AzVTR

Good luck out there NW, plenty of awesome deer out here in 35A. Just got to put in the effort to get to them. I'm sure you'll probably come across a good few places rather quickly. Scooter, good bumping in to you the other day. Sorry I couldn't stay to chat and was a little pressed for time getting to work. Nice to actually meet another forum member. If we bump into each other out there sometime we'll have to kill some time chatting. Had I stayed and chatted like I would have liked to I would have had to call in to work, lol. Wouldn't have been a short conversation once I get to talking coues deer.

As I write this I still sit in somewhat disbelief and think about the situation as it unfolded and can find no other feeling than to think we got screwed, so I am looking for input from those who have had a similar situation happen to them before as well as opinions on what could have been. I accompanied my brother in law out for his hunt this past week into a canyon we know well. Day started out great, got there wayyyy earlier before light, hiked up to an awesome vantage and sat to glass. The trip in was uneventful and while driving in to the canyon we were supprised to see no other vehicles, camps, etc and were happy to see that we had the canyon to ourselves this particular day. While up glassing from our ridge we spotted a lot of does all the meanwhile trying to locate other hunters and again were happy to see no one. We could see our truck at the top of the ridge were we parked and never had any other vehicles come in that we could see or hear (we could follow the entire 2 mile road from our vantage point). About 0930 we start to watch most of the does we had seen start heading down into the cuts to bed, it was starting to get pretty warm. My brother in law spots a deer on an adjacent hillside but initially thinks it's a doe because with the naked eye it has a fairly small body. We put glass on it and as it walks out from behind the tree we notice that it's body looked so small because its head and rack were so big. It was the biggest antlered coues deer I had ever laid eyes on and with the palmations it had it looked like a friggin carribou. Was definately a purely awesome moment as we game planned how we were going to put a stalk on this deer and bag a monster. We watched him top over the ridge and knew he was most likely going to bed just like all the other deer we had seen. We gear up and start heading down the mountain making quick work of the first 300 yards, and slowly moving tree to tree while glassing for the last 100 yards. We had moved around the hillside from it and were heading up the canyon towards it to hopefully get a decent shot at it without the vegetation in the way. We get to within about 50 yards of where we had a good feeling of where the buck was and start glassing feverishly. It was then that it happened. As I scanned the hillside above us with my naked eye I noticed movment to my far right. I looked over to see a hunter in an orange vest coming very quickly around the hillside from where our truck was. He looked right at me, slunked down and proceeded to sneak very quickly in between where we were located and the deer. At this point we don't have any ethical shot knowing that he is somewhere in the 50 yards between us so we stood there trying to figure out what was going on (we were 100% sure we were the only ones in the canyon, I guess we were wrong). About 20-30 seconds later we hear a shot. We stand there thinking, "crap, these guys just shot the deer". However I did not hear any feedback of the bullet hitting it's mark, but no follow-up shots either. We proceed to walk up to where they were located in order to see if they were successful. 1 minute later, we get up to within 15 yards of the hunter who is obviously walking slowly and continuing to stalk in. We whispered loudly to him, "Hey!!!, did you get him". He ignored us, glanced down at us and continued to make his stalk. Meanwhile we hear another hunter talking on the radio telling him to head up a ridge the deer had just topped over. We just stood there in disbelief. With a WTF!!! look on our faces. We headed back around the hill to our truck dumbfounded. As we sat there and discussed what had just happened there is no other thing we could think of other than the hunters deliberately wedged themselves in between us to prevent our shot, fired a shot to spook the deer so they could continue tracking it due to not knowing where it was located at. We really feel like we were had. Again, the whole drive out, no vehicles, no camps, no atv's, etc. These two hunters seem to have materialized out of thin air. Just wondering how many of you have been in this type of a situation and how you handled it? Not sure if I witnessed hunting ethics at it's worst or just someone beating us to the punch. What would you have done? Do you think the other hunters should have given us the right of way after they saw us on the deer and not wedged themselves in between us? Sorry for the long read.

I think it's just bad luck either way. Hopefully he's still out there for next year. If not, then big congrats to whomever tags him, he was sure one helluva buck.

