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Dental School Buck
by Houston Davis
I was somewhat concerned about my opportunities to hunt while being a full-time dental student at the Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health. My first year of school was very busy and almost gratefully I was unable to draw any tags but still managed to help my wife get a decent bull Elk in the White Mountains. This year was somewhat more relaxed as we had already taken a Nation Board Exam and I was able to spend the time I needed to pass just fine. I was able to spend a few extra weekends helping out friends with different hunts and scouting for my November Coues Whitetail tag. I had the opportunity to shoot at a good buck the last day of the August Archery season but was rewarded only with a chipped and broken broadhead but enough excitement to last for a long time.
November came around and I found myself looking forward to opening day. A few fellow dental students had also put in and had drawn tags for southern Arizona. Having never hunted our Coues deer before I was excited to show them how difficult and rewarding the hunts can be.
One of the guys had some family emergency and had to miss out on the opening weekend. The two others stayed for school opening morning while I went ahead to hunt for myself or look for bucks for them whatever came first. I couldn’t go down the night before so 2:00 am found me on the road. I started my 2 mile hike about 4:40 and found myself overlooking some of my favorite areas a few minutes before daylight. Right after sunrise I found a great buck at close to a mile away. I watched him move toward his bedding grounds until he disappeared in a rough canyon opposite of me. After watching closely for another hour and quite sure he didn’t come out the other side I made the 3 hour hike over to where I could glass into the canyon. I soon glassed 4 bucks up and feeding about ¼ mile up the canyon. After a couple of hours of glassing I still couldn’t find the big buck and was quite sure that one of the does I had tripped up had spooked him out of the country. I decided that one of the higher bucks was worth a better look.
I got within 400 yards and watched as the two smaller bucks fed and played around. The bigger buck was still bedded in thick junipers that I could not see. I decided to move in another 30 yards and got setup for a shot. The other bucks bedded down so I figured I had an hour or two until they got up and stretched and fed. I lied “down” more like lying “up”, in that steep country, and took a nap every once in a while glassing the area making sure they had not gotten up. I woke up at 3:00 pm and in my glasses where the larger buck and the smaller buck getting into a little shoving match. After looking at him for quite sometime I decided it was the same buck I had shot at the last day of August, but he was quite smaller than I remember. Either it was a same buck and I had over estimated him in the velvet, or a different deer with very similar character. Anyway I didn’t get pictures in August so I’ll never know for sure.
Since I decided he was a deer I wanted and unable to hold out being excited that it could be the same buck, (I really think it is) I made a 350-375 yard shot and this beautiful buck was mine. A long and difficult pack out and lots of Ibuprofen I arrived with my first buck shot in Dental School and packed with my new Eberlstock backpack.
Thanks so much to my wife for being patient with me and the time I spend in the woods. I love her so much and am extremely lucky to have a wife that realizes what it means to me. I told her once to tell me if there was any time she really wanted me to stay home and I would because she never asks me too or even hints that I should and I know if she did it would be very important that I stay home. She replied. I don’t want to be that kind of a wife. I love her. I’ve shot a half a dozen other bucks and have had a lot of great hunts but for some reason this one will be etched forever in my mind.
Mace’s Monster Buck
by Mace Cochran
Mace says this buck has been green scored at 134 inches (gross). It is truly a monster buck.
The hunt for this buck actually began during the 2004 hunt. Last year I was hunting with a friend of mine, and we had drawn the 10 day hunt. We had also drawn a New Mexico Muzzleloader Bull Elk tag, so we had decided that my buddy would have first shot on this hunt. Opening morning started out miserable. We had overcast skies with what felt like hurricane force winds. We knew the deer were going to be brushed up and out of the wind as best they can. We got there plenty early and began glassing. As we expected, there were very few deer spotted, a couple little bucks and a few does, most of which were bedded. After a couple of hours I was ready to move on up into the country and get a new vantage point from which to glass.
The route we were taking was going to lead us through a thicket of oak brush. On our way through the brush, I noticed a bed and super fresh tracks headed out. We began kicking ourselves over pushing this deer out. The tracks were huge! Once we got out of the brush I looked in the direction the tracks were headed and there was a buck standing there looking up at us.
I threw my Swarovski’s up and sputtered out that there was a monster buck checking us out. I got my rangefinder & tripod out of my pack and set them up. The buck ranged at 454 yards. We were looking to shoot only really large bucks, so I wanted to check him out with the 15’s. I got them set up but was not prepared for what I saw when I looked through the glasses. This buck was HUGE! I kept commenting that his G2’s were enormous. At just the time we were going to shoot, the buck took a step and disappeared for the remainder of the hunt. I knew where I wanted to be for the 2005 hunt.
As luck would have it I once again drew my 10 day Coues hunt. I was wanting to spend a lot of time scouting, but things have a way of getting busy when you have 4 kids and I was limited to just a couple of trips. The first trip I only saw a few small bucks and was a little worried the buck might not be around anymore. On the second trip I caught a sight that caused me to become an insomniac until the hunt arrived. I saw the buck walking around a small hill, but I only had a few seconds to view him. I knew it was him and he didn’t seem to be any smaller. I decided that I would not start hunting the buck until after the opening weekend had passed, not wanting to risk possibly pushing him to someone else. I knew there would be far less people out hunting, and I was not worried about someone else finding him, given where he was living. Opening weekend came and passed without finding a buck I wanted to shoot. Monday finally arrived and it was time to start looking for THE buck. I started looking for him from every angle I could without putting any pressure on him. I knew I had plenty of time and I just felt that if I were patient, he would end up making a mistake. Over the next few days I was seeing quite a few deer, just no shooter bucks.
On Thursday morning I decided that I was going to get an even earlier start than I had been, and I had that feeling when I left that morning that I would be taking a buck on his first four-wheeler ride. I got to the spot where I unload my quad, and the temperature outside read 31 degrees. It was going to be a pretty cool ride today! I headed in and once I got to where I parked the quad the wind had picked up considerably. I can deal with anything from rain and snow to sunshine, but I can’t stand the wind! I was a little frustrated, but still had that lucky feeling. I headed up to where I was going to do my first setup, arriving plenty early. I got the Bogen tripod and 15’s set up and began the daunting task of trying to find this elusive buck. I picked up some does and fawns but not any bucks. About a 1/2 hour later I finally found a buck. He was a real nice buck and I had a hard time talking myself out of shooting him. He was about 450 yards across a canyon, and it would have been a neat shot. I just kept watching him feed and hoped another would come join him for breakfast. I finally decided to start back to glassing other country, and would check on him from time to time. He eventually laid down and became impossible to see, and I had gotten extremely cold. I wasn’t picking up any more deer in this area and I was ready to look at some fresh country. The area I was glassing is where the deer I was hunting had been the previous times I had seen him, so I decided hat I would move to a new vantage point where I could get a different angle on this basin, plus I would be able to see into the next basin. After gathering all of my gear and putting it in my pack, I began to slowly make my way up the ridge. I was walking along when all the sudden I heard the sound of a deer running. I looked up and about 100 yards away I caught a glimpse of a deer going into a little cut.
I threw my 25/06 up and got ready for him to come out. He shoed on the other side and my first impression was that he was huge. I had already chambered a round so I took aim and fired. MISS! I jacked another round in and remember telling myself to settle down and make the shot. I took aim and things seemed to go in slow motion. I got remarkably steady and began to squeeze the trigger. At the recoil I looked up and could see the buck had dumped on impact!! I had a white belly shining! It was just after this that I began to question myself. Was he really as big as I thought?
Unfortunately, I have experienced ground shrinkage before, and I was really hoping not to do it again. I tried to look at him lying there through my glasses, but I could only see a piece of his rack. I had shot him at a distance of about 150 yards, and I covered that in about 4.3 seconds. The closer I got to this buck, the bigger he got. He kept getting bigger&bigger! Once I got to him and picked up his head I just lost it.
This was amazing! I jumped around for a good 10 minutes. I had found the buck. There was no mistaking those G2’s. Another cool thing is this buck was shot at about 300 yards from where I had seen him last year! He definitely had his home territory. He was in great health and had the most fat that I have ever seen on a wild animal. Another thing to note, this buck was never on his feet during daylight hours. I had glassed where I jumped him from a minimum of 20 times that morning. I had seen plenty of deer up, so I think that he was just a smart old buck. Hope you enjoy this story, I’m no writer.
My 2005 Trophy!
by Bill Kaul
After about an hour of hiking, we got to a great spot that we wanted to glass before the sun came up over the top of the ridge. We sat down and got comfortable, because once you start glassing you know you are probably going to be there for a while.
After about 30 minutes of glassing up a few good buck and several smaller bucks, my buddy Martin glassed this guy up from over 1000 yards. He was moving down a ridge, feeding on barrel and prickly pear cacti. Martin pulled out the spotting scope and got a good look at him, “whoa, there’s your shooter!”, Martin said. After getting a look at him, I concurred and we knew the next task was to get as close as possible to where he was at / going. After about an hour of closing ground, we finally got to within 100 yards of where we last saw him and started glassing the ridge he was on. We found a doe and a spike close to his last location, about 50 yards from us.
We didn’t want to spook them, so we sat there for about 30 minutes, hoping they would bed down and we could continue our stalk. After deciding we needed to move closer to that big buck, we did spook that doe and spike. They ran straight over the ridge, didn’t even stop! We also spooked some javelina, but they stopped about half-way up and came back down to the bottom. After getting situated, we watched and video taped the javelina (nine) for a few minutes.
