bstpeter

For those of us who have never had the wonderful experience of shooting a coues a mile or three from a road in the desert or high desert areas does anyone have some pointers...keeping them cool, packing them out...and anyone no a meat processor and taxi in Camp Verde area? THanks.

First time out...saw Bulls before I parked all packing antlers still slow day but fun anyway..brought two newbies with me the grins on their faces when we found some were priceless..Hope more drop this week.

It's the next gold rush..lol congratulations

Good lil Story nice Job Gillum way to find your Elk and fill your tag, freezer and mind with great Memories!

Your hat looks familiar you weren't in 36b were you? Very nice Deer BTW:-)

Nice Buck

Hope the guy gets caught and never hunts again people like that have no right to have a hunting lic. Getting drunk and shooting a doe with a rifle wow your lucky the doe wasn't standing in a manner that he shot towards your blind.

I'm from VT going back to hunt with my Dad this Wed...Awesome buck in 6a! Love that unit and Heck yeah a Vermonter!! Even Better!

He was about 15" his antler spread was the same as his spine to bottom of his ribs when I was cutting him up. I would recommend 14" to 16" on a standing coues. Mine was bedded down and I had a range finder I could only see the top of his back neck and head. Judging a bedded deer might be tricky depending on your view.

Looks like you had some great memories, nice post seeing these always reminds me of my losses but also the lessons that were passed down. I'm sure he ment the world to you well said.

Lets see em I have a friend who has a set of the bull we were chasing a year ago I was going after the living and he found the sheds..I think he had them scored at 385 with a 40"

Nice! Always great finding sheds when you are doing something else:-)

Great Idea to practice with Mill Dots if you have them or something similar. I did this year and Used them effectively. I also shot my mill dots at paper from different yardages just to make sure:-)

A little back story I put in for a 36b tag because I had gone years without getting drawn and guess what I’ve never been to the area, if I had gotten drawn I would have to scout like crazy hours away from my northern Peoria home. Which my wife and family weren’t looking forward to. Luckly for me a good friend and Guide Bill Babiash with Let’er Rip Outfitters offered me some much needed Help. Glassing deer in an area like that is hard knowing where they might be bedding down without scouting and seeing the animals in daily routines for me would have been nearly impossible given my location to the hunt. Let’er Rip Outfitters offered me a chance to utilize the 30 plus years they have in the area and I’m not a dummy so I took it….Great guys if your ever in a Jam..look em up you won’t be disappointed..on to the real story....... Opening morning was a bit rough with a good scout Wed and Thursday we had spotted a really nice Buck every time in the same general area but as opening day is sometimes the Buck was gone and we ended up glassing up Does and about 12 Hunters. From 7-8am it sounded like a war zone people shooting everywhere around us some were unloading clips 5 shots at a time. We knew it was a gamble being that close to camp but seeing that Buck two days in a row was to much to ignore but it didn’t pay off. We went to an area to make a few phone calls and Bill said his son said we couldn’t shoot a buck until he got there…I laughed but later during the Hunt. That statement paid off. That night we went out to no mans land and glassed up some nice does but nothing with Antlers one group of does were actually bedding down at 4:45pm, I guess Deer do strange things when its 92 degrees outside. We saw several more deer moving by the road on the way back to meet Brandon and call it a night. We put a game plan together and Brandon was happy we didn’t shoot anything until he got there. Saturday 3:45am up and getting ready we decided to leave really early to beat anyone to this prime spot and we did we were there a good 45 min before sun up and about 20 min before the sun came up three Rangers and a quad came right up to the spot where we were. We spoke with them for a bit told them we were glassing a certain spot and sure enough they said they were going to glass it as well. Needless to say I was pissed off I’ve never done that to someone before and the lack of respect for a fellow hunter just pisses me off. We went out to a point to glass and you could see them walk right over to the left of us 100yrds to set up on the same Canyon. Trying to put them in the back of our minds we waited…Brandon spotted a buck way below us before the sun crested the hills but we couldn’t see him or find him after about 20 min. An hour 4 does and 8 pigs later Bill spotted a Huge Buck about 1200 yards out feeding in ocotillo on top of a ridge. We watched him as he fed for about 20 min his antlers were glowing in the morning sun we were just putting a plan together to go after him and the Buck got spooked. We watched him run off and couldn’t figure out why? About 5 min later Bill spotted two guys on the ridge with what looked like Semi Auto and Huge banana clips they were moving fast on the ridge line looking around in every direction but mostly ours. A few times while we watched them they took their guns off their shoulders and turned towards us we were only speculating what they were doing considering the areaJ They disappeared and about 15 min later about 20 shots rang out in a 5 min period..Wth!! Considering the Buck was gone and I had gone up to the rig to get ready for a stalk and the other hunters that showed up late one of which was wearing a wide brimmed hat like the guy on curious George had the balls to make a friendly wave to me while he was going to glass the exact same canyon we were I had enough. We decided to hunt another section on the back side of where we were. About an hr later we were in a new area it was getting hot as heck already even though it was still early. The area we were in was huge it would take hrs to glass half of it so we began to pick apart the ridge after not glassing anything or seeing any movement we were debating heading to the one spot where we could check in with our families on our phones. I was just getting ready to put my Binos away and decided to check one more finger with two saddles and there He was all I could see out of my 12’s were shoulders a little bit of Antler and two smaller deer with him. I told Bill and Brandon where he was and with his 15’s he could see the Antlers way better. Bill suggested that we watch the Buck to see if he bedded down and sure enough he did. He ended up bedding down about 50yrds from the top of the last saddle with a Doe next to him later I found out that finger was nearly vertical!!!! We estimated the Buck was about 1200-1400 yrds out with a clear view of where we were glassing so Brandon and I picked a route further down that hid our decent down into the canyon wash so we could move up the creek bed to one of the other fingers just before the one he was on. Everything worked great going down the ridge to the creek bed until we were about 400yrds out and we were running out of cover. I couldn’t see the buck from our vantage point so I needed to move closer we closed another 100yrds or so sneaking through cover and keeping trees in front of where we knew he was but went really slow because we weren’t sure where the other Doe was. We finally reached the edge of the finger I needed to get on and had to go back and up a gully full of catclaw slowly crouched down we worked our way through the catclaw it was some nasty stuff I’m sure most of you are familiar withJ Once we reached were we thought we were high enough we glassed and Brandon found the buck after about 10 min looked at me and said he’s a shooter! He looked at me and said “dang Son I’m more excited then you are. “ I was really excited but the fact that I couldn’t find the buck in my binos was starting to bother me. From where I was there wasn’t a really good shot so we decided we needed to get a bit closer there was an Ocotillo and some high grass for cover another 30 yards over but that was going to be tough to get to. We proceeded to crawl with our belly’s on the ground about a 45yrd semicircle to our new vantage spot through cactus, catclaw and high grass by then my arms were pretty numb from all the cuts and my knees were shot from all the stickers in them but I was getting really excited to see this Buck again from a spot where I could actually shoot from. My excitement slowly faded to frustration when we laid there trying to find him again. As many of you know everything on the hills in AZ pretty much look the same “that dead tree near the agave” gives you about 6 to choose from even on a smaller ridge when you are looking for a deer head peeking out of a bush. 10 min pass while I’m looking at the wrong leaning left trees near the upside down Agave triangle just south of the rock pile and I finally ask Brandon to just point. Meanwhile the other does have stood up and moved away from the Buck so we knew we were getting down to the last few min. After Brandon Pointed I saw him right away two seconds later I grabbed my gun and moved a few feet up so grass wouldn’t obstruct my view. He was ranged at 272 yrds I pulled up got him in my scope he was bedded down and all I could see the top of his back and head. I put my first Mill Dot on the middle of his neck and wasted no time it was 30 secs from when I glassed him till I squeezed the trigger. I hit him square in the neck right where I aimed it was a perfect shot the buck tipped over right where he was dead. It was an amazing stock I’m sure I missed a bunch of details but I’m long winded as it is. Brandon and I shared the load getting that buck back to the ridge where we met up with Bill if it wasn’t for Brandon and Bill helping me get him out of that nasty canyon I wouldn’t have been out till 6pmJ I would like to thank Bill and Brandon from Let’er Rip Outfitters for helping me get it done this October it was a great Group effort as most hunting experiences are that end in success. Congrats to all the sucessful Coues hunters! Man they like to eat sleep and everything else in the toughest places to get to:-)