Ya Coues Sniper, that is kinda how i see it from my perspective. However you are also right. There isn't any way for to know the whole story, just my perspective . Who knows, we might have been ruining their stalk. The fact that we were within 50 yrds from it heading at it when they were just coming around the hill and positioning leads me to think differently. Its always a bummer either way when your on the losing end of it. I think that is whats playing into my bitterness about the situation.

Ya I agree. I was definately chocking it up to the woes of public land hunting. The thing that has me confused though is why would someone who was definately in a farther out position on the deer from us continue to sneak in after seeing us standing there only 50ish yards from it when we were obviously making a stalk. I will probably never know. If I had been in there shoes, personally, I would have said, "dang, theres someone already on it looks like it's theirs". I guess my thinking only goes so far though. Ultimately your right. I will never know the other side of the story, unfortunately I can only call it like I saw it.

Great write up and hunt. Did you guys end up hunting 35A? I hunted Oct. 35A and finally got to tag my first coues. Was a long hard hunt but well worth it. I still have to write the story though. Avatar pic is my buck.

I pose a question for all of you. I have spent many, many days scouting for the upcoming hunt. I haven't found any record sized bucks to chase after, but have seen a few bucks here and there at various different spots. However, the sightings have been few and far between in all locations. The question I pose is, how many of you have that certain spot already figured out to hunt opening morning and how many of you just kind of wing it through various different spots come opening morning? I someday hope to find that fabled honeyhole, but as of now still no beuno. Just wondering if anyone else ends up in the same predicament that I seem to find myself on most occasions.

From the sounds of it I just need to keep doing what I'm doing. I've spent probably 14-15 days scouting since August this year and am finding a lot of deer. A few bucks, but mostly does. The more time I spend out there, the better I'm getting at glassing and each trip seem to find more and more deer. I just haven't been able to decide if any one spot I've been at would be any more likely for a successful hunt than the others. I think any of the spots I've concentrated on have to potential to be productive, it's just a matter of right time right place. Hopefully I'll pick a winner this season and tag my first. 16 days and a wake up, can't wait.

Thanks all. Was just wondering how many of you just kind of leave it to chance as I seem to have to do quite often. I've found spots with bucks that I concentrate on, but the challenge of the hunt finds them not cooperating with my wishes most of the time, lol. I think thats what keeps me going is knowing that on a rare occasion that the one really nice buck might just step out. Hopeing to some day have a nice trophy to mount but untill then I've been chasin the little guys. Good luck to everyone this coming hunt. Only a couple more weeks to go.

Oddly enough I also have Viper HD 15x50 glass that I use and have been wondering the same thing the last few days. I've been looking around the internet and came across a good review from a person who is supposedly an optical engineer of some sort named KoshKin. I googled Vortex Doubler review and looked at the opticstalk link. He reviews it on the razors and the Non-HD viper 8.5's but did have favorable reviews of it. I wish I had some sort of enlightening experience to add to this from first hand knowledge but I can't. I do plan however on purchasing the doubler sortly and hopefully will be able to chime in on a review using the 15 HD model vipers. If anything I gave ya a bump. Hope I was of somewhat help.

I'm also in the area. Have lived here most of my life. I myself haven't even stumbled on the the fabled honey hole but there are a lot of deer down here ripe for the pickin. They do seem to be spread out pretty evenly throughout the unit. A couple of good places to start would be up any of the usual canyon accesses. Brown Canyon can occasionally be good, as can Hunter and Miller canyons. The backside of the Huachucas are where most probably spend there time as do I. On the backside again head up any of the canyons. A lot of folks like the Brushy Canyon area. The Canelo Hils are also very good however a lot of up and down hiking there. Coming down from Montezumas Pass the lowland areas are pretty decent however lots of thick stuff. I've seen lots of bucks and does and various other critters like javelina, and lions in these areas. Wether just a run of bad luck or wrong place wrong time I haven't been able to bring home my first coues yet. Not for lack of trying. Too many hours to count of scouting and hiking and locating lots of bucks but their sure sneaky, or just too far out there to take an ethical shot for me. I work and live here in the Sierra Vista area so if you bump into a new model Tundra sportin the Camo coueswhitetail.com sticker on the window give me a holler. Always up for talking deer. Either way good luck if your hunting this year. I'm hoping to finally fill my tag. Wife's starting to get a little upset with the amount of time I'm spending out there and not bringin home the bacon so to say.

