COOSEFAN

Hey DesertBull, This was the last hunt. I was there during the 2nd to last hunt also and they actually killed bigger bucks during the earlier hunt! The snows helped the earlier hunt out more than it did for us I believe. There were actually deer moving back into Colorado with the melting snow and then get pushed back, just not enough. There are a TON of deer in this unit though, I hope to draw it someday as well! I saw a couple nice ones when scouting 9 a while back also...They were actually where you found your GPS! The Muleys in 9 can be a needle in a hay stack for sure though, but there are some good ones! Thanks, JIM>

yeah baby! We are hoping for a couple like that Thanks Allen for getting those pics! JIM>

There are alot of broken bulls in the western units especially 9 and 10. I think I have seen more broken bulls than UN-broken bulls and have hunted/scouted both units alot this year. It is also very hard to find a bull that scores higher than 370" in either unit because of weak tops, they are there, but VERY hard to find and that was even when they were in the rut! The bulls were still breaking antlers as of 2 weeks ago with the post-rut activity! It will be a tough hunt for anyone holding out for a high scoring bull in 9 and 10. My hope is that the hunter pressure isn't as bad this year because the bulls are still spread out with more available water sources. I had the good fortune to hunt with a guy who a couple of you know in unit 10 and we anticipated the probability of shooting a broken bull and we just hoped it wasn't TOO broken! We were fortunate enough to find this bull and he is missing his G4 on his left antler and nobody was complaining! Best of luck to the late elk hunters, JIM>

What an awesome story! That is what it's all about right there! A very big congrats to Mr. Redman JR.! Great job with your son Redman Thanks, JIM>

Great bucks, congrats to you and your wife! JIM>

Way to go Christian! Thanks for taking us along from start to finish on both your dads and your hunts! Great job scouting and sealing the deal on both! Congrats. JIM>

Way to go Ernesto! You shared an awesome hunt with your family....congrats to all! JIM>

Beautiful buck! Great job and congrats! JIM>

Great story and thanks for getting some pics of those lions....way cool! Now go get one o' them kitties! JIM>

I was going to say the same thing! That is an awesome buck! Congrats! JIM>

Congrats to the ladies...that is awesome! JIM>

Hey guys, Amanda got my short video up in time to get us all excited about this next weekend, check it out, helps if you got sound on your computer.....lots of shots! Two of the hunts are with Howell Wildlife Outfitters as well. Thanks and best of luck to all of you this season! JIM> here's the link: http://www.coueswhitetail.com/video_clips/...fan%20video.wmv

Alright, hopefully this is it. this should be better. This is fairly graphic for the faint hearted! Thanks, JIM

Hey Casey, I've learned over the years that pictures can be very deceiving! You have to look for size comparisons in a pic. Look at the size of that deers head and ears in relation to his antlers, if this Coues had a Mulie sized head....I would say you are close with a 100" guess. Another thing to look for is the extension of the hunters arm towards the camera as he pushes the deer towards the lense, this is what I call the "Chuck Adams" shot! Some poeple don't like it, some do, I don't like the over-exaggerated ones but I like the animal closer so you can see better detail in the antlers and it does make them look bigger. Josh did a good job with his picture, it's not over-exaggerated but it does make the buck look bigger! It's still a great mid 80"s buck! JIM>