TY Mocha1545 It is getting worse. If I make it to a spot late..I find a new one I was taught to respect others and that includes hunting. There were plenty of opportunities in that area even on the other side of the same hill. Obviously I shot a buck on the back side of it after I left but the guys who set up and glassed the same small canyon as us know who they are...and in my mind they are dirt bags..for lack of a better term. They will probably always do that to whoever beats them to a spot..

Awesome!!

Well Thanks for all the comments. On the topic of the Semi Auto Boys on the other side of the Border we saw. I would speculate they weren't hunting they were moving really fast and 20 shots seems a bit much they may have shot more I stopped counting but what do I know maybe they like to hunt that way. I do know they had Binos and don't think they liked that we were there looking back at them..Id guess Mules but who knows. I did see a ton of backpacks, shoes, water bottles and clothes in some strange places.

Great Buck! I love 21.

Nice shootin

Great Job:-)

I agree with Dead Elk bones are actually a great indicator. I usually find mine in and around an area where I find bones if not entire dead Elk skeletons. I don't agree with a quad unless your truck can't get you close to an area. You'll be on foot when you find them. When you are walking always give a little look back from where you came I found a nice set while looking with a friend and he walked by them while I was taking more time looking;-)

If you know where Elk usually live you'll find some. Don't be discouraged if you don't find anything right away you could walk miles without finding one. I went years without finding one until last year when I started trying to figure out where they were in late spring. I live in the valley so I don't get the chance to get out much or see where they are but usually where I find them there is plenty of sign, poop, dead elk bones, Hookings or scrapes on trees plenty of food and cover. Enjoy

Sounds illegal to me..lawyer up...

Only had a few hrs in the woods last Saturday but made the best of it.

Bet you had a fun time Carrying all those through the woods...I get sore carrying 4 or 5 of those heavy buggers...a few miles...nice antlers