wannahunt

I grew up in Northern Nevada and always only hunted mule deer. I moved to Arizona and found that these dang coues deer are hard to hunt. Shot my first, in 2013 during a December rifle hunt (also my first tag), which was a 107" deer. Why I hunt coues... Well they are harder for me to find, which means I can spend much more time in the field and my wife is (somewhat) understanding of it. I use it to my full advantage. Hahaha. No seriously though, they are such a challenge to hunt. I hike long and far, and am passionate about it. I seem to learn something new every time I go out.

I put in for leftover tags too and didnt have any luck. I even tried for the muzzleloader. I just want to hunt, I guess I could try out Turkey hunting. Maybe next year I will get another late December tag.

azgunlaw.com is where we did ours. Fast and easy. There was a discrepancy on ours but we emailed the guy and he fixed it on a football sunday and resent. That alone says something about the customer service that you will receive from him. We are actually impatiently awaiting ATF approval on 6 silencers as of now. We should be receiving approval on three of them within the next month or so.

I personally enjoy the ole spot and stalk method. Its a challenge (sometimes rewarding) to see how close you can get to one. Shoot it long or far, you still have to hike in there to get it.

I only use 150 grain bullets with my .30-06. I shot a cow elk with the same 150 grain bullets last year too, one shot drop. Good round, but I am switching up to a 6.5 Creedmoor now.

Hahaha. You've spotted my wife!! She frequents that place.

This year was a special hunting season for me... My wife decided to tackle the infamous "Grey Ghost" with me this year. She was a trooper, waking up in the morning to hike in while it was still dark. Then as beginners luck would have it, 45 minutes into opening day she would knock down this unique coues deer. Im proud of her, and we had a blast together, as I tagged my deer too. These deer were just the icing on the cake, I enjoy spending time in the outdoors and it was an honor to do so with my wife. The success was already there, filling the tags were just a bonus. Below are all the pictures: Scouting The Day Before Opening Day: Early Morning Success: My Coues Deer:

I scouted the hot air canyon, pretty good place up in there.

Hey everyone, my wife and I drew tags for the 11/7-11/13 Coues hunt in 36B. I just want to get the wife out there and hopefully see some nice deer. This will be her first hunt ever and my second Coues hunt since living in AZ. This is my first time ever hunting the southern units. First let me begin by saying that I am planning scouting trips and this is not a thread in which I am asking for "honey holes" etc etc. I am just requesting a little information regarding the unit. I hear all sorts of "horror" stories of hunting the AZ/Mexico Border units, obviously safety of the bride and myself are number one. With that being said I have a few questions which I will post below. Feel free to give me any experience that you may have down there (good or bad). We will be taking a travel trailer down for a little added security while camping. I am planning on taking a few people that could watch the camp for us too while we are out chasing the deer. 1) Are there any areas that I should avoid? 2) What are some pointers for security in the area (precautionary measures)? I have a few in mind but im just trying to cover all my bases. That really should cover most of my questions right now, like I said Im just trying to obtain a little more information regarding this unit and others experiences so that I can be better prepared for anything. Any input is welcome and I will thank you now for any that you give.

Good Deal, maybe we will see ya up there. Im gonna be going scouting when I return back to the state. Probably sometime during the last week of August.

What dates is your wife's hunt?

Oh my!! Those are some very nice deer. I love that second one. Great looking work as well.

I wish I could make it there, however I am out of town on business.

Yeah from all the reading that I have done, it seems like there are a lot more does than bucks. With GFD handing out some 800 tags for this hunt alone, I figured that this unit becomes quite congested. Thank you all for sharing your experiences with this unit. Either way I am more than happy to be able to go on yet another Coues hunt. I have done some work near Patagonia so I know that the presence is surely there. I would also assume that they try to steer clear of people. My wife is a bit more concerned with the situation than I am, I believe that if you leave them alone they will most likely leave you alone. Thanks for the tip of leaving food and water out, that is a great idea. Gonna be fun, I'm going to be spending a lot of time scouting between now and the hunt.

Thank you for the advice sir.

