Leaderboard

Hadn’t seen much rut activity this Jan until a week ago. After a few days of rain I found 14 bucks all w does. Too many deer on the Mnt to even get in there and hunt one of them. Came back a week later and saw a buck stand up at 8Am w 3 does. Range was 1500 yards. Got the spotter out to check the details. 3x3=go time. Made a plan to get half way and try to relocate. From that spot I couldn’t see into the cut he was working down. I glassed one of his does and decided to close the distance to see if I would be able to see into that cut and maybe make a play. Got to the skyline of that cut with perfect wind and some cover I was able to see the buck behind an ocotillo. Range was 82 yards. I knocked an arrow and dialed the slider to 82. If he steps out I will get a chance. 1 well placed arrow and he ran for 2 seconds. Made a trip to the truck to drop all my gear and hiked back to process him and pack out. I could not be happier. I’ve been trying to do a solo spot and stalk Coues for 10 years now.

It was a tough year to be a coues hunter... managed to scrape out a decent buck, thought I would share.

Buck scored 127 7/8

Had a good December hunt! After a couple years of tag soup we were overdue. Between work, travel, and family schedules our time was pretty limited to get out. Had a few good days with some good bucks spotted that didn’t present any shot opportunities and the warm weather didn’t help. These two had read the script and showed up at first light exactly where we had hoped to find deer. After we figured out our play and were moving closer, the herd of at least 12-15 topped out and moved onto the next ridge. Sneaking to the top to begin searching for the bucks, the herd had really spread out and all we could find were does everywhere. Finally spotted one of the bucks way down low and started setting up for the 260yd shot. My buddy spotted the other buck and we decided which one looked better and presented the best shot. Boom…dropped right there. The second buck didn’t even move after the shot and gave us time to get set up for another shot. Boom…dropped right there within about 25 yards of each other. Radioed our friends who had been helping spot for us to bring the packs and knives! They even brought a couple of cold brews from the truck to help celebrate. Nice having a youngster in the group with a strong back to help pack out too! The two of us have been hunting together for over 10 years and have had some great times and quite a few misses and servings of tag soup. First time we’ve ever even had a chance for a double together so it was really special.

If you apply on the same app, you will both fall under the non-resident cap. You would be handicapping him severely by putting in on the same application.

heck of a shot placement for 82 yards!

I’ll take any Kaibab hunt anytime…however, I quit putting in for it as it takes too flipping long to draw even an early tag anymore. I can’t leave bonus points in my will, so I’m using them as fast as I can get them , lol

It's also very unlikely that he got caught cheating the rules the very first time he did it. Quite likely there was a ton of other shady stuff happening. Same with the Wards that show up here every so often to defend their corrupt operation.

What tf do I have to do with this?

I was in a situation where I had 36 points. I knew we were moving out of State and wanted a bison. I also wanted the whole family to participate. Raymond Ranch was perfect for that. I also had the pressure of a Commissioner and two higher-level G$F Supervisors as spectators for my hunt. I had to shoot a steel target at 100 yds and then onto the hunt. Shot a nice cow at 100 yds. in the magic triangle. Heart shot to be exact!

Do you know how many assholes now live in this state ?? Especially the Phx metro area. Explaines alot

The screen shot thing worked. Here’s the pics.

Coues tag started Dec 15 on Ft. Huachuca and I hadn’t had much time to hunt, so I broke away on 30th for a quick day trip. Hit the road at 3:30 AM, buck down by 8:30, and back home by noon. Glassed all morning, only picking up does and no sign of bucks. I was just about ready to pack up and move when I gave it one last look. Caught a flick of movement that gave him away. He was tucked in perfectly—never saw his head or antlers—but his body size told me he was a buck. He was about 400 yards out with no shot, so I ditched my gear and closed the distance to 225. At first I couldn’t find him and thought he might’ve slipped out, but after slowing down I picked up his legs in the same spot—standing now, still no shot. If he dipped, I was done. Instead, he turned in place and bedded back down, opening up a small 12-inch window through the brush. That was all I needed. He never made it out of his bed. Shout out to all the guys on here that gave me some knowledge and pointers! Thanks a ton! Tried adding more pics, but wouldn’t let me got some reason.

