creed_az_88

I started the year off hunting hard for a good mule deer buck. I hunted hard with a friend of mine for the first week on and off betweeen work days. We saw a ton of deer and got into alot of action, but failed to ever seal the deal on a big ol desert buck. I told myself at the beginning of january that i would fight my coues addiction and remain committed to taking a good mule deer no matter what. Well it didnt take long before my desire to be back in coues country got the best of me. On the morning of the 12th Cody and I decided to head up out of the desert floor that weve been hunting into the hills. We spent the first hour of daylight watching a small 3x3 tend a doe. What a persistent young buck! A few more glassing spots later and alot of entertaining rut activity later we found a nice tall buck with a doe on top of a ridge. we watched until they bedded. We began our stalk immediately and was within sight of the buck, and downwind on the same ridge within 2 hours. We dropped to our knees and crawled to 150 yards from the bedded deer. It was at this point that cody decided he would stay back and video. While studying my crawling paths towards the bedded deer, I noticed the doe feeding. The buck soon rose to his feet and began feeding also. Cody and I tucked ourselves into the shade of a tree and watched the deer, hoping to see them rebed. They eventually fed out of sight but were angled in our direction. within minutes of watching, trying to find the deer again out infront of us, I hear cody say... "get down, theyre coming right towards us." expecting to see them 100+ yards out I look through my binos for the deer. I couldnt find them. I lowered my binos and immediately caught movement much closer than I had expected. I immediately knocked an arrow and ranged the doe at 40 yards. She fed in a tree as I saw the bucks antlers appear behind her. the doe lost interest in the acorns she was munching on and began walking at us, angling slightly to the left. She was now under 25 yards and I knew drawing with her so close would be hard. The buck now came into the open and simultaneously the doe walked behind a bush, shielding my movement from her eyes. I came to full draw and struggled to get my tripod out of my way. The buck peered right at me and I wasted no time settling my pin on the crease behind his shoulder and flinging and arrow his way. Surprisingly the buck hardly bled, but 150 yards later it was nothing but smiles for us young archers. A week prior we snuck into a group of pigs and counted down, shooting at the same time. i wouldnt recommend simultaneous shots but we did both connect and went home with the bacon. enjoy the pics. [attachmen t=29909:__11_jan_016.jpg] Creed

Nice buck! Looks like "cedro"...the buck wardsoutfitters filmed. creed

Sounds like you had a good time Phil. Congrats on another great buck. Man I would love to go down there and have a trip like that. creed

90 2/8. Shooter despite the score! I'd shoot that buck over many 100 inchers ive seen for sure. Creed

Awesome story. Awesome pics. Awesome buck. Congrats.

Congrats on a beautiful deer. Very impressive deer! Good job. creed

Thanks for all the comments guys. Good luck to all who are still chasin em this month. Creed

Monster deer. Good story to boot. Good job! Creed

196 7/8 nice bucks!

What a beautiful buck. Good job Courtney! creed

Good job Phil. Beautiful buck. You get it done every year! Looking forward to seeing the pictures of your Mexico hunt.... Creed

Good job guys. Thats an awesome looking buck, congratulations to both of you. hopefully the rest of your upcoming hunts turn out like this. Seems like youve raised quite a huntress brent. Creed

