Mulies or Coues Arizona youth rifle unit 23?

[Dadof3]

Looking for advice from previous hunters. My 14 year old son drew an either or tag for mule deer or Coues in Arizona unit 23. He is diligently saving his money for his own binoculars and last year purchased his own rifle and scope. He wants to know if the Coues potential is better than the mulie potential or visa versa. He has taken a small Coues and a cow elk in Arizona. He is so pumped and I think I’m just as excited as well as I’ve spent the last 10 years hunting vicariously through my children and loving every memory we’ve created with he and his older brothers. Thanks for the input

[CatfishKev]

Hey Russ. In my mind a big coues requires more patience and diligent glassing and probably farther shots on a smaller target.  But after climbing a mountain and sitting all day waiting the boy has proved he has salt. 

I'd glass in am and evening and sit tanks in a blind during the day.  Download some movies and games on a tablet to combat the boredom.  We were sitting a tank one day when my son was like hey dad I think we need to go to a spot with more pizazz. Right then a BIG muley crossed the road down from us and we set up.  He ran into some cows and I thought they scared him off so we went in pursuit.  I told Caliche to stay in the truck and wait.  It never panned out.  When we got to the truck Caliche was like, Dad while you were gone a really big buck came and got water.  Oof, I'm never gonna forget that one.

On my daughter's hunt we did the same. Had a very nice coues come to water but we were after a muley so passed on him. I'll send you pins on both tanks. 

 

[trphyhntr]

Muley since coues tags are easier to get down the road 

[bojangles]

19 hours ago, Dadof3 said:

Looking for advice from previous hunters. My 14 year old son drew an either or tag for mule deer or Coues in Arizona unit 23. He is diligently saving his money for his own binoculars and last year purchased his own rifle and scope. He wants to know if the Coues potential is better than the mulie potential or visa versa. He has taken a small Coues and a cow elk in Arizona. He is so pumped and I think I’m just as excited as well as I’ve spent the last 10 years hunting vicariously through my children and loving every memory we’ve created with he and his older brothers. Thanks for the input

In 23, muleys will be easier to locate than whitetail.   While it is a great whitetail unit, they will just be harder to locate and kill.  
 

my son has drawn that tag twice, he shot both a muley and a whitetail in that unit.

[bigbuckfever]

You will see more mulies that whitetails for sure.  Gonna need patience, and a tripod for the binos would be a huge help.  Best of luck to you and your boy.

[Mattman215]

I would do mule deer all day as those tags are hard to come by as an adult.