If you are in the west valley I have new palmetto stripped lowers available. $40

I'm seriously thinking about north east Tennessee hopefully on a lake. You can get two deer and two turkeys every year along with the other critters. And big fish! Will see how it plays out. Good luck on the next move!

We drew the early Nov tag in southern AZ and were very fortunate to get perfect weather. Opening morning was supposed to be 25*. We made a plan to hike up and in to an area we have wanted to explore before. Without knowing how ruff this hike would be we finally made it 2 miles into where we wanted to be. We found a few deer but we were still 700+ yards from how high deer were feeding. We decided to make that climb too and get to the elevation we needed. All that work and no shooters. After considering staying put for the evening hunt we finally agreed to back out and not risk a very hard hike out in the dark that night. Turned out to be 5+ miles round trip and a ton of elevation. Sucked. Our legs were cooked for the day so for the evening hunt we decided to “take it easy” and glass closer to the truck. Go figure….That worked. My son found a decent buck at 1200 yards and we made a move to go get a closer look. That hike turned out to be just as nasty as the morning. We got to 525 yards and sat and watched him and decided I would try to take a shot. Getting settled in on the rifle my son said “wait!” There’s a better buck right there too. I located that buck and got another “wait!” Dad there’s a giant right there. I was not able to find that deer and wasted no time turning the rifle over to him. Ranged him at 535, dialed to that, Perfect shot! Unreal. So happy for him. He deserves it. He found that buck and found my buck on Sunday too. Mine went 91” and is my best buck, 715 yards. Super fun hunt. We ended up hiking 10 miles opening day. So worth it. We’ve never had an opportunity on a buck like his before. Any score guesses?

Inflation

It’s alright, when you screw up one day there will be some forum written on your petty mistake where guys are picking you apart. These are good guys, that have helped a lot of people learn and experience the outdoors. This is a petty mistake that really doesn’t matter in the grande scheme of life.

Yeah... I'm a spot and stalk guy, would be a bad year to sit water and I don't like to sit either. I had a late rifle coues that I hunted after Christmas, super tough, no deer movement and could never turn up a mature buck so I ate the tag. Started the new year with archery, tough go with the moon, temperatures and rain. Seemed as though there was rut activity throughout the hunt in every unit I hunted but the movement was less than an hour a day. As the hunt progressed, deer movement increased, but the deer were really spread out with the abundance of green forage everywhere. By the end of the hunt bucks were rutting hard, but they were locked down on a hot doe and were tough to turn up unless it was early and they were running or chasing off other bucks. Most bucks were still in heavy cover including the buck I killed. Just happened to watch him run a smaller buck off and return to his doe, I crept in the thick crap with him and snuck an arrow in... toughest year I've had for turning up good deer, so I feel like I was fortunate to have killed. Only saw 1 really good buck, 100+, and maybe 3-4 in the 80-90" range in 22 days of hunting. Quality and population has been trending downward for the last 10 years for sure IMO...

Ya,this was back in 1989,I didn't realize they would let people go out on their own now

My daughter had the tag a couple years ago, and that's what we did. After checking in we left on foot from the ranch house. I took most of the day to make a good stock and use terrain to sneak in. My daughter being young, 14 at the time had no idea it was a "canned high fence hunt". Fun experience.

you can make it as easy or hard as you want. Most hunters are successful quickly and most hunters want it that way, but if you want to find and stalk them all by yourself thats allowed now. I'm assuming this was back when you had to be "guided"/accompanied by GFD employees.

Guess what, if you hunt long enough, in enough places, you’re gonna make a mistake. And when you do, you’ll realize we are all human. All you guys care about is crucifying anyone you can.

Looks better than decent to me!

Pictures Added