Koury Guide Service

I have came back to town to catch up on some work so I though I would post up some of the bucks we are watching in 3a-3c right now. If you or you know some one that has a rifle deer tag for this unit have them call me, we have a couple openings left and we are going to kill some great deer. Here are a couple of the bucks, and they are still growing alot. This is a small selection of what we are watching.

Josh Esparza one of Koury Guide Services guides harvested a deer of a lifetime on opening morning of the archery deer hunt. This buck grosses right at 120 P&Y. The mass is insane. The first three mass measurments on each side are just under 7 inches a piece. Great job Josh. Now on to killing big elk. View the full article

Here is a drop tine buck that we hunted this weekend. Not a great frame but a nice drop tine. This buck is still not safe 2.5 weeks left in the archery hunt..

With the draw out for deer and after talking to numerous hunters about 3A-3C deer hunts I thought I had better get the blog updated and get ready for the upcoming season. All of these buck were killed in 3A-3C over the past two years. When you talk about 3A-3C no one compares to the quality we have killed. If you drew this tag give me a call and we can talk about the hunts we offer in this unit. Also check back soon to see the bucks growing in this unit this year. We are running over 15 trail cameras and have some great bucks for the archery hunters this year. 2011 Bucks: 2012 bucks........... View the full article

It seems that every time I check my cameras I have some more deer that I had not seen yet this year. The archery hunt in 3A-3C is looking good for this year. Here are some of the new bucks that have just showed up. View the full article

With the Arizona Draw out and all the hype of the Coveted AZ elk tag make sure you pick the right outfitter for your hunt. These tags dont come easy and it could be another 10-20 years before you get this opportunity again. Koury Guide Service only hunts the White Mountains area and all my guides live in the area.We start scouting in July and scout all the way through your hunt. When booking with a local outfitter that has a proven track record to be the best in the area you know you are getting the most for your tag. We see every year people book with outfitters from out of the area or even out of state and then those outfitters call guides in the area and try to hire them to hunt with there clients. All of my guides have guided with me for over 10 years and all live in the area and know the units inside out and backwards. Many outfitters out there let you shoot a small bull on day one or two of your hunt because you get excited and have never witnessed all the rut activity. At Koury Guide Service we help you kill the biggest bull possible. The phrase we never use that many other guide services use is "The client is happy does it really matter how big it is". Yes it matters...... Here are some of the bulls we killed in the White Mountains area just last year... All the bulls shown above were all killed in the 2012 season in the White Mountains Areas of unit 1, 3a-3c, 3b, and 4b. And lets not forget the largest elk to ever be killed in unit 3A-3C and is still #2 in the World Non-Typical Archery. Scoring a gross 442 inches and killed with a bow and at under 20 yards View the full article