We thought that maybe we “boogered” the hunt. We weren’t really sure if he escaped when the spike, doe, and javelina spooked or if he sat tight and was still there.
After listening to Martin’s and my stomach growl for the last hour or so, we decided to have a snack which of course made a lot of noise, because I had to dig it out of my pack. Interestingly enough, the javelina didn’t seem to mind. I guess the buck didn’t either, because unbeknownst to us he was still there.
It was starting to get warm, the time now was about 11:00 AM. After debating what was to be our plan of action and after two hours of glassing every tree and shrub, over and over, on the ridge we were watching, we decided to try to make a move.
We convinced ourselves that he was still in there somewhere and needed to flush him out. Martin moved across the wash and up the slope of the ridge, but he didn’t come out. As Martin was making his way across the ridge, I was paralleling him, so that if he did flush him out, I would be a good position for a shot. He was throwing rocks into bushes and trees, and nothing happened. Then as he moved back down the mountain to the wash, he kicked out the javelina we taped, but no big Coue’s buck.
Disappointed and frustrated that we didn’t see him, Martin made his way back over to the other side of the wash where I was at and we couldn’t believe he didn’t get up.
At the very moment we started to get ready to abandon this spot and move to another vantage point to glass, we heard some rocks move behind us. “That’s him!” Martin yelled. I readied my rifle and took a bead on him through my scope, all I needed was an opening to get a shot. My first opportunity, which was about 125 to 150 yards, I pulled the trigger and nothing happened…my safety was on!! Stay calm, I said to myself, keep an eye on him. Then at about 200 yards, I got another opening and shot him in the lungs and then as he turned and ran back down the hill he was on, I shot him again in the middle of his back! We found him ten yards away from the second hit.
The time of the kill was 11:37 AM. Of course we took some pics and headed back to the truck at about 12:30 PM. I knew I was going to do a shoulder mount on him, so I carried him out on my shoulders. It was tough work, but it was worth it because the cape turned out perfect! We didn’t get back to our vehicles until 2:30 PM! The next couple days would consist of chiropractic and acupuncture therapy!
I went to my taxidermist, Chuck Meachum, and he gross scored him at 95 3/8″, green! He is an awesome buck and it would’ve been hard to turn down the opportunity to get this one. We did have another three days to hunt, but you just never know if you’ll get another opportunity at a good one like him. He has good tine length and we especially like the way his main beams curl inward, like a basket. He also had a nice little “cheater” tine on his right side that we didn’t see in our optics.
Anyway, he’s a great deer. Enjoy the pics!
Bill with his fine buck.
Bill’s friend Martin Guerena with Bill’s buck.
This photo show the little extra point on the right antler.
My first whitetail buck
by Jace Hatfield
I had a four day whitetail hunt in unit 31, I was 13 at the time. Myself along with my step dad, grandpa, and two of my uncles had a tag. The opening morning my uncle and I were headed to a canyon that we glassed two really nice bucks at the day before. When we arrived we set up on a small hill at the mouth of the canyon and started glassing. About thirty minutes into the hunt we had spotted a few does here and there, and all of a sudden a small spike jumped from some thick brush below us. I put my bipod up and rested my gun on it. He stopped and stood broadside under a tree at about 500 yards.
My uncle told me to pass him so I took my finger off the trigger. I wanted a shot really bad. The buck toped over a small ridge and went into a little draw and after about 10 minutes of waiting we went after him. We got to the bottom of the hill and two different bucks jumped up about 100 yards from us and flagged up a hill. There was a two point and a spike. I put my gun up but by the time a got my crosshairs on the deer they topped over! By now you can obviously tell that I was very mad. I missed two opportunities. We headed up the hill first looking for the first buck then topping over looking for the second two. The first deer was nowhere in sight. The canyon wall was steep and very rocky. We started up the incline and as we were making our way I stepped on a lose pile of rocks. I felt the lose rocks giving away from under my boots. As I fell I saw every little pebble skipping down into the brush at the bottom of the canyon. My uncle asked if a was alright and turned back to help me up. As he had his back turned I saw a whit flag jotting up the hill. I picked the 6mm up as fast as I could, put the stock on my shoulder and looked thought the scope. At first glance all I saw was horns. I said “Uncle there’s a buck”. He turned to see and before he could tell me otherwise I had the gun on the bipod, bullet in the chamber ready to shoot. ”I’m going to shoot I said”. “Ok” my uncle said. Boom the sound of the shoot broke the morning silence as a watched the dust from my shot rise high above the buck, I missed. The shot alarmed the buck, it stopped looking at us with its ears stuck straight up in the air. It wasn’t until then that I knew how big the buck was. His horns were tall and wide as he was silhouetting in the sunlight. My uncle told me to take my time on the next shot. Standing 250 yards away I put the crosshairs right behind his shoulder. I took a deep breath and squeezed of a shot. Dust rose up from behind the deer as he feel to the ground. I jumped up in excitement. I was so happy. My uncle congratulated me as we went to see the buck. I got up to were the buck fell and saw horns sticking up from the grass. I ran over to it and yelled down to my uncle with joy “ this buck is huge” I killed my first buck. He ended up scoring roughly 100 inches. It was the hunt of a lifetime and I will never forget it.
Our October 2005 hunt
by Eric Shipp (aka Noworries)
Eric glassing on his hunt.
The Thursday before opening morning saw the three of us backpacking into some of the gnarliest hills in the area. Thanks to Bullwidgeon (Bret M.) we saved an hour on the trip by taking a different road in. He really helped us out and for that we are extremely grateful. He was sporting a CouesWhitetail.com hat and is a great ambassador to the site. The sad part is that the five hour hike still only put us about 1.25 miles from the crowds. After a rough night’s sleep filled with sore muscles, excitement, and anticipation our October Coues hunt began.
The long hike quickly paid off with my dad (Dennis Shipp) glassing, and then taking a beautiful 92″ buck. The shot was taken about 100 yards from our bedrolls. Since the ridge the buck was down on was wicked steep we caped and boned the buck out before packing it back up the hill towards camp. We glassed a small buck Friday night but no shooters. After a 3 hour hike out of the hills on Saturday a trip in to town for some warm food (pizza), cold beer, and a shower was just what we needed. Sunday morning found us hunting the foothills of the same mountain range my dad had scored on. After glassing some does and fawns, both Mule deer & Coues, we spotted two coyotes. We decided to try to call in the coyotes with a varmint call. The call sent the coyotes packing. It also kicked up some does that were in the thick stuff a canyon away. We watched the does hi tail it out of there and then my uncle picked up two bucks lagging a couple hundred yards behind them. Since is was my uncles spot he had first option but decided that they were out of his range. My dad and I had practiced shooting that far before so I knew what the 7mm Ultramag would do. I decided to set up and take the shot. With the Ultramag on the tripod it was time for the deep breath and squeeze. I hit the bigger buck on the first shot and he only went about 20 yards before bedding down. One more shot from closer range put him down. I’ll update with the score after taxidermy but we are guessing him at around 85″. The triple eye guards on the right side make him really unique. After 15 years (8 tags) and multiple missed opportunities this is not only my first whitetail but my first deer as a whole. I would like to add a special thanks to my uncle, Steven Shipp, for helping me out. I’m sure you can tell by the long, long story that I am now as hooked on Coues hunting as anyone could be.
This photo shows the “triple eyeguard” Eric mentions in his story.
Dennis Shipp and his buck.
Eric Shipp with his buck. On the buck’s right antler, he has a sort of triple eyeguard. One looks like a shadow on Eric’s wrist and the other two points are above that.
36C hunt – We had a blast!!
by Scott Kendrix (aka Scottyboy)
Well, we had our 2005 hunt and I must say that we had a great hunt. Y’all may remember my buddy Kevin from the pronghorn pics, well he rolled into Tucson Thurs morn from El Paso and we loaded up and picked up Rich and we headed for the hills. We got out there and got the 5th wheel and the rest of camp set up and got to do a few hours of glassing before dark. I spotted one buck that would go between 85 and 90″ thrashing an ocotillo limb right before dark. The next morn, we decided to make the 5 MILE HIKE back to the spot where I had been seeing alot of deer on a regular basis for the opening morning place. Well, at about 9:30, I spotted a deer hauling butt down the hill and coming at us. He stopped at a barrel cactus and started eating the fruit. That gave us enough time to look him over. We all guessed him at 95. So I decided to take him. The fever set in and the .223 WSSM rang out and was about 10 feet high!! After settling down, the second shot hit him a little high, but was a good hit. He dropped. I had ranged him right at 250yrds. When we walked up on him, his body was TINY!!! We had over-estimated him. But it didn’t matter to me. I finally had my first coues buck. He ended up being about 83 inches. Not huge, but mine none the less, and I couldn’t be happier. After the LONG hike out, and taking care of the meat and cape, we went to a new spot for the evening and I glassed a very nice buck way up the mt. that was out of range because darkness was setting in. That night Doug (RedRabbit) rolled into camp to help with glassing and packing. Next morn, we tried another new spot and saw a few deer, but the place was a war zone with people shooting all over the place. We packed up and got out of there. We went back to camp, ate some lunch, and caught a nap before making the LONG journey back to the spot where I took my buck. We were behind schedule when we finally made it there and started glassing. About 10 minutes later, I spotted a buck on top of the ridge. We all decided he was a shooter. Rich was next in line to shoot, but decided to give the green light to Kev because Rich got one last year and me and Kev ate tag soup. Anyways, it was getting dark really quick and the buck just wouldn’t come out from a stand of ocotillos. Finally, he cleared, I ranged him at 390yrds uphill, and Kev took the shot. He made a PERFECT hit. Right behind the shoulder. BUCK DOWN!! We hiked up to him, snapped a few pics, and got to work. The buck was a great buck. His body was a total opposite of my buck. He was huge!! We loaded down the packs and began the long haul out. We made it back to the truck at around 10:15 that night. That’s why we didn’t make the dinner. But, it was for a good reason!! Kev’s buck is a high 80’s buck. Not bad for his first coues either!!!