the day i shot this buck i started off hunting mule deer first thing in the morning. i sat in the dark on top of A hill waiting for the sun to light up the big mesquite flat below me. as the sun came up i spotted three big bucks-two were together and one was alone. the lone buck bedded immediately after light and the other two disappeared into the mesquites without me getting to pinpoint there exact location. i blew the stalk on the lone buck (doe bedded close by ruined it for me.) I planned to come back that evening to try and locate the other two big bucks. i headed back into town and i agreed to do a little babysitting for my girlfriend's mom that evening. the hike back to that hill in the heat was too much for an 8 year old so i decided go to a spot to find some whitetails in the cooler mountains as soon as isaiah got out of school instead. on our way up we spotted some bucks from the road rummimg in the direction of the spot i wanted to glass from. a little further up the road we spotted some more bucks headed in the same direction so i decided we would park and walk up the creek and if isaiah was up to it climb and glass around the creek bottom maybe finding some of those bucks. well before we got there i spotted this buck feeding down in the creek bottom. as we got closer i could see another buck bedded just beyond this buck. we got right to 70 yards and i could see that the other buck was a good looking buck with some inline extra points on his main beam and a few kickers. 100+ for sure. i decided i would take the feeding buck just because he was thirty yards closer. about the time i made my decision the feeding buck lifted his head and looked right at us. i drew my bow right away and i lowered my 70 yard pin right into his pocket. Thwack! the bucks back legs shot straight up into the air like a bucking bull and his front legs collapsed, sending him face-first into the dirt. he recovered quickly and he ran out of sight. We backed out and walked back to the creek. isaiah was ecstatic. he'd never experienced sucha thing. i knew the deer was hit hard so we only sat for half an hour before walking back to find the arrow. it was covered in blood and we easily got on the deers trail. isaiah tracked this deer as if he'd done it a million times. 150 yards and a whole lot less light later we found the deer piled up. He's not my biggest buck but heck look good on the wall. He had his winter coat already. He was probably around 4 or 5 years old or so judging by his tooth wear. he was gorged with acorns, which is why these bucks were spending their time around this creek bottom. This is my first velvet buck and i couldnt be happier. I spent the first week of this hunt with a few good friends from michigan who were down hunting mule deer. Emmet, the son of the two, managed to arrow his first mule deer on their second to last day. These are the pictures of that buck. Isaiah, my girlfriends little brother, said that this was the coolest thing he's ever done, which made this experience that much more awesome. He's hooked! Hope you enjoy, Creed.

Steven, congratulations to you and your client. How old do you think the "wet" buck was? Id like to know for no reason oher than curiosity. You may have mentioned this before and i might have missed it but id like to know. Great buck for sure. creed

112 7/8 beauty!

Are the mule deer in the burros classified as desert mule deer or rocky mountain mule deer? good luck on your hunt azhunter.

1.70 2.<50 3.30 4.35

Good job Phil. The weather definitely wasnt on your side this hunt. Nice write-up and good luck in mexico.

Thats sweet! Good job brent. That buck is beautiful. I love the face on that thing. Would make a good cape for a mount.

For that unit the last week of january into feb is when theyve been hot the last couple of years.

Great bull. Way to be ethical and pass up a poor shot on the 7x. Congratulations Brent!!! P.S. -I havent seen you out at the plant, i hope ur still cruising the tracks. Creed

Congrats. Definitely a trophy. It sounds to me like you really enjoyed yourself and you harvested a nice coues, couldnt get any better.

Canned food!!! Cheap and easy. Doesnt even require an ice chest. Most of the new stuff just pops right open, no use of a can opener needed.

A bowkill for me is a huge trophy. It's very rare that everything comes together for an archery coues hunter but when it does it's magical. At least from my experiences. And a velvet buck, even rarer. If you do archery hunt and you cant pass the temptation to arrow an 85" buck, then i highly doubt youd regret it. Arizona hunting regulations are slowly changing year after year, so i personally take advantage of any season im granted to hunt. And august/september is actually a great chance to harvest a toad. The bucks are alot more relaxed. They are more vulnerable to a stalk at this time of the year than any other time of the year. No does around. They spend alot of time out of the cover of thick brush during daylight hours feeding and just meandering around. Running away wasting energy is the last thing they feel like doing. Theyre in bachelor groups, sometimes containing more than one 100+ buck. And theyre in VELVET!!! What more could you ask for. But it really comes down to what a trophy is in your eyes. Would you prefer a big 'ol hard horned buck on your wall? Or would you prefer a mediocre velvet buck killed with an arrow and a broadhead, knowing that you had to stalk within bow range and do something that many hunters dream of doing. It may be years before you draw another dec. tag, but it also may be years before you harvest a velvet coues, so choose wisely. Either way, i'm envious of your dilemna. Good luck with what you decide to do. And don't regret any deer kill, unless you hit it with your truck or your wifes mini-van.

i believe amanda has info on this on the home page of this site. click on coues biology and then onto life stages. She has a picture of a mule deer cactus buck(hard-horned).