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Closed the first day of this August hunt with this little monster. A buck up f a lifetime and the best part is my wife was with me to see it all go down. With a now official score of 119 2/8 gross 112 7/8 net Non-typical. He should be the #2 velvet non typical Coues deer in Pope and Young. Updated: Sorry its taken me so long to get back here and update my post. Here is the story of the hunt. It begins in January 2016..I love chasing Coues deer during the rut and Ive taken three Pope and Young bucks doing just that. This year was different, I wasnt hunting alone. My wife, son, and father decided that they also wanted to archery hunt in January. I made the decision that if I didnt find a giant buck in January I would wait until August and get a Coues buck in the velvet. For most of January, I played guide for my family and we did quite well. My wife harvested her first deer with her bow on January 23rd (pictured below) and my son harvested his deer on the 25th, his second Coues deer with a bow. Unfortunately, my dad couldnt find the buck he hit during his week of hunting. I also had some bad luck and could not find a 110 inch buck I hit on the second to last day of the hunt. I reviewed the video and saw that I only got 2 or 3 inches of penetration. After that shot, I no longer use expandable Broadheads. My new weapon of choice is the Slick Trick Grizztrick. Now to August 2016 Friday the 19th was the first day of the August archery season. I had four different bachelor groups of bucks located. I spent the morning sitting in a canyon overlooking a spring and saw nothing but does. After the uneventful morning, I went to lunch and headed back out into the flats. It didnt take very long before I decided to move on to bachelor group number three. Out in the flats, I spotted five different trucks within 1,000 yards of each other. So, I moved into another area about an hour and a half before dark. It was still monsoon season here in southern Arizona and the clouds were moving in and it was getting dark quicker than I anticipated. My wife was off work and joined me. We spotted a unique buck with a typical 3 point on one side and a mess of junk growing out of the other side. I thought he would be a great first velvet Coues deer. I made my way down wind and my wife waited behind me as I glassed for the buck. I didnt find him but I did find three very nice bucks feeding 230 yards away. They were feeding out of the thick mesquites and into the bottom of the draw. My plan was to sneak down the bottom of the draw and let the air out of one of them. As it usually goes I didnt make it very far into my plan, or the draw, before I had to change things up. At about 200 yards out I walked around a juniper and I saw a buck looking right at me from 90 yards away. I slowly moved back behind the juniper and waited. Fortunately, it didnt take long before things got interesting. I watched through the branches waiting for that buck to move on or bolt and I saw something moving behind him. It was a couple more bucks that had no idea I was there and they started down the draw right towards me. I held tight behind the juniper and the bucks started filing across the hillside at 60 yards. I started to count and got to 9 before I saw what I thought was just a nice 4x4. I waited for him to stop. He was quartering towards me slightly when I released the first arrow. It hit him perfect and he jumped up the hill and stopped broadside at 60 yards again. Without hesitation, I sent another arrow sailing through him. Still having no idea where I was, he ran off the hillside and bedded 40 yards in front of me. It started raining and I could see his head still up and alert. With the rain coming down I decided to sneak around the brush and shoot him again. As I got closer I heard what sounded like him kicking, maybe trying to get up. It wasnt him...a herd of Javelina popped up out of the draw right in front of him and he jumped up and ran around the brush right to me. I was ready and I put a third arrow through him at 15 yards. After the third shot he ran over a small berm and out of sight. The rain started coming down a little harder and I wasted no time looking for blood and the buck because I knew after three arrows he couldnt have gone far. I found him dead about 40 yards from where he disappeared over the berm. As I walked up, I noticed a couple extra points on him. I didnt pick him up immediately because I wanted my wife to see. I went back to get her from her vantage point where she informed me she watched the action unfold. Once we got back to the buck and pulled his head out of the brush, I knew this was a monster Coues buck. I had no idea when I shot him that he had all those extra points or the incredible mass. I was speechless, I had my first velvet Coues deer and he is a buck of a lifetime. He has 8 points on one side and 6 on the other.