The next morn we all slept in, and at lunch said our goodbyes to Doug and got ready to find a buck for Rich. We went back to try to find the buck that I had found the evening before season started. No luck. Just a bunch of does and forkies and spikes. Well, we decided that was it for us and had a great time in camp that night and called it a hunt. Rich and Kev had to get back to the kiddies for Halloween. We figured that 2 for 3 ain’t too bad anyways. Rich was OK with not getting his buck. Just now I have to take him to TX for a whitetail hunt!! The next morn as we were loading up getting ready to head out, I picked up an unopened bottle of Guinness beer and accidentally dropped the danged thing on a rock. It exploded and the bottom of it shot off and hit me right in the knee. I wrapped it up as good as I could, finished packing up, said our goodbyes to Kevin, and Rich too me to the ER. 10 stitches later, I’m as good as new!! All’s well that ends well !!!!
We all had a great time on our hunt and Rich, Kevin and I want to thank Doug for coming down and helping us out on glassing and packing.
Congrats to everyone who got a buck and hope all of you had a hunt as fun as ours….
Here is my buck…
I guess this is the pic I’ll be entering in the contest…
The hill behind me in the pic is where Kev’s buck was taken. We shot both bucks from the same location.
A Good Hunt – Oct 2005
by Chris Dunn (aka Redbeard)
This has been a weird hunting season for me. First off I’ve had a rough few months with my Dad and two other friends having passed away. Secondly, I never like to hunt other people’s spots or info. I love scouting and having one tied up by opening day. With all the stuff going on and gas prices being so high I never went scouting for this hunt. Fortunately my good buddy and hunting partner Andy K. was on ’em like a looter in a New Orleans Wal Mart. I was leaving it all up to him and I was determined that this hunt would be fun and stress free. It turned out to be exactly what I needed. Thanks for being there to make it that way Andy.
Our big plans to kill one of the bucks he has trail cam pics of went out the window immediately since there were 36 trucks with God who knows how many hunters in his “secret” spot by sunup Friday. Somebody must have seen something and told everybody they knew and then some. We went for it anyway and were hiking in by 4:15 am Friday figuring we’d get ahead of everybody and let them run the deer past us. We sat in the dark for over an hour watching satellites and shooting stars cross the sky above and flashlights cross the desert below. I’ve never seen anything like it. Our plan worked as nobody hiked in as far as we did and we saw a ton of deer, probably 15 bucks but none of the big ones we had hoped to. I just hope some of the bucks survived all of the shooting. It sounded like opening weekend of dove season. Poor Andy and Devin have put so much scouting into that area. Hopefully it won’t be so bad for archery season.
We saw the biggest buck of the day while crossing a canyon to get on another ridge to glass. I stopped to take a whiz at the bottom and just about halfway through the process Andy starts shouting in a whisper, “Buck! buck! hey there’s a buck!” The damn thing must have been watching and waiting for me to drop drawers because he was only about 50 yards away when he busted. Somehow I shut off the flow and grabbed the rifle in time to get a look at him as he headed up the other side of the canyon. Looked to be about 85-90″ buck but I never had a good shot. I never would have thought it possible but I managed not to pee all over myself during the excitement.
We hunted a different area Sat. am with the same 4 am start time. More lying on our backs in the dark satellite spotting and we only saw 8 hunters. Unfortunately only 3 bucks too. Sat. afternoon we checked out another spot where we had wanted to go earlier but thought there would have been a ton of hunters. We were so wrong on the first place we figured this couldn’t be any worse. Guess what? Nobody was there. The area looked so good we both just knew we would be leaving with a buck. I had decided the next mature buck I saw was good enough. We hiked to the top of a mountain and crept up to the edge of a canyon on the other side and there was this buck standing under a tree below us looking like he was about to head out. I could see he was a good one so immediately told Andy I was going to take him. I didn’t bother to count points or worry about score. I honestly didn’t care. This was the perfect place and time to shoot a deer. As quick as I could I put the bipod up, ranged him at 184 yds, stuffed my ear plugs in, and as soon as the cross hairs were behind his shoulder I squeezed one off. Andy watched the bullet hit him and saw the buck drop immediately. That quickly it was over. It was 2 pm on a beautiful day so we took our time talking taking pictures and boning out the meat. We had hiked and hunted hard to get away from the crowds all day Friday and Sat. am and then there we were 20 minutes and less than half a mile from our quads and all by ourselves with nice buck.
Andy is a great friend and I couldn’t ask for a better hunting partner. He’s always up for busting butt and hunting all day. He totally pulls his weight (except this time he forgot food and water!) I’ve never hunted with somebody who is so much on the same program as me. He knows how to eat lousy food, sleep in the dirt, bake in the sun, freeze in the dark, pound the crap out of gear like he stole it and love every minute of it. You shoould see what he does to boots in a few months. He had his duct taped together for this hunt.
Even though we got shut down in his spot we just had a great time checking out new spots and giving eachother crap.
I think Andy should start an outfitting business, “Slam Dunk Outfitters” I think his motto will be, “We’re all ‘buck’ at Slam Dunk” Inside joke… We laughed all weekend about being “…all buck and s@%t.”
My Father’s Trophy
by Mark Hanna
My father, DeWayne Hanna, was a hunter all his life until injuring his back at work. Unable to go each year he still purchased his deer tag hoping that his disability would not keep him out of the hunt. Not in a wheelchair, although it was a distinct possibility at any time with his injury. One fall, one slip, one missed step is all that would be needed to end his hunting days forever. The year was 1977. Down in his back, as he would say, he was thinking of not going out that year. His friends all wanted him to go and after assuring him they would find a way to get him in the field to hunt he was convinced that he would go even if it meant staying in camp.
On the morning of opening day his friends drove him to a spot on top of a little ridge. It had a nice little gradual sloping trail leading down to a rocky ledge where you could see this small canyon that they had decided to hunt during their scouting trips. My father slowly made his way down the slope to rocks, that was as far as he was willing to go. There was a nice flat boulder right on the trail and sitting up high enough to offer itself as a seat. He settled in and started glassing the area. As time went by he could occasionally see his hunting buddies working themselves to a hunting position. Slowly everyone was settled and the waiting game began.
After several hours of glassing, my fathers back, now hurting pretty bad, was giving him quite a bit of pain and he was beginning to wish that he had stayed in camp and took his pain pills instead of trying to hunt. Unable to concentrate he decided to lay back on the flat rock that now became a bed. He fell asleep. Time passed as he slept and it was nearing sunset. A shot rang out in the canyon , startled he woke, pushing himself up he sat up and started to glass where he thought the shot came from. Soon, a second shot rang out. The shots were coming from the next canyon or maybe the next one, it was difficult to tell. It was not anyone in his hunting party shooting, so he watched the ridge in the direction the shots came from. Soon he saw a single deer slip over the ridge and into some thick brush. Slowly the deer made its way out, almost appearing to be crouching, it was keeping it head down. Then he saw it clearly, it was a buck, a nice one too! The deer made his way through the dense brush at the bottom of the canyon and popped out on the trail my father was on. It was then that he could see the actual size of the buck and its rack. Without a doubt, it was one of the largest bucks my father had ever seen in 30 years of hunting. His heart started pounding. The buck started picking up speed coming up the trail. My father raised the 30-06 he had on every hunting trip since WWII. As he looked through the scope of his rifle the buck was coming ever nearer. His heart pounding so fast he thought it would come out of his chest, my father could only see a huge patch of gray in his scope. The buck was now so close the scope was ineffective. turning his rifle to its side he looked down the barrel, took aim and fired. The buck dropped in mid stride and fell the ground, 30 feet from my fathers position on the trail. His trophy was secured.
At the time it was the fourth largest coues deer ever taken. Measuring in at 126 5/8. It has since dropped but still in the top ten, I believe. My father passed away in 1995 but his story still lives on and his trophy buck is mounted and in my possession. I have the Arizona Wildlife Trophies Award certificate, the Boone and Crockett certificate and the Arizona Wildlife Federation Plaque. He was asked to bring his deer to the B&C awards in St. Louis I believe it was but was unable to attend because of health problems that year. I cherish the trophy left to me by my father, almost as much as he did.
World-Record Non-Typical Coues Deer
Note: This article originally ran in the Dec 04 issue of the Rocky Mountain Game and Fish magazine. Article and photo provided with permission from Tony Mandile.
by Tony Mandile
The Boone and Crockett Club officially recognized a buck from Graham County, Arizona as the new non-typical Coues deer world record. The antlers score a whopping 196 2/8 points, besting the old record by 10 1/8 points.
