Leftover Luck

[Ron G.]

2008 is turning out to be a great season for me. First, a near miss on a small coues whitetail buck during the August-September archery season, then accompanying two friends on their archery elk hunt, then my wife’s successful cow elk hunt (her first), and now my own successful Coues deer hunt in southern Arizona after being able to pick up a leftover tag.

 

Due to a busy fall season, I wasn’t able to get down and scout as much as I had wanted to. I finally managed to get down south to check out a couple of places that azcouesandelk (Christian) and Bill (AZSlim from AZSJ) [thanks guys!] turned me onto with my almost three year old, Ryan the week before the season started.

 

Ryan playing in the dirt…

 

A few days later it was finally time to pack up and leave for the hunt. There was supposed to be four of us heading down south for the hunt, but due to some medical issues with my mom, my dad opted to stay home and miss out on the hunt. With my dad missing, that left three of us to journey down for the hunt. My hunting partners for this hunt would be Bob, who lives up by my dad and is a buddy of his, and Dick. Dick lives in Gilbert and is a friend of Bob’s.

 

After a long and bumpy ride we finally arrived at camp. Upon getting a quick camp set up, we headed out for a night of pre-season scouting. I headed high and Bob and Dick headed down a little lower. We all spotted about 10 deer apiece that afternoon/evening, but all does from what we could tell.

 

We decided to hit the bowl that Bob and Dick had checked out Thursday afternoon for our opening morning hunt. It was my job to set the alarm and get everyone up the next morning. Needless to say, I failed at my job. I set the alarm, but forgot to turn it on. I woke up Friday morning and immediately jumped up realizing from the glow on the horizon that I had overslept. As we were getting ready we saw three vehicles take the road into the bowl we were going to check out that morning.

 

Since we were already running late and the bowl we had originally intended to glass was getting crowded, we decided to hike right outside of camp and see what we could see from a nearby point. As soon as we started glassing we were seeing deer. After a short time we were able to put antlers on one of four deer that were hanging out together, so the game was on.

 

Dick had yet to harvest a Coues whitetail, so we figured we’d put him on the first shooter we saw. To him that was anything with antlers. Bob and Dick moved off towards the deer while I watched them through the binos until the deer went out of site. After I lost the deer I headed to the draw where I saw the deer headed. Along the way I signaled Bob and Dick to come over to me and join me. We reached the draw I thought the deer would drop into. We glassed across, but only saw two does. We discussed what we thought we should do and then movement caught our attention. We wondered if it was the bucks we saw earlier.

 

Sure enough, it was two spikes sparring. The two other bucks then stepped out into sight. One was a 3x3 and the other a 2x2. We watched them feed up the opposing ridge and figured Dick had better shoot the biggest one before they spooked or went over the top of the ridge. The deer were 330 yards away when Dick took his first shot. He connected on his first shot, but shot another insurance shot that dropped the deer in his tracks. Yahoo! Dick had killed his first Coues buck, and we were all of 300 yards from camp. The two spikes hung around for another 10 minutes or so until Dick started heading in the downed buck’s direction. It was interesting to watch the young deers’ reaction to the bigger deer going down in front of them.

 

We got over to Dick’s deer and he actually seemed a bit bigger than we had thought he was. Dick was very excited about his deer. After a quick picture session, it was time to get the deer back to camp.

 

Bob and Dick with Dick’s deer…

 

Dick and his buck…

 

Check out the holes in Dick’s Buck’s ears. Both ears had big holes in them…

 

 

From there Bob and I headed up the hill to glass while Dick took his deer back to camp and get it cleaned up. We spent the rest of the afternoon glassing with Dick joining us later that afternoon. We saw plenty of deer, and passed on a couple of smaller bucks as the goal was now something bigger than Dick’s. About 15 minutes before dark I found a couple of deer that were about 1600 yards away. Even through the 15’s I could make out antlers on both of them, so I knew I was looking at a couple of nice bucks. I briefly thought about trying to get closer for a better look, but knew with darkness quickly approaching I wouldn’t make it far. Total for the day was about 10-12 bucks seen, and about 35 deer overall seen. It was a great day and with one already on the ground we were looking forward to the next day.

Bob and Dick Glassing

 

The next day found us climbing up a ridge near the bowl we had hunted the previous evening. Our plan was to glass our way to the highest peak around from which we planned to sit and glass from all day. The morning was somewhat breezy, and I think because of it we only saw a few deer. On the way to the top of the knob we kicked out two does from a protected draw. Stopping to watch them we also saw four pigs, three large ones and one baby. We eventually made it to the knob from which we planned to glass from for the rest of the day.

 

Javelina…

 

Doe…

 

Dick left us about noon to hike back to camp to pack up and head home. At about 1pm we started seeing deer again. We were only seeing singles and pairs, but enough deer to keep us in the binos and not take a nap. At about 3:30 I glassed up a buck about 1000 yards from us. We watched him work his way down to a wash and disappear into a brushy draw out of our sight. It looked like the deer should poke out anytime, so we continued to watch for him so we could take a better look at him and figure out if we wanted to go after him. While looking for the buck, Bob said he saw another deer higher up the ridge. I threw the spotter on him and right away saw that he was a shooter. I had Bob come over and look at him. He said we definitely have to go after that deer.

