mahogany. I was eager to see the buck. If the buck presented himself in any of the openings in the brush, I would have him. I waited. From having watched him the last couple days I knew he didn’t tend to get up in the afternoon until after 4:15, but I hoped for earlier today. I watched the does with my rifle set-up and ready for a shot. But, no luck, the buck never showed and so I hiked back out and was glad to rest my legs back at camp. I was frustrated at not being able to get this buck yet, but I had called Scott earlier in the day and he had the next few days off. He would backpack in (after working all night long) during the pre-dawn hours and hunt with me that day. Originally we had planned to backpack in a different area during his days off, and so I had only brought two days food with me thinking I would hike back out on Wed evening. But plans changed and Scott graciously said he would pack in extra food for me when he came in. I told him I had been on starvation rations and with all the hard hiking over the last few days I was really hungry and needing energy…so, please, BRING LOTS OF FOOD!
Thursday morning we got up to my regular glassing spot and I told him where I had last seen the bucks and where they had been traveling on the last few days. The wind was cold and blowing hard! There was a large, dark storm front coming in from the south. I was very glad for the cloud cover since I thought it would keep the bucks up and moving longer. I also hoped it wouldn’t dump rain on us since I didn’t have my rain gear with me. When I woke up around 4:30 am that morning, the sky had been clear except for one small wispy cloud. I watched the stars while lying in my sleeping bag wondering if today would be the day I would get the buck. I watched many shooting stars race across the sky. I assume these were part of the regular November Leonid meteor shower. This is one of the times I love best when backpack hunting; the time before dawn when you wake up, open your eyes and see the absolutely amazing amount of stars blanketing the sky. I always feel fortunate to be out there enjoying that. In addition to the stars, I had the pleasure of seeing that odd Comet Holmes. It appears like a fuzzy ball of stars. I had shown it to Scott and his family back at his house days ago and could see it even better while out in the dark skies where I was camped. It’s an unusual comet since it shows no typical tail like others. You can read more about it here: comet holmes info
The wind blew hard and despite being bundled up, I started to get really cold. But soon I spotted a doe near where I had last seen the deer last night. I told Scott that the buck had been with those does the last several days and I figured he would still be there. Shortly after, Scott spots a small buck in a different area. With my 15’s I could see the deer, but no antlers. He had his 30’s out and could see small antlers. We kept scanning around looking for the big buck. Then Scott sees another small buck with the first one. Eventually Scott says “Oh! Big buck!”. And then he sees a second big buck. So now we have four bucks in a bowl not too far south of where the bucks had been the day before. I take a look through his 30’s and like what I see and am thrilled to realize the bucks are in a shootable area! We just have to drop into a canyon and go up a steep ridge and then we would be across from them and hopefully close enough for a shot. We pack up and start out after them. It’s a very steep and rocky and it takes probably 40 minutes or more to get over onto the ridge. We sneak up to a juniper tree and relocate the bucks about 370 yards away. We can only see one buck and it’s a really nice, perfectly symmetrical typical. Heavy beams and long tines. This is a new buck we hadn’t seen before in here and I like him! I want to close the distance a little and so we move to another juniper. Crunch, crunch, crunch. It’s impossible to walk quietly here and every movement seems too loud. But the bucks aren’t spooked and we make it to the closer juniper. I hear a strange noise. Coyotes? It takes awhile, but then we figure out that it is the sound of lion dogs howling on the trail of a lion. We can’t tell where it’s coming from, but some of the baying sounded like it was close. The deer can hear the dogs also and they start to get nervous. Suddenly I spot a deer above the big typical and ask Scott to check it out with his 30’s. He says it’s the one with the forked third tine and it’s a great buck. He says it’s as heavy as the big typical and has 5 points on his right and 3 on his left beam! I know it’s the one I have been watching for days, but I hadn’t known it had that 4th point on his right side! Sweet. The buck is broadside in an opening 370 yards away. There is a slight wind, but in our favor. I have my bipod out and am trying to get a tripod setup under the stock of the gun. It’s uneven ground and I am having a really hard time getting it right so I can angle the gun up toward the buck. Scott says “you better not wait much longer!”. Of course I know this, but can’t get the gun setup right! Argh!!! The tripod starts falling over, I catch it before it makes a sound. The buck seems to be looking right at me! The buck moves across the opening and under a juniper tree. I fear I lost my chance since he may decide to bed behind that tree and I won’t be able to see him. I keep trying to get the gun setup right and then look up and can’t find the deer. Scott gets me back on them, but the buck doesn’t have any vitals showing. While he is behind the tree I finally decide I have to move and get to more level ground. I only move a short way, but it’s just enough and now I am setup steady and ready when the buck steps out the other side of the juniper. He comes out. I hear Scott say “ok, now just stop” and the buck does. BAM!! I take the shot and although I can’t tell I hit him, Scott has the 30’s on him and says “you nailed him, he is dead on his feet!!”. He says he saw the hole open up on the side of the deer’s chest and a shock wave go through his pelt. The buck goes maybe 10 yards and falls down behind a juniper tree. Scott can see him the whole time. ALRIGHT! WE GOT HIM! A 5×3 plus eyeguards! I keep saying “are you sure he is down? Are you sure?” And Scott assures me he can see him laying there.
My shooting setup:
We pack up our gear and head over there. It’s a beautiful buck and it was a perfect shot. The 130 grain Hornady SST bullet devastated that buck. This is the first time I have used that particular bullet and the neighbor I hand load with had told me it was amazing how much shock it puts into the animal. I was really impressed. In the past I had been real happy with Hornady spire points for my trusty Winchester .270. They always did a fine job, but this SST bullet is truly a step-up. It was a quick, efficient kill. That buck went maybe 30 feet before falling over.
The buck where we found him:
We boned out the buck and hiked back out. Poor Scott had just packed in a TON of food and his camping gear that morning so we could stay several days. Now we had to pack it all back out, but we were happy anyway! Scott is a regular mountain goat. He can hike really rough, steep country with lots of weight on his back. That’s one tough hombre and I was so glad I had him with me to pack that buck out. I definitely would have had to make at least two trips to get that buck and all my camping gear out there if I had been alone. He carried the majority of the meat and the head and cape. THANK YOU SCOTT! You are a great huntin’ buddy! The hike out was about 3 miles and over 1400 feet in elevation change. I shot that buck around 10 am and we didn’t back to the ATV’s until almost dark! We had a little light rain and hail while boning out the buck and packing out, but it was actually very enjoyable weather since the cloud cover kept it much cooler. On the way back Scott started singing, “I like my Coues bucks a little on the trashy side” Check out the “trash” on this nice buck!
Can’t decide which photo I like best, so I am posting a bunch!
This buck had some neat coloration on the bottom of all four legs. In this photo I am holding out a foreleg so you can see the piebald pattern.
Oh and this photo shows Scott with my buck and also shows where I camped, which just happened to be right above an old indian cliff dwelling. How cool is that?
First Coues Buck, First Day Success
by Scott Gorczyca
(originally posted in the forum)
I had just found out that I drew a coues tag for southern Arizona on the November hunt. It had been 3 long years since I had hunted the great state of AZ, since I had to moved to California. It felt great knowing I’d be back in my “old stomping grounds” hunting deer. I had planned on hunting the entire hunt with aspirations for a big coues in my crosshairs. Plans soon changed when I recently became a principle of a new real estate company just a month before the hunt. I now had to attend a 4 days R.E. conference in Phx, and fit hunting in the trip. So, making the best of the great new opportunity, I called my soon to be brother in law and asked him if he was down for a road trip. He gladly accepted, as it would be the first deer hunt he will be on. Jared was certainly a trooper. Hanging out for 4 days while I’m in conference learning everything under the sun, all the while I keep dreaming of harvesting my first Coues buck.
I had hunted Coues deer before with my good friend Allen Taylor and his son Travis. Allen got me hooked on Coues from the first hunt. I had always been a muley guy; still am too. But it was sure a lot of fun glassing up the little gray ghosts and trying to get in on them. I had learned this particular unit hunting w/ Allen. So I felt fairly confident I could get a buck. But with just a day to make it happen before I had to return to California, the odds were stacked against me. It had been 3 years since I’ve been to my hunting area and reports from some friends on www.coueswhitetail.com weren’t the best. It was DRY and HOT! This wasn’t going to be a picnic, not that hunting Coues deer ever is.
We left the conference Wednesday at noon and hauled truck towards the boarder. We arrived and set up camp around 3pm. WE decided to drive around and scout things out while we had a little day light. An hour or so of glassing resulted in nothing. We headed back to camp and roasted hotdogs over a tiny camp fire.
We woke up early Thursday am. I got to my spot right on time and set up to glass. About 8am I was getting discouraged. I hadn’t glassed up even one doe and it was already getting very warm. As I sat there scratching my head, I noticed a white flash out of the corner of my eye. I swung my 15x Swarovski’s and saw 3 illegal’s running through the bushes trying to get in the shade before it got too hot. As I sat there watching them make beds out of dry grass and I was thinking that I needed another plan. Those guys were going to be there all day.
Driving back to camp I was thinking of back up plans 2 and 3. I had a couple other areas I wanted to check out. My bro in law and I went to another spot and go out and started glassing a bedding area. I immediately picked out a herd of javelina and told Jared where they were. AS I sat there watching these pigs get ready to bed down, Jared asked, “Is that a deer?” “Where”, I asked? He told me where he was looking and I got the big 15’s on that spot. AS I starred into the binos…I could barely make out what appeared to be a deer. We decided to get a closer look. We hiked about 500 yards closer and I could make out a deer. Then he turned his head….I saw his 4×4 rack clear as day under that mesquite tree. He was a mature buck, for sure. We decided to back out and get in EARLY the next morning, opening day.
We spent the rest of the day driving around talking, laughing and just enjoying the beautiful southwest desert of AZ. We even got to shoot a couple of jackrabbits. Great practice for tomorrow’s hunt.
We woke up at 3:30am. We wanted to be the first hunters in the mountains. We got to our spot about 30 mins before sunrise after a grueling 2 mile hike in. AS the sun began to rise, we were seeing deer. A few does and spikes at first. But as the morning slowly woke up, so did the action. After the shooting started, the deer were running all over the place. But we had a problem. They were too far away for me to make a shot. 600 yards at a running deer isn’t a shot to me. We had to get closer. We grabbed our gear and run up the nest ridge. Right when we got on top, another herd of does come running through. WE settled down on a great vantage point and could see almost 360 degrees around us. Just as we get settled a couple of other hunters decide to perch themselves on top of the highest rocks they could find. Needless to say, for the hours that they were there, we didn’t see any deer. Around 10am the hunters left. WE were in for the entire day. This was the only day I had and we were making the most of it.
Come 10:30 another herd comes though. One mature buck is in the group along with a couple smaller bucks and some does. I get on a point and wait for them to come out of the drainage they went into. 5 minutes, nothing. 10 minutes, nothing. Where did they go, I thought? Just when I was about to turn around I see one of the bucks running towards us. Something spooked him out of that drainage, and as he came closer and closer, I notice he’s slowing down. By now I have my Lazzeroni Firebird shouldered and on a rock rest and have him in my scope. I watchn him for a few seconds and he finally stops. I let the big dog bark! DOWN goes bucky! A perfect 201 yard shot. I had just tagged my first Coues buck. After the high fives and hugs w/ Jared we began the work part of the hunt. The buck was a 2 ½ year old with 3×2 rack. We gutted and boned the deer out on the mountain and hiked another 2 miles back to the truck. As we were driving out we happened by the G&F officer. He was very pleasant and said that the hunting had been very difficult with it being unseasonably hot for this time of year. I was the only hunter he had come across opening morning who had harvest a buck. I felt very fortunate to have been blessed with the opportunity to not only harvest my first Coues buck, but to do it with the odds against me. But the best part of the trip was sharing it with my future brother in law who’s not only family, but a friend.
My First Coues
by Daniel Townsend
It all started when I didn’t get drawn for a deer tag once again this year. I saw that there were leftover tags in my area. I knew if this area hadn’t drawn out during the draw it was a hard hunt. I was skeptical to get a leftover tag in this area after getting topographical maps of the area but decided “A bad day of hunting is better than a great day at work”! I decided to take my chances and get a tag.
As opening day approached I needed to get back injections two days before to relieve pain from my dead discs in my back from a motocross crash 6 years prior. I was still a bit sore from the shots but that wasn’t stopping me from getting out in the outdoors.
I put in for my time off and headed South. I spent a day scouting before the hunt and only saw two does and many coyotes. I also ran across very fresh Lion tracks leading in and out of a water hole. After finding the Lion tracks I knew I was between a rock and hard place finding any number of deer. I was surprised I had seen the doe and fawn a few hours before. After Scouting for a few hours I made camp and set up my tent. It was a beautiful evening until about 11pm. I was all by myself and nobody was around for about 20 miles from what I’m guessing. I usually pick the hardest places to hunt knowing there are usually animals and no people around.
I was in my tent sleeping and I started to hear yipping and howling. I could hear coyotes all around me. I usually have a camp fire and that usually frightens them off all night but in this case I didn’t want to light a fire do to the 3 feet tall dry as a bone grass I was camping in. I knew if I lit a fire I would have a grass fire on my hands so I decided to pass on the fire. After a while of howling and yipping they quit. I went back to sleep only to awake an hour later with a coyote scratching on my tent and one in the back of my truck going into my cooler. In all the years of hunting I had never seen coyotes do this.
I unzipped my tent and started yelling. After I started yelling I had coyotes running everywhere. They never came back to my knowledge but I did find coyote crap in the bed of my truck and on my trailer where I had pitched my tent. I wouldn’t have believed it if it didn’t happen to me!! After a sleepless night I awoke at 5:45 and started packing up my quad.
It only took a couple mins and I was off. As I started down a road I had noticed a zip lock bag. It was my bacon and hot dog zip lock bag I had in my cooler. Those darn dogs made off with my food!!! I picked up the zip lock bag and kept driving down the road. As I crested a small hill I noticed the same doe and fawn I had seen the day before. They were bedded in the same area I had seen them feeding. I looked for 5 mins or so to see if they had any gentleman deer with them but they were all alone. I drove another half mile and looked up. There they were!