The announcement at the 25th North American Big Game Awards in Kansas City, Missouri during June 2004 occurred after the B&C’s Record Committee thoroughly investigated the authenticity of the Coues deer antlers because of the circumstances involved in their discovery. Buck Buckner, chairman of the B&C’s Record Committee, said the remarkable trophy has the basic Coues’ deer configuration, as well as the narrow, inter-pedicel width measurements characteristic of Coues’ deer. The rack shows evidence of gnawing by rodents, and is missing a couple of point tips. Two broken abnormal points were x-rayed, as was the entire rack. According to the background B&C was able to piece together, a now deceased member of the Apache tribe killed the buck in the Mt. Turnbull area of the San Carlos Apache Reservation sometime around 1971, and the antlers remained within the family until a nephew sold them to an antler buyer. The buyer later sold them to the current owners, Dana J. Hollinger and Bob Howard. The two men, who collect antlers, submitted the trophy to B&C in December 2003. A special B&C judge’s panel, convened especially to verify possible world-record heads, officially scored the deer as the new record.
The non-typical rack, with an inside spread of 12 3/8 inches, sports 11 points on the right side and 15 on the left side. The main beam lengths are 20 4/8 and 19 3/8 respectively, and the smallest circumference between the burr and first point on each side measured 4 6/8.
My 2004 December AZ Whitetail Hunt
by Jack Luffy
After four long years of waiting I finally got another Arizona late whitetail tag. Having already killed two bucks over 100pts (101 &103) I really wanted to kill a buck 110 or better.(yeah, don’t we all!!) I had never set foot in my unit ever before, I had just heard how great it was. So setting my sights high I began my search. After three weekends of scouting I had seen a lot of deer but very few bucks, and three lions. The first four days of the the hunt were HOT! with very little sign of the rut, So I headed home for work and Christmas hopping for a change in the weather. I went back the day after Christmas and was seeing a lot of does, small bucks and a hand full of 95-100 inch bucks, but no rutting activity. I was beginning to get discouraged, then on Wednesday the weather finally changed, it rained and the wind blew all day.
I woke up Thursday morning poked my head outside and saw nothing but clear sky and felt a little chill in the air, PERFECT! just what I had been waiting for, a chill ran down my spine. I was also happy because after hunting by myself for five days my dad showed up to help. We headed off to our glassing spot with excitement. Setting up just as the sun started to shine on the mountain I pick up a doe right away, then I caught movement above her on the opposite ridge. The deer was standing under a mesquite with it’s head behind some brush. After what seemed like forever this deer stepped out into the sun which was like a spotlight on him and my heart skipped a beat. All I could see were horns and there was no doubt this was the kind of buck I was after. He was about 1000 yards away so my dad kept an eye on him while I made my stalk. I reached a rock outcropping about 350 yards where the deer was and set up . I was out of breath and excited, but could not find the buck. My dad called and said the deer had gone down the ridge and was about to fight another buck. Just then I heard a crash looked down below me and saw the two bucks fighting. The fight lasted long enough for my get them in my scope. The bigger buck chased the smaller buck then stopped and gave me a perfect shot at 250 yards. I fired a warning shot and the buck started to run.. Oh no you missed, I could not believe it! Crossing a canyon and running up the next ridge the buck finally stopped, not knowing how far the buck was I just put the crosshairs just below his back and shot I heard the welcome Whop as the buck stumbled and fell.
We were so excited hooping ,hollering and yelling back and forth we probably scared every deer off the mountain. How far was that? my dad yelled the range finder said 425 yards. After an hour of busting brush and and stumbling over rocks I reached my buck. WOW he is impressive. He has an 18″ outside spread and 17 1/2 ” main beams and 7 1/2″ points, However his left G1 is broke off and his right G1 is a whooping 1 1/4″. This buck didn’t make 110 like was hoping for but I was not disappointed,105 is his gross and he is the biggest deer I have killed so far!! Next year I will get that 110!!
My First Coues Deer
by Brent Jones
I’m from the State of Washington and have been hunting mule deer for the past 20 years. My cousin, Neal Brown, is from Arizona. I’ve been hunting in Arizona with Neal for the last several years, mainly for javelina. But this was only my second opportunity to hunt Coues. My previous hunt was an unsuccessful November hunt a few years ago. That prior hunt gave me a true appreciation for the Coues whitetail. In three days, I only saw eight Coues deer, most of which were flat out running, none of which were bucks, and endured snow, hail, rain, fog, and gale force winds in the process. Quite an experience.
This hunt was quite the opposite. We saw our first mature buck in the first 20 minutes of opening morning (12/17/04) chasing 10 does around not more than 150 yards from us. After glassing bucks all day, I wound up taking this buck late in the afternoon of opening day. I used a .270 at about 250 yards. The buck is a 3×3 plus eyeguards, and rough scores about 99 inches, including 17 inch main beams, good mass, and an inside spread of 15 1/8.
Needless to say, I couldn’t be happier with my first Coues whitetail.
My 36B Buck
by Lee Molina (aka couesdiehard)
I watched him bed at 10:00 am at 600 yards and waited for him to get from behind about the only tree on the whole ocotillo hillside. At 332 yards I waited until 1:30 pm before he got back up. In the meantime I checked out over a dozen other deer on the same hill but he was still the biggest and he was the only the 2nd 3-point or better I had seen in 5 days. While I had waited I had tipped my gun off it’s “Snipe Pod” right onto the scope. this was my backup gun. the same thing happened to my .300 WSM the day before.
I aimed at the 3×3 while he sparred with a little spike and a large forkhorn watched the match. At the shot, the 3×3 moved downhill but didn’t fall. He eventually laid down and started chewing his cud! In his new location I had to move higher up to get a shot. At 348 yards I could see the junction of his neck and back between two ocotillo stalks. I fired and he rolled over. Imagine my surprise when he stood up! But he was hit hard. I could see blood falling from his mouth. I aimed for the middle of his spine to break him down and completely missed. He laid back down and I again aimed for the junction of the neck and back. This time he fell over and rolled down the hill.
When I put my hands on the buck I saw that my scope had obviously been knocked off target and the bullet was hitting 4 inches high and 2 inches right at 348 yards! Both times I aimed at the neck/back intersection I had hit him and both entry wounds were within 2 inches of each other. The first high in the neck. The second at the base of the skull.
Better to be Lucky than Good
by John Olvey
I wish I could tell the story of weeks of pre season scouting, hiking miles in the dark, and using high dollar optics to spot this guy, then making a textbook stock and executing a perfect shot. The real story is not as romantic. I did hike to a high spot before first light and set up my tripod with the Alpens I bought from Casey. I glassed until about 8 am without seeing a single deer. At that point I couldn’t glass anymore because I was shaking so bad from being FROZEN! I told my hunting partner Stan, I had to either walk, or drive somewhere because I was going to freeze to death, and that would make it hard to continue hunting. We walked back to the truck and turning the heater on full blast. Stan wanted to glass some bald hills south of where we were so headed that way. On the way, I was scanning the hill sides when I saw movement. I told Stan STOP! BACKUP BACKUP………STOP! I glasses the hill and there stood this nice Buck facing me and looking to his left. I could tell he was a nice Buck and I told Stan I wanted him. We pulled the truck forward a few yards into a dip and I got out. I peeked around a clump of Catclaw and was surprised and delighted that he was still standing there. I noticed that I could use the cut we were parked in to work my way up to a big flat rock about 20 yards up the wash that would give me a solid rest and a clear shot. When I got to the rock I peeked over again and Yes! he was still standing there! I judged the distance at about 300 yards and I knew I could make the shot. I had spent several sessions at the range practicing out to 300 so I felt confident. I settled the cross hairs on his chest and squeezed off the shot. BOOM……..the buck danced a few yards right and went down to his knees. Stan said, that’s a dead deer, good shot! I waited about 10 minutes for my heart to return to my chest and headed up the hill to claim my Buck. About half way to where he was, two Does got up from right below where my Buck was and they bounded off. That must be what he was looking at so intently. So there you have it. Its not the way I imagined it, heck I feel guilty for not suffering more for what I know most folks have to go through to harvest a nice Coues Buck. I guess sometimes its better to be lucky then good!
World-Record Buck
Copyright 2003 by Tony Mandile
For Sergio Orozco, the balmy August day mirrored many of the days he had spent hunting deer since he had taken up bowhunting in 1991. The 30-yr.-old fireman had driven from his Nogales, Ariz. home to the southern part of unit 34A and had arrived well before sunup. After hiking to the top of a ridge, he set up his tripod and binoculars, then began glassing the rolling hills and ridges in search of a decent Coues deer buck – Arizona’s diminutive version of the whitetail. Several hours of searching turned up only a couple small bucks and several does, however. As the temperature approached the triple-digits typical of a summer day in the desert, Orozco started back to his truck.
“I decided to fill my canteen, rest a bit and regroup for a late afternoon hunt. I had walked along a cow path for less than 10 minutes when a buck jumped up. He had been bedded under a bushy mesquite tree that was less than 30 yards off the trail. He ran down and across a small canyon, and all I could see was his huge, velvet-covered antlers as he disappeared over the far ridge. I knew he was big. After I filled my canteen, I went back to the area where I last saw him, but I couldn’t find him again,” Orozco said.