This all began 2 years ago when I started putting in for the Unit 27/28 December hunt; I was determined that I would make this hunt my first coues hunt. Well I was able to draw the hunt for the 2013 hunting season, and a happy man I was. Now I knew that there was a lot of work to be done if I was going to shoot myself a nice buck. I started scouting, looking at maps and asking a few people that had knowledge of the area. Scouting led me on long hikes and hours looking through the optics, though I hadn't really seen too many of the elusive coues deer. Here are a few pictures of some of the smaller bucks that I saw when I was out scouting. I saw a few out on my first scouting trip which were nice and I kept that area in mind. Hunting season was just around the corner and I had finally decided where to set up camp and the general area that I was wanting to hunt. I invited my father along to share the experience with me. It was decided that we would arrive at the camping location two days prior to the opening day to get set up, and spend the next day seeing what the deer are doing, and then hit opening day hard. That was the plan anyway.. So here is the camp, we were prepared for some cold weather. So we got set up and my dad wasn't feeling well the next day. He opted to stay at the camp and I would head out and check on some areas that were of interest to me. I wasn't seeing much and decided to check out another spot. I thought that I should check up on ole dad, I sent him a message and he was feeling better and ready to check out some of these deer. (he is from NV so there aren't coues deer up there). We hopped in the truck and did a little roadside glassing. Saw a few coues and a few mule deer, as the day progressed into the evening the traffic was increasing with trailers and hunters. The next day we came back to the last area that we saw deer, and we went on a long rough hike. Kicked up a few doe, did some serious glassing. Hiked back and called the day kinda early in the evening. While at camp we were liking what we were seeing during that hike, and thought it would be wise to return there, though maybe find a different way in. We found a different way in and it was a long hike as well, though there was not as steep terrain on this section. As we had hiking in there we found that we were sitting on the mother load of coues deer. There was doe running around and smaller bucks everywhere; where were the big ones though?? After moving to get a different view point of what we were glassing, my dad had finally spotted what I have been looking for! These deer were at the least a mile out and through some pretty rough terrain. We noticed that there were a few nice ones in there, and came to the conclusion that it was too late in the day to go after them at this point. We came up with a plan which detailed our over to there. The next day we started our hike in, kicking up little bucks on the way in. Deer everywhere!! Though my focus was set on getting in where these larger ones were. We had spotted the deer and we had hiked in with hopes of taking one of these monsters down. They had other plans though and decided to get out while they could. Needless to say we spent the rest of our time (1 week) up there hunting these deer and couldn't seem to get to a vantage point to where I could take a shot. Time was coming to an end and we had to head home, it was a blast having my dad there with me. My dad headed back to NV, and I had a few days of work to attend, christmas after that. I plead my case to the wife after christmas. I knew that I had to head back out there and see what these deer are doing and maybe shoot one. Just maybe though, they are tricky animals... The wife gave in and out I went for another few days of hunting. I thought that I would pick up right where I left off. After my first day out I had noticed that there were not as many of the smaller deer running around through the area. I was still on a mission for a nice buck, though I was having a hard time finding them, I only had three days to hunt so I was hiking in early and hiking out late. I had spotted them, they were moving in closer to where all the doe were at and probably had pushed the smaller bucks out. Still not being able to get close to these animals I had a half day of hunting left. My last day would consist of the morning hours being hunted and then driving back to phoenix. I hiked in in the morning and decided to take a different route to my normal glassing points. I made it to the first glassing point where I could view a pond and 2 ridges, I glassed there and turned around and clipped the pack nice and tight was ready to continue my journey. As luck would have it... I was then staring right at a nice buck that had no clue I was a little less than 50 yds away. I drew the gun, aimed low, released the safety and squeezed a round off. I had done it!! I dropped my first coues dead in his tracks. I walked over to it and just smiled. Time to quarter this buck, and pack him out... alone. This was surely one of the finest hunts I had been on. I am glad that I was able to spend so much time out there and spend it with my dad. I wish he could have been there for the kill and especially the pack out. Haha. The deer scored 107 3/4. I took the deer in for the Euro Mount, this is how it turned out.

Great footage. There are some nice bucks in there.

Great story!! Very nice buck. That mount will make for a great story everytime you look at it.

Love the video. Nice job on the deer.

Awesome videos. Bighorn hunting is something I will keep with me for life. Those are some amazing animals.

So I drew a late rifle tag in 27. I am pretty excited, I went out scouting for a few days saw a few, one was alright size. I'm curious if anyone is willing to maybe steer me in the right direction as to where I might find some of these elusive creatures.

I got mine yesterday.

27/28 late whitetail and 12a turkey.