AZwest16

Well before I even get going I have to give a big thanks to buddy Tracey Boorn known on CW as Gr8 White Jr. Without Tracey I wouldn't have got an opportunity at this awesome buck. We found ourselves Thursday morning with packed trucks and high expectations driving south to the same hills where I tagged a beautiful buck last year. Once camp was set up and the middle of the day heat wave broke we set up on a high ridge hoping to get a couple hours of glassing in. With only does and a couple of small bucks glassed up we headed back to camp to spend some time around the camp fire and dream about what the next day would behold. The alarm went off at 4am and we were on the road a short time later. As Tracey and I set up on our glass point over looking an awesome canyon still in the dark I told him "Man I don't know of anything better than an opening morning sunrise." It's just something about a entire years anticipation all coming down to a few minutes before it kicks off. Call me crazy but I wouldn't rather be anywhere else in the world! Soon after both of us got a Swaro's 15's set up and began our search for a good buck. Going back just a little bit Tracey had asked me what kind of buck I would shoot and I told him I wanted to hold out for something better than the buck I shot last year that grossed 88. A few minutes after first glassing light we both started to pick up deer. Getting to the point where we wouldn't even tell each other that we had seen a doe and fawn so that we didn't waste any time in finding a bachelor group of bucks. Shortly after Tracey said he had a couple of bucks spotted across the canyon. I got set up on the deer and after looking them up and down I decided they weren't anything I was willing to shoot on first day probably scoring the high 60's to low 70's range. After Tracey glassed up another group of bucks that I decided to pass on we decided to move across the canyon to another vantage point. In doing so we jumped up two more small bucks and then I caught a glimpse of a good wide 3X3 running up and over a saddle across the canyon from us. Tracey looked at me and said "man I hope we just didn't make a mistake by leaving to early." As we hiked up the opposite side of the canyon I was thinking the same thing. But from my experience down south the further you get away from roads and other hunters is where your going to find those better bucks. So we finally made our way up to our second glassing point and got set up to look over some great country. After glassing for a while it was mid morning and things were starting to slow down. Neither of us being discourage that we hadn't found shooter buck yet we kept hitting the country hard with our glass. Then like music to me ears Tracey said "I got a good buck, man your going to shoot this buck, dude this buck is a stud." Quickly swinging my 15's around Tracey got me on the deer and as soon as I saw him I knew he was a shooter. We ranged him at 750 yards and seriously considered letting one fly with my brand new Savage LRH 6.5 x 284 with a Leupold VX3 6.5 to 25 power scope. Luckily the buck decided to bed down and we quickly came up with a plan to get closer. It was decided that Tracey would stay high to keep an eye on the buck while I would cut the distance. After running down the mountain and up a small ridge to where I planned on shooting from I found myself in a maze of ocotillo. I peaked over the ridge and sure enough there was the buck bedded at only 300 yards. With no where to prone out and shoot because of all the ocotillo, I decided to crawl underneath a oak tree and try and use a limb to steady my rifle. After getting into about the worst possible shooting position I could manage I was looking at this buck through my scope at 25 power. After composing myself time and time again I slowly squeezed off a shot. Bam! Knowing I had to smoked this buck I finally got my scope back in the same area in which he was bedded just in time to watch him walk further down hill into a pocket of trees. Seeing this I started to panic a little knowing the buck did not act in the least bit hit. I threw another round into my rifle and started to scan the pocket of tree's when I spotted him in a little gap. I settled the cross hairs right on his shoulder for a second time and Bam! again I watched the buck drop further in the pocket of tree's and I fully got into panic mode! Knowing I only had one more round left in the magazine I racked my bolt action on more time and picked up the buck again right in the bottom of the pocket one step away from being able to disappear out of sight. Knowing I needed to change up where I was aiming I decided to aim low on the buck's front shoulder and Bam! Well after the third shot the buck was gone and I was absolutely convinced that I had just blown my chance at what would have been my biggest buck to date. I decided to pick up my pack and circle around and get right across the canyon from where I last saw the buck. This was one of the most long agonizing 10 minute hike I have ever been on. I was going back and forth on whether I should have tried to get closer to the buck, whether I should have found a more steady rest, and so on... Finally I made it over to where I could get a good look at the canyon where I last saw the buck. I began to scan in every which direction seeing if I could pick him up sneaking away. With no luck I figured it would be best to start where I last saw/shot at the buck and to my amazement I immediately glassed up my buck laying up side down kicking his front legs. From there started the shouts and yelling back and fourth about 500 yards between Tracey and I. Next we made our way down to my buck and I couldn't have been happier. My buck ended up grossing 93 and some change. Definitely a shooter buck in my book in almost any hunt. From there on we were able to get my dad his second buck in two years and all in all it couldn't have been a better weekend. Stay tuned my girlfriend has her first ever deer hunt in the same unit on Nov 4th. Hopping to be able to get her a decent buck for her first ever deer. Like to say a big thanks again to Tracey for all your help with my buck and my dads as well. Regan P.S. I'm trying to post pictures of my buck but not having much success. They will be up as soon as possible

Thanks everyone for the positive comments. I ended up hitting my buck on the third and final shot. In reference to the 6.5x284 Savage LRH. I love it! Haven't practiced shooting much further than 500 yards yet but out to 500 it is spot on. Also my girlfriend who doesn't have a lot of shooting experience has shot it several times and she can't even feel the recoil off of the gun. I'm real anxious to see how she does this weekend on her hunt. Hopefully I have another good story to tell.

Stud buck! Congratulations.

Congrats on a great buck. Hard to beat for your first ever coues!