6 very nice bucks. One was extremely big and that is the one I was going to try for. I got my gun out and took a look to see if I could take the shot knowing it was at least a 300 yard shot. It didn’t take long to make up my mind or not as I watched the huge buck bound over the ridge. Darn! Then one by one they started going over. I knew I only had one shot and as I took aim and pulled the trigger. My gun Is sighted in for 300 yards and I hit about 10 feet below him. He jumped in the air and started to bound over the hill. I was so depressed I couldn’t believe I had missed. I realized the deer was much farther away than first thought. I was guessing about 400 to 450 yards after I shot. I was debating going after them or start looking for more deer down the road knowing they were going to run for miles after the shot.
Low and behold I looked up and the buck I had shot at came back and was looking at me on top of the ridge. I drew my gun again as he started to turn and put the cross hairs 2 inches over his back and pulled the trigger once again. There was no doubt this time. I heard the wallop.
The deer reared up and fell over backwards down the hill. As I made my trip up the hill I took many breaks from my back being sore from the shots. It was so hard to stop because I was so excited to see the buck but I just couldn’t go fast like the old days. As I approached the deer I was in shock to see how beautiful these desert deer are. This is was my first Coues Whitetail and was quit surprised to see how little they really are. I hooked onto the deer with my pull strap and the deer led me down the hill. I was packed up and home by noon on opening day. You can’t ask for anything better than that. I’ve attached a few pictures for your enjoyment.
One other note: I believe they need to put a bounty out on the Lions to increase the AZ deer population. Just my opinion.
Thanks for reading,
Dan
2007 New Mexico Backpack Coues Deer Hunt
by Greg Lewis
It all began about 4 years ago when I started putting in for this unit in south western New Mexico. I hunted it twice previous to this year and I had always had bad weather. I was supposed to hunt it with my friend, JR Lynch, who ended up having shoulder surgery and wouldn’t be able to backpack in the 5 miles necessary to get to our spot. So I went alone.
The sign as I was driving in said, “Watch out for drug smugglers and illegal immigration”. I had my satellite phone with me in case I got in trouble out there in the back woods away from everybody. So I took my satellite phone and my pack, which weighed about 70 lbs, packed in and set up camp. Thanks to my Kifaru backpack and the Kifaru 11oz shelter – it handled the weight well.
I set up camp Friday about midday. Friday Evening, I glassed up about 15-16 Coues deer and about 5-6 of those were bucks, probably an 80-90 inch buck. I saw one buck that was probably around 100 inches right before dark and was excited to start on opening day, Saturday.
So, Saturday, the 28th of October, I wake up before dark, make my oatmeal, and get to where I want to start glassing at before the sun comes up. I immediately start glassing up deer. Again, I found 12-15 deer in the morning, with 5-6 of those being 80-90 inch bucks. My goal is to be able to videotape the kill shot; and a couple of these bucks I could have shot, but I wanted to hold out for a bigger deer.
I hiked back to camp and made my “Mountain House” freeze dried lunch. I took my collapsible 2 ½ gallon water container, and hiked in to where there was some water. I purified the water, filled up my container, hiked back to camp and got ready for the evening hunt. The wind started blowing about this time, and I didn’t see any bucks in the evening and only about 10 does. The wind blew all during the night.
I woke up Sunday morning and the wind had stopped blowing right before light. I was excited to see what would happen, but again, I saw only about 10 does and one little spike buck. I was getting scared because the first year I hunted the unit, on the day before the season we saw three or four 100 inch coues deer. Then the first day of the season we had high winds and saw almost no deer. The next day it rained all day with the same 40-50 mph winds, and the last day of the season it snowed on us- so we had to pack out in the snow. By this time I was pretty scared of what might happen, so I decided that I would shoot the next decent buck I saw. I was done with the morning hunt, and I was going to see if there was some water in the bottom of a drainage, when I saw there were two bucks and a doe coming towards me. I ended up making a running 100 yard shot on one of the bucks with my muzzleloader. I was using the Knight Muzzleloader and the Power Belt platinum bullets did their job again!
I was about two miles from camp so I took my pictures, boned him out, packed him in my pack and hiked back to camp. I made lunch, packed up camp and put my pack together. It was now over 100 lbs. and was still holding up well to all the weight as I was packing it back. I had stopped on my way in before the hunt and filled up the ice chest with ice and there was still a lot of ice left in there. I put all the meat, the cape and the head on ice and loaded up the truck to drive home. I saw no one else when I was back in there hunting; the first time I saw people was when I got back to my truck and started driving out.
I’d like to thank all my friends and family for all their support. I thank God for the strength and the health to backpack alone into the wild, and the team of Hunt Scout Pro Staff.
My 2006-07 hunting season
by Greg Lewis
Don’t pinch me I want to keep dreaming. No wait it’s real. The 2006 2007 hunting season was under way and I was on my way to Colorado to chase mule deer with my muzzleloader. I also had a muzzleloader Coues deer tag for New Mexico, archery elk tag in New Mexico, Kansas rifle tag for whitetail, and a tag for another try at a monster Coues tag in old Mexico.
Five of us would be hunting a new ranch in Mexico this year. It turns out that our new ranch was fifteen minutes from where I hunt mule deer and had harvested a 32″ Muley a few years ago. Three of us made a weekend “scouting” trip in December. We hoped to get the lay of the land and if lady luck was smiling a shot at a monster Coues deer.
December found us glassing the desert floor. It was still hot and we were disappointed in the lack of deer and the size of deer that we saw. I went a whole day without seeing a deer. When we purchased the tags we were told that we would have to hunt hard but should hold out for a buck over 110. In our past hunting trips to Mexico we had hunted the oak and grass mountains were it was common to see 40 to 100 deer a day with a third of them being bucks. Needless to say we were very frustrated with our scouting trip.
We returned in mid January to try it again with the rut in full swing. Brent and Jason shot 100 and 105″ deer. I made a long shot on a great gold metal SCI Coues deer. His official SCI score is 108 7/8.
Greg’s rifle Coues buck scores 108 7/8 SCI.
A great hunting season had come to an end, right? Except I have this problem. I promised my neighbor, best friend, and hunting partner Jr Lynch that I would return to Mexico with him as his schedule wouldn’t allow him to hunt this trip with us. I had previously scheduled to attend my daughters soccer tournament in Las Vegas with her the same weekend we were to start hunting. We compromised which left me driving five hours Sunday night, after my daughter won the championship game in her tournament, from Las Vegas to my home in Phoenix. I had left my truck in the garage ready to leave to Mexico. When I arrived home at 10:30 that night Jr and Jayson had stuff loaded in my truck. We dropped my daughter off at her moms. Jayson then drove us to the border while I got three hours of sleep. I drove from the border to the ranch in Mexico.
We drove straight to the base of the mountain, put on our camo and went up the mountain as fast as we could as it was already getting light. We glassed for about two hours but saw very few deer. We then took a siesta to read the inside of our eyelids. I awoke to the heat of the mid day sun and started glassing and what a site it was, Christmas in the desert!! There were deer running everywhere. Jr and Jayson woke up very quickly. Next., I found a buck that I told them that one of them had to kill if he came closer than 600 yards and that if he didn’t I would go back to the truck and try to stalk him when he bedded with my Knight muzzleloader. The big buck never came closer than 900 yards.
I hiked back to the truck to get my muzzleloader and some food for everyone as we hadn’t eaten since the evening before. After giving them some food I hiked off the mountain towards the deer. The plan was for me to sit at a water hole down wind from where he bedded and when he got up they would talk me into him.
About 3:00 in the afternoon deer, all bucks, started to come for water. The desert floor was so thick that Jr and Jayson couldn’t see the deer moving to and from the water. All of a sudden the big boy came in for a drink. I had a great rest and the knight muzzleloader made an easy 90 yard one shot kill. I was shooting the new power belt platinum bullets which I recovered, perfectly, mushroomed in the skin of the off side shoulder.
After the 60 day drying period my buck officially scores 114 5/8 SCI making him the new number two typical Coues with a muzzle loader. His score non-typical with long hunter will make him the number two non-typical in their book. Thanks to God and all of my friends, family, and the Hunt Scout Pro Staff.
This photo shows the elk, mule deer, eastern whitetail and the two Coues bucks he got during the 06-07 hunting season. Wow! What a season!
Perseverance
by Gino Wulkotte
I am posting this to pat my hunting buddy, Jason Scarbrough, on the back. He has been hunting archery Coues Deer with me for 6 years now. He and I and our sons spend countless hours scouting and preparing ourselves for January archery hunting each year. Jason has managed to harvest two nice 90+/- class bucks in the previous couple of seasons, amid countless freezing cold & “deerless” days. This year was not too much different than most years…… it started out REALLY slow for Jason. Days and days of NO DEER…. while we all saw deer he saw none. He suffered many days of what we refer to as the “Scarbrough Curse”……LOL! I finally broke down…… “Jason, it is time to head back to the ‘Honey Hole’.” I said…… He grinned and his reply….”You know I ain’t Scared!” One year ago Jason harvested a monster fork with eyeguards in the now famous ‘Honey Hole’ (5 coues bucks have come home with us from this spot). Click here to see a photo of Jason’s buck from last year. His first day back…. Jason is forced to pass up another 90″+ Fork with eyeguards! He passed him up 3 times in 2 days! He passed up several lesser bucks and watched as many as a dozen does & countless fawns pass him each day. I tell him that we should get him out of there and hunt somewhere else, but he insists on “One more day”.
We got to our hunting spots late that day…. bad wind. About an hour after I had settled into the silence…..my phone rings……and it is Jason. I don’t answer my phone when hunting, but he never calls me unless it is time to get out of the woods or something just died! …. “I just stuck a Monster!” he says….. I hit the ground running!! It took me about 45 minutes to reach him and we started on the blood trail…. 120 yds later…. we stood admiring what six long years of effort and patients pays out. A true trophy… 109″+ green! Over 20″ beams and 17 2/8″ of spread. This buck should make the top 20 P & Y !
We all here the stories of “beginners luck” and of “dumb luck”, and good for those guys! Myself and Jason are not those guys…. we have to do it, the long and hard way. Last year was my day in the sun and this year is his! I have been waiting for this for 6 years….. to pat my Buddy on the back for a buck of a lifetime! And to many more my Brother!!!
My First Coues Hunt
by Andrew Dement
Hi, my name is Andrew Dement and I would like to share the photos and story of my January Coues hunt in New Mexico. My brother and I started scouting in July of 2006 in which we had also drawn a elk tag in the same unit, we had been scouting in an area that has been known for a few herds of elk but not many.
One day during the elk hunt we had came back to this area for the afternoon hunt to try to find a good bull that had been seen in the area by a friend of ours. This is when we stumbled upon this area covered with Coues deer. Because of this elk hunt we had not even paid attention in the earlier months about these deer; we had seen a few doe and some young bucks but we noticed fast about how calm and unpressured these deer were, then and there we told ourselves this area deserved some more scouting. So after the elk hunt we put all of our focus on this archery Coues hunt in January.
We scouted this area and found some nice places to hang stands. We found two great saddles that funneled down into a perfect squeeze point this place needed to be watched for activity. so my brother and I stayed in that area for quite some time watching the deer movement. Two weeks before the hunt we went back up to see the if there was any rutting action going on.
NOTHING!. It looked like the rut was happening later this year so hunting this squeeze point sounded like the way to go until the rut started getting heavier. We hung stands that weekend and stayed out until opening day.
The night before the hunt neither of us were able to sleep because of our excitement that was going to be a great hunt! 4 a.m. rolled around and the alarm clocks rang. Up we got, cooked some breakfast, and made sure we had all of our gear and out we headed. We got in our stands kind of late do to the fact we never calculated the time it took us to walk to the stands.
Finally we clipped our harnesses on and started climbing, as soon as I reached the top and climbed into my stand I heard a crunch, my brother whispered “don’t move”. I was bent over unclipping myself when this happened so I was stuck in a funky position. It ended up being a little spike. I turned around and got situated in. No more activity until about ten thirty while we had been having a bite to eat when I glanced up and this buck was making his way down the trail. I put my stuff away and grabbed my bow and my brother grabbed the video camera; this was it he was a shooter. I was telling myself all you have to do is squeeze it off. I drew, he stepped out into my shooting lane and I stopped him and let her fly, making a perfect shot. He ran 20 yards and piled up. I was so excited to see that deer I could not wait to get out of the tree. We waited 20 minutes and got out.
Man he was a beautiful buck! We took pictures and dressed him out and got him back to the truck. Oh my gosh, I could not believe it! I killed a buck with in the first three hours of my first coues deer hunt!! I got the buck green scored at 83 2/8 gross and netted 81 7/8, not too bad for my first coues buck. I’d like to thank first of all my brother for hunting with me (by the way my brother killed a coues 5 days later) my fiance’ for putting up with my obsession and Don Guber for all the answers he gave me and let me pick his brain about hunting these beautiful creatures.
Devon Hoss gets another nice buck!
by Devon Hoss
I was drawn this year (2006) and went with my son the day after Christmas; work prevented me from going earlier. It was warm that day and we didn’t see and bucks the first night or the next morning. A few small buck and does that day. The second night the wind blew like crazy and it rained. Sometime during the night it turned to snow we woke up to wet snow, low visibility and more wind. We sat out that day and waited for the weather to clear. The next morning conditions seemed great, snow covering the ground, partly cloudy and 30 deg. We thought the deer would be moving a lot after laying low the day before. But we were not seeing any deer. I sat for 3 hrs and glassed with my tripod mounted 20×60 bino’s. Finally at 10:00 I saw my first deer a couple of does that had been bedded under some oaks that were over a mile away. During the next 30 minutes I counted 8 does all getting up from beds under the oaks. The 9th deer was a buck that was way out there and seamed to have a fairly tall rack but that was all I could make out. I tried to get my son to see it though the binos but he was unable. After I got good land marks we moved forward to the next ridge 300 yards closer I set up the bino’s and told my son to stay under the Cedar tree and keep looking in the bino’s and he would be able to see the buck that was now bedded in some grass below an oak. I crossed three more ridges and walked up on a small group of javelina at about 20 yards. I waited until they feed in a direction away from the deer so when I moved they would run the opposite way. After I got to the top of the last ridge I found him bedded and ranged him at 230 yards but he was bedded behind a rock and all I could see was his head and a few inches of his neck. I backed off and climbed higher to try and get a better angle. The snow was making a lot of noise as I worked up and when I peaked over the last rock he was standing up and looking in my direction. I had a rock a few yards in front of me and quickly got a rest on it and shot him. When I got to the buck I called my son, he said he had seen the deer drop and then a few seconds later heard the shot, and he was freezing from sitting in the snow in the shade. I GPS’ed the distance from where I had original spotted the buck 1.4 miles! I told my son to have a snack an wait in the sun while I dragged the deer to him. I was glad he was there to help by taking my rifle as well as carrying the tri pod and huge binos when I got back to where he was as it was still a long ways from the truck. It was not near the rack of my first Coues two years earlier but to me hunting Coues is all about sitting, glassing, and making a good stalk and shot. To have the snow and my son with me made it even more memorable. To top it all of I was able to pack up that night after a long drag out to the truck, about 3 miles, and leave early the next day to make it home for a neighbors wedding. Casey was 9 years old when we moved in to our house and was now marrying one of the youth leaders at our church it was great to be able to see that!