What a year, 2016 Archery Coues Deer. I bought my daughter Kaleigh her first PSE Fever bow for her 15th birthday in July of 2016. I took her out to the archery range and told her not to get discouraged if she missed the target the first few shots , we were just going to sight in her new bow. I told her she would be lucky just to hit the target, let alone the pie plate. Much to my surprise she was immediately hitting the 10 inch pie plate consistently at both 20 and 30 yards on our first range outing, We had practiced a few more times and to be honest, she was outshooting me. I had already hunted a few days on the August archery deer hunt and has passed on a couple of small bucks. I had mentioned to Kaleigh that I had passed on some little bucks and felt pretty sure she could shoot a deer if she wanted. Again I was surprised when she said, "Heck Yeah". We went and bought her tag on Saturday and headed out before the crack of dawn on Sunday. At our hunting location, Kaleigh said, "Dad there are some deer coming our way". I hadn't noticed because they had come in from behind us, fortunately the wind was still in our favor. In the group of 4 deer, where was a spike buck. I told Kaleigh, "there you go baby, 24 yards, your first buck if you want". She looks over at me and shook her head and said, "Dad, I don't want to shoot a little one". With a little bit of resistance from me and a short, "any buck with a bow is a good buck", she again said, "I don't want to shoot a little one". With a sense of pride, I told her, well you can't shoot a big one if you shoot a little one! She nodded with a big grin. While i was still watching the 4 original deer walk away, from our left, Kaleigh said, "Dad, there's a buck, and he's a big one". Darn, if I didn't start shaking like a leaf, I told her, "don't move a muscle, he's walking right to us". When the buck was about 28 yards out, broadside, I told her to draw. I told her to go ahead and shoot when she had a clear shot. No sooner did I say that, she let her gold tip arrow and grim reaper broad-head fly. With the Luminock glowing bright green, I watched as it penetrated the Bucks vitals! I instantly knew she had harvested a buck of dreams. I couldn't be more proud of my little girl. A couple of days later, on my last day last chance to hunt I harvested this buck as well. My daughter showed up her Dad, but I couldn't be more proud.

So I found this buck last year and thought he was a good buck and a cool looking buck because he had a drop-tine, first one I had seen on the hoof. I was lucky enough to find him again this year and was amazed at how much bigger his antlers were this year. The first pic was in my coues buck calendar last year and this buck is on the cover and in this years calendar. How many inches do you think he added in one year? p.s. There are still calendars available in the CWT store and I can meet up with you if you live near Mesa. Thanks, Pixman aka Darren

I feel really lucky to have taken some of my best coues bucks photos ever in the last few weeks and wanted to share a few more I took over the weekend. Yes the small buck is missing a front leg but he was getting around pretty good and hanging with a doe.

A few years ago I set a goal of getting a great pic of an above average coues. I knew it would be difficult but I told myself to keep trying and don't give up on what seemed almost impossible. I hiked and drove many miles trying different locations over and over with poor results or not quite big enough bucks. Well I had a couple of days off this week and finally got lucky with a great coues buck, he is a 5x5 with a small kicker off of his right side. I didn't expect to find a buck like this but was very excited when I found him and I knew I had accomplished my goal. Here are a few pics of him and some other deer I found on the trip!

Last year, I started getting the itch to hunt the "grey ghost". I decided after not being drawn for deer, to purchase a left over tag to Unit 35A. My brother in law had family down in Sierra Vista and had never taken a coues buck before. We got 2 tags to Unit 35A and went glassing a few times before the hunt. The night we got there, his family knew a nice canyon where it holds some decent bucks. We decided to try there. So, opening day we got into a glassing position. It was not long before the deer start showing up in our binos. After allowing them to bed we started to make our way closer. We could not cut the distance enough to make a successful shot. We decided to come to the same canyon the next morning, but on the opposite side of the canyon. I was on an edge of a cliff when we spotted the buck that was worth taking. My brother in law decided to climb up on the next ridge to close the gap to the buck. I had the buck bedded down at 400yds. Through communication with each other, my brother in law was able to make a shot at 250yds and bag his buck. DIY hunting is the only way to go. It is super tough, but most rewarding.

I am a day late dollar short on posting these photos from my 2012 Coues Hunt. I hope you enjoy.

My brother is pretty amazing! He decided years ago to take it upon himself to ask one of the best taxidermist in the industry if he could apprentice under him. After learning the trade he has since then got his license and continues to do some amazing work. Jones Wildlife Taxidermy.

I have a couple of 11x14 prints of a coues buck (same one different pose) that I am looking to sale. If anyone is interested text me at (602)920-4818 and I will send a pic message of the photos. I am selling them for $20.00 a piece. Thanks, Pixman aka Darren

A few more pics...