With only a couple days left in the 2012 over the counter archery deer hunt, I received a call from Andrew to see if we could try to harvest a deer in a couple days. Me and my oldest son Steffen met Andrew down there and started the two day quest. Day one was a little slow but day two was awesome. After passing on two small whitetails that thought they were way bigger than they were. Steffen looked over at me while watching the coues deer bucks and said "that tree has to hurt that deers head cause his horns are not big enough to protect his head from that tree as he attacks it. Next we made a move that proved to be a great move, within minutes Steffen said "I have deer". On one ridge we had three bucks and six does that were in full rut, what a sight it was. We watched the two bigger bucks rake trees and posture at each other along with lip curling every doe on the hill. Finally one buck chased the other off and he went and laid down, the hunt was now on. After a short stalk with Steffen lineing us up straight below the bedded buck we were within 47 yards of the bedded buck. The wind made a quick circle and gave the deer that little sniff he needed to let him know we were there and he left in the only direction we did not have a shot. Now we are hunting Mountain Lions and Javelina. Good luck to all in the up coming Javelina hunts.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IYF-Ia-vgH0/UO2NkqUhLCI/AAAAAAAAA4w/n7tGsXmELP8/s1600/Image7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IYF-Ia-vgH0/UO2NkqUhLCI/AAAAAAAAA4w/n7tGsXmELP8/s640/Image7.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OPh05gjfjWM/UO2Nlb6KmDI/AAAAAAAAA48/idHfLCgnYPU/s1600/Image8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OPh05gjfjWM/UO2Nlb6KmDI/AAAAAAAAA48/idHfLCgnYPU/s640/Image8.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZEsm3G_HMC0/UO2NmPdQVmI/AAAAAAAAA5I/tWBlBQydGdQ/s1600/Image9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZEsm3G_HMC0/UO2NmPdQVmI/AAAAAAAAA5I/tWBlBQydGdQ/s640/Image9.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BxLIuWICNNg/UO2Nm1fn4EI/AAAAAAAAA5U/OxDllKAAWlA/s1600/Image11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BxLIuWICNNg/UO2Nm1fn4EI/AAAAAAAAA5U/OxDllKAAWlA/s640/Image11.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nzROJ10cgoo/UO2Opw941AI/AAAAAAAAA5k/CjuBItSBtEw/s1600/DSC00139.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nzROJ10cgoo/UO2Opw941AI/AAAAAAAAA5k/CjuBItSBtEw/s640/DSC00139.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p5ZggTJTeIA/UO2Oqn8VPeI/AAAAAAAAA5w/QTETopMLFHU/s1600/DSC00156.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p5ZggTJTeIA/UO2Oqn8VPeI/AAAAAAAAA5w/QTETopMLFHU/s640/DSC00156.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vRBQzVIurrs/UO2PKvOz7sI/AAAAAAAAA6Y/-Yu6CJ-4PEE/s1600/DSC00158.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vRBQzVIurrs/UO2PKvOz7sI/AAAAAAAAA6Y/-Yu6CJ-4PEE/s640/DSC00158.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> View the full article