My Dec. 30 2006 Archery Coues Buck
by Josh Epperson
Hello all, thought you’d enjoy a quick short story and some pictures of my latest hunt.
My buddy Andy Knowlton and I got into our stands on Friday morning with about 6-8″ of fresh snow on the ground. It was a gorgeous morning to be in the woods and it was extremely quite which made it perfect for hunting. Andy at 150 yards away in his stand, around 8:30, called in a small spike to about 5 yards of the base of his tree with The Can, which is a doe bleat call. Shortly after that I saw a small doe, maybe even a fawn walk across the slope in front of me at about 70 yards. around 1PM the snow started to melt out of the tree tops and made for a noisy and wet experience so we decided to call it a day.
Next morning we woke to a bright sky and COLD temps for sure. We got to our stands earlier that morning and sat in the cold darkness for about a half hour before it started to get light. We waited with high hopes for something to happen and at 8:20 I had a lone doe come from behind me and pass by at 28 yards, loop around and walk away up the slope in front of me to my right. About a half hour later the same doe came walking back off the slope. I called Andy on the radio and told him what was going on. I had no sooner told Andy that I’d better grab my bow incase a buck was following her when here he came. He slowly followed the same path in the snow that she had gone and I knew he’d pass by at just over 30 yards through a shooting lane. He lightly grunted as he approached the opening in the trees and I was at full draw waiting for him. I shot as he walked thru and he jumped and ran about 20 yards then stopped. I knew I’d hit him but wasn’t sure where and knocked another arrow. He stopped at what I thought was around 40-45 yards and I shot at him again. This time the arrow went right under his belly. Knocked another arrow and took my time and shot again under his belly! Finally I put my 50 yard pin on him and hit him in the spine and put him to the ground. I got down from my treestand and snuck up to about 25 yards and shot my last arrow and hit him in the spine again! What a loser I am, guess I was just way to excited! This time I found myself out of arrows so I walked a few steps to where I had shot the first time and there was my arrow stuck in the snow. It was fine so I knocked it and finished the buck off with a double lung shot finally. My archery skills weren’t as good as I’d planned it but when you’re excited and nervous I guess that can happen sometimes. Anyway I hope you all can view the pictures and I’ve included one of the same buck visiting a salt lick back in October.
Once Upon a Time…
by Danny Howard (aka Coueselk)
Once upon a time, a dad and his daughter happen to draw the same late whitetail hunt. The dad tells everyone that he will get his daughter a monster of a coues this time. But not just any coues, the 13 year old wants a 4 pointer. Not a big 2 point or large 3 point, but a 4 point. So the story begins……
Numerous scout trips to find that 4 point. Just found these couple of lazy boys under some trees.
Opening morning December 15th, girl in school, so dad and his friend out hunting together. Find this boy way in the distance. Was a 3×3 that we estimated around 90-95″. Decided to let him pass, since opening morning.
Later that day find these fellas up feeding. Let these boys go as well.
December 16th, out with the kids. Small bucks in the morning and nothing in the afternoon.
December 17th, out with the kids for a real quick morning hunt. Daughter thinks she would like the big 3×3(lost focus on a 4 point), so we look for him. Find him at 8:00am, scraping trees like crazy. 9:00am, stalked to within 348 yards, he is still making scrapes. But as luck would have it, the young boy couldn’t keep still. Buck spots movement and sneaks away. We decide to leave and not push any further.
December 18th, kids back in school, dad and friend head out to a different area. Day was uneventful, lots of does and no bucks.
December 19th, Kids still in school, dad and friend hit new area. Storm moving in with lots and lots of wind. Find this young fella, but nothing else.
December 20th, kids still in school. Dad goes to morning school program and gets late start. Afternoon arrives and finds a small 2×2 chasing does. 4:30pm, bored, tries to setup to take a picture of the 2×2. While setting up spotting scope, notices 2×2 displaying an irregular head movement. After a closer examination through the spotting scope, notices a large set of forks moving through the trees. A big buck emerges. Throwing all thoughts of his daughter needing a big buck away. He attempts a shot at the buck before light runs out. Misses, buck runs into a ravine and doesn’t come out. Dad attempts to find buck in the thick trees, but only finds a bear emerging from where the buck ran into. Time runs out.
December 21st, kids still in school. Dad goes to look for big buck again, still greedy for himself. See’s another small 2×2 chasing does, see’s two bucks way off in the distance, but looses them in deep cover before can put spotting scope on them. Finds a couple more 2×2’s and 1×2’s. Then finds this fella late in the day.
December 22nd, Kids on the hunt again, but Dad doesn’t take them to where big buck is. So, nothing but does did this day give us.
December 23rd, Dad and kids on the hunt. Same as day before, does and does.
December 24th and 25th, no hunting allowed or get into big trouble.
December 26th, Dad takes quick morning hunt by himself to look for big buck again, greediness just can’t be overcome. Still no big buck, finds a small 3×3 chasing does, but big buck doesn’t ever come out.
December 27th and 28th, no hunting allowed, family in town from out-of-state.
December 29th, late start after breakfast, dad goes to try to find big buck one more time, still filled with tons of greediness. Arrives at location and starts glassing. Finds a deer below him, but can’t see a head. Thinks it is a doe, but decides to put spotting scope on it. Stares for a few minutes and see’s a distinctive fork that he had seen a week and a half earlier. Determined not to miss this time, gets a really good solid rest, ranges the buck at 350 yards, puts the crosshairs on it and squeezes the trigger. Buck runs 50 yards and expires. Dad is happy for himself, but now sad at the greediness in not bringing the kids along and allowing the daughter to make an attempt.
December 30th, kids on the hunt. Really windy and cold this morning, go to area to find the big 3 point that snuck out on us earlier in hunt. Locate does and more does. Really, really windy. Kids want to go back to truck because they are really cold. Call friend on radio to let him know we are leaving. He tells of small buck across from us. We locate and daughter says yes to trying to get it. (Cold sunk in and she wanted to get it over with) We get to within 40 yards of buck, but no shot. Wind swirling really bad and buck runs off. Rest of day, small forky off of road(now that warmed up, doesn’t want a small one) have to pass.
Last Day, finally take kids to where big buck was, before greedy Dad shot it. Cousin goes with us. Locate a monster 2×2 in the morning. Watch buck for almost two hours, but buck wouldn’t bed. Finally had to come to reality that the buck was truly too far away for the youth to go after.
Around noon, locate the fella that took pictures of on the 21st. Just a 100 yards from where he was at on the 21st. Sneak down to with-in 208 yards. Buck is bedded now and don’t have a clear shot. Attempt to grunt to get him to stand up. Nothing. Cousin varmit calls from mountain top. Nothing. Cousin and son rolling half the boulders down off of the mountain top. Nothing. This goes on for an hour and a half. Finally, when we just about to give up. Up he stands. Daughter is shaking like crazy and says, quote “Dad, he is soo biggg”. Dad tells her not to look at the head, but concentrate on the body. Tells her to put the crosshairs on the shoulder and shoot whenever she was ready. She shoots. The .22-250 Nosler Partition drops the buck in his tracks. We hear screaming from the mountain top, she is jumping up and down because she got it with one shot. (Last few years have been a couple of shots.)
She is extremely happy, it’s not the 4 point, but it is her biggest 3×3. She now has 4 coues bucks under her belt in as many years. Someday when the Dad isn’t as greedy with the big ones, she may get her shot.
My first Coues Buck!
by Jori Canizales
The day had finally come: the children are in a safe place with my mother-in-law, the dog has food and water, my husband, father-in-law and I are packed and ready to go. This was my first hunt and not only that but for Coues deer. With the help of my husband, who has been hunting since he first learned how to walk, he made sure that I had everything I needed. From Danner Pronghorn boots, camos, thermals, to a custom made 22-250 rifle. I was ready for what ever terrain, weather, or buck I was to come across.
Opening Morning: We (my husband Gabe, my father-in-law Richard, my Uncle Joe, my Uncle Bill, and Mario our family friend) were up at 4:00 a.m., a cup of coffee, dressed and ready to go. This was the first morning that I had been up so early ready for a day. I was so excited. Our family friend Mario took us to a location where he had spotted a couple of good bucks a few days earlier (the rest of the crew followed behind). We pulled down off a main road, parked, gathered all our gear and hiked about 2 miles in. We stopped hiking where we thought would be a good place to start glassing before sunrise. We were all settled in our spots. As the sun began to rise the sight was awesome. We had ridges all around us, a wash down at the base of the ridge, and mesquite trees scattered through out the area. It looked like Coues country. We began to glass the ridges. Mario spotted movement on the ridge in front of us. It was two does. The ridge was about ¾ of a mile away from us and for those of you who have hunted Coues deer they are hard to see unless they are moving. All of sudden he spotted two bucks running down the ridge towards us. We could tell that they were both good bucks. Once they reached the bottom of the ridge they disappeared down in the wash with the mesquites. We continued glassing. It was great that we were seeing activity. About a half an hour later to the right of us, below in the flat, my husband spotted the buck again. I saw him with my naked eye. I grabbed my rifle, threw myself on the ground, set up my bi-pod, tucked my rifle into my shoulder and had nothing but cross hairs in my view. As I was lying on the ground I could feel my pulse through my belly button, I was very nervous. Before I could get a clean shot, he disappeared again into the mesquites. It was such a “rush!” By this time the sun was up. The weather was beautiful; winds calm, sky was clear, and warm. We continued glassing….and glassing…..and glassing. It seemed as though all of a sudden all the action we were seeing suddenly just stopped and we were seeing nothing. It was the perfect time for a snack…..break time! We were unaware that there were horse stables back behind us with people going on horseback trail rides. I thought for sure our day of hunting turned into a day of watching horseback riders. We talked about going to the top of the ridge in front of us, or going to a different area because we were concerned that all the deer would get spooked and we didn’t want to waste a day. We decided to stay and wait it out. We glassed on and off all day. I was starting to get discouraged because it was now around 4:00 p.m. and we hadn’t seen anything since early that morning. I decided to rest my eyes. As I laid there resting my eyes I just asked the good Lord above that if it’s meant for me to take a buck today bring him out in the wide open. About an hour later my Uncle Joe glassed up the most beautiful buck. He was to the right of us up on the ridge. As I looked through the binos he looked like a three point. He was munching off of a mesquite tree. I had told my husband that I wouldn’t consider anything smaller than a three point. If I’m going to hunt, “Size Does Matter!” My husband, my Uncle Joe and I grabbed our gear and started on our way. My father-in-law Richard, my Uncle Bill, and Mario stayed behind glassing. My Uncle Bill had a deer tag as well but because this was my first hunt he decided to let me go on the first stalk. We were treading through some rough terrain; sticker bushes taller than me. It was a blast but boy was it was loud. We tried to avoid thick areas to keep quite but at times there was no way around it. I was worried that the buck was going to get spooked, but we kept going. We were at the base of the ridge at the last spot where we had glassed him up. My husband and my Uncle Joe pulled out their binos and began to glass…..they spotted a buck. I sat down and my husband gave me landmarks where the buck was standing. I tucked the rifle into my shoulder with nothing but cross hairs in my sight. I began scoping for the landmarks seen with my naked eye. I could hear my heart pumping out of my chest. I was nervous. “I got him!” I whispered. “He’s only a two-point!” He wasn’t the big buck we had seen earlier that morning. I moved my scope just a hair to the left and there walking up the ridge was the big boy. By this time not only was I going to have a heart attack but my eye was twitching like crazy. I followed him with my scope as he continued up the ridge. I was getting scared. He was close to the top and I didn’t want him to go over….just then he turned to the left, broad side, behind a mesquite tree. He continued walking slightly up the ridge, my husband made a buck grunt and he stopped…..there he stood broad side….what a perfect stance. I took a couple deep breaths to calm my nerves, as I squeezed the trigger the shot went off and I lost view of the buck in my scope. Before I could ask if I had hit the buck, my husband was jumping up and down saying “You got him…he’s down!” A perfect 250 yard shot dead in his tracks!
I couldn’t have asked for a better first hunt. I know this experience will be hard to top, but I am looking forward to many more years of hunting with my family and friends. I would like to take time to thank again a few people who helped make this awesome hunt possible: My father-in-law Richard Canizales, my mother-in-law Julia Canizales, my Uncle Joe Canizales, my Uncle Bill Canizales, our family friend Mario Carbajal and most of all to my loving husband, Gabe Canizales.
The “High Rack” buck
by Phil Cramer
This hunt actually started in March of 2005 when my father first took me into a new area to see what I thought of the country. I instantly fell in love with the area and knew that it would produce some quality bucks, so my dad and I made plans that had us spending all of our free time scouting and hunting starting that August. On one of my many trips I spotted a very nice high racked buck that I though might be a 90-95 inch class buck. I drew a Nov. rifle tag for the area and during that hunt I spotted the high-racked buck once again and figured him to be at least 95 and probably closer to 100 inches. I could not go after him where he was on that occasion but later in the season I hunted him hard and ended up blowing a stalk that sent him high tailing it out of the country not to be seen again the rest of the year.