Over the next few weeks of the 2000 early archery season, Orozco returned to the canyon many times. “I hunted that area hard for the rest of the season and never found him again. Then I scouted every weekend, even after the bow season ended in September and while the rifle seasons were going on,” he said.
“October went by. November passed. Finally, on the weekend before the December archery hunt began, I found him feeding in a small clearing in the middle of a bunch of mesquite trees. He had moved a bit farther north from the first place I had seen him. Even though the velvet was gone by now, the height of his antlers and a distinct drop tine convinced me it was the same deer. Naturally, I was thankful a gun hunter hadn’t already killed him.”
“I spent at least 12 days chasing him during the December archery season and even put two stalks on him. On the first one, I got within 60 yards before a doe winded me. They were gone within seconds. I stalked him the second time after I had glassed him while he was bedded in a thick patch of ocotillo cactus. I thought it would be easy, but once I got into the ocotillos, I found out different. I was about 30 yards from the buck, trying to make my way between all the ocotillos, when he saw me move. He was up and out of there in a flash,” Orozco said.
The December 2000 hunt ended, and when the January 2001 season began on the 1st of the month, both the weather and Orozco’s work schedule prevented him from hunting again until the afternoon of Jan. 10th. An hour before sunset, he glassed a doe. Then he found the monster buck bedded down next to a barrel cactus in nearly the same spot where Orozco had stalked him two weeks earlier.
“He was maybe 200 to 300 yards away across the canyon. There was only about a half-hour left before it got dark, so I decided to leave him alone until the following morning. As I continued watching the buck, I heard a noise on the ridge above me, looked up and saw my friend, Pete Mendoza. I signaled him to come down. While waiting for him, I kept my attention on the deer. It was the biggest whitetail either of us had ever seen in the wild. Jokingly, I told him to have his camera ready because the buck would be mine tomorrow.”
Orozco didn’t get much sleep that night as he thought about the next day. “I was up early, ate breakfast and drove to the area, arriving about 15 minutes before daylight. It was overcast, with the temperature in the low 30s as I started to glass. Ten minutes later, I picked up three does in the valley. Then a respectable 3×3 stepped out of a thicket of trees. I would have settled for this buck any other time, but now the only deer I had in mind was the big one. I stayed there a bit longer to no avail. At 7:15, I decided to move to another spot that overlooked a valley and some rolling hills,” he said.
Almost immediately, Orozco saw three does moving among the mesquite trees. Then he spotted another doe. The buck, obviously with romance in mind because the rut was in full swing, followed close behind.
“As soon as I saw him, I started shaking,” Orozco said.
While he tried to calm his nerves and put together a plan, he watched the buck chase the harem of does all over the hillside. One doe raced over the top; the buck followed, and Orozco did likewise. He realized having fewer eyes and noses to tip off the buck would help during a stalk. At the same time, he was concerned about losing the deer after they had disappeared over the hill.
“It took about an hour to get to the top of the ridge where the doe and buck had crossed. Once there, I glassed about every opening and around every tree and cactus in the area. I found them 15 minutes later in a flat valley, less than 200 yards away. The buck even mounted the doe as I watched. About 11:30, he bedded down 150 yards from me in the open near three mesquite trees,” he said.
With the wind in his favor, Orozco started his stalk down a small canyon, which he thought would put him within 40 yards of the bedded deer. Instead, he wound up 80 yards away with the buck facing him. Orozco went to Plan B, opting to follow a creek bed that would take him behind the deer. He removed his daypack and shoes, leaving them behind to retrieve later, and slowly made his way to the mesquite trees. When he got there, the buck was nowhere in sight.
“I had last seen him near the tallest tree, but he was gone. I used my binoculars to search among the trees and found he had moved about 10 yards away to another tree, probably because it was shadier. Now, after seeing him close up, my knees began shaking and my heartbeat sped up. At a distance, the buck’s antlers looked big; close up, they were huge. Hoping to somehow settle down a bit I dropped to one knee for a couple minutes. Although the shaking didn’t quit entirely, I slowly inched along the creek bed. Then I almost blew it,” he said.
“While I was moving closer, I kicked a small rock and heard the ‘click’ as it rolled downhill into a larger one. I quickly ducked down, using some tall grass to hide me from the deer. As I watched the tips of his antlers, the buck’s head swiveled around immediately. His eyes aimed right at me. After an eternity, which in reality was only about 30 seconds, the buck turned away.”
“Not wanting to wait any longer, I nocked an arrow, took a few steps so I could see his vitals and drew my bow just as the buck’s head had turned toward me again. By then it was too late for him to react. I heard the arrow thump as it connected with something.”
“He jumped up, wheeled around and raced toward the spot where my shoes and pack were laying. After running about 40 yards, he stopped and looked back at me. Although his tail was moving sort of funny, I couldn’t see any blood. Now I began doubting whether I had hit him at all. I shot again. He jumped when the arrow hit him in the neck, and with four great leaps he disappeared over a hill,” Orozco said.
Orozco’s nervous excitement returned. He also realized that his sticker-filled socks didn’t feel too good. Rather than follow the wounded deer, he retrieved his shoes, had some water and then searched for the first arrow. He found it stuck in the ground where the deer had been bedded. Bright red blood covered the arrow from the point to the fletching. Finding the blood trail, Orozco followed it to the spot of the second shot and found that arrow, too. Blood also covered it.
“I continued along the blood trail up over the next hill and spotted the buck. He had gone down in a heap under a mesquite tree in the bottom of a small canyon. When I got down to him, I jumped and yelled, even though no one was around to hear me. For me, killing that buck was the greatest thrill of my life,” he said.
Although Orozco knew the buck was a real trophy, he didn’t realize just how much of a trophy it really was. He called a friend and asked him to score it.
“When my friend asked me how big it was, I told him it would probably score maybe 100 to 115 points. When Tony arrived, he was speechless,” Orozco said. “The gross score he got was 150.”
After the 60-day mandatory drying period, Jimmie Engelmann, a scorer for the Pope & Young Club, officially measured the buck, producing a gross score of 144 6/8 and a net of 132 6/8 for the typical category. The distinct drop tine resulted in a six-point deduction.
In May 2003, the P&Y Club officially recognized Sergio Orozco’s outstanding trophy as the current record with an official panel score of 130 1/8 – shattering the previous record by more than 10 points.
Matt Lewis gets his first deer
by Matt Lewis, age 15
This is my first deer ever. I killed it on November 13, 2004. I was the only one who had a tag because my dad and his friend were not drawn for anything that whole season! We were hunting in 34B, in the Whettstones (in AZ), and it was the second day of the hunt. My dads hunting partner and I were glassing the mountain as the sun was just coming over the horizon. We didn’t see anything so we proceeded on with our hunting. Suddenly, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. “Oh my God, there thy are!” Five deer were kind of meandering up the mountain. I immediately dropped to my knees and looked through my binoculars, grasping my dad’s Ruger model 77 .243 in my hand. “I don’t see any antlers,” was what I told my dads friend Brian. But Brian had gotten out his spotting scope and said he might see and eruption. My heart started pounding, and I felt it in my temples. I then opened my bipod attached to the rifle and got the deer in my sight picture. “Okay, which one is it,” I said to Brian. he kept telling me his movements (since I couldn’t make out the antlers). The only time I saw the Buck was when he nosed up with a doe, and I just didn’t feel comfortable taking the shot. So I waited and tried to get him in my scope picture again. I never did see him and soon they disappeared over the mountain ridge. “Well” Brian said, “Should we go after them.” I said yes because I didn’t think we would see a buck very soon, because the previous day, we saw 22 does but none with any calcium. So we climbed up the hill, and I was sweating something awful. I had my heavy jacket on besides being in the sun. I also have asthma and having buck fever didn’t help my condition. We finally got to the top of the ridge and peered down. There were 3 does down about fifty yards down and they still weren’t very spooked. So we sat down to glass the little valley, and find the small buck (the whole stalk I never saw the antlers). I saw Brian looking down at another deer which was down in some heavy brush and figured it was a doe since he wasn’t saying anything. Then I realized that Brian wasn’t looking at that deer. He was looking at a closer one. I asked if it was a doe and he replied yes. I said that that must be the buck down there. Sure as heck, it was. He was walking towards a doe on the other side of a downed yucca that was bright orange. Since the buck was in the brush, Brian told me as soon as he went past the bush get him. When he emerged I asked Brian to confirm it was a buck. It was. Then of course when he said he was a buck, the little guy turned away from being broadside and had his butt facing us. The bipod wasn’t going to work, because it was too rocky. So I rested the piece on my knee. As soon as he turned a little bit I fired. I had missed opportunities before waiting for a perfect broadside shot and I wasn’t going to waste this one. He arched up his back and just started going around in half circles with his back legs planted. I asked if he needed another shot but Brian said he was down. He went down not five steps from where I had shot him. I was so happy that I had done my duty to the animal by killing it in one shot and I was happy that it was pretty close to the road. I used a rangefinder and found the shot was 172 yards. We took my kill back to the camp, victorious.
My unforgettable first Coues
by Alan Fischer
This is an accounting of my first hunting trip in Arizona, my first Coues and an unforgettable experience.
First I would like to thank all of you for your help, Amanda for this website and everyones unshelfish sharing of information, especially Chef. Thanks, ya’ll made my hunt successful.