Koury Guide Service had 5 clients for the general deer hunt in unit 3A-3C for 2012. The hunt started and on the opening evening Tyler S. from California harvested his first Mule Deer. We glassed this buck at about 3:30 in the afternoon with five other bucks. They were 660 yards when they stood up to start eating for the evening, we were able to close the distance to around 479 yards before we ran out of cover to hide in. We dialed the scope and Tyler's first shot went just high but the second shot hit the mark and Tyler had just killed his first mule deer. Here are some pics of his great deer.  Here is a couple pictures of Tyler's deer from some video we took in early August 2012. Kill Photos of Tyler's buck! Check out the video of Tyler's mule deer hunt. ENJOY!!!!  Tyler's father Jack and younger brother also had the same tag and after glassing up some nice buck but just not being able to close the deal they all headed back to California to work and get back to school. They were to be back on Friday morning and to hunt the last three days of the hunt. So I headed over to help a friend and also my guide Josh that was guiding two hunters for me. While helping Josh try to find a buck they had located earlier in the morning we located this buck right at dark and Jake made a great shot at just over 300 yards as last light was fadeing to anchor this beautiful 4x4.After Jake had killed next up was Joel his father. Joel had taken a back seat so far so his son Jake could kill first but now it was his turn on the gun. Josh had located a wider buck that Joel wanted to shoot and called me for a little help in watching the deer while they closed the distance for the shot. As they stalked the deer he decided it was time to get up and move over the ridge he was bedded on. After the buck went out of site Josh, Jake and Joel made the move to in position for the evening when the buck would get back up and start feeding. Around 1:30 josh glassed up the nose of a mule deer at approx 275 yards from there location, they got Joel ready and when the buck finally stood it was all over for this great 4x4.  With a couple days before Jack and Alex would be back from California to hunt I went over to help a good friend that was having a little trouble finding a good deer. I walked into an area with Pat that usually holds some good bucks. After 45 minutes of glassing I had located a very tall 3x4 with 5 other bucks. After looking over all the bucks Pat decided he wanted to try and harvest the tall 3x4 so the hunt was on. This buck walked over a small ridge where he was out of our site just about the time we though he was going to bed. We had the move and glassed this buck in his bed and Pat made the perfect shot on this bedded buck. Here is a picture of Pat's buck from August of this year. Here are some kill shots of Pat's buck! Here is the video of Pat's hunt! ENJOY!!!!Friday morning all of the California boys were back and Alex was next on the gun. After walking into a back canyon I glassed 6 bucks and there was a 3x4 that Alex decided he wanted to shoot. We made a short stalk and then Alex made a great shot at almost 300 yards to anchor this awesome buck. Alex is 15 and this was his first Mule Deer also. Here are a couple pictures of his buck from a prior video of the buck. Here is a kill photos of Alex's first Mule Deer!  Video of Alex's hunt! ENJOY!!!! With both of his kids tagged out it was finally Jacks turn. Me and Jack hunted a spot where I had a really large buck that was very hit and miss for the first evening after Alex killed with no luck. The next morning we hunted the same spot but with only two days left we did not have time to loose just looking for the giant, so I had my two boys go to another area and glass for a good buck. At about 7:45am I got the call "Dad you need to get to us, we have a possible shooter". After a quick trip to there location they had found a buck that I had seen earlier in the hunt and he was a very large 3x4. After Jack looked at this buck through the spotting scope he decided to hunt this buck. We thought this buck would be the low 170's as a 3x4 and we were right on. As me ad Jack closed the distance my two boys stayed back and burned some video of this awesome buck. Just as we were getting ready to shot this buck in his bed wild horses got this buck and his friend up and had them running down the ridge quickly. With a well placed rushed shot Jack had just completed the 3 for 3 quest on AZ Mule Deer. Here are some pics of Jacks buck. Here is the video of Jacks buck ENJOY!!! I would like to thank all my hunters for the chance they gave us to make there AZ Mule Deer Hunt a success. A HUGE CONGRATS to all our General Deer Hunters, you guys were awesome!!! View the full article

A big congrats goes out to Tommy Z. for harvesting this awesome looking sheep. He hunted very hard in some big road less country before finding this awesome ram up on a rock perch with his ewes. The area he drew did not have a lot of sheep in it at this time, maybe due to the very warm weather we have been having. After watching this ram for a long time trying to decide if he was a shooter the decision was made and Tommy made a great 400 yard shot across the canyon to anchor his AZ Rocky.It looks like these sheep are just starting to rut when in most years they should be done already. The Game and Fish aged it at 8 years old and right at 170 inches B&C. Awesome job Tommy and CONGRATS again. View the full article

The AZ Late elk hunt in unit 3A-3C was a little tough. We talked with many hunters that were struggling to see a bull period. We looked at a lot of bulls before Jim made a 350 yard shot on this awesome bull. This bull had a very unique extra horn on the left side of his head, check out the picture below. You have to watch the video of Jim's hunt and the nice bull that walks up the Reservation fence and then just stands there until it got dark and then jumped the fence to our side, that's what pressure does. Here we are ready to make the shot as soon as the bull jumps onto our side of the fence. Here is Jim's bull when we first found him on the opposite side of the canyon. Check out the extra horn on the left side of this bulls base. Check out the video of Jim's hunt! View the full article

Jason and Greg with High Desert Outfitters are guiding the auction Rocky hunter and can kill right now if needed. They do not have to wait till December 1. They are probably hoping to kill before the general sheep tags start.