Well, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who was biting nails over the leftover tags. I also sent out my form last week and have yet to have the check hit my account and was starting to panic. Looks like I'll just wait and call them Monday to see like some of the rest of you did. Was starting to think a drive up to the Tucson office was in my near future.

There are a few of us down in this area. If your able to hunt on Ft. Huachuca then head to the sportsmans center on post. They will have all the information on deer hunting etc and areas you are able to go. I'm not able to hunt the fort, but I believe that while their draw is also handled through the AZGFD, that it's done somewhat seperately. I might be wrong on that though. I haven't been able to hunt much this year due to furthering my degree but am in the area, living in Sierra Vista. Good luck with bird hunting. Lots of good areas down here. It's been a decade or two since I've bird hunted down here but the memories are fond. Another user Heinz57 just posted a month or two ago and is also new to the area.

Can't go wrong with Vortex. I use the Viper HD 15x50 bino's. While the Swaro's, Zeiss, etc. are probably better glass, to my amatuer untrained eye the Vipers are all I think I'll ever need. They are INCREDIBLY clear and very comfortable to pack around in my experiences. They hurt the wallet a lot less also.

Welcome to the area. Ft Huachuca is an awesome place to start. Both Ft Huchuca and 35A have a lot of great Trophy Coues in the area. The hardest part is getting in after them. I live in Sierra Vista and have hunted 35A for the past few years. One thing I would highly suggest is getting into great hiking shape if your not already. Some areas are easily accessable but those areas are also the heaviest hunted. Hiking up in the steeper and harder to get areas is a good bet. Ft Huachuca's terrain is pretty much either hiking steep terrain or straight up. Not a lot of forgiveness from the trails. You'll have a blast for sure and maybe I'll bump into ya out there if you end up in 35A and not on post. Either way, good luck to you and remember to glass untill your eyes bleed. If I'm not tied up in my hunt at the time you can always shoot me a PM and I can probably come out and help ya glass and spot if needed, just let me know.

I grew up in Southern Az, Sierra Vista area since the 4th grade. Moved here from Germany due to my father being military. Not much was down here in the mid 80's when we arrived. My father was always into shooting as he competed on the Army shooting team earlier in his enlistment, and he always kept us in practice and safely shooting through most of our years growing up. My first time hunting with him was maybe around 10-11 yrs old. We would drive out to an area just south of Tombstone and do some dove and quail hunting. There were so many birds out there that we often would drive out every morning, park the truck, load shotguns and stand at the tailgate filling our limit within an hour or two of parking the truck. Total hiking distance maybe maxed at 100ft. We would bring home 30 dove a day between my dad, younger brother and I every day of the season. Mom was pissed having to buy a seperate freezer to keep all the meat in, lol. High School started and girls and sports pretty much took me right out of the hunting world. I enlisted in the Army also after High School and spent the next 4 yr enlistment having good times with friends. No one else I knew hunted through those years. We were pretty much city slickers. Got married and have a son of my own now who just turned five. We ended up back down in Sierra Vista due to our families still living here. Dec of '09' my wife bought me my first long rifle for Christmas. A Remington 700 VTR in .308, hence my tag. Spent all of 2010 coyote hunting the area and getting proficient with the rifle and was hooked again. My first Coues Deer hunt was Nov. 2010. Friends helped me out and put me on a great buck, estimated at 105ish by them (30+yrs exp hunting coues). I had no idea how big he was, just that he was a buck. Unfortunately I wasn't able to recover the deer after losing the blood trail and having to leave him overnight and try finding him the next morning. A heartbreaking experience being my first go at Coues hunting. I feel in love with the hunt that year. This year I again had late Nov. and unfortunately got skunked. Just didn't have much luck finding bucks. Could of filled a hundred or so Doe tags though, lol. Again a great time and experience and practice honing my glassing and hunting skills. Next year I'll be back at it again, hopefully successful. I ask myself to this day, "Why haven't I been doing this my whole life?" I thankfully have the rest of my life to enjoy the hunt.