During the December/January archery season a very good friend got me started on trail cameras by loaning me some of his and teaching me how to use them. I passed up a lot of bucks with my bow waiting for the buck that I had messed up on by not being patient during the rifle hunt but he never showed up. Dreams of the next season set in and the scouting began with me putting the cameras out and making the almost 8 hour round trip every other weekend. Over time I got pictures of a lot of deer and some good bucks, but not the high-racked buck. Finally in Late August and again in early September I found him in the same basin as he was in the year before.
After endless trips of checking the trail cameras and glassing the hillsides the November rifle hunt crept up on me. My father and one of our hunting partners set up camp the weekend before season and we all met up on the Thursday before the opener. The three of us hunted hard for the first couple of days with very little seen all though my dad did jump a very good buck but wasn’t able to get a shot off. On Sunday two of our other hunting partners came into camp to share the joy and agony of chasing the grey ghost with us. That evening I headed out to the basin and I spotted the high-racked buck. I watched him in his bed until the sun was lost behind the mountains but was unable to make a stalk so I walked back to the quad and headed for camp. Once back in camp I found out one of our party would be leaving due to family obligations so that would leave Jim, Keith, Dad, and myself to pursue “High Rack”.
Daylight found us set up and scouring the hillsides with the best optics money can buy (thanks to Jim and Keith) but we could not find the buck.
I saw a flash of a deer where the buck was the day before and I felt confident that it would be High Rack so a stalk was planned. Keith and I made several attempts to close the distance but with other deer in the area and the wind direction we had to back out every time so we eased off of the ridge and headed back down to where Jim and Dad were set up watching our antics. After comparing notes, collectively we had only seen two small bucks all day so we packed up our gear and headed to the trucks. By the time we got there the sun was down and we were able to glass back to where the small bucks had been earlier in the day and it didn’t take long for Jim and Keith to find them. Looking through my binos I noticed another deer feeding a little ways away from the two bucks and immediately recognized it as the buck we had been looking for; it didn’t take long for the light to turn into darkness but not before everyone got to see High Rack and quickly field judge him in the 100-110 inch range. It was a long sleepless night that finally ended and Jim and I were soon climbing the ridge that Keith and I had been on the day before. Dad and Keith took the trucks back to where they were the previous day to set up and try and locate the buck once again. Jim and I got to the top just as the day began to break and the wind began to howl. After getting set up and a quick radio check with the guys down below we started picking the hillside apart directly across from us in hopes of finding the buck where he had been when we left him. To my surprise I quickly spotted High Rack and shouted/whispered to Jim his location. He was standing right on the edge of some very thick cover so I wasted no time in getting a solid rest for the 300 ultra mag short action and ranged him at 404 yards. As soon as Jim said he had him firmly in his binos I squeezed the trigger and the buck dropped. After a quick hug I started across the canyon with Jim staying put to walk me in to the downed buck. Keith made his way up to me to help with the pack down and handle the pictures and Dad worked the quad as close as he could.
I am very pleased with “High Rack” and he ended up scoring 109 5/8″ gross. Not only was this hunt a success for getting this buck but it was a success for having my father and two very good friends with me and all being together, not to mention I couldn’t have done it without their help; thanks guys! I also have to thank my wife and daughters for allowing me to spend so much time in the field.
This photo shows where the buck was and where Phil shot from.
Casey gets his 4th Coues buck in 2006
by Casey Charter
When the draw results for the 2006 fall big game draw came out, I was pleased to see a November 36B tag had found my name. Alright! I get to go deer hunting I thought to myself. Over the past years since I signed up at CouesWhitetail.com my love for these beautiful deer has grown immensely! I have learned a lot from CouesWhitetail.com and have met a lot of new friends. Now, back to the hunt.
The summer was spent hiking, jogging, preparing gear and discussing the plan for the hunt with my dad Mick, who also drew a tag with me. I spent many days reloading and testing loads for my 270 WSM and my dads 7 RUM with a good friend of mine named Doug. He and I spent many mornings at the range testing and retesting hand loads. I settled on a load that shot .184 at its best and will produce less than half inch all day. Dad’s rifle did not fail to produce either, shooting less than three-quarter of an inch routinely. Now the rifles were taken care of, no excuses to miss this year!
I had an opportunity to take a guiding job for the early hunt and of course, I jumped on it! This three day hunt was great for me! It got my heart pounding and added fuel to the fire that I have to hunt these grey ghosts! With great anticipation, I counted the hours until my hunt would begin!
Go figure, when I made the three and a half hour, 230 mile trip down from Flagstaff, I could feel myself getting sick! Sure enough, when opening morning came around I felt like… well, you know. It was a struggle to wake up to the day that I had waited for for months! When I came to realize I was going to hunt deer, I was up, dressed, quad warmed up and breakfast down in world record time! Dad and I started the day off with going to the place where I killed my first deer. There we saw a few does but nothing else. We then took a ride down the road, hiked in a little bit and started glassing. I glassed up a couple of does feeding in the bottom and realized I had left the range finder at the quads. I got up to go get it and when I was 15 yards from my dad he had bucks! Three of them and he thought they all were 80”+!! To say I was excited and the blood was pumping is an understatement. I hauled but back to the quads and when I got back we planned a stalk. I made a loop to a red rock face and when I was there, I got my rifle set up; the bush ranged and started glassing for the bucks. The bush was 308 yards away, so I adjusted my turrets in case of a shot. Right off the bat I had one looking at me. He was a tall fork, not a bad buck but not what I was looking for knowing he was with other bucks, I let him walk and did not see the other bucks.
The next morning dad and I went to the same place early and started glassing the same area. After an hour or more of glassing, we had the same fork with one of the big boys and man was he nice! He had to be 95”!!! Again, there goes the heart!! Well, it didn’t work out and a stalk was not possible because of where they were. The rest of the week went by with out much activity, no nice buck’s just small forks and spikes.
Sunday, being the last day I had to pull out all the stops! A friend of mine, Brian came out with me knowing anything with antlers was getting lead flung at it. After an eventful ride in where I had to buy about 8 gallons of gas for $35 from a camp, we were at our hunting spot! Brian and I started by walking north and glassed from there. Nothing. We then hiked a little bit to the east, within 5 minutes Brian had a deer. He zeroed me and my Zeiss 15×60’s on the area and I had the deer. I was watching this deer when another deer walked into my field of view. I got him on the spot and we both agreed that it was a buck. We could not put antlers on the deer because of the rising sun being in our face, but could tell the way it was acting that it was a buck. We agreed that IT was on… away we went. The buck was at least three- quarters of a mile away and we knew he wasn’t going anywhere so we took our time. On our hike over there, we kicked up a spike at 35 yards. We then saw the spike on the other side of the hill at 246 yards I set up for a shot but he topped over. We got a little confused on which hill was our target hill and almost walked onto the wrong one. When we both agreed we were on the correct hillside, Brian set his backpack down and told me to top over where I could set up. I picked a perfect position and when we topped over I set up my Harris bipod and my backpack and just laid down looking for the deer. It took Brian about 30 seconds to find the deer and confirm it was a buck! He ranged the buck at 280 yards and told me where he was. I adjusted the turrets on my Zeiss scope and was on the buck. We had to wait for him to feed out of some ocotillos for about 15 minutes. During those 15 minutes, Brian decided it would be a good idea to mess with me. “He’s huge! He has to be at least 100. I think he has some kickers and cheaters. Man he’s awesome” (like I needed any help getting the blood and adrenaline flowing.) When he stepped out, I told Brian I was going to shoot. I moved the safety on my custom 270 WSM, did the breathing exercise and began to squeeze the 2.5 pound trigger. When the trigger broke, the rifle barked and the bullet slapped meet. The first words out of Brian’s mouth were “Guess what?” My response was immediate, seeing the buck go belly up in my scope “I rolled him! I freaking rolled him!!!” I put another shell in and watched for about 30 seconds just to make sure. We then did the normal high fives, jumping up and down and some more high fives! To say we both were excited is correct. We gathered our stuff and went over to find my buck. Well, our landmarks were a little bit off and we had a tough time finding the buck, I was getting a little nervous and began doubting the shot. Brian went back to where I shot from and directed me to the buck (about 80 yards left of where we were looking). There he was! The turrets did not let me down as the bullet hit EXACTLY where I aimed. A high shoulder shot dropping him where he stood! After the pictures and field work, our hike out was on. It was 1.3 miles back to the truck said the GPS. On the way out, we heard a shot right below us. When we got back to the truck, the hunter that took the shot stopped by and said he missed a very nice buck that we had kicked out. We talked for a while and then loaded up the buck and went home. It was a good day as this was my fourth buck in a row! I would like to thank Doug, who has spent a lot of time teaching me how to reload, and spent many mornings with me at the range. My dad, for hunting with me and getting me into hunt, and Brian for being there with me to shoot my buck!
My Wife’s 1st Coues Deer, November 2006
by David Reyna
There is something that I look forward to every year and that’s when the hunt draw results come out for my family and I. When the results came out, I was in South Africa calling my wife during the middle of the night wondering what we drew. She gave me the news; our 13 year old son got his 1st choice (in my favorite unit), we got our 2nd choice in an OK unit. After getting our family deer hunts in order on the calendar, I decided to schedule one of my work trips to Chile in between my son’s October hunt and our November hunt. I had a friend that was hunting in the same unit as ours in October so I wasn’t really worried about scouting. I knew he would do a good job on finding mature bucks. I concentrated on scouting during the whole month of October for my son’s October hunt, in which he shot a good buck despite his broken wrist. All I could think about during my trip and especially during the 9-1/2 hours flight from Chile to Dallas was looking thru my Swarovski’s and looking for a mature Coues deer buck.
Being jetlagged from the 4 hour time difference, I woke up with no problems at 3:00 am ready to head south to our unit. My wife, Venisa, wasn’t too picky with the size of deer but she wanted at least a 3×3 buck, which is the family rule. After an uneventful morning looking at does, spikes and forks, my wife and I glassed two bedded bucks up at 11:30 am from 612 yards. Since these bucks were bedded in high grass, we really didn’t know how special one of these bucks was in antler configuration. My wife wanted to close the distance to 300 yards but we had to get ready since they were now up and headed away from us. I had to find a place that my wife could lay prone to make the shot. Since the grass was tall where we laid, she had to shoot from the sitting position off her tripod. After a few minutes of looking thru the scope (and me telling her not to shoot the smaller buck), the bigger buck stepped out. My wife held her gun on top of her Jim White tripod head and took this buck at 384 yards with her .270 Win with Leupold 4.5 x14 B/C scope. What an incredible sight it was seeing this buck thru my Swarovski 15’s fall on the spot. What a look on my wife’s face when I told her it was down for good. The last thing she or I wanted was to wound an animal and let it suffer. We both could not stop from shaking in excitement. We hurried up the hill to see the buck. Oh my “LOOK” I shouted! – My wife and I never realized or looked close enough that the buck had another point coming off the bottom of his antler. What a beautiful 1st Coues deer she took on our first morning of hunting together.
My Dad’s November AZ Coues Deer Hunt
by Martin Guerena
My dad is 63 years old and has been a diabetic for over 30 years. He has had several surgeries on his eyes and his feet throughout the years, so I want to begin this story by thanking God for giving us the opportunity to still be able to go hunting with each other. My dad has been hunting for over 50 years now and he still amazes me with ability to shoot.
My dad was fortunate enough to draw an early whitetail tag in one of our favorite units. Opening weekend, he had the chance to hunt with my younger brother who also had a tag and didn’t see anything that they wanted to shoot. I had my hunt in another unit, at the same time so I was unable to go with them. I got my deer on the 4th day of the hunt and immediately headed north to my hometown to help my dad on his hunt. My younger brother had to return to school during the week, so he could not hunt with us.
My dad had plans to do some work in the morning and I sure needed the rest of sleeping in, so we decided to do an evening hunt the next day. My dad was unsure of where to go because of all of the people that they had been seeing out in the field. I told him not to worry, that we should just go where we always find deer and not let that affect anything. My intuition was right, that next afternoon we spotted 8 deer and one was a nice 2×3, about 80-85 inches. Because of my dad’s physical condition, it was hard for him to see the deer so he decided to try to close the distance and get a shot at this buck. He did manage to get to 400 yards, but the buck sensed something was wrong and stared face forward at my dad and never moved for over an hour. With the light fading and the poor shot presentation the deer offered him, my dad made the wise choice to back out and come back in the morning to look for him.
The next morning we started walking into our glassing spot and we jumped 2 bucks right underneath us on the same hill we were on, they ran up the hill we had seen the buck on the day before. One was a nice 3 pt, bigger than the buck we had seen the day before. We just held tight and watched, as 2 more bucks join them. The buck we had seen the day before was not with them. We lucked out though, because there was a bigger one with them. Once they got to the bigger mountain in front of us they quickly settled down and started feeding. I ranged them at 450 yards and told my dad we just needed to get a little bit closer and he could get a good shot. We got to 375 yards and I had my dad lie down in the prone position and he used his backpack over a dead century plant stock for a rest. I told him the biggest one was in front and when he was ready to go ahead and shoot. As soon as I said that, my dad shot and the buck lunged forward and then fell to the ground. You Got Him!!! I told my dad, what an awesome shot. I was so happy for him. I sat there and waited as my dad walked up to his deer. My dad called me on the radio and said he was down and that he was a nice one.
I quickly packed up my gear and headed over to see the deer. I was so happy for my dad; he shot a great buck. We took a bunch of pictures and then I carried the deer back to the truck and we headed home. My dad gave me a big hug and told me that he had shot his first deer on that hill about 50 years ago. I will never forget that day and I just want to thank God for allowing my dad to still be able to do what he can do and enjoy the great outdoors with me. When we got home I scored my dad’s buck at 90 2/8 inches.
My 2006 November AZ Coues Deer Hunt
by Martin Guerena
My hunt started in my head, long before opening day even came around. I received a phone call from my buddy Dave Reyna who just kept telling me how lucky I was to have the November hunt. He had just gotten home from his sons October hunt in the same unit I had. He told me his son had missed the biggest buck he had ever seen. I know Dave has a 114 B&C buck on the wall at home, so I knew what he had seen must have been huge. His son had an unfortunate accident and broke his wrist prior to the hunt, so it was tough for him to shoot. He did however harvest a nice 80-class buck later during the hunt. My hat goes off to him for making the most of his hunting opportunity.