Congrats on your buck. Nothing better than packing a coues out over a mile and a half on your back!

I know some of you have probably seen this video before. This is our hunt from 2010 last year in 36B during October. These few minutes have kept me going for a whole year so I'm hoping to make new memories this year! Hope this gets you guys fired up like it does for me. Good luck to everyone going out this weekend!

The camera that was used on this hunt was an older panasonic. To be honest it was very generic but it turned out not being so bad. Both shots were at about 430 yards. Since then my brother has bought a Sony HD camera that its very small and light that runs on SD cards. The all around quality of the camera is awesome and has a much better zoom than the previous panasonic. I would recommend looking into these if your interested.

I would recommend everyone who reads this and doesn't have one to get one as soon as they can. Trust me security doors are a must to have on your homes. The majority of criminals are opportunists and a front wooden door is not hard to get into to by being kicked. Unfortunately if someone really wants to get into your house they probably will. But no one wants to get caught so if you make it harder than the average home that should greatly help out your chances from this ever happening again. Elk77 be sure to get in contact with the officer who took the report or the detective who was assigned the case. In most departments if there are no solid leads to follow up on then the case will be listed as inactive due to solvability and or case load for the detectives. Now that you have the information on your wife's credit cards there is a chance to get security footage from these stores so that you can see who is using them. From my experience these are tough cases to solve. Hopefully the officer who came to your house took DNA swab samples so if there is an arrest made on the credit cards they can 100% link the two. Do your best to stay on top of the officer/detective for the status of your case. If you have any questions don't hesitate to PM me. Good luck and I hope they find your stuff.

+1 Get a topo map and find an area that you can hike a mile or two in the dark and get set up. Fortunately there are UDA trail's in every canyon so you should be able to move quick and quietly. Good luck and the further you get away from roads down south the bigger the bucks get.

I would recommend going by Cabelas and look at the Diamond Razor. They are made specifically for women and I had my girlfriend give a try and she did great shooting it with no experience at all. Her draw length is right at 26 inch's as well. Just an option you might want to look at. Regan

No the draw length is not adjustable unfortunately.

Selling my PSE AR 34 bow for $200.00 which I bought in 2005. This bow has brought down some of my best archery kills and is very accurate and fast. Draw length is 29 inches with peak weight at 70 lbs. Bow comes with five pin sight, stabilizer, loop hole arrow knock, floating peep sight, and a brand new winters choice string. If your interested send me a PM and I can send a picture via text message.

Thats an awesome memory. I remember mine. I'm going to have to try and dig it up now.

This sucks. I haven't had any problems with my camera's getting stolen/vandalized until this year. I got one broken into and the SD card stolen and the other was stolen all together. Funny thing was it was over a three mile hike in from any roads. I think it was a Rancher that works the area. Hopefully u can somehow manage to save your camera.

Great write up Tracey and congrats again on your buck.!

That buck is a stud. Enjoyed watching your videos on youtube the past few years. Congrats on finally getting a buck on the ground.

That deer is no Hybrid, thats all coues. Congrats to the hunter thats a once in a lifetime buck right there!

Just made it home today from a long weekend of scouting and checking camera's. Unfortunetly I discovered on Saturday my first day up that I had joined the exclusive and ever growing club of having my camera vandalized and or stolen as "kidso" previously stated in his post. Made it up to a primo spot and noticed that my front security bar was missing its lock. My first thought was I messed up and forgot to secure it when I left a few weeks prior. But as I opened my camera I soon realized I was completely wrong and my heart immediately dropped. Someone who is too lazy, cheap, and inconsiderate decided to steal my memory card but then was kind enough to leave my camera. I know there are thousands of stories like this that happen every year and to several of CW members out there and I can honestly say I feel your guys/gals pain. As Kidso stated this person has to be a fellow hunter who is only interested in seeing the pictures of what animals are coming into this area. But they better pray to god that they didn't slip up and get on my buddies camera who is also on the tank. I'm at a point where I'm torn because I had been watching a couple of bucks on this tank and was hoping to see how much they had grown in the past couple of weeks, and after checking other spots I was actually lucky enough to walk up on a stud shooter buck on Sunday at one of my other spots. Just trying to decide between sitting the area where my camera was tampered with or sitting the other spot where I have a solid buck coming into that is a for sure shooter. I really want to see if this low life is dumb enough to show up to this spot on opening day however I can't forget my goal of arrowing my first archery coues. What would you guys do?

Sweet pictures! That buck looks like he will be decent with another three weeks of growing before the archery hunt. Thanks for sharing.

I've just recently made the change to Rage broadheads and am really excited about seeing how they stack up to the Muzzy's I used to shoot. The only difference obivously is the from fixed to mechanical aspect of them. I also own a Double Bull matrix and have shot through the side netting several times with the Muzzy's being successful. Just wondering if anyone who shoot's Rages has tried shooting through the side nets of there ground blinds and if so did they have any problems with the blades opening or not. Thanks for your reply's Regan

Looks like the same buck to me. Hopefully he keeps coming in so you can see him develop completely.

Just curious to see some of your guy's opinion about whether or not to use Salt, Corn, or both at the same time while hunting Coues in a non spot and stalk area with bow. It would be great to here ur success stories or failures in reguards to this tatic. Regan

Here is a link to the video we captured during my 2010 Southern AZ Coues Hunt. It was the first hunt in late October. Been wanting to post the video and finally got around to it today. First time ever filming our hunts. Hope you enjoy!

Here are five out of the seven bucks we took on the trip. Sorry it took so long to post. Regan

Great Job Casey. Way to get your brother started on the right foot.! Told you we left some deer down there