Well we are finally home and in the lap of luxury and I can't shake this constant craving I have for ANY food that wasn't previously FREEZE DRIED! Neither of us had time to scout this unit, but had prior experience there and we were just going to hunt it as hard as anyone possible could and test our basic knowledge of hunting Coues. We headed down 2 days early and positioned our trucks full of supplies and (Dr. Pepper) on both sides of a big mountain range so that we had two options if we needed to hike out instead of one. We packed our camp in on Thursday AM and set-up camp about 2 1/4 miles from my truck and about 2 miles from Shortpants' truck. We found out quickly that there are alot more roads in this unit than any map will show, and it really isn't the best unit to backpack into 'cause of that reason. We had a road about 3/4 mile straight below us and alot of hunters we accessing our spot that way. We glassed up a ton of deer and bucks but not as many as you would think for the amount of ground we were covering every day. We watched hunters walk around bucks and even shoot them from where we were but never found a buck we wanted in the first couple of days. Shorty has killed some huge bucks and had a big bottom line score he was holding out for and I just wanted to kill my first 3x3 in AZ, but still held out for a big buck because of all the effort we were putting into it. My camera was always buried in my pack so I video taped mostly but here are some pics I did get. Our water was getting low fast and the water sources were right by the trucks so we left camp and headed down to Shorty's truck instead to fill up.......actually, we could see his truck from our vantage point and the Dr. Pepper in the ice chest was calling to him About 1/2 mile down, Shorty remembered he forgot his keys and had to hike back up to camp, we stopped and looked back up at camp and there were 4 illegals eating lunch right next to our camp so that was an extra reason to run back up there and scare them off. I climbed a little rise and glassed up a huge 2 point working his way uphill past me. I didn't want to shoot a 2 point again.....that's all I seem to get......but this one was heavier and bigger than the one I killed last year! I decided if I could get the camera on him I would take him....well by the time I ran back and got the camera and got it set up, he had just crested the point across from me, so I missed out on the kill and the video. I told Shorty what happened when he returned and I was bummed, but he kept telling me it happened for a reason, and we'll find that big 3x3. We decided at the truck that we would move both vehicles to the road below camp which was alot closer and continue to hunt the top of the mountain. We had been hearing alot of shots down in the low country and figured guys were whackin' a bunch of spikes but as we headed out, we talked to several guys and stopped at a camp that had a 100" buck and another camp had a 110" class! Those guys down low were whackin' TOADS! We then decided we were hunting way too hard and hiked in that night, packed up camp, and packed out in the dark. We planned on packing in to the low country and did it the following morning only to find people with fanny packs hunting what we thought was "remote" country! This is when we packed back out and grabbed the Rhino and threw our loaded backpacks into it and took off! We were hunting too hard and couldn't win, so we drove the Rhino all the way back around the mt. range and way deep into the farthest place we ( or anyone else ) could go, and camped next to the Rhino! We hunted extremely hard from there and found alot of bucks but few that were shooters. We finally made a stalk on 3 bucks that Shorty had glassed up that took an entire day to do and we never relocated the one that Shorty wanted and made it back to camp several hours after dark. This is the sunset that alot of us got to enjoy last week Finally, sore and tired, we actually took the Rhino and drove to a glassing spot on the evening of the 5th day. Now we really felt like we were hunting the EASY way and hoped it would change our luck. I glassed up a decent 3x4 buck early and several spikes were between us and the buck, but I decided, second to last day, I'm not passing up the chance! Staying light, I left the video camera (bad decision) and Shorty on the point and took off. I made it around the spikes but got charged by a dang pig in the 5 ft. tall grass in the wash! That shook me up pretty bad but the stalk was still on! I belly crawled over the last ridge straight across where the buck had bedded and set up. I could not relocate the buck in the catclaw and scanned down. BAM! There below where my buck was supposed to be were 3 bucks bedded at 230 yrds. under a mesquite chewing their cud with their eyes closed! I pulled out my cell phone to call Shorty to tell him there is a change of plans, but couldn't get him. I then called my dad, who was at home, and filled him in on what I was doing! There was a small 2 point on the left, a very nice, perfect 85" 3x3 on the right and a broadside bedded 3x3 in the middle. I could tell the middle buck had a small crabclaw fork on his right but he had a ton of mass and width and height! I figured he would score about the same as the buck on the right and my dad agreed I should take the heavy older buck. I set dad down on a "cowpie" laying next to me, had the rifle dead solid on my tripod and shooting stick set-up, and rolled em' over, he never got up! Because of technology, my dad got to be with me at that moment and could hear the whole event take place. My initial buck jumped up and ran off with the other 2 bucks and mine laid still 10 seconds after the shot! I can't put into words what it felt like to walk up to my buck, he surpassed what I had hoped for and is what I dreamed of taking on this hunt! All the miles of packing around a 65lb camp, all the hours of glassing and all the days of putting up with Shortypants made this my #1 buck to date regardless of score! He is super massive and wide and absolutely beautiful, the pics do not do him justice! We named this buck the "Big Easy", because of how hard we hunted only to end up in the end on the 5th day, driving the Rhino to our glassing spot, and doing it the easy way! I'll take em' however I can get em' though I had a blast hunting with Jason and learned alot about his dedication to hunting trophy bucks. He didn't take a buck on this hunt but I guarantee, outta the 40 or so bucks we saw, he could have! Next year "maybe" I'll hold out for a bigger buck.......well....we'll see when that time comes! Thanks, JIM>