After Dave filled me in with the details of his sons hunt, we were immediately making plans for my hunt. I had to work opening weekend and his wife had a tag in another unit, so we weren’t going to get together until the 4th day of the hunt. On the third day of the hunt, Dave called me with some great news. His wife had harvested a 100-inch double main beam buck. With that news, I was even more excited for my hunt.
My day finally came when we could go out. Dave picked me up at my house at 4:00 AM and we were on our way. We had about a half hour quad ride to our hiking spot. We hiked about 2 miles all up hill in the dark before we got to our glassing point. About an hour after sun up, I spotted two small bucks working their way across the mountain. I later spotted a doe coming out of the flat below us. I was getting anxious and wanted to glass another hill behind the one we were on because all of that country looked so good, when Dave told me that the big bucks they had seen hadn’t started moving until about 8-9 AM. Just a few minutes after Dave told me that, he spotted a small buck that was working his way onto our side of the mountain from the top. We continued glassing for about another hour when Dave spotted a nice buck. He said he was probably one I was going to want to shoot. Dave knew that I wanted a 100-inch buck or better so I knew he was looking at a nice one. The buck went behind some oaks and I couldn’t see him, so the wait was on.
Ten minutes later Dave had him in his binoculars again and told me he was a monster. I quickly got the buck in my binoculars and saw how nice he was. It didn’t take me long to decide I wanted to take the buck. He was 550 yards away and just feeding. Dave was shaking with excitement and kept telling me how long the buck’s tines were. I got the buck in my spotting scope and got a better look of just how big he was. I quickly grabbed my rifle and headed down the hill to try to close the distance. I got within 350 yards and sat down with my bipod on the ground and couldn’t see the buck over the ridge line in front of me. I saw a huge boulder next to me so I climbed up on it and laid down in the prone position for the shot. I was 335 yards away and could only see the bucks neck and front shoulder.
For the first time in a long time, I had buck fever. I was shaking and was trying to hold my crosshairs steady on the buck’s front shoulder. I tried to calm myself and held my breath for the shot. I shot and still saw the buck standing there; damn! I had to calm myself down even more. I said a little prayer in my head to ask God to help me make the shot. The second shot hit its mark and the buck dropped in his tracks. I heard Dave on the radio say, “You got him bro!” Man was I happy to hear those words. I walked up to my buck and was very surprised; there was no ground shrinkage at all.
After we took a ton of pictures and got done admiring our trophy, we cut the buck in half to make our pack out much easier. We were both carrying heavy packs to begin with and had a 2 mile hike back to the quads. When I returned home, I had my buck unofficially scored at 110 6/8 B&C points.
I want to thank God for giving me this great opportunity and I also want to express my great thanks and appreciation to Dave for all of his help on this hunt. I owe you one buddy!
Martin (on left) and his very generous friend, Dave, pose with this awesome buck. Check out all the green on the base of his antlers. Looks like he was rubbing hard on some trees.
Greg Verlander gets his 2nd Coues in 2006 and it’s a nice one!
by Greg Verlander
(if you want to read about Greg’s first buck from 2005, click here)
Knock on wood! Again I got lucky and drew my 2nd choice Arizona Coues White tail tag. Two years in a row, December last year and November this year. WOW! I asked my buddy Roy Morales if he’d accompany me on my hunt and Thank goodness he said “yes”. I soon began to know him as “Eagle Eye Roy”
After 3 days of Sunup to Sunset hunting and eyeing a few decent bucks, we decided to try and relocate a Big Buck I had blown a stalk on 2 days prior. On our way in to this Primo spot we decided to stop and glass a nice bowl we had glassed a couple of days earlier with no luck. Almost Immediately Roy spotted this Buck approximately 510 yards away. We glassed for a while and decided this buck was a keeper. At that range we planned a stalk to get somewhat closer.
Shortly afterwards we snuck in as close as possible and then Roy picks the Buck up again getting ready to bed down, range now 320 yards. Having hunted mostly Archery for the last 15 years or so I was a little skeptical at this distance but decided to give it a try, especially since we couldn’t get any closer. With a good solid rest and the cross hairs slightly over his vitals, the Bullet flew. To my surprise and excitement Roy yells out “You got him, good shot!”
Now if I told you the rest of the story you probably wouldn’t believe me, it sounds like a real blown up fish story however the pictures tell the final tale. What a great Buck and 2 for 2. I started hunting Coues Deer just a couple of years ago. Two 100-inch bucks in 2 years. I’d say that’s pretty good beginners luck. This buck gross scores 100.3. My last years buck scored 101.3 gross. Needless to say, they are both going to look great on my living room wall. Check out the little devil horns under his eye guards, there are 3 on each side.
Thanks again to Mr. Roy Morales for his help and excitement and also Amanda from Coueswhitetail.com for posting my picture and story on her website.
Greg Verlander with his 2006 buck.
Greg’s friend Roy with Greg’s buck. Thanks for the help Roy!
My First Deer!
by Jaimie Barrick, age 13
After a disappointing opening weekend I wasn’t feeling to excited when my dad came and woke me up at 3:45 A.M. When he told me where we were going, and how long of a hike it was to get there, I really didn’t feel too optimistic. The spot where we were headed was very secluded and not very many people are crazy enough to go in there, but my dad had been in there once before. We got to the trailhead at 5:30, it was still dark and we had to use flashlights to see the trail. About two hours and five miles later we stopped at a pond. Here, we split up. My cousin and my grandpa went up and to the left of the pond and my dad and I went to the right. We were headed towards a big rock. Once we got to this rock, we would sit and glass. We were almost there when my dad remembered a little side canyon where we could stop and take a break, while he looked around a bit. Around 9:30 I heard my dad say, “Buck”. Instantly my adrenaline was pumping and about a million questions flew through my brain. Next thing I knew I was setting up to shoot off of my dad’s tripod. When I finally found the deer through my scope I thought, “Wow this is going to be a really hard shot.” The deer was standing between two trees and a “Y” shaped branch was crossing his body. Right between the “Y” of the branch was his front shoulder. This meant that to make a clean shot I would have to hit between those two branches. After waiting an hour for him to step out or even move I gave up and crawled around to the other side of my dad. Here I had a clearer shot. When I was about to pull the trigger I thought, “Wow, this is really happening.” I pulled the trigger. While I was trying to load another shell into my gun, my dad was saying it was still in the same spot. It hadn’t moved! So, I shot again. This time the deer flinched. When he walked out though, he acted like nothing had happened. He walked down the ridge he was on, stood there, turned around and came right back up and stood behind a tree. All of a sudden he walked out a little bit, opened his mouth, and fell. I was so excited.
While we were waiting to go over there my dad said, “You just took a three hundred yard shot at a big deer with a little .223.” I was thinking, “three hundred yards are you serious, and just how big was it?” After a little pause he said, “Jaimie there were antlers sticking out of everywhere, you just shot a really big buck!” I hopped right up put on my pack and started down the hill. Nobody was going to stop me from seeing my very first deer and apparently my very first big deer. I kept hearing my dad telling me to slow down he’s not packing both of us, out but I just ignored him. Finally, we had reached the spot where I had shot him! I turned around to ask my dad where he had fallen and I had this strange feeling. So, I turned back the other way and almost had a heart-attack. There, lying no more than a foot away from me was the biggest deer I had ever seen. I almost fell over backwards and rolled back down the hill. It was amazing. I had shot a three by four whitetail. My dad kept saying over and over “you’re ruined”. I thought just get the camera out and hurry!
After we had gutted it we started the five mile pack out of there. It was dark when we got back to the truck. I was so tired but I just kept thinking, “Today was great! I shot my first buck at 10:30 in the morning and to top it all off it was BIG!” Unfortunately my cousin was unsuccessful in getting his deer, but his day is coming.
Coosefan’s “Big Easy” buck
by Jim Mullins (aka Coosefan)
Well we are finally home and in the lap of luxury and I can’t shake this constant craving I have for ANY food that wasn’t previously FREEZE DRIED! Neither of us had time to scout this unit, but had prior experience there and we were just going to hunt it as hard as anyone possible could and test our basic knowledge of hunting Coues. We headed down 2 days early and positioned our trucks full of supplies and (Dr. Pepper) on both sides of a big mountain range so that we had two options if we needed to hike out instead of one. We packed our camp in on Thursday AM and set-up camp about 2 1/4 miles from my truck and about 2 miles from Shortpants’ truck. We found out quickly that there are alot more roads in this unit than any map will show, and it really isn’t the best unit to backpack into ’cause of that reason. We had a road about 3/4 mile straight below us and alot of hunters we accessing our spot that way. We glassed up a ton of deer and bucks but not as many as you would think for the amount of ground we were covering every day. We watched hunters walk around bucks and even shoot them from where we were but never found a buck we wanted in the first couple of days. Shorty has killed some huge bucks and had a big bottom line score he was holding out for and I just wanted to kill my first 3×3 in AZ, but still held out for a big buck because of all the effort we were putting into it. My camera was always buried in my pack so I video taped mostly but here are some pics I did get.
Our water was getting low fast and the water sources were right by the trucks so we left camp and headed down to Shorty’s truck instead to fill up…….actually, we could see his truck from our vantage point and the Dr. Pepper in the ice chest was calling to him. About 1/2 mile down, Shorty remembered he forgot his keys and had to hike back up to camp, we stopped and looked back up at camp and there were 4 illegals eating lunch right next to our camp so that was an extra reason to run back up there and scare them off. I climbed a little rise and glassed up a huge 2 point working his way uphill past me. I didn’t want to shoot a 2 point again…..that’s all I seem to get……but this one was heavier and bigger than the one I killed last year! I decided if I could get the camera on him I would take him….well by the time I ran back and got the camera and got it set up, he had just crested the point across from me, so I missed out on the kill and the video. I told Shorty what happened when he returned and I was bummed, but he kept telling me it happened for a reason, and we’ll find that big 3×3.
We decided at the truck that we would move both vehicles to the road below camp which was alot closer and continue to hunt the top of the mountain. We had been hearing alot of shots down in the low country and figured guys were whackin’ a bunch of spikes but as we headed out, we talked to several guys and stopped at a camp that had a 100″ buck and another camp had a 110″ class! Those guys down low were whackin’ TOADS! We then decided we were hunting way too hard and hiked in that night, packed up camp, and packed out in the dark. We planned on packing in to the low country and did it the following morning only to find people with fanny packs hunting what we thought was “remote” country! This is when we packed back out and grabbed the Rhino and threw our loaded backpacks into it and took off! We were hunting too hard and couldn’t win, so we drove the Rhino all the way back around the mt. range and way deep into the farthest place we ( or anyone else ) could go, and camped next to the Rhino! We hunted extremely hard from there and found alot of bucks but few that were shooters. We finally made a stalk on 3 bucks that Shorty had glassed up that took an entire day to do and we never relocated the one that Shorty wanted and made it back to camp several hours after dark.
Finally, sore and tired, we actually took the Rhino and drove to a glassing spot on the evening of the 5th day. Now we really felt like we were hunting the EASY way and hoped it would change our luck. I glassed up a decent 3×4 buck early and several spikes were between us and the buck, but I decided, second to last day, I’m not passing up the chance! Staying light, I left the video camera (bad decision) and Shorty on the point and took off. I made it around the spikes but got charged by a dang pig in the 5 ft. tall grass in the wash! That shook me up pretty bad but the stalk was still on! I belly crawled over the last ridge straight across where the buck had bedded and set up. I could not relocate the buck in the catclaw and scanned down. BAM! There below where my buck was supposed to be were 3 bucks bedded at 230 yrds. under a mesquite chewing their cud with their eyes closed! I pulled out my cell phone to call Shorty to tell him there is a change of plans, but couldn’t get him. I then called my dad, who was at home, and filled him in on what I was doing! There was a small 2 point on the left, a very nice, perfect 85″ 3×3 on the right and a broadside bedded 3×3 in the middle. I could tell the middle buck had a small crabclaw fork on his right but he had a ton of mass and width and height! I figured he would score about the same as the buck on the right and my dad agreed I should take the heavy older buck. I set dad down on a “cowpie” laying next to me, had the rifle dead solid on my tripod and shooting stick set-up, and rolled em’ over, he never got up! Because of technology, my dad got to be with me at that moment and could hear the whole event take place. My initial buck jumped up and ran off with the other 2 bucks and mine laid still 10 seconds after the shot!
I can’t put into words what it felt like to walk up to my buck, he surpassed what I had hoped for and is what I dreamed of taking on this hunt! All the miles of packing around a 65lb camp, all the hours of glassing and all the days of putting up with Shortypants made this my #1 buck to date regardless of score! He is super massive and wide and absolutely beautiful, the pics do not do him justice! We named this buck the “Big Easy”, because of how hard we hunted only to end up in the end on the 5th day, driving the Rhino to our glassing spot, and doing it the easy way! I’ll take em’ however I can get em’ though. I had a blast hunting with Jason and learned alot about his dedication to hunting trophy bucks. He didn’t take a buck on this hunt but I guarantee, outta the 40 or so bucks we saw, he could have! Next year “maybe” I’ll hold out for a bigger buck…….well….we’ll see when that time comes!
Recipe for a Coues’ Deer Hunt
by Scott Higgins
- Insatiable hunting desire (a truck load)
- Beat the drawing odds ( a wheel barrow full)
- Use a muzzleloader 4 days after the regular rifle season has closed ( seasoned to taste)
- Add semi-gentle terrain loaded with cactus and Mesquite ( a life time worth)
- Illusiveness of the species (a mountain)
- Heat in the 90’s (5 gallons)
- 1000 miles of driving to get there (1 cup)
Blend ingredients together and add 1 gallon of Luck . Walk your fanny off until the ingredients are smooth and opportunity smiles on you. Pull the trigger, choke on the smoke, and be confident that your aim was true.
2003 was my first time to hunt in Arizona. After almost 40 yrs. of separation from my brother ( Ron Higgins), we were going to hunt together in January during the archery season for Desert Mulies. This hunt was mainly about the reunion and togetherness with my brother so I didn’t really know what to expect from the area. After 3 days of hunting I had decided that if I had my rifle, the back end of my pick up could have looked like a porcupine with antlers sticking up everywhere from all of the big bucks I had seen. However for me, walking around with a sharp pointy stick in this vastness, trying to poke a deer with it was not my forte. Instead, I was getting poked by every species of Cactus in the area and I was not cunning enough to get close enough for a shot.