 

Bob spotted the deer, so I fully expected him to go after him, but he offered him up to me saying he’d shot plenty of nice ones throughout the year and I should have a chance at a nice one. I didn’t have to think twice about accepting his offer. I grabbed my rifle, GPS, some water and made my way to close the distance some before it got much later. There was a knob in between me and the buck that I wanted to get to and survey the situation. I made it over there and realized the buck was starting to move down hill. It opened up into a bowl in between me and the buck and I knew if I tried moving any closer the buck would likely spook. I knew I had to shoot from here before he moved out of range. I found a nearby mesquite tree to use as a rest, ranged him at 400 yards, and set up to take a shot. My first shot hit him, but he started walking towards me. I let loose with a few more shots and finally on my last shot he dropped and it was over. I hit him three times, two being in the chest, upper and lower. I was very excited and I made my way over to him as soon as I could, excited to put my hands on him. After admiring him I went up to the top of the ridge to where I had cell service so I could call my dad. I wanted him to be the first to know since he couldn’t make the hunt. I called him to give him the good news and share the moment with him.

 

We did a hurried picture session so we could get him processed as much as possible before it got dark. Bob really wanted to get out of there before it got dark since we had about three quarters of a mile (straight distance) back to the quads and he wasn’t looking forward to walking over the two ridges in the tall grass hiding the prickly pear cactus and softball sized rocks in the dark.

 

Bob and I with my buck…

 

 

 

 

We caped him out and had him quartered out before heading back to the quads. Lucky for us, the draw below us circled around the ridge we hiked up that morning and would dump us out real close to where we parked. It was much easier hiking in the bottom of the wash than it would have been had we taken a straight line. After getting back to the quads we drove them back to camp, loaded up into the truck and drove the truck the hour via dirt roads to where we could get about 1/3 mile from the buck to get the meat out. We made it back to my buck and packed the meat back down to the truck. Dinner at midnight was quick and easy so as we could get to bed and do it again the next day.

 

Getting him out…

 

 

The next morning we awoke to some pretty good winds that we knew would get stronger as the day went on. The wind made it difficult to glass and we spent most of the day looking for someplace where we could get out of the wind and still glass the protected pockets we expected the deer to hole up in. We finally glassed up some deer, two bucks and two does, all moving to the same clump of trees. We watched them disappear out of site and decided to sit on that area and hope that they would come back out into the ‘open’ later in the afternoon/evening.

 

 

After sitting there all afternoon and taking turns watching the wooded draw and taking naps, we never did see the deer come back out of the thick trees.

 

 

Being worn out from dealing with the wind all day, we made our way back to camp. The wind was still whipping and our camp looked like someone had come along and ransacked it. Tables were overturned and stuff was strewn everywhere. The wind up on top of the ridge had some strength to it. After Bob saw our camp and the approaching thunderheads, he made the decision to pack up camp and head home that night. I really wanted to get him on a deer the following morning, but was ok with getting home a night earlier than expected also.

 

We packed up that night and headed home. It made for a very late night getting home. Overall, it was a great hunt! Many thanks go out to Dick and Bob for an enjoyable hunt. Thanks again to AZSlim on the great information of where to go and the spot on information. Thank you also to my wonderful wife Karly who is very supporting and understanding of all my hunting adventures.

 

 

Thanks for reading...

Ron

 

[Huntn coues]

Thanks for the great read and pics!

[AZP&Y]

RG,

 

Real nice hunt for you guys. WOW- I've never seen a coues with 2 holes in his ears?

 

Thanks for sharing the hunt!

 

 

 

AzP&Y

 

Doug

 

 

[Hiker]

Ron G. That's a smoker of a buck. Congrats to both of you. Thanks for the story & photos.

[Ernesto C]

A big CONGRATULATIONS for a job well done with grat team work! That's the Spirit of the Hunt right there! Thanks for sharing your succes with us.

 

Ernesto C

[WHT_MTNMAN]

Nice job Ron.. what a great looking buck and great story.. Congrats to all of you.

 

[COUESAZ]

Way to go Ron. What a great buck. That photo of Bob setting with his yucca pole staff sure captures the spirit of the hunt to me. That is what it is all about and why we love hunting Coues deer so much. Setting on a side of a hill in that kind of country keeping an eye out for that buck of a life time. You can see it in his eyes.I hope you enter that photo in the spirit of the hunt.

[fatfootdoc]

Awesome deer, man what a hunting partner you have to let you have a crack at that bruiser!! congrats. ag

[Chef]

Your buck is really nice!

Congratulations! Those are pretty good trophy pictures, hard to think they were even rushed.

Wonder how Dick's buck got the holes in its ears?

[COUESAZ]

Maybe he was a monster buck in his youth and rubbed holes in the ears with a big old rack.

[SilentButDeadly]

awesome bucks...

 

Maybe the one caught a bullet with his ears pinned back?

 

T

[willhunt4coues]

Sweet buck. Congrats.

[AZcoues_addict]

Congratulations! That is an excellent buck, and even better on a leftover tag! Thanks for sharing!

[cramerhunts]

Beautiful bucks and great write up, with great pictures.....makes it even harder to wait until I can get out there come December.

 

Phil

[Hunterdan]

Great story and Pics! Congrats..