My tag was for Unit 35A outside of Ft. Huachuca. I did a lot of scouting of trails leading up to the hunt date in order to pick a place to camp and hunt. When the time came, I had planned to start in one area and every couple of days move to a new location if things didn’t seem promising. As it turned out I spent my entire 4 days in one area.
Thursday the 11th I packed my Jeep and went to my first spot on the west side of the Huachucas. There were a couple of friendly old timers also camping there and advised me of the high UDA traffic in the area. I took their advice and set up camp near them instead of at the end of the 4×4 road (nearer to the hunt area) like I had originally planned. (Jack&Terry… if you are on here say howdy).
Up before dawn, my first day didn’t produce any deer sighings but did alter my hunt outcome and provided an experience I will never forget. As you know, there are numerous UDA and drug smuggler trails in this area, the extent was not apparant to me until I got off the road and saw how the hills are litterly covered with well beaten trails and trash everywhere.
About 11am that first day, I was taking one of these trails back to my Jeep when I discovered a body laying under a tree alongside the trail. At first I thought the person was asleep, but quickly noticed the purple and blue color of the legs and feet. I’ll skip the other details. The persons belongings were scattered about on the trail as if someone had pilfered through her stuff. Although well armed, I was wary that there might be others around, and not knowing what the circumstances of her being there were, I didn’t waste time getting out of the area. I took a GPS coorinate of the location and hurried back to my rig. Along the way I slipped on loose rocks and fell, smacking my vintage Husquvarna on rocks, putting a noticable ding in my stock and scratching the bluing on the barrel. The scope also took a hard knock. I then drove out to a point on 83 where I could use my cell to call the Sheriff and the BP. That night it was cold. It took several hours for the authorities to extract the body and I don’t envy the job those officers had to do in order to bring her body out, in the dark, in very rough terrain. I don’t think the Border Patrol Officers get enough credit for the fine job they do.
The next day I parked my Jeep in the same area. I had not gone 200 yards when I looked up at the first hill, and there stood a true monster Whitetail broadside, just looking at me. Now I know you all are saying… yeah, sure, uh-huh… well I have a couple of Eastern 6 & 8 point racks on my wall that measure 19″-20″ between beams, and this guy would be right at home up there with them. He was only 130 yards away and looked so big I first though he was a Muley.
I carefully checked the color, markings, horns, size and tail (what I could see of it from the side) and yup this was a trophy buck with a classic broadside shot. I moved slowly and sat down on the ground with my left knee up taking a solid sitting position with the cross hairs just behind the shoulder. I remembered that I had sighted in for 2″ high at 100 yd and slowed my breathing being concious not to jerk the trigger… The shot was crisp and the miss was clean!!
I quickly followed up with a Hail Mary shot but he was gone in an instant. I spent an hour covering that hillside looking for blood or some sign I had hit him. I couldn’t believe I had missed such an easy shot! Talk about being mad !! – this caused me to drive 50 miles to the nearest range to find out my scope had been knocked out 8″ left at 100yds! I re-sighted in and stopped at home to pick up a second rifle… just in case!
The next day I walked up on several does and they didn’t seem to pay much attention to me. A group of three allowed me to get within 20 feet before lifting their tails and _walking_ into the trees. Another doe watched me walk the hillside toward her as she browsed until I was about 40 yards away. She looked at me then back at the bush she was nibbling at, grabbed a mouthfull of leaves and trotted into the wash. How dare I interrupt her breakfast! I saw her come up out of the trees about 200 yds away, taking her time.
Later that morning, the wind was whipping at just under a gale. The grass was bent almost flat and taking any cross canyon shot would have been useless. I did spot a Whitetail bedded under a tree on the leeward side of the ajacent hill, but couldn’t tell if it was a doe or a spike. I assumed a doe and kept moving around the hill I was on. All of a sudden, 30 feet in front of me, in a group of trees a buck jumps and runs. I got a fleeting glimpse of his massive horns and their spread. That is the big boy I saw yesterday! In an instant I can se at least 4 tines on the right side – then he is gone – into a heavily treed draw. I wait to see if he comes out the other side or up the opposite slope – nothing happens – he is gone.
The rest of the day produces nothing, but about an hour before dark about 3 hills over, I hear a shot and then a couple minutes later, two more shots… I fear my monster buck has fallen to another hunter. I make it back to camp, by 7pm the other hunter still hasn’t come out and I am now sure he is gutting and dragging out my big buck!
Monday is my 4th day hunting the same area. I have decided that this will be the last day here if nothing develops. One other hunter took a forked horn the first day and that guy in the red Jimmy must have gotten ‘ol granddaddy.
I took a new trail back behind the hills I had been hunting. I pushed further up the mountain and deeper into the hills searching for the big score. I saw 2 Illegals come over the next hill. They didn’t see me at first. I kept walking along the topo at about the 5800’line. Eventually they spotted me and scurried up a steep hill and over the crest out of sight. At one point I could see my Jeep parked in the distance… and next to it was that red Jimmy… I knew he had missed! I glassed the surrounding hills and finally spotted him sitting on one.
The rest of the day was tiring, walking a lot of rocky slopes, gusting winds, rain and sleet and no deer anywhere. I went back to camp about 1pm exhausted and wondering if I would go out for the evening hunt. After a little while, the red Jimmy came driving out and I stop the hunter to jaw awhile. Mainly I am interested in finding out how big a buck he shot at the day before and if he hit it… heh heh. After a little conversation it comes out that he shot at an average 3×3 and thinks he grazed it because he found a chunk of hair and skin. He couldn’t find a blood trail and never did find it.
Woopie !!!! MY monster was still out there and undiscovered!!!! This fact bred new life into my tired feet – for about 3 minutes! I then decided that for the afternoon I would go sit by the nearby wash that had a little water in it – actually the only water anything nearby had in it. I parked my butt under a tree and started eating a summer sausage and crackers until I was full. I decided to close my eyes and enjoy the warm sunny late afternoon. WAIT… I told myself – your not out here on a picnic wake up!!!
As I opened my eyes I saw this little buck walk into the clearing 65 yards away! He wasn’t the monster I had been persuing the last 3 days, but he was a legal deer! I was watching him and trying to decide if I should take him or keep looking for Mr. Big when I noticed his strange behavior. He was putting his face down into the water and moving his head side to side slowly. I looked through my binoculars and saw that this was the deer the young fella had described shooting at the day before. The one thing left out of the story, that he wasn’t aware of, was that he had hit him in the lower jaw and tongue.
This poor buck was trying to drink with his jaw hanging down and tongue half severed and hanging by a thread of skin. I immediatly knew what I had to do, this animal couldn’t leave the area to die suffering under some bush. I squeezed the trigger and he never knew what hit him as the 110 grain .270 exploded his heart. It was the kids buck all right, as there was a bullet grazed across the top of his back where a chunk of skin and hair were missing. Another inch lower and he would have severed the spine and gotten this buck.
This was one hunt I will never forget, nor that monster White tail that is still out there…
HillBilly Al
(to read some more about this hunt, you can go to his post in the discussion forum).
Bill Canizales’ Archery hunt in Aug 2000
by Bill Canizales
I invited my 11 yr. old boy and my 12 yr. old nephew to hunt with me. Of course they were there for the ride only.We got to this little hill that looked over this big canyon, I glassed up a total of 8 bucks and he was the one that stuck out. I let the kids look at him for awhile while I contemplated on how to get close to this buck. This buck and 2 others traveled down a wash and then proceeded to bed down on a ridge. From where I was at I saw that the 2 other bucks bedded on the other side of a ridge and this one bedded facing me. As I was glassing I noticed there was some surveyor’s tape just in front of him (that would serve as my reference point), it was thick with mesquite brush Palo Verde trees and prickly pear. He bedded between a mesquite tree and behind a prickly pear cactus.
As I got closer I had to climb over a barbed wire fence but the wind was perfect, a steady breeze and in my face. I was planning on getting to the surveyor’s tape and see if I could glass him up. I glassed to where I thought he was and found the prickly pear, the prickly pear had a tiny window and I could make out his right antler only through the window. I ranged from there and it was 55 yards, I proceeded a little closer and closed the gap to 40 yards using the prickly pear as cover. I drew my bow and walked to my left to clear the cactus, he was bedded facing me and looking right at me. I squeezed the shot off and the arrow entered right at the base of his neck going into his chest cavity. The buck bolted out of there and I could see my arrow at the base of where his neck and body met.
I marked the area with surveyor’s tape,ran back and got the kids to help me with the trailing, we found him about 2 hrs. later and my nephew was the one who found him. The buck grossed around 92″ and change, he was harvested in August of 2000 in unit 33.
Matt’s January Coues with a bow
by Matt Moul
In January of 2003, I had harvested a small mule deer with my bow after only having it for about six months. This meant I could not participate in the fall draw for deer, and left me waiting all year for January of 2004 so I could have another chance to hunt since I was unsuccessful for Elk and Antelope.
January of 2004 rolled around and I had an archery tag and license prior to the first day. Work and other commitments kept me from really doing much scouting, although I did manage to get out for a couple of days. The first few days I was able to hunt with a friend, but as he prefers mule deer, I was not hunting the type of deer I really wanted to pursue.