Thanks to the Game and Fish moving back every elk hunt in the state, now the late elk hunt and the AZ sheep hunts start a day apart. That is a big issue if your trying to guide hunters in both hunts. With the long weekend we got out and glassed a couple different Rocky Mountain Sheep units and also some of the elk units we will be hunting this coming weekend. The late elk hunts are just not as fun as the early hunts by any means! The quality goes way down and it is way colder and the biggest reason it is not as fun is they are not bugling.. Enjoy the pics and check back to see how the elk and sheep hunts went! Good luck to all that have elk and sheep tags that start this weekend, shoot straight or shoot often what ever works better for you.... The picture of the ram that is blurry and a little farther away is a different ram than the one with the one ewe.. Some good rams and a couple smaller rams. View the full article

Here are the bucks we were fortunate enough to harvest in unit 3a-3C this year. Click on the blog link below to see more pictures of these bucks, also pictures of some of these bucks in velvet. Did I mention that we were able to get awesome kill footage of three of these bucks and some great live footage of one of the other great bucks. Click the blog link to see for yourself. http://kouryguideservice1.blogspot.com/

With a break in the hunting action I thought I had better try and get the blog caught up to a point. Our archery and early rifle and muzzy hunts went very well with some awesome bulls being killed and once again we were 100% on all hunts.My first archery hunter came from L.A. California and had been on 8 elk hunts prior to showing up in camp. In all his elk hunts combined he had shot one arrow and did not have a kill under his belt. After making him pass on lots of elk in the first couple days the moment finally came when it was time to let that arrow fly. Glen made a great shot at 28 yards as this bull elk put on a show in the middle of a small pond. The elk went 40 yards and fell over. Glen yelled so loud when the elk went down that some how the elk was able to get back to his feet and walked about 10 more yards before falling to his final resting place. I have the whole hunt on film that I will post a little later. We are headed down south this weekend on a Junior deer hunt and then we start hunting Mule Deer with the adults in 3c so it might be a little while before I get everything caught up.Here is Glen with his 2012 archery trophy. Congrats Glen!! View the full article

After 4 days of looking under every tree and walking endless miles zig zagging through the thick draws the hunt is over. This afternoon Russell decided to go to on the uphill side of the draw we shot the bull in and that was the break we needed. After looking over a dirt tank dike and seeing a horn in the air Russell made a mad scramble to the tank. Once arriving at the tank the AZ Game and Fish were there along with another older couple that had seen the bull and called it in. After supplying numerous pictures of the bull and explaining exactly where the bull was shot in the body and location of the last blood the elk was turned over to Russell by the AZ Game and Fish game warden.We shot this awesome bull last Friday morning at 39 yards and hit him in the left shoulder and the arrow penetrated approx 25 inches into the bulls chest cavity. After we lost the blood trail and could no longer follow tracks due to to many elk tracks in the area it was not a happy site. At that point Russell told me "I'm done hunting, that was my bull and I will look until I find him". And that he did. I would like to send out a special thanks to all those that have helped us look for this awesome elk. And also a huge kudos to Russell for never giving up and shooting another elk. You don't hear of people like this very often, instead you hear about the guy that shoots and wounds numerous elk and just keeps hunting instead of putting all that effort into finding there elk. A Huge CONGRATS Russell.Here are a couple pictures from the video before we shoot him. Look at the left third in these pictures and then look at the kill photos. This bull fought right before we got the shot and broke his third. Here are a couple of the kill photos! The right beam is over 60 inches! Here is a short video clip of the bull before we harvested him. Enjoy! View the full article

This time of the year is the best! The elk are thinking about bugling and the mule deer are almost all grown and in groups of all buck just eating and showing off there awesome velvet racks. Here are some more velvet pictures, the deer are starting to look good thanks to all the rain we have had in the past month or two. Look at the feed in all these pictures. Bring on the elk rut!!! View the full article

Awesome deer! A huge congrats to the wife.