Hey Shorty, I can't make these pic's any larger? The pic's came over as small pic's on the email also? Anyway, this is the photo where we made it all the way down to Jason's truck and are making a toast to the effort of hunting harder than we had to, with non other than a Dr. Pepper JIM>

congrats on your first Coues! JIM>

Awesome buck and story! I'd say 87"..........give or take 3" Congrats on a great buck! JIM>

Yeah.....that's a fact! If a UDA came into camp.........you would have heard it and woke up WAY before I would have, so I felt safe knowing that......BUT that dang spider was huge and less than a foot away from my face and I had NO WHERE to go and you weren't helping me with it! I'm not afraid of little spiders on the ground and such, but when they are huge and hanging right above your face in a coffin sized tent, just like in the movies, I was almost having a panic attack! JIM>

Why do you think I'm so quiet. Jim has all the luck. I'm on a bad luck streak that I can't seem to shake but don't think I'm complaining. I had a blast hunting with Jim and I know when I do find success I'll just appreciate it that much more. Knowing I was with Jim on his favorite coues hunt to date and having Pops on the phone was a special day that I won't soon forget! Thanks for leetting me be there Jim. Thanks for letting me be there?...........I would not have been there if you weren't there! It got pretty darn scary some nights just knowing there were people walking past our camp and wondering if/when they were going to stumble INTO camp! Our last camp set-up was in a wash in tall grass under a tree. There was a major trail right behind camp the UDA's used and some used the wash that was about 20 yrds. from camp! Because of the tall grass, they couldn't see our tents but I bet there were some that saw our lights on at some point! I don't think I would hunt down there by myself anymore, it's not worth the risk. Shortpants and I share the same passion for hunting Coues deer and nothing was going to stop us from doing what we wanted to do, but I wouldn't have done it without him. I just hope one day my trophy room is adorned with as many huge Coues bucks as his, maybe then I can follow his lead in holding out for the really BIG bucks! Thanks, JIM>

WOW! I couldn't imagine having 3 200"+ bucks in one camp Them boys sure know what they are doing We will be up there on the west side late hunt hoping to have 2 bucks close to the 200" mark in our camp! It was amazing last year, can't wait to be there again! JIM>

Yeah we have bad hunts.......I just don't tell you guys about them Actually, I have been incredibly fortunate over the last 12 months. This was my 4th Coues buck I've tagged in less than a year! I have a problem....I'm addicted to hunting these things and will do anything I can to do it and can never get enough of it! I hope my luck holds out though cause I'm gonna try and get two more in January '07 with my bow in AZ and Mexico Thanks again folks for your reply's, I appreciate it JIM>

Everytime I have a successful hunt or scouting trip, I always look forward to getting home and sharing it with you all! Thanks for your great reply's This buck did have a big body and we are guessing he's a 4 1/2 year old buck, not a whole lot of wear on his teeth but his body takes away from his antlers in the pics. It's one of those bucks you have to hold to appreciate the antlers he grew. I scored him tonight at 88" 1/8 gross and would have been over 90" if he matched his left antler. The buck that was laying next to him may have scored better, I'll never know, but I didn't care, this was the buck I wanted and his score is just the small details JIM>

Yeah....I can see what you are talking about similar characteristics. The pick-up actually is different because what looks like a crabclaw fork on the right is actually where some darn varmint chewed the main beam and g3 down. He was just a typical 3x3. You can sort of see that there is still velvet on the left beam. The kill wasn't more than a month or so old, he's white colored because of the missing velvet. We did run into a very upset 3 1/2 ft. Blacktail Rattler, one Tarantula on the road, and several harmless snakes. I also had a panic attack in my little one man tent when I reached up to turn off my light, there was a Tarantula sized hairy spider directly above my face!!!!!! I couldn't move and Shorty wouldn't come to my rescue so I curled into the fetal position and cried myself to sleep it's actually a true story I'm hoping Shortypants post his pics here, he took alot more of our camps and such....lets see em' Shorty. JIM>

I forgot to throw this in, this is a nice buck we found when hiking back to camp in the dark. Again, I didn't get great pics of it, but it's cool none the less! The skeleton was laying in the bottom of a wash in deep grass and the head was sitting above it on a cliff. I think an illegal set it there. There are no signs of it being a lion kill, and no arrow ( was in velvet when it died ) so don't know what cause of death is. JIM>