POk3s

As the title suggests, this is my year for a coues adventure! I drew the late December hunt in the unit north of Tucson that starts with a three and ends with a three. I had avoided putting in here or thinking about this unit for most of the last decade building points, but after seeing how they cut tags it put it back on the radar and I couldn’t pass up getting to hunt it in late December when time rolled around. It’ll be interesting when the draw odds come out, to see how lucky I got, as it looked like a coin flip with 10 points last year… I really seriously don’t want your spots. There’s enough info on the web thanks to your counterparts and I also just enjoy hunting for myself and not getting the fast track. However, if someone chases a 120” in any of the earlier hunts and wants to send me the coordinates, then maybe I’ll reconsider 😂😂 . Mostly I’m just jacked and want to chat about the hunt and the unit and ask some potentially different questions as they come to me. First things first. I currently have an 11 month old at home and this hunt is over Christmas. The plan is for my wife and son to come down for a few days surrounding Christmas, to an Airbnb or something we have rented ahead of time. My wife gets to leave the brutal Wyoming winter weather for a fun time down in the sun and I get to hunt. An odd question definitely but I figured I’d ask this group of anyone owns any of these style of rentals and we can dodge the Airbnb garbage. Fat chance I know…but never hurts to ask. My wife said it has to have a hot tub… The other main question, so far, is camping. When my family isn’t there, I’ll be camping somewhere. Side by side on a trailer and a wall tent, so nothing too extravagant. Is there somewhere that’s “popular” to camp? Easy on equipment to tow in and out but not in a campground or something of the sort? I really like to be off by myself and not within ear shot of others, but having hunted other parts of arizona, I know that the roads can be quite sporty, very quickly! First thought was somehwere off Redington Road. It seems to be centrally located so I can move around if need be. Plan B- for now seems like somewhere around peppersauce would be good to spend more than a few days and I can always relocate if I don’t find what I’m looking for up there. Any worries with leaving camp unoccupied for a day or three? Not advised or no big deal? Again, these definitely aren’t normal questions but figured I would ask them openly. Just excited about the hunt and getting to plan it is exciting in itself!

Well it’s a couple days before the last day but I’m interested to know how it went! This dreaded nonresident is finally allowing himself to get excited. Plan A, B, and C is figured out with lots of other plans and ideas waiting in the wings if need be. I just need December 15th to get here… Thank you to those who have reached out to me. It’s been a lot of fun just talking hunting!

Great stuff and awesome job! But I just tell you, if you’re dragging a buck 2 miles through any terrain, let alone hills…well there are just far better ways! ….unless you’re just wanting a great full body workout!

Beautiful!

This was my hope! Glad to hear of some early success. Sending you message now! Thanks!

Ramaswamay mic drop

SWEET! Thank you! That’s a page I hadn’t yet stumbled across!

“I really don’t know what he said there and I don’t think he does either” sent me into rolling laughter. When trump was president I would roll my eyes at a lot of what he said. It was like “man just don’t say THAT and you’ll be fine.” And he’d say THAT. I think he fell into the trap a couple times last night of continuing to beat a dead horse and make SURE everyone heard him loud and clear. If he would just move on I think those on the fence would respect him more than watching him be arrogant about those issues and making sure he was the last to get a word in. Otherwise he did well…but compared to the other guy…come on. And also because nobody else has mentioned it, I really wanted Vivek! I hope Trump picks him as his VP but last I looked, his choices were all over the map so I have my doubts. Could you imagine how badly Vivek could’ve buried Biden last night. He buries very smart people with how quickly he can come up with an answer that is always perfectly on point. It does worry me that he made all His money on pharmaceuticals. Regardless, Biden may have left crying if Vivek was there. I would also pay good money to watch him tee off on Kamala on a VP debate.

A lion tag is on the list! Nothing further required for coati or quail correct? I’m not missing something in the regs for quail?

Understandable. Maybe you know this, but last winter knocked the population down pretty good. The I-80 corridor and western Wyoming got hit the hardest. The rest of the state seemed to do okay and even the I-80 Cori dor gets better as you move east.

Being picky, enjoying the weather, and enjoying having a late December tag is exactly what I’ll be doing. Let the chips fall where they may!

Googling “shin daggers” 😂😂

If you would keep in touch with how your muzzy tag goes, that would be sweet! why are you not hunting Wyoming antelope!? You’ve got more than enough points for a great hunt. If you need help deciding on a unit, feel free to ask!

Thank you. Yea the 11 points hurt and some have asked me why I’d burn them on coues and not mule deer. I think most on this forum understand why, but having lived in Wyoming and hunting mule deer in other states, is much rather burn the points on coues adventure. For what it’s worth, I think Wyoming pronghorn antelope are great. I cooked some up for my wife who is down to try anything (😃) and I thought the antelope was delicious and she hated it. So I really believe that sometimes it’s all in a person’s pallet.

Don’t get too caught up in the 105 number. I’m sure that was a quickly typed out number just to tell me that although I have a good tag, don’t think giants are behind every tree. I hunt as much as I can and usually with subpar tags just to go hunting but have had a couple “good” tags in my life and I don’t have my sites set too high with this tag either. I simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hunt the unit and from an outsider, it seemed like the best place to burn my points. Residents seem to scoff at the unit while having their favorite unit in their back pocket. I understand not giving that info up, but hopefully the years of lower tag numbers the last few years and the December time frame gives me a good hunt. That’s all I care about and a unit with this much history and a high amount of points to hunt it, is attractive to a guy like me before moving onto other units and other places. . As I sit here, I don’t care to kill one. By December 31st maybe I’ll be curious what that coues meat taste like. Hard to see. Regardless, I’ll enjoy myself!