After traveling 18 from his home in Virginia Lauren sends an arrow out of PSE bow on day two of the AZ Archery Hunt. More info to come later when we are done with some of the hunts. There is not enough time to cover everything right now. Tomorrow I will post some video of the bulls we have let live another day.Here is a picture of Lauren and his bull. CONGRATS Lauren, nice shot!! View the full article

Here are a couple pictures from the last couple of days in the field. We have killed another great bull and will be posting more on that soon. In the mean time here are some rutting action pics from the video we take. View the full article

Had to come to town to get a couple things and thought I would share this with you. My guide Ken and hunter Lauren connect on day two with this beautiful bull. I am in 3c and the elk are rutting pretty good. We have passed on 9 bulls so far, nothing great yet most were from 310-345. Im not sure how much longer my hunter will hold out with me. This is his 8th elk hunt in the west with zero kills and only one shot. So far he is doing awesome leting bulls walk that most hunter would love to shoot, patience usually equates to big bulls...Hope it works before he looks at me and says "forget you im shooting that bull"! Here is a pic of Laurens bull from unit 1.

Here are a couple pics from this morning scouting trip. Be sure to watch the video of all these crazy bulls rutting. Click the link to see the video and get you all fired up for Friday! Careful there is lots of bugle action! Not for the weak of heart that dont like to hear an elk BUGLE! http://kouryguideser...1.blogspot.com/

Just another day of scouting. It is so awesome to hear the elk go crazy! Enjoy, this should get the blood boiling for this Friday if you have a tag or just helping a friend.Here are a couple pics from the morning, the video is a must watch to get you all fired up for the opener. Good luck to all!! Here is the video of the morning! View the full article

Here are a couple of the bulls I was able to video this morning. Looks like it is going to be a great next 21 straight days of hunting. The horn growth looks to be ok with maybe a little drought on some of the G5's that I have seen. Enjoy and good luck hunting! Here is a little video of the morning! View the full article

Recently I received a call from an individual that was hunting unit 1 archery antelope and wondered if I had a little time to throw his way for some help. We agreed that we would hunt the last three days of the season in hopes the pressure would be a little less since Labor Day would be over. We knew we had a tough task at hand to try and kill an antelope with a bow in three days when the success rate of the hunt is under 5% and those individuals get to hunt for 14 days. It was an awesome three days. While standing at the truck with the antelope loaded Andrew look at me and said are you going to put this on your blog? I told him "Sure Thing" but I wanted him to write up the story part from the hunters side since people get sick of always hearing it from my prospective, and he agreed. Here are his words on the whole situation "When I drew a 2012 archery Antelope tag in AZ I knew it would not be easy. I scouted a lot of weekends and knew where to find large numbers of Antelope. I had no idea how hard it was once I got out! I hunted 4 days with help from a couple friends with no luck. No shots. Nothing. I decided I needed to hire a guide so that I may have a chance to fill a tag that took 9 years to get. I contacted Shane at Koury Guide Service and we went out. He took me in spots I had not previously been in and we got on animals right away. Day 1, pulled back but no shot. Day 2, I missed! Day 3, I shot this one!! I had such an AWESOME experience hunting with Shane and Koury Guide Service that I can't wait for any tag so that I can hunt with him again. Shane is a MACHINE! He knows more than most hunters out West combined! And his enthusiasm and love for hunting is seen every minute you are out with him. He absolutely goes the extra mile to make your hunt exactly what you want. I could go on and on about the experience I had on this hunt, but this would be long! If you want a great hunt, you won't find anyone better. Thank you so much, Shane!" I would like to say that a guide is only as good as his hunters ability and Andrew made an incredible shot on this antelope or we would not have the success we did. Congrats and awesome shot Andrew, together we deified the odds and created another memory. On a side note after we walked up to the antelope we looked up on a ridge about 500 yards away and saw a hunter walking off the ridge toward us. The other hunter walked up and congratulated us on the success. He said it was the coolest thing to get to eat his lunch in the shade of a tree and watch the entire process unfold. He had found the antelope and then looked out and saw us watching the antelope also but from his vantage point it was wide open and no way to get any closer so he just kicked back and watched the show. View the full article

Lucky is playing hard to find right now. I hate it when the animals are smarter than the humans in the big game of hide and seek..