3 Weeks In Coues Heaven.......

[COOSEFAN]

Howdy folks, I'm finally back from spending 3 weeks in some of the best coues country I've ever hunted! I've got hundreds of pics and countless stories from my experiences these past few weeks, I'll try to keep it brief and illustrate my favorite events!

 

 

I didn't have the money to hunt for myself this year but i knew that if I found a giant i could use my guide wages to pay for the tag and my rifle was with me everywhere i went! My client was to show up during the 2nd week so the first week was used to scout and learn new ranches. It was during this time that I made the biggest mistake I've ever made in my coues hunting career. While on a new ranch and with my mexican partner and the non-english speaking ranch owner, we were driving when all of a sudden the biggest and heaviest 3 point coues I've ever seen alive runs across the trail in front of us! I screamed "Grande!" repeatedly as I slammed the truck into park while it was still rolling, and all in the same motion I jumped out with my rifle and ran up the hill 20 yards to get a clear lane. I made a noise to stop the buck broadside, my crosshair was resting solid on his shoulder and I started applying pressure on the trigger! It was at this moment that I had second thoughts on what I was doing, I for some reason thought I needed the ranchers permission to take this deer! I let off, looked at my partner and the ranch owner who were leaning out the window of the truck watching the buck. I tried to call my partner but he couldn't hear me so I got back on the buck who is still broadside at 120 yards. I started to pull the trigger again and just felt like I needed to hear one of my friends give me the OK to take em! I now yelled at my friend and said "I'm gonna take em'" and this time he looked at me and said "WHY YOU NO SHOOT JEEM"??? By now I'm losing my composure but I get back on the buck just as he turns and trots straight away. I almost let it fly at this point but thought he would turn and he never did has he completely dissappeared in a small cut. I was extremely sick to my stomach especially after looking at the ranchers face and hearing that he thought I was crazy for not shooting! I set up above the cut and had my friends do a push which did push the buck out but he never stopped for a shot and the distance was too far for a moving shot so I passed. I marked the trail he went up and found the water source he had come from which was a small pool in the ravine below where this all took place. I set a camera and a blind and returned the next day with my bow and rifle.

 

The next day I crawled in the blind before light and only had a doe come in so before dark I took off with my rifle to see if I could locate em. I was walking down the ravine and found another small hidden pool of water with huge fresh buck tracks and kicked myself for not checking that spot out earlier. I walked up out of the ravine to the exact spot where the event happened the day before and a giant buck jumped out of his bed and trotted up the ridge. I noticed this was a different buck with very light colored antlers and extra points with one kicker off the right side. I ran around trying to find a rest for my gun because the brush was too tall to take a knee and being surrounded by occotillo I was left with freehanding the gun. The problem was that even though I stopped him less than 100 yards uphill from me, the sun was blazing right over his back and through my scope! I tried to shade the gun but couldn't hold still enough so I found his rack in the orange blur, dropped my crosshair to where I believed center mass would be and touched it off.......CRACK! I could hear the rock explode above him and instantly knew I missed. Dropping the rifle, I used my binoculars with my hat blocking the sun, to make certain he wasn't hit and watched as he sneaked his way up the same exact trail that the giant dark horned buck took the day before. After he dissappeared I got on his trail, followed it out to make sure he wasn't hit and then went back and put another camera on the new water I found.

 

I let the area rest for the 3rd day and came back with a vengeance on the 4th day! I was going to kill one of these bucks no matter how many days it took and the embarrassment from the first two days was eating me alive! I had my buddy Travis and my other friend Santos do a push from below and I sat across with my "Coues Cannon" ready to go. Right away I found the dark horned buck sneaking up the insanely thick mountain. I could tell the frame was big and he's on the same trail as before so this is it, I'm not gonna mess up again! While yelling to get the buck to stop I was ranging and adjusting my turret but he would never stop. Soon the distance was getting too far and he wasn't stopping and my frustrations were mounting big time! I watched as he neared the top of the mountain and then turned broadside and stopped. I ranged em' repeatedly at 756 yards, spun my turret up, deducted a few clicks for the angle, noticed the wind was non-existent, held firm with the crosshairs well within his body and squeezed....BOOM.......................................................WHOP! The gun came off the rest but as soon as I heard that WHOP I spun my 15's on the spot and could see his back leg kicking at the sky!!! WHOOOOHOOOOO!!!! I couldn't believe it, I just possibly killed the largest buck I've ever seen! I had tears in my eyes and called my friends over to witness the view I had and make our mental markers on where the buck was laying. It was too late to hike up there that night so we went to the ranch and returned the next day.

 

Here's the veiw from where I shot from. The buck was just down from the top on the right side of the skyline.

 

 

 

 

So, the next day, full of excitement, we crawled our way to the top and the first thing I could see was the back half of my buck laying there and It was then that my heart sank! What I was looking at was the smallest coues body I'd ever seen in person! I walked around to see the head and sure enough he was half the size I thought he was and to make it worse he didn't even have a G3 on one side! I was embarrassed and upset that it wasn't the buck I thought it was, but hey, it's still a nice buck and was my best shot ever so I was happy. I just can't believe how small his body was and how much that body made his rack look so much bigger. I picked that buck up, ungutted, with one hand easily and I would bet he wasn't much more than 50 pounds on the hoof! Here he is, the mistake buck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our way out I checked that camera and here's a pic of a buck that I didn't recognize at the time. Remember this pic as you will later find out why. I would have sworn this is a good buck but never would have guessed based off this pic how good of a buck he actually was...especially prior to breaking!

 

 

 

 

So, now my client shows up and I'm excited because I've got 2 jumbo coues bucks that I know are at least mid 120's that I want him to kill. On his first day out, in the same place I killed my buck and messed up on the 2 giants, I immediately glassed up the giant dark horned buck that I didn't shoot. My heart again sank as I immediately recognized him and saw he was broken bad and was missing 2 points! The broken buck on my trailcam was indeed the monster and he had lost two tines only a day or two after I passed him. My client and I sat there and watched this buck that is now named the "Heartbreaker" for obvious reasons