I appreciate it. Thank you. Is that pepper sauce campground an actual campground? Do I have to pay? Or is it just just a few flat spots to use for free? I won’t go past that until I scout it out unless someone tells me different. As far as getting off the road I’m going to try and pick a spot to backpack into for a few days. I prefer to get way off the beaten path. I just don’t want to backpack in too soon to a pin on the map that’s just really not that good. I hope to make it down sometime this fall and scout but a scouting mission 13 hours away from home is tough! Currently I have the 21st through 31st off work with one day off for Christmas. Hoping to add the rest of the season to my time off as the hunt draws closer.

I don’t want to get too cocky with it, having never shot a coues, but I would like to wait until I see one solidly over 100”. That’s really the only stipulation I have so far. I know I’m only hunting this tag on these dates 1 time barring some real serious luck. I’m just fine if I go home without one. I did go down and hunt OTC archery coues a handful of years ago, so not a complete rookie but pretty close. I should mention that if any other members drew the tag, it would be cool to connect throughout the hunt, camp close by etc.

Potentially if it’s a debit card from a small credit union, you could still be in luck that it’ll show up tomorrow.

Burned 10 nonresident points on late December coues hunt around Tucson. Was good to see the card hit this morning to eliminate any doubt, but unsure which unit! How long typically before portal is updated?? I’m sure I’ll be bugging you guys soon. Something like “don’t want your honey holes…” just kidding

Good to read a follow up, even if it’s not rainbows and unicorns. It paints a pretty good picture of what a first time coues trip is like. To make you feel a bit better, I tried the OTC archery a few years ago. A buddy and I went to where we hoped was a bit of a sleeper unit and away from any of the big cities. That part we got right as we didn’t hardly see anybody, but coming from Montana and Wyoming we did the same as you. I had glassing spots pinned and all we found were mule deer in the lower desert, glassable stuff. I had read that the coues are typically above the mule deer and with only a 5 day hunt, up we went on day 3. We found snow, a few pines, junipers, and coues. It was where you’d expect to find Mule deer in any other state, but there were the coues. Not a ton, but it helped us out tremendously. Of course they were tough to glass up in that country and we never really scratched the surface because of the allotted time we had and how late we found the coues. But you can read as much as you want and you’ve still just gotta go do it before you get any kind of feel for it. I hope you enjoyed the time with your dad and I pray he sees some improvement!

I figured that was the case. Good year for border coues…bad year for the country!

Hope no one minds if I bump this back to the top. With the hunts almost over for 2023 I would be very interested in hearing from those who hunted the border units, and what kind of activity they saw this fall.

I’ve decided to tuck my tail and ask for help on trying to narrow down a unit. Many years ago I had posted on here that I was going to do an October hunt in one of those great units so I could cross it off the bucket list. I never did. I took advice from this forum and went bowhunting instead in 2019 (I think). Actually found and stalked some bucks so I considered it a win. Saw nothing big and didn’t like the unit as much as I thought I would. Fast forward to now and I’m sitting on 11 nonresident points going into this years draw. This site seems to have been slowly phasing itself out from where it was 10+ years ago when I started lurking and then joined. Even as of 5 years ago everything has seemingly changed as far as hunts and units and not much knowledge to be gained from folks talking less. You guys are doing a good job at staying pretty quiet ). Anyway, I was all but set to use my points on “SIX A” late December hunt but the success rates and lowering of tag numbers has me a bit scared. I don’t want to use my points on a unit that is currently in a down cycle. I have an email out to the biologist, but no response yet. I liked it because if it’s proximity to Wyoming. I could be there in a quick 10 hours but I’m not going to sacrifice a crappy hunt for that. Judging by the success rates and the tag numbers being lowered, it just screams that something is going on there… unit “thirty 3” I had pretty much marked off the list as I had seen enough chatter on this site about how overrated it was and how over hunted but looking lately they have lowered the tag numbers a lot the last few years, making it a real viable option in my mind again. It also has much higher success rates. It’s not a set deal I’d draw that late December tag. Beyond that, there is basically the southern units. They all seem like a great deer hunt. Also a long ways from the house. I’ll be hunting solo and although you Arizona guys have grown accustomed to the border ridiculousness, I haven’t. I compare it to me hunting around grizzly bears all the time where you guys wouldn’t be accustom to it. It makes me feel uncomfortable with the situation and I’m not sure it’s a “great idea.” To wrap it all up, I’m looking to chat with one (or ten) coues deer gurus to help me with my choice and my decade+ worth of points. A little bit of chatter with a local or two goes a long way in my confidence in choosing the right area. Thank you all, and please don’t hit me in the head when you throw your rocks 😂😂

Thanks Kev, I seem to have gotten that vibe from others as well. It’s not an easy choice. A closer hunt to home where I can easily drive home for Christmas, etc or probably a more enjoyable hunt down south where I’m much more committed and uncomfortable.

Yotebuster, I appreciate the reply but I hunt muleys a whole bunch. Living in Wyoming gives me that opportunity. I’m probably one of the few that would rather burn my points on a coues deer hunt than mule deer 😂 . I also can’t draw 23 and don’t think I want to chase it. I’m pretty committed to coming this year. Wife doesn’t know that yet so that might change things but that would be it hahaha!