Completing the circle of a unit post, just because I feel like it is the right thing to do, especially for us non residents.
To sum up our hunt, in over our heads and not enough time.
About 2-3 weeks prior to the hunt my dad’s cancer doctor notified him about some concerning findings in his levels/bloodwork and told him that he needed to get in before the first of the year. Well they scheduled that appointment for mid week of this first week of the season, it was the only available time for his doctor. That might seem crazy to some of you, but this doctor is the reason my dad is still alive and he travels a lot as he is an expert in his treatment of myeloma cancer. Anyway, we were cut short before we even started and because of where we live and the holidays this first week was our only chance.
I didn’t really have any information but my own, and I never had any specific spots or anything, just general information. I don’t know anyone down here and don’t have any inside info or experience with hunting desert whitetails. So I just had areas that I had pinned on my maps that looked good for glassing. We sold out in those areas and I really thought we would see some coues through the glass. The information I read online eluded to the fact that coues deer were everywhere in this unit in high numbers and that mule deer were dwindling and maybe they are, but that’s not what we found. We found mule deer, and lots of them. We found mule deer in every spot I pinned and we found some really good bucks. We couldn’t get away from mule deer it seemed. The first coues deer we saw was two days in after we hiked out of this bowl that I thought looked good, it was, there was a stellar mature 4x4 hanging with some does and another young buck at the bottom of it. Leaving that area and heading to another glassing spot we saw a coues doe and fawn off the road. That felt like a small win! We finally had some validation that coues deer existed.
All the OTC guys we ran into stated they were having troubles finding bucks, so I tried trading info on the mule deer we were seeing for info on coues. Not a lot knew or wanted to share where the coues were or what type of elevation band or terrain we should focus on to find them, but since we couldn’t hunt muley’s we tried to line everyone we could on where the bucks were.
The day before we left I glassed up a young forky Coues with a doe, my dad passed. That would be the last Coues deer we saw.
On our last evening of our hunt, just before dark we were heading back to camp… lo and behold, I saw a big bodied deer leaving a tank. I pulled over and took some film, another mule deer buck, cruising by himself.
Anyway, 4 coues to 40-50 mule deer, that’s what we were able to turn up. It’s clear to me, I don’t know what the heck I am doing on these whitetails and I wish I had more time to figure them out. Not sure if I would have been able to anyway in a full week, but I definitely didn’t in a half week of hunting.
If I had any advice for a non resident in my similar situation, with no experience or a friend who hunts them, I’d say don’t put in for this hunt unless you book with a guide or have solid reliable info on where to start and what to look for. This is a tough hunt for sure and coues ain’t like any other deer species that I have ever hunted. The terrain is nasty and mean.
All in all, dad and I had a great time together and we made some memories together that are worth a lot more than a tag filled.