Went back and attempted to spend some time scouting the backside of the Huachucas 35A yesterday. Found that some of the areas I had intented on getting a good look at that I had hunted last year inhabited by trucks/trailers/people/and other various large equipment some of which I could see and others I could only hear. Apparently the Bear Canyon area is going to be mined for Copper. There are multiple signs posted along the roads stating that a Canada based company called Stratton Resources Inc. has rights to a claim and they are there drilling to do testing for sites, or something of the sort. Went online to their company's site and found a map that shows a fairly large area of the mountains that they are going to be involved with. A lot of good hunting spots being in the claimed area. Perfect timing to come down and start drilling/mining the area during the start of the season. Just posting this so those that may also be hunting this unit can prepare a little. Going to probably be tons of noise, etc.. in that area.

Not entirely sure but there weren't any No Tresspassing or No Hunting signs signs posted anywhere. I'm assuming that the 1/4 mile from an occupied dwelling rule probably applies here. I'll look into it a little more. I plan on heading back out there on Tues for some more scouting so I'll ask one of the people out there and see what they say. If I find out anything I'll keep you updated.

I'm hoping for good luck too, thanks. I drew the late Nov. day after Thanksgiving hunt. I had the same hunt last year and saw a lot of deer, so here's hoping to similar results. Just gotta get some new thermals. Last year I froze the whole week, lesson learned, lol.

Pine Donkey, I think maybe I didn't come across as I had meant to. I am not trying to be gruff against the company mining the area. I am a little disheartened that it is happening in one of my more favored areas in the Huachucas, but not angry or bitter. Like yourself I also am local to the area. I don't come from elsewhere in the state. I've lived here in Sierra Vista since 1986, so I consider here home. I was simply trying to give ample heads up that suddenly there is mining going on back there. 1 month ago I was out there and not a person or piece of equipment to be seen. Yesterday, a full operation in progress. I do hope this operation helps boost our little economy down here but from leasons learned in the past, when larger companies, especially International companies show up they typically bring their own workforce with them. Will there be some jobs given locally, sure, I hope so at least. Probably not as many as most of us would hope. Just trying to give people who drew tags down here a little FYI, that was all.

As far as the damage from the Monument Fire, there really isn't much back there anymore. I went out the the day they opened roads after the fire and everything was black as could be from the roads up the peaks. However it is now all grown back. Except for the occasional tree with black/burned bark, you would really never know it even burned with how it looks now. Nice and green new growth all the way up.

I also am shooting .308 Remington VTR. The recipe I've found most accurate is 168 A-Max, Nosler Brass sized at 2.10, CCI BR2 primer, Varget 43.5gr, seated at 2.840 (which is just a tad smaller than mag well so I can still use it). Shoots great for me. 1/2 to 3/4 MOA out to 600 yrds. Haven't shot much past that distance yet. I initially tried Nosler 165 Accubonds with no success, couldn't find a good grouping load, my rifle didn't like them at all, YMMV.

I'm by no means as experienced as other folks when it comes to Coues hunting, this year being only my second deer hunt. However, I've lived in Sierra Vista since 1986 and know the area quite well, have scouted around probably 200-300 hours or so on the backside of the Huachuca's and Parker Canyon Lake area between my hunt last year and the scouting I've done so far this year, here is a little advise I can give ya. Concentrate the areas towards the mountains and up into the canyons. It seems like bucks only stay on the Left hand side of Montezuma Road when headed south, or at least that's the only place I've ever seen them. Haven't had much luck on the right side of the road even though I know they are there. I had the late Nov. hunt last year and the Parker Canyon Lake area, Sunnyside Canyon area and Brushy Canyon areas were a zoo. There were pop-ups and tents almost every 100 feet or so off the road. So I'm sure there must be a good number of deer there, or else they wouldn't have been there. I prefer to stay off the beaten path and have seen plenty of deer both north and south of those areas. Anywhere off Brushy Canyon is always decent. Have seen a lot of deer down in the valley off Montezuma's Pass also. Tons of deer back there, just depends how much hiking your willing to do.