I was hooked after seeing the quality of animals in the Desert. I needed to find another way to approach this type of hunting. My brother suggested a possible muzzleloader hunt. You can extend your shooting distance but you still only have one shot. Yep, but I know that I can reload my bow faster than a front stuffer if I needed to. Sounded like an option to consider.
Ron had also told me of another species of deer in the area called “Coues’ Deer”. It is also known as the Grey Ghost and is the smallest species of Whitetail in the U.S. Ah – Ha I thought, two separate species available to hunt at the same time. We were at the transition point where the Desert Mulies and Coues’ Deer overlapped.
We applied for the 2003 muzzleloader hunt and were fortunate to be drawn. Since I had seen the terrain, I felt that a new inline rifle would be more appropriate for this hunt and my ole Hawkins would have to stay home this time. My weapon of choice would be a new Knight Disc Elite in .50 caliber.
The November hunt was exciting. The weather was really warm and windy, yet I was still able to pass up on over 20 bucks trying to find one of those big boys I had seen previously in January. I had read much about the little Coues’ Deer and knew that most of them would only weigh between 80 to 100 lbs. with all of their stuffings in em. Antlers?? Well they too are mostly on the smallish side.
Three days into the hunt, I spotted my first Mulie in it’s bed about 300 yds. across a wide shallow draw. My brother glassed the animal and said “no, it’s a Coues’ buck”. He was correct and I was now looking at my first little Whitetail. Only thing was, his antlers stretched beyond his ear tips and were quite tall for the species. Ron stayed in his glassing position while I made my trek to rendezvous with this miniature deer. At approximately 40 yards, the buck jumped to his feet and slowly lopped through the cactus on his way to the top. Shouldering the gun, and finding the quarry in the scope, I pulled the trigger when the cross hairs centered behind the front shoulders, and all that I heard was a heart breaking “CLICK”. My brother watched the entire episode and questioned me as to why I hadn’t shot. I didn’t have an explanation. I tried to repeat the performance of the gun at camp and it shot flawlessly every time.
Two days later as Ron stood beside me, the gun repeated it’s performance as I pulled the trigger on a 3 point Mulie. I was fit to be tied. I merely raised the bolt and recocked the firing pin again. About 15 minutes later, I squeezed the trigger on a small Mulie and Ron said that it looked like the buck had been struck with a sledge hammer. It never knew what hit him.
My experience in 2003 only fueled my desire to hunt the small ghosts again. When 2005 arrived, Ron and I again applied for a muzzleloader deer tag. Luck smiled on us once again as my Arizona deer tag arrived in the mail. With the arrival of the tag, visions from the past hunts were rekindled in my mind. The night mares of the gun not firing as expected with a trophy in my sights were also quite vivid. That was an experience you don’t want to encounter again I can assure you.
After finding and repairing a small defect in my rifle and shooting in excess of 100 rounds in preparation of the hunt, my confidence was renewed. With high expectations and a shot of adrenalin, I was again leaving my home town of Red Bluff, Calif. and headed to Tucson to meet my brother.
Opening morning found me pouring 120 grs. of Triple 7 powder down the muzzle and sliding a 250gr. Shock Wave bullet on top of the charge. The air was crisp, clean and it felt like a buck hunting morning to me. Ron found a nice Coues’ buck to shoot at but was unsuccessful on this attempt today. After the regular rifle season closing a mere 4 days previous to our hunt, the animals were quite skiddish.
On the 6th day of hunting, I still had the same load in my gun that I had loaded opening morning and we had walked close to 30 miles trying to locate a shootable buck. My brother had put a small Coues’ deer buck to rest this morning and between us, we had now seen a total of 16 bucks. Two things I had found out, #1) I had found a buck pasture, which was on a flat piece of real estate that was fairly choked with Mesquite Trees and probably encompassed 300 acres. Without exception, every time I entered this area, I jumped bucks. #2) These small ghosts were giving me an education. I never did see one that would stop running and look back at me. Usually it was only a glimpse of the antlers, the flag, and the part of a deer that would be the final part to clear a fence.
As evening approached, the buck pasture was all I could think of. Ron was all smiles as his tag was already filled and he was content. I was content too with the idea that I was going to invite him to dog the Mesquite thickets for me. I hoped this would work because tomorrow morning would be my last opportunity to hunt and then it would be the exhausting drive back to Northern Calif. We formulated a flawless hunt plan where I would sit on a jutting point overlooking the Mesquite choked flat. Well, there was a fly in the ointment and a buck ran past me, dodging brush and cactus before I got to my sitting spot. No chance for a shot. The plan wasn’t sooooo flawless after all. Darn, well let’s make another plan. We entered the flat side by side with the breeze in our face. Within seconds after we separated to push the brush, a white flag erupted and vanished directly behind some Mesquite trees from me. Then a second flag. The second flag made a mistake and dashed to his left through a small open path. With his ears laid back, the antlers looked exceptionally wide. He was approximately 70 yds. from me and running almost directly away at lightning speed. There may have been 20 yds. of opening he had to clear before he was safe to run another day. As I shot, the smoke filled the air and I quickly bent down to look around the cloud just in time to see my buck vanish behind a tree. I looked at Ron and shrugged my shoulders. I received his shocked look in return. Everything had happened so fast. As I reloaded, I knew the shot felt good. Upon finding his fleeing tracks, I surveyed the area for blood. The tracks were deep in the desert soil but no blood was found. I continued on the tracks in order to ascertain his direction, while knowing that a wounded animal does not always leave a blood trail. As I rounded the tree in which he had disappeared from me, there he lay. What an animal!! His live weight was 130 lbs., 5 points on each side, with an 18 1/4 inch spread.
After the 60 day drying period, he will go in the Longhunter record book as # 3 typical and would rank as # 2 in the non-typical category. He was also scored by SCI at 114 1/8ths.
Scott with his fine buck.
Scott’s brother Ron Higgins with Scott’s buck.
PIC – Scott with his fine buck.
PIC – Scott’s brother Ron Higgins with Scott’s buck.
Ernesto Cibrian’s first Sonoran Coues and Biggest Buck
by Danny Howard
Wednesday January 11th, I received a call at home from Ernesto. He was not having very good luck finding the Muy Grande. For the previous 3 days, he had only seen two small bucks and a couple of does. The weather was not cooperating, it was extremely hot and was very windy on one of the days. I let him know that I would be at the border crossing on Friday around 2:00pm. He agreed to meet me there and we said our goodbyes.
Friday January 13th, I had caught a really bad cold, but I needed to help my friend out on finding a good buck. I was late in leaving Safford but made good time down to the border, arriving at 2:10pm. Ernesto was there to meet me, along with Mauro, the ranch owner. After some brief greetings and a few stops in the border town for some extra food, we were off to the ranch. Arriving at the ranch, we were greeted by Tony (Ernesto’s brother) and Antonio (Mauros brother). Tony had came down earlier in the day to also help his brother in finding a trophy coues. That evening at the ranch, Ernesto explained to me that he had seen a eightyish inch buck following a doe the previous day and that he had also seen a small buck chasing a doe. Ernesto laid out a plan on where we would glass from on the next morning. We would be glassing from a ridgetop that they had observed a large buck from last year, with hopes of maybe finding that buck again. With my cold kicking into high gear, it would be a long first night for me. I was hoping that it wouldn’t effect my ability to help Ernie find a nice buck.
Saturday January 14th, the day started off at 5:30am. After some quick breakfast we were off. Ernesto took a quad and would be taking it as close to the mountain as he could get it. Tony and I went together in his jeep to the end of a road that would put us fairly close to the end of the mountain that we needed to climb up. We parked the jeep, gathered our gear and started off toward the mountain. The morning was rather warm, felt like an October morning. As Tony and I climbed the ridge, I was having real problems keeping up. My chest was hurting bad from trying to cough and not make a lot of noise. As we reached the ridge top, Tony motioned that he would take up a position a few hundred yards to the South of mine, glassing a little valley that had a water tank. I was to take a position glassing up a large canyon to the North. Ernesto was in a position to the West of me about a 1/4 mile and would be glassing the end of the ridges where they meet the flats.
After setting up, I immediately started glassing the ridges. I thought that this would be a great morning for glassing, especially since there was cloud cover to the East, that would block the sunrise for an extra hour or so. I thought to myself that this might keep the animals up a little longer without the hot sun bearing down. As I worked over trees, rocks and cactus, there was nothing moving. One hour went by, then started into another, still I hadn’t located a single deer. I kept looking deep into the canyon and noticed an area where there was some cattle congregated. This area looked promising for deer, but I was unsure if they would like being near the grazing cattle.
Ernesto finally called on the radio and asked if I had located anything yet. My answer was no, I asked if he had seen any. His answer was no, he then asked Tony and the same answer was received. It was around 8:30am, so we decided to stick to the positions and see if anything would materialize out of the desert. I hadn’t finished talking with Ernesto for more than 5 minutes when I located a deer deep in the canyon. It was above the position of where the cattle had been earlier. After a solid look through my Swaro’s 15X, I could see that it was a buck and a good buck due to the distance from me. I immediately called Ernesto and told him to hurry to my position that I may have found a shooter buck.
As Ernesto was making his way to me, I replaced my Swaro’s with my Zeiss spotting scope on the tripod. Zooming in on the buck, I could see that he had really good height, but wasn’t really wide. He was partially hid behind some ocotillo, so I still didn’t have a clear view of his antlers. After a couple of minutes the buck finally moved into full field of view. I could clearly see that it was a large two by three, not counting the eyeguards. I could also see that it had what looked like fairly decent eyeguards. I decided to try and setup the scope for taking some pictures, since the buck looked fairly content on staying where it was at. It took me a minute or two to get the gear out of my pack and placed on the scope. As I was trying to find the buck in the camera, I couldn’t locate it. I took the camera off and looked through the scope. No buck! He had moved. I looked feverishly to the left, right, up and down. The buck wasn’t anywhere in sight. I thought to myself, “You idiot, never take an eye off of the buck!”
I started working the spotting scope in a pattern around where he was last standing. With the great distance and even with the scope on 60X, I still wasn’t able to see around the brush with great detail. I searched and searched, but could not locate the buck. I started thinking about what to tell Ernesto, “Sorry, but I lost your trophy buck, because I was trying to take his picture.” Around that time, Ernesto showed up, just as he was approaching me. I saw a deer running in the scope. It was a doe. I panned the scope up from where she had ran from and saw the buck. A great relief came over me.
I locked the scope down on the buck and let Ernesto have a look. I told him that it was a good buck, but was only a two by three. Ernesto admired the buck for a few minutes and said “Sure looks good, but only a two by three.” As he stepped back from the scope, he happened to look down the ridge from us, then said “Danny, something running down there!”. I scrambled and grabbed my binos, as he was getting his. I put them up, but couldn’t see anything. Ernesto whispered to me that the only tree below us was obscuring my view. I hopped onto some big rocks, then saw two deer running. I put my binos on them. They were a doe and a fawn. After insuring that nothing else was chasing them, I turned to Ernesto and said that our talking must have scared them out from below us.
We continued viewing the buck in the distance and attempting to judge him. I kept telling Ernesto that the buck looked very tall. Taller than most bucks I have ever seen. We watched the buck get close to the doe, but she would run off if he came in less than twenty yards of her. As the deer moved across the ridge, it looked as if they may have a chance to move closer to us. So we just sat patiently waiting and watching, still trying to put some figures to the antlers. I thought that his eye guards looked around 3″ and the G-2’s looking to be around 7-8″. Ernesto agreed that the G-2’s looked long. But he was still concerned with it just being a two point on one side.
Just when we thought the buck may get closer, the doe changed direction and went into a small canyon that we did not have a good view of the North facing slope. Of course, the buck followed.
By now, it was around 9:30am. We discussed what to do. Sit out the spot for the day and see if we could pick up any other deer or maybe pick up the buck again in the afternoon from our position. Or possibly move to a different location. I was starting to get that achy flu feeling again. I told Ernesto that I think the buck needed a closer look. We discussed where we needed to get to possibly pick up the deer bedded across the large canyon. I told Ernesto that we didn’t need to climb really high for the view. Plus, I didn’t think I would be able to make it. We decided to go together and try to find the buck. Ernesto called his brother to meet us at my position.
Tony arrived a few minutes later. Ernesto told him our plan and off we went. Tony would remain on the mountain top and glass the surrounding areas. As Ernesto and I made our way across the small valley to the ridge on the opposite side from where I had been glassing, I mentioned to him that it was very hot. He agreed. We stopped numerous times to catch some shade behind what trees or cactus we could find for cover. As we started climbing, I was having trouble catching my breath, but the location we were at offered no view. We kept going until we reached a point that I told him would be good to start glassing from.
After an hour or so and not seeing anything, Ernesto told me that he was going to move a 100 yards or so farther along the ridge. I decided to go with him, to try and get a better vantage point. We reached a point that looked to offer a pretty good field of view of two opposite canyons, one of which the buck had disappeared into. There was some cloud cover in the sky now, so the position I took up had no shade. Ernesto continued and setup about 50 yards farther and slightly above my position.
I setup the binos on the tripod and started glassing the canyons. I glassed for around 30 minutes trying to tear apart every bush, where I had last seen the buck. It was around 1:00pm and I was not able to locate anything. The wind had picked up, so I continued glassing areas where the deer might have found cover from the wind. Still nothing. I felt the cold starting to come on strong now. I was feeling really tired. I decided that I had better lay down for awhile and maybe the symptoms might subside for the evening.
At 2:30pm my alarm went off on my watch. I felt worse. I could feel the fever coming on again. I put my jacket on, but was having problems getting warm. It was hot out, but I felt really cold. I tried to glass a little, but was having trouble concentrating. Still really tired, I ate some candy bars from my pack.
It was a little after 3:00pm, when I decided to try and glass a part of a canyon straight across from our positions. I hadn’t moved the binos more than 50 foot across the ridge when I spotted the buck. He was walking below a cliff and feeding. I immediately called to Ernesto that I had found the buck. As Ernesto made his way to my position, I watched the buck. He looked better closeup. He had that distinctive rounded nose, old buck look. When Ernesto had gotten to me, I had swapped the binos for the spotting scope. Ernesto took a look at the buck through the spotting scope. I could see from his expressions, buck fever. It was great watching him get excited. He turned to me and said, “Big buck, really tall big buck.” You could see him physically shaking with excitement. He asked how much I thought it scored. I was estimating it in the 90’s. I told Ernesto that I really wasn’t a good scorer, but I knew a big buck when I saw one. We discussed the buck at length and options. Ernesto decided to take the buck.
Ernesto asked me what the range of the buck was from us. I took out my rangefinder and ranged him at 420 yards. That was too far of a shot for Ernesto, especially with a really strong crosswind. Since the buck seemed to feeding in a general downward pattern and us having a couple of hours of daylight left. We decided to wait and see if he would move closer to us. We watched the buck for about 15 minutes, when he turned and started feeding away.
I told Ernesto that he was going to need to stalk him. Ernesto wanted to get above the buck, but we didn’t have enough time for him to make a stalk above the buck. I told him that his best chance would be from the bottom of the canyon. I estimated a less than two hundred yard shot, if he could get to the bottom. Ernesto agreed and started his way down the ridge.
I kept watching the buck feed. As Ernesto had almost reached the bottom, the buck turned and started feeding back down towards Ernesto. I tried to call on the radio, but had no luck. Then the buck leveled out along the ridge, stopping frequently. I had lost sight of Ernesto and didn’t know his location, to that of the buck. Then Ernesto called, he couldn’t locate the buck. I told him that it had moved 50 yards down and a 100 yards to the right from the last position that he had seen it. About 5 minutes went by, when Ernesto called back. He said, “I’m going to shot him now.”
I jumped behind the spotting scope. I was watching the buck, when I saw fur explode on its shoulder and heard the crack of the rifle. The buck hopped on three legs about 30 yards, then stood there. I thought that maybe Ernesto hit a little low. I watched the buck, when I seen him starting to wobble. Then the buck laid down. I continued watching, when I saw the buck lay its head down to the side. I then realized that Ernesto had made a perfect shot into the shoulder. He had taken his first Sonoran Coues and his biggest buck.
By the time I had reached the bottom of the canyon, Ernesto, joined by his brother Tony, had already brought the buck down to the bottom. We did the congratulations and took some pictures. It was going to be a long haul out and well after dark. But it was all worth being there to see Ernesto smiling from ear to ear with his big buck.
Ernesto displaying his proud trophy. (Nice CouesWhitetail.com hat Ernesto!!)
Left to right, myself, Ernesto and his brother Tony.
Left to right, Ernesto, Mauro, myself, Tony and Antonio.
On the last day we were in Mexico, Tony having a javelina tag, we decided to try a morning hunt for one. Tony was going to walk a small valley and Ernesto and I would climb to the top of a small mountain to glass for some pigs. As Ernesto and I headed for the mountain, we discovered a really nice coues buck with his doe. We watched these deer for an hour or more. This is the buck that Ernesto will be going after next year.
Shane’s 2005 Archery Coues Deer
By W. Shane Church
It all started back in July of 2005, when I found out that I did not draw any big game tags in my home state of Arizona. I also failed to draw any big game tags in a few bordering states either. Well, what was I to do? My friend Scott had been telling me of some nice Coues Whitetail bucks he had been seeing while scouting over the last few months, and since I had no other big game hunts to go on he thought I should pursue these bucks. Scott would not be hunting the area due to the fact that he had drawn a coveted mule deer tag in northern Arizona. Scott and I went up scouting a few times and after learning the area I was convinced to try my luck at bow hunting these very cautious deer. Of course this was one of my only chances at hunting big game for the rest of the year, and I do love to bow hunt so I was all for the challenge.
The first day of the hunt I chose to sit a tree stand and had several Coues does approach close to me but no bucks. I was amazed at how cautious and alert these deer really were and this reconfirmed my opinion on actually how difficult these animals would be to harvest with a bow. The next day was basically the same, a few does came near me and I was intrigued in watching their behavior and realized what a unique deer they were. Even though the weather was very hot, I still enjoyed watching these deer.
I returned in September for the hunt with my friends McKay and Preston. We each had different areas we were going to hunt and we would be spread out over a few mile area. I arrived at my hunting spot and got all set up in my tree stand. My confidence was high because when Scott and I were scouting we realized this location should be good, also another successful bow hunter had informed me of some of the deer he had seen in the area. After a few hours I spotted two bucks working their way towards me. Both bucks were nice three point Coues deer. The larger of the two bucks stayed back at around 50 yards, the other buck came nearer to approximately 37 yards. I was hoping in a few minutes the larger buck would join the smaller buck a little closer to me, but instead the smaller buck left and returned to feed with the larger buck at 50 yards or so.
While having a close encounter with these bucks and still watching these two bucks I noticed a few more bucks approaching. There were two nice bucks and one exceptional buck which stayed back at 60 yards. The two smaller bucks came in and joined the other original two bucks. I looked at the big buck as it was watching cautiously at 60 yards; I knew I had to wait for a chance at this huge buck, even though all the bucks were nice. Finally, after approximately 25 minutes of watching the other deer the big buck started walking closer to me, most likely thinking all was safe since the other deer failed to recognize any danger. As the big buck walked down the hill he walked behind a juniper tree and I drew my bow, as he came out from behind the tree I could see he was heading towards an area that I had ranged earlier at 30 yards.
When the big buck arrived near the area that I had ranged with my rangefinder earlier which was approximately 30 yards I squeezed my release, and my arrow was on its way. I saw the arrow hit behind the front shoulder and right away I said out loud “I can’t believe it, I just shot the biggest Couse deer I had ever seen!” I know it is best to stay quite, but I just could not believe that I had shot this big buck. I approached my buck and was amazed at how majestic and beautiful he really was. After retrieving my buck I loaded it up on my 4-wheeler and headed back towards McKay’s location which was just a few miles away and on the way back to camp.
I arrived at McKay’s hunt area and hiked over towards him, and McKay asked “did you get one?” And I replied “yes” and McKay asked “how big is it?” I replied “pretty big.” We then both headed over towards my buck, as we approached the buck I did not say anything as I wanted to see McKay’s expression. McKay looked at the buck and said, “Are you kidding me! Are you kidding me?” McKay and I headed back to camp, shortly after we arrived we decided to go and inform Preston of our success. We notified Preston and then returned back to camp. Preston (a real Coues deer enthusiast) looked at the buck and said “I can’t believe it you have just harvested my dream buck!”
My buck has been scored, and the paperwork sent off. The unofficial P & Y record book gross score was close to 121″ typical, but due to the unique characteristics and the lack of symmetry the net score plummeted to around 109″. I also had the buck scored in the SCI record book, the unofficial gross score was 120 6/8″ typical, and then they subtract 2% for being in the velvet which puts the SCI score at 118 3/8″. Regardless of the score I think this buck is one of the neatest Coues deer bucks I have ever seen.
What a hunt! In fact, a week after I shot my buck Preston harvested a nice three point buck as well. I was sure glad that Scott was able to spend a few days of the hunt with us and share his hunting knowledge, which was a great asset we really did appreciate his help. My eight year old son Hayden also spent one day of the hunt with us, which was a great time. I would also like to thank my wife for being so understanding, and realizing my need for going up in the hills quite frequently. And of course I would like to thank God for all the blessings and freedoms we have, and one of those being the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors!
Equipment Used:
Bow Mathews (Conquest)
Rangefinder Bushnell
Arrows Carbon Express
Rest Trophy Taker
Sights Montana Blackgold
Broadheads Rocket (Steelhead 100’s)
Release Scott
JUAN FRANCISCO
by Chris Beck
DAY I
The first time I saw Juan Francisco was around lunch time on Friday 11/4, the day before my first New Mexico Coues deer hunt. My long time hunting buddy, Larry, and I had gone down a real rough, rocky road towards a dirt stock tank we wanted to check out. A month before, on one of our scouting trips, we had started down this road but had turned around because it was so rough. We originally thought the road ended at the dirt tank but to our surprise it kept going and actually got better. Just past the dirt stock tank was a canyon I also wanted to check out. I originally noticed this canyon on my topo map and then checked it out on Google Earth. Now was our chance…..
We pulled off the road, grabbed our gear and headed to the edge of the canyon. Within 15 minutes I glassed up a couple of little bucks. One was milling around and the other was bedded. Larry did not have his radio on so I had to hustle over to where he was and tell him I had found a couple of bucks. I knew if we kept watching these little bucks or glassing this canyon we would find a bigger buck.
After watching these little bucks for about 15 minutes, a much bigger buck appeared from his bed and jumped down from a rock face. We knew immediately this buck was much larger than the first two. He had jumped down behind a tree but quickly came out and gave us a full view of his antlers. WOW! He definitely was something special and we were amazed we had found such a buck. We watched him for awhile and decided to put the spotting scope on him. We wanted to get a better look at him and hopefully get some video footage.
Even though he was within 500 yards, it was hard to get a real good, clear, look at him. The wind was blowing pretty hard and getting a steady look through the scope was difficult. It was also pretty warm and there was quite a bit of heat distortion coming up the canyon. All in all, we were able to get a little over 3 minutes of video, with some parts better than others.
Looking at him closer, we could tell he was a solid 4 point on the right side but that his 4th point on the left side was only about an inch long. His main beams tipped up towards the end and we estimated them at 18 inches. We could also tell his eye guards were only about 2 to 3 inches long but we thought his G2s and G3s were about 8 inches each. Larry insisted he had a small point coming off his left G2. Our rough field math was putting him at about 120 inches. HOLY COW!
It was at this point that I began to get a little nervous when I thought about coming back in here the next day and hunting this buck. Larry and I had not discussed it, but it was mutually understood that when the opportunity came, I would be the one going after this buck.
Larry was starting to get hungry and he decided to head back to the truck and make some sandwiches. I was in the middle of switching from my spotting scope back to my binos when Larry left and I had not located the three bucks again before he had taken off. I kept looking but was unable to find them before he returned. I was starting to get a little worried when Larry came back with the food.
We kept looking while we ate and Larry finally located them again in the exact same spot I had originally found them. They had gone down in a little cut, where there was probably some standing water, for a quick drink and had returned to the exact same place they had been before.
It had been a couple of hours and we decided to let the bucks be for the rest of the day. Before we left, Larry came up with a name for the whopper buck we had found. He would be known to us as Juan Francisco.
Two weeks earlier we had found and named a really good buck Jose Mesa because he lived on the top of a mesa. Larry thought Juan went well with Jose but that Juan Mesa didn’t sound right. Juan lived above the San Francisco River, so Juan Francisco it was.
We headed back to the truck and then on to camp. Larry was upset we hadn’t brought a tent and thought we should come back that evening and sleep in the back of the truck. I was able to talk him out of that idea but only by agreeing to get up at 4:00 am the next morning in order to be back up there an hour before light.
By now I was really starting to get nervous. I had a pit in my stomach and was getting a stress headache. All of the “what ifs” started to run through my head. What if someone else was on this buck? What if someone else came into our spot before we got back? What if we couldn’t find him? What if he busted me during a stalk? What if I missed?
Back at camp, I tried to keep busy with chores in order to keep my mind occupied with other things. Unfortunately, it didn’t work very well. Watching the video footage definitely didn’t help matters either. Larry and I agreed to try and find as many other things as possible to talk about. We also agreed any talk of Juan would only be positive in nature.
That evening, instead of heading all the way back up to the canyon where Juan was, Larry and I decided to just go to the gate at the bottom of the hill and watch the road coming down from where he was. We arrived just before sunset and stayed until dark. No one came down the road and we could not see any lights up toward where Juan was.
I decided at this point, the best way to be successful the next day would be to break the hunt up into parts, smaller tasks or goals that would get me to the finish line successfully. I came up with 4 parts that would lead me to the end. They were:
- Be able to hunt the area we had found Juan in without interference from other hunters.
- Find the little bucks that had been with Juan.
- Find Juan.
- Shoot Juan.
Back at camp again, Larry and I made sure we had everything ready for the morning. We would be getting up very, very early and didn’t want to leave anything for the morning that we could take care of tonight. Larry offered a couple Benadryl to help me sleep but 4 ibuprofen were all that were used to help ease the nagging headache. Despite the anxiety and stress, sleep came fairly easily.
DAY II
Larry awoke before the alarm sounded and was confused as to what time it was. He was having difficulty reading his wrist watch and was concerned about the time he thought his watch was indicating versus the time on the alarm clock. The time was verified with my watch and we arose slightly before 4:00 am. All things considered, I slept surprisingly soundly and was anxious for the day to get started.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat, double checking our gear and loading up, we were off.
We arrived at our spot as scheduled, an hour before light with nothing to do but wait. Fortunately, no one joined us in the area. Task one was completed and I was 25% of the way there.
A short walk to the edge of the canyon put us across from where we had seen Juan the day before. I had accidentally left my tripod in the truck and had to make a quick trip back for it. Larry and I got setup on a rock out cropping we found the day before. This spot gave us the best view of the side of the canyon across from us.
It took about 30 minutes to find the little bucks we had seen with Juan the day before. They were around the side of the canyon and up a little cut from where they had been the day before. Juan was not with them. We decided we would alternate watching the little bucks and glassing the rest of the canyon in order to locate Juan as quickly as possible. We knew he was in here somewhere. It would just be a matter of time before we found him. Task two was completed and I was 50% of the way there.
As soon as the sun began to shine on the side of the cut where the little bucks were, they were on the move. They headed down to the bottom of the cut and across the side of the canyon to the area they had bedded at the day before. Still there was no Juan. We continued to glass for 3 hours. Where was he? Had he moved out? How long was it going to take to find him (hours or days)?
Larry was the first to clear a spot to lay down for a quick nap and I soon did the same. The bushes around us were blocking what little wind there was and the morning sun felt good on my back as I laid on the ground for a quick rest.
Within 45 minutes I was up and at it again. Larry soon arose and joined in as well. There was a little cut in the side of the canyon across from us that we could not see because of the contour. Larry suggested we move down the side of the canyon to the left, in order to get a different glassing angle.
It only took about 5 minutes to gather our things and relocate a couple hundred yards down the canyon. What a difference a couple hundred yards can make. Within 15 minutes I found him. I whispered to Larry, “I got him.” He was bedded near the top of the canyon just below a rock face. All I could see was his head, but there was no doubt it was him. I directed Larry to where he was and he quickly found him as well. His range was 595 yards. That was a little too far for my shooting comfort level. Task three had been completed and I was 75% of the way there.
The only thing I could think of right then and there was that I was going to have to watch him and wait. Hopefully he would move closer to us. The day before, he had been between 400 and 450 yards away and I had figured then that I would be faced with a shot of that distance today. Heck, we had even brought a sand bag with us to use as a rest when the time came.
Larry had a different idea though. He told me, “You’re not going to like this.” He suggested I hike down to the bottom of the canyon, angling to the left, and up the other side, angling back to the right. To the left was a little finger that ran to the bottom of the canyon and across from it was another finger that ran up the other side to the right, perfect! About three quarters of the way up the finger on the other side of the canyon was a bench that I could get to and set up for a shot. The wind was blowing from our right, through the canyon and would be crossing me as I hiked down the canyon and in my face as I started up the other side.
This was going to be a steep hike and I wanted to travel as lightly as possible. I grabbed only the essentials, my gun and ammo, range finder, 10X binos, water and radio. As I started off, I stopped, looked right at Larry and told him, “Don’t take your eyes off from him, not even to take a leak.”
Earlier that morning, after I had locked the truck but before I had stashed the keys, I had taken my wedding band off from my key chain and put it back on my finger. Out of fear of loss, I normally leave my wedding band at home when I go hunting but had decided to take it with me on this trip. This morning, I also decided to have it with me for the day. Right before bailing off down the canyon, Larry told me, “You forgot to take your wedding band off.” My response was, “No I didn’t.” He then asked if I had worn it for good luck. I told him no because I didn’t have the time to explain how my wife and daughter are always with me and having my ring with me just symbolized this for me.
Although steep, the hike down was not that bad. There were only a couple of instances where a rock or my footing gave way causing me to slip and slide a little. Going up the other side was a different story. It was steep, but fortunately, for the most part, I was in the shade. I stopped a couple of times to catch my breath but wanted to get up there as quickly as possible. I kept reminding myself I was 75% of the way done. I had heard nothing from Larry on the radio, which was a good thing.
When I got close to what I was estimating my destination to be, I decided to sit down for a good rest. Larry soon called on the radio, asking, “Are you alright?” The answer was yes, I just needed to recover a little from that climb. After cooling down and catching my breath, I snuck the rest of the way up to the bench I wanted to get to. Still, 75% done, lets close this deal!
As I approached the top of the bench, I picked out a boulder I could sneak around and use to break my outline on the ridge top. I snuck around, leaned against the rock and began to look for Juan. As I suspected, the angles on all the landmarks were different from where I originally had been across the canyon.
I had been looking with no success for several minutes when Larry called on the radio. He provided an excellent reference point that I could use to locate Juan. There was a tall clump of buck brush over near the rock face Juan was bedded under. The very top of this buck brush was lit up in the sun. I looked back through my binoculars and quickly found him bedded exactly where he had been when I took off down the canyon over an hour before. His head looked like a big cactus sticking up out of the grass. His range was 320 yards. I looked around and could not find any place close by that would allow a good set up for a shot. I decided to back out and move further up the bench.
As I approached the top of the bench again, I was able to find a juniper tree I could use to mask my approach. The branches on this juniper tree were also high enough to allow me to sit underneath it and be concealed by its shade. I snuck up under the tree, located Juan again and verified his new range – 280 yards. Had I moved that close? I didn’t think I had. I was ranging him through some tree branches and figured I better get a clear path. I snuck down in front of the branches and confirmed the original reading. I knew I was close enough that when the time came I could hold my aim true and not give up the kill zone. My bullet would have less than 7″ of drop from where I was. I began to search for a good spot to get set up for a shot – nothing! Man, I wish I had brought my tripod. I had used my tripod to rest my gun on previous shots and had practiced this method at the range. Juan was still bedded and I decided to back out again and try to find a different spot.
I relocated up the bench to another Juniper tree but it was nowhere near as good a spot as I had just left. Right then, Larry called to let me know Juan had gotten up out of his bed. I quickly moved back down to where I had just been and checked on Juan. He was up and feeding but hadn’t moved far.
Just below me and to the right was a rock I could shoot from. It wasn’t flat but it would have to do. I snuck down behind the rock and double checked the range – 275 yards. I had the bipod legs extended on my rifle and tried at first to get a solid rest using them. No dice. I folded them up. My neoprene rifle sling was too spongy and was not providing a solid rest either. I removed and folded up my hat. I also had a neck warmer I pulled out of my pocket and folded up as well. I put these two things down on the rock and was surprised to find how steady of a rest it was. I was looking into the sun and I sure missed not having my hat on to shade my eyes. I was, however, more than willing to sacrifice shaded eyes for the good rest my hat was providing. I quickly found Juan in the scope. He was pretty much broadside (angling up and away slightly) so I put the cross hairs behind the shoulder and gently pulled the trigger.
Whenever we shoot at an animal we always try to listen for the distinct WHUMP sound a bullet makes when it makes impact with the target. Even when I have made a good shot, I usually have a harder time hearing this sound than Larry does. Despite the ringing in my ears I was pretty sure I had heard a WHUMP. I quickly got my scope back down on target, found Juan and watched as he stumbled backwards a couple of times, fell over and rolled down the side of the canyon a couple of times.
Larry was immediately calling on the radio with “YOU GOT HIM! YOU GOT HIM!” I had closed the deal. I checked my watch – 12:45. I looked up to where Juan was and watched for a couple of minutes. I could not see him or any movement so I figured he was down for good. I called Larry to let him know I was going to hike up to the top of the ridge and circle around above where Juan was. He confirmed Juan was down and I asked him to keep an eye on him until I could get over to where he was. Once I got up on top of the ridge, I looked and could see Juan was down and not going anywhere. I called Larry back up, let him know everything was good and to go ahead and bring the truck over.
It didn’t take long to get down to him and man – WHAT A BUCK. Oddly enough, I was not overly excited. I was little excited but the moment was filled more with awe than exhilaration. He was so much bigger than any of the other Coues deer I had harvested and definitely a lot better than what I had expected out of this hunt. Yesterday had been exciting. The events of today leading up to this point had been exciting. Death is sad. My hunt being over was sad. This buck though was AWESOME! I took a moment to thank my Heavenly Father for this opportunity, for being able to take one of his fine creatures and for all of the many blessings in my life.
Using the good old handy and reliable “finger ruler” method I estimated a rough score of his antlers to be 113″ (I have discovered over the past few years that my boot works very well at estimating inside spread measurement). There was a little ground shrinkage but he was still an incredible deer. Larry and I had over estimated his G2s by about 3″ each which brought him down from the 120″ guess we had made the day before (if I had known that I probably would have let him go – NOT).
Larry came down from where he had parked the truck and was still pretty excited. We took about 50 pictures using 3 different cameras. I cleaned him out and we hauled him up to the top of the ridge. It was sunny up on top so we took about 50 more pictures. Earlier, I had noticed a gnarly old dead tree that provided great character to the back drop of the photos we were taking. We loaded Juan in the truck and headed out. WHAT A DAY!
On the way back to camp, we realized we had not had anything to eat since 4:30 am. We were starving. It was about 5:30 when we got back to camp and we decided on spaghetti. We were so wore out we did not even make a camp fire. We put a quick tape on him before stringing him up and wrapping him in game bags – 114″. WHAT A BUCK! WHAT A DAY! Or did I say that already?
RETROSPECTIVE
Looking back on this experience, I am so filled with appreciation. I am so very thankful for my loving and most understanding wife. My love of the outdoors at times strains our relationship but she has come to accept the importance of it to me (although she still doesn’t understand it). It is important for me to tell her, because she has no way of knowing, how much I miss her and my daughter when I am gone. I think about them ALL THE TIME, when I am driving somewhere in the truck, sitting around the campfire, going to sleep at night, glassing, hiking, etc. I am always wondering what and how they are doing. I can find myself thinking of them at any given time while in the middle of doing any thing. I was even thinking of them when I was putting my stalk on Juan. They are truly always with me, I LOVE YOU BOTH!
I am also most appreciative of the opportunity I had to take such a fine animal. I have hunted these addicting, little deer for quite some time. I started out hunting them as a teenager (when you could get a left over December tag over the counter and hunt all of southern Arizona) and then became more serious about it (addicted to it and allowing it to become a significant part of my life) 9 years ago. I have spent a lot of time wondering if and when I would ever have the opportunity to crack that elusive 100″ mark and I now have been able to put all my doubt to rest.
I am also, so thankful for my hunting buddy Larry. Juan would not have fallen to my bullet if he had not hired and befriended me 9 years ago. We have done and seen a lot of things together. We have been from Utah to New Mexico. We have seen a lot of beautiful country, glassed a lot of wildlife, roosted turkeys, float tubed trout lakes and shared hundreds of campfires together. We have been snowed on, rained on, and sunburned. We have spent thousands of hours together, listened to that many songs on the radio and talked about everything imaginable. In 9 years we have already had a lifetime of experiences but have also just started. THANKS!
Finally, I am so appreciative to all the people who have ever helped me along the way. There are so many people who have spent time talking to me about where, when and how to hunt. People who have spent time going over maps with me. People who have gone with and helped me out on my hunts, or let me tag along and “help” them out with theirs when I really wasn’t helping much but learning so, so much. You know who you are and I THANK YOU for all you have done for me along the way! I would not be writing this today if it were not for you.
With the above being said, one thing I have learned over the past few years and want to emphasize to anyone reading this is, you have to figure it out on your own and do it for yourself. You have to learn the value of finding your own spots and how to hunt them. You have to learn the value of spending so much money on optics, equipment, licenses, tags, gas, vehicle repairs, etc, that thinking about it makes you cringe. You have to learn the value of scouting, shooting in the off season, glassing into the sun (even though it is hard) and in the shade (even in the morning). You have to pass on little bucks and learn the value of the old saying, “you can’t shoot big bucks if you’re always shooting little ones”. The feeling you will have afterwards is so much greater when you know you did it on your own, you figured it out for yourself.
My concluding thoughts on this wonderful experience are that being able to harvest Juan was truly icing on the cake. There is so much more to hunting than harvesting an animal. Success should not be based on the filling of a tag or your trophy determined by its “score”. My experience this fall in New Mexico was a tremendous one. I saw some incredible country. I met and had the opportunity to spend time with new friends. In three trips, Larry and I saw Rocky Mountain bighorn rams, whitetail deer, mule deer, bears, turkeys, javelina, bobcats and a mountain lion. What a box score!
Juan’s final gross score is just over 113″. My old “finger ruler” method was right on. He is tremendous buck and goes along perfectly with a tremendous experience. There is only one question left to ask, “Juan, where is your Arizona cousin? Let’s go find him!”
Equipment used:
Rifle – Christensen Arms 7mm Mag (Remington 700)
Rifle scope – Nikon Monarch 5.5-16.5 X 44
Binoculars – Nikon LX 10 X 42; Swarovski SLC 15 X 56
Spotting scope – Nikon Fieldscope ED 25-75 X 82
Tripod – Manfrotto
Tripod mount – Uni-Daptor
Greg Verlander gets his first Coues buck!
by Greg Verlander
I was one of the lucky few to draw a coveted Coues White Tail deer tag in unit 27 for the December hunt. After tons of questions to friends and fellow hunters of Coues Deer, I realized that hunting these “Grey Ghosts” was a lot different than hunting the more familiar Mule Deer and Elk I have grown accustomed to hunting in New Mexico. What a hunt it was! My hunting partner Ruben Rojas, like myself had never hunted these remarkable deer. We kind of learned as we hunted, using techniques we had learned from Dwayne Adams hunting seminar and the purchase of his Book of hunting Coues Deer.
We hunted hard for 3 days, glassing and hiking and glassing some more. We spotted plenty of does but didn’t have much luck on any bucks. The rut seemed to be kicking in later than expected and to be honest we were getting frustrated and “Tired” not having much luck. On the 4th day, we hit a new area and glassed from sun up till about 11 am. We didn’t see any bucks that morning but had a buck grunting in the canyon below us. I had forgotten my grunt call and didn’t have any other calls for that matter so we just listened as the buck made his way from our right to our left till his grunting faded away. I suggested to Ruben that we check out another area so we packed up our stuff and went to an area with a good vantage point and lots of vision. We glassed the new area from noon till about 3pm or so, (I even took a little snooze). We had talked about “throwing in the towel’ and going home for the day, then decided that we couldn’t get a Buck if we went home and fired up the TV so we pushed ourselves to keep glassing. We then decided to split up about 50 yards apart to get different vantage points and continue to glass.
I started glassing a ridge I hadn’t glassed prior because it seemed like “a long ways away”. At about 3:30 pm, on this ridge that seemed like miles away, I spot a nice buck standing there. I yelled over to Ruben, “Come check out this Buck” I knew he must be pretty nice as I could see his rack from my vantage point. The ridge closest to us was close to 500 yards so that opposite ridge must be at least 1000 yards. As Ruben approached, the buck laid back down. The Buck had simply gotten up to stretch and then bedded back down. Fatal Mistake. After bedding back down, we lost sight of him. We decided that I would move into position directly across the ridge from our location and would have Ruben line me up on the buck. As I approached where I thought would be the best vantage point, Ruben (through Binoculars) motioned me farther down the ridge.
After positioning myself on the ridge for a good vantage point, I motioned for Ruben to join me. During his trek to my new location I was having a heck of a time spotting the bedded buck again. Ruben joined in my quest to re-locate the buck. After about 30 minutes or so Ruben told me, “I found him”. The buck was actually about 100 yards to the right of where I had been focusing my attention. Things looked so different from the previous vantage point. We glassed about another 15 minutes in hopes that the buck would stand and stretch again. Ruben then told me that the bucks body was in full view bedded down. What I thought was a clump of boulders was actually his body. Guessing his range at about 400 yards now, I looked at the ballistics chart I was carrying and figured the drop at that range to be about a foot, so I rested the sites above his vitals and with one shot, my trophy was harvested. He ran about 30 yards and then fell. How glorious and rewarding it was.
I couldn’t have asked for a more enjoyable hunt. I thank the good lord for blessing me with such a fine animal. He scores 101.4 gross, and is going to look extremely handsome as my Trophy of fond memories.