One weekend in mid-January I found myself sitting at home with company from out of town. I told my buddy, “Let’s go glass, this sitting around is making me crazy.” I tossed my bow and tag in the truck just in case.
An hour later and we were in Coues country, glassing and content. Within a few minutes we had deer spotted… and one was a buck. He wasn’t really hot after the does he was with, kind of hanging on the fringes. I told my buddy I was going to try and get close enough for a shot while he watched.
I carefully circled around, and stalked towards the deer, keeping the wind in my face. I could see the deer out in front of me, but couldn’t see the buck. I kept stalking closer, scanning area in front of me for the buck. We saw each other at the same time, with 20 yards and a half-dead piece of brush separating us. I had an arrow nocked, but was the bow was not drawn. I figured if I drew back, he would spook, but if I didn’t draw, I couldn’t shoot. I decided to heck with it and drew the bow. The buck stood motionless, as if he was invisible and this couldn’t be happening. I set my 20-yard pin on the vitals and released, to hear a loud “kerthump” and watch him run off after the fletching disappeared just behind his shoulder.
I stood there motionless wondering if this could be happening. I went to the spot where the buck stood and a few steps past, and found my arrow soaked with blood. I kept thinking to myself to be patient and wait at least 30 minutes. After what seemed like 3 hours, I started tracking the deer down the hill. 60 yards and there he was, piled up at the bottom of a steep drop off.
My buddy came up the hill to tell me how all the deer ran off, not even knowing I had shot. He was laughing and telling me how one of the deer was really clumsy and tripped when it got to where I was standing. I let him finish and pointed out the deer. We cared for the animal and carried him out, with me still in disbelief that I had harvested a Coues with a bow. I can’t wait for January 2005.
Opening Day Double
by Chris Vallejos
We got into our glassing spot before light and started glassing intently as soon as it got light. The morning was perfect with about an inch of fresh snow and the fog had lifted. Thinking there was going to be whitetails everywhere, but weren’t seeing anything. Until finally at 9:00am my partner spotted these bucks on the north side of a narly canyon. We set up the spotting scopes and decided to go after them. We lightened up the packs grabbed the radios and took off. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the point in which we figured we could shoot from. When we peeked over we found the bucks up feeding still and ranged them at 600 yds. too far to shoot. We then decided the only way to get in range was going to be to backtrack and get on the same side as them and hope to be able to see them. We backtracked back around and got above them by this time they had bedded. We radioed our spotter on the point and he said we were right above them we glassed and glassed, at 11:00 my partner picked one out below us bedded at 150YDS straight down. We decided I would shoot at the bedded buck and he would try to get the other one as he busted out. He moved to get a better angle and spotted the other buck bedded. So I settled in and could only see his neck through an opening, but at 150 yds no problem. I rested the crosshairs on him held my breath and squeezed. BOOM!!!, It didn’t sound like the familiar sound of a hit but nothing even flinched. My buddy then shoots at the other one BOOM!!!, nothing again. I decided I missed and am going to shoot again I settled in and BOOM!!! Thawck he rolls over in his bed. The other one finally stands up and BOOM!!! Thawck. two bucks down. This really proved to me how tight these bucks will hold. With a .300 Win Mag and a .300 Rem. Ultra Mag going off 150 yds from them and they didn’t even blink an eye. This was definitely a once in a lifetime hunt and it was awesome. We have three other tags to fill so we still get plenty of hunting in this season. This has also been a truly blessed year with a nice coues buck and earlier in September I killed a 350 bull with my bow after waiting 8 years to get a tag. Good luck to all and shoot straight.
2003 Deer Hunt: Short but Sweet
by Rich Thompson aka Coues Addict
The beginning of my story begins some 30 years ago, back in my high school days. I was hanging out with my girlfriend Valerie; over at my house.
She said “Hey, let’s go see if my Dad got home from his deer hunt”.
“Sure, that’s sounds cool,” I said.
So we walked over to Val’s house, which was only a block away, and she said “Look, daddy got a deer”. We walked up to the garage to check out the buck.
Val’s dad, Joe, had just come home from a Coues deer hunt in Arizona and had gotten a nice buck. Man, I thought that deer was awesome. I had never hunted deer before, and I didn’t know it then, but I was hooked on Coues deer. Up until then I had only hunted birds and small game with my brother George, my friends and Val’s brother Mike. Mike and I often went out hunting, and as I got to know him better, I got know his sister even more. I was falling in love, and in 1975 Valerie and I were married. Shortly after getting hitched, Val and I started camping and deer hunting together; mostly mulies. I had two really good teachers, my father-in- law Joe, and Mike. They really taught me how to hunt deer, spot game, glass, track, pack, and about game care. I loved all of it, yes, even the packing! I killed several deer over the next ten years or so, nothing real big, but all the while Mike kept saying “Next time, try to hold out for an older animal. If you shoot the little ones, they can’t grow up to be big ones”. I was definitely upgrading from small forkies, to 3 points and some 3×4’s, but nothing really big.
Around 1980, Mike married his high school sweetheart, and moved back to Arizona where his family was originally from. He started hunting Coues deer pretty seriously and around 1989 or 1990 he called to tell me he had just gotten a nice Coues buck. He had an official Boone and Crockett scorer come over to measure it; with a gross score of 138+ inches. Mike’s buck is a non-typical 8×11 with a drop tine on both main beams. I mean, totally awesome! Well, ever since I first saw Mike’s big buck I really started trying to kill something nice and put in for December hunts.
I have been drawn for Dec. hunts twice before, and both times I held out till’ Dec. 31st – passing on some pretty nice bucks. Well, guess what! I missed a 120” type buck on the last day of my first Dec. hunt in 1998 and a 115” buck on the last day of my second Dec. hunt. One thing is for sure, I didn’t want that to happen again. I mean, that really hurts! Okay, enough, with the history lesson.
In 2003 I was drawn for the December hunt in unit 32. I was really excited. I was thinking to myself “Maybe this is the year. Third time’s a charm – right? I gave Mike a call to let him know about the good news. He did not get drawn, but said that he could take some time off work to go with me. Unfortunately, I could not make the first weekend of the hunt. My plan was to leave on Thursday the 18th and hunt Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. If no big bucks showed, I would go back on Christmas day, later in the evening, to hunt from the 26th thru the 31st. I stopped in Mesa, on the 18th to pick up Mike, and we headed off to our hunting camp.
We pulled into camp around 1:30 am, and decided to sleep on cots that night and pitch my big wall tent in the morning. We were so tired, we slept until 6:30 or so and then made camp. I cooked a huge breakfast and we headed out around 9:00 am. This just seemed weird because usually we were up by 4:00 am. This getting older really makes a difference in our hunting habits, and we were laughing about the situation. I glassed a small buck right from camp just after we ate.
By noon we were 2 to 3 miles back from camp and seeing lots of does, but no real buck action. We kept pushing to get to one ridge that I had been wanting to glass from. When we finally got there, we saw more does – a good thing to remember if I come back and the rut starts kicking in. Mike spotted a small forked horn, bedded down, not 300 yards up from the does. I told Mike I wanted to get to the far ridge before dark because I wanted to glass the other side. He said, “Ok”. I had just put my tripod and big bino’s in my pack. I gave it one more look with my little glasses. I saw a huge bodied deer in the rim rock to the North of us. I told Mike, I thought it was a buck. He still had his spotting scope set up and after spotting the deer he said it definitely was a buck. I quickly set up my 15’s and looked over the buck. I got out my rangefinder and ranged him at 640 yards. I told Mike I thought he was coming to water and that we should wait and see what he does. Mike said he could see some nice mass and at least 4 points on the buck’s right side, later he could see 5 points on the buck’s right side. I couldn’t believe it, on the first day of the hunt we had already spotted a good buck.
We decided to wait and see what the buck would do. He was coming towards us and the wind was perfect. The trail he was on dropped out of sight. I still thought he was coming to water, which was directly below us.
“I think you better get set up for a shot”. Mike said.
“Yep, I guess so”. I replied
About two minutes later the buck came into sight, still on the same trail. He stopped under a big yucca and we really took a good look at him. He looked like he had all kinds of trash on his rack with pretty good mass. I ranged him again and he was at 296 yards.
Mike said, somewhat surprisingly, “Are you gonna shoot him or what???”
“I don’t know yet. I’m not sure.”
“I would!” said Mike
“You would, really? It would be nice, to not wait until the last day because it puts so much pressure on me, but it’s our first day Mike!”
“You might not find a buck this nice when you come back after Christmas.”
“Ya’ know, your right. I guess I’ll shoot him, he will definitely be my best Coues buck”
I got into my gun and made sure that I had a really good rest. Then, I sat back up.
“What are you doing?” said Mike
“I’m just taking a deep breath. I don’t want to blow this one.”
“OK good, now, where are you gonna shoot him? Oh, and take your time”
“I’m shootin him right in the shoulder. We don’t want him to run off, it’s gettin’ late.”
“Oh cool, I want to watch the impact through my spotting scope.”
I think Mike was more excited than I was. I got back into my gun, put the crosshairs right on his shoulder and squeezed off my old .270. <
All I heard Mike say was, “DEAD.”
I was pumped! When we got up to him we were both pretty excited. The buck’s neck was huge and he had 6 points counting eye guards on each side and a couple little stickers. We both thought he weighed over 100lbs dressed; but that’s just a guess. We got back to camp pretty darn late, (after me falling in shin dagger twice) but it was worth it. Even the pack out was a “labor of love” if you know what I mean.
Mike had an archery tag and we stayed through the weekend. We saw three or four small bucks and one nice buck starting to chase a few does. We also found a lion kill (3×3 with good mass and an outside spread just over 19”). We even tried a little, rattling, with some interesting results.
When I got home I rough scored my buck at 111 5/8” gross non-typical, all in all, a nice hunt. Val thought it was a really cool buck and that made me feel good. It was just a little shorter hunt than I hoped for, but Thank GOD I didn’t have to wait until the last day! Ya’ know, I truly love being out hunting Coues deer every fall, but the truth is ya’ gotta be at the right place at the right time. It’s not all skill, but tons of luck, lots of patience and just plain fun. For me, it’s about doing the things ya’ love with the people ya’ love. Oh, and Mike if you read this, Thanks for all your help.
Rich’s brother-in-law Mike with Rich’s buck. This photo shows a good side view of the antlers.
Rich with his great buck.
Check out the body and neck size on his buck.
In this photo you can see the size of the buck’s neck pretty well.
Josh Epperson and Chris Dunn have an encounter with some mountain lions
by Josh Epperson
My friend Chris Dunn and I drove all the way from the Verde Valley around Cottonwood to unit 32 to go look for Coues sheds back in the spring of 1995. I had been there hunting Coues deer a few years before that with my Dad and remembered seeing a lot of Coues and mule deer sheds laying about during the couple days I was there. With this in mind we headed back down there with visions of picking up a lot of sheds.
After driving for several hours to get to our destination we arrived right at sunset where we saw some whitetail does on the horizon as we parked to camp for the night.
Both of us were quite excited as to what we may see and/or find the following day. We set up camp and ate some dinner and after a while, we crawled into the camper to sleep.
I woke before Chris did the next morning and it was just getting light enough to glass. I set up my binos and glassed the ridges in search of deer. I began seeing deer everywhere as the sun came up. I’d see 2 Coues does over here, 4 more over there and then several mule deer does hanging out together on a different slope. This continued for quite a while and I ended up seeing dozens of deer. I was in heaven! Chris was still having trouble getting out of the warm sleeping bag so I continued to glass. I spotted about 6-8 muley does about 2/3 of a mile away feeding on a slope and above them I thought I was looking at 3 more Coues does near the top of the hill. I soon realized that these does had some abnormally long tails and passed them off as coyotes. They’d dart in and out of the bushes sort of playing around when I finally realized that it was in fact 3 mountain lions! I hollered at Chris to get out of the truck and come look at these lions. He scrambled out of the camper and couldn’t believe what he saw through my binos. We watched them for probably a half hour and quickly decided to put a stalk on them as Chris had a tag and his Thompson Contender pistol with him. We hiked across the small canyon and around the backside of the hill that they were on. We slowly crept over the top of the hill and got to a dead juniper tree stump that we knew the lions had been approximately 50 yards below. We quietly got set up and started to glass. All the sudden we realized that we were in fact already being watched!
There, sticking through a clump of bear grass was the vague shape of two lion heads looking our way. WOW!! What a sight to see. They’d continuously peek through the grass, apparently to check on us, then disappear again. This went on for a bit and then nothing for a while. We decided that Chris would go around the tree on the right and I’d go on the left. As I got within about 30 yards of the tree one lion jumped out. I yelled at Chris saying, “On the right, on the right!” All the sudden the muley does that had been below the lions were scattering in every direction running for their lives as one of the lions went bolting down the hill. Chris never fired a shot in hopes of having more of a sure shot as opposed to a running animal.
I kept heading towards the left side of the tree as Chris was still uphill and to the right of me a ways. As I rounded the tree I noticed a patch of tan/orange hair about 6′ from me under the tree! I said a couple expletives and slowly raised my 35mm camera. I slowly walked down and around the base of the tree continuously taking pictures as I went. I got around and in front of the tree where I had a clear shot of the lion and took as many pictures as I had left. Chris finally got next to me and couldn’t believe that the lion was just sitting there staring at us from about 8-10 yards away. Occasionally she would kind of close her eyes as if she didn’t care we were even there. I finally ran out of film and walked back up the hill to my pack to get more film. I couldn’t believe it when I got back to Chris and the lion was still laying there. I took several more pictures. Chris even took a couple of me, taking pictures of the lion, to show how close we really were to her. I asked him if he was going to shoot, but after being so close to her for that long he decided to pass and just enjoy the moment…….unless she ran of course. The closer I’d get to her, taking her picture, she’d lay her ears back and get a “don’t get any closer than that buddy” look on her face.
We finally decided to have some lunch, so we did, 15 yards from a mountain lion. We never did see the 3rd lion, it obviously got away without us seeing it.
Later we finally got to the shed hunting we had came there for. After all the walking we did I found no more than one old 2pt muley shed. Chris however found 2 fresh, small 2pt Coues sheds as well as an older decent 3pt shed. At the end of the day we had seen a total of 55 Coues deer and 35 mule deer and saw some awesome country and were fortunate enough to see some mountain lions. What a day!
Arthur Gonzales’ opening day buck – December 2003
by Arthur Gonzales
Last year was the first year my wife, Joe, Matt, and I had drawn whitetail tags, which was for the first October hunt. All four of us tagged out with Michelle’s scoring 98″+ and Joe’s at 107″. (You can read the hunt story from last year, by clicking here). Needless to say we were addicted. This year three of us got lucky and drew the same unit but for the December hunt. The only problem we had was it was a good year for tags as my brother and I drew archery elk and archery antelope tags also. We knew our scouting time was going to be limited but we figured we had it good if our only problems were getting to many tags. In September I took a antelope that will score close to 80″ and a bull in the 270″ class in the late November archery hunt. Our November archery bull tags took all of our time that we planned on scouting for deer, so we were not able to scout until two days before opening day.
During the two days of scouting we found deer absolutely everywhere we looked. We didn’t see anything big but we figured with the amount of does we had found the big ones wouldn’t be to far away. We did manage to glass up a big male bear and a big mountain lion, which my wife ended up missing three times on the 8th day, two days before the hunt. This year I wanted to find a buck big enough to rule the household once again since last year my wife’s first deer was blew my deer out of the water. I also wanted to get a buck worthy of a story beside my wife’s and brother’s story on Amanda’s website.
Opening morning was almost perfect. It was freezing cold, snow on the ground, and after the fog lifted clear skies. The only problem was I didn’t see a single whitetail deer. Talk about opening day blues. We decided to move to the small mountain range that we had seen the mountain lion on. My brother wasn’t so sure we should be hunting these hills after he seen the mountain lion. He thought the lion would have the hills cleared of good bucks. Boy was he wrong.
My wife and I reached a rocky peak we’d climbed to glass for the evening around 4:15. Around 4:30 I spotted a decent buck coming around the backside of another hill about 1500 yards away. I turned around to explain to my wife where the deer was and when I looked back through the 15×56 binoculars I saw this great buck following the first buck. From that distance I couldn’t make out exact dimensions but I knew he was a shooter. He looked to be real wide and heavy but I was unsure of how many points he had. My wife continued watching him as I literally ran up and down a canyon in between us and the deer. When I got to the closest point I could find I set up the binos and started looking for him again. The sun was starting to set and I knew light would be a factor soon. After what seemed like and eternity I finally found the buck but when I tried to range him the furthest my rangefinder would mark was 454 yards. I had been practicing out to 500 yards with my .308 shooting 150 gr. ballistic tips bullets. I knew if I could get him broadside I would be able to make this shot. Even though the buck was slowly feeding with a few other bucks I was having trouble finding him in my Leupold 3x9x50 scope. I was switching back and forth from my binos to the scope trying to find him. When I finally found him I waited for him to walk out from behind a mesquite tree. When he came out I felt surprisingly calm and held my 500 yard mark on his back. Unfortunately when I fired he trotted about 30 yards and started looking around. I figured I hit low since he was looking around not sure of what just happened. Fortunately he starting feeding right back to the exact same spot I’d shot at him. After another round of switching from the binos to the scope I settled my cross hairs just a little higher than the first shot. This time the bullet found it’s mark in the spine and dropped the deer in his tracks. I didn’t have much time to get to the deer before it got dark so once again I took off running across another canyon. I had my wife guide me into where she last saw the deer and I was able to find him just as it was getting dark. The mountain I was on was very rocky and steep so I tied the deer to a mesquite tree and my brother, wife, and I returned the next day to take pictures and pack him off the hill. On the way up we tried ranging the shot again and came up with a distance of close to 600 yards.
My opening day buck is my second and biggest whitetail. Not bad for my second year hunting these beautiful animals. My deer has and outside spread of 19 1/2 inches and a couple of extra small points to add alot of character. His antlers get heavier the further down the main beam, which are over 17″. The deer should gross a tad bit over 105″. I’m very pleased to have taken a nice coues buck unguided on public land and look forward to being able to hunt these deer again. My wife also took here second deer a few days later. Here deer will score 85+. Her buck had a body and head that to me looked gigantic for the usually small coues deer. It took alot to pack her deer off the mountain whole. Unfortunately the third hunter in our party had only a few days to hunt but did have a shot at a big buck and a few decent shooters. Of the three animals I took this year, by far, my favorite is hunting the coues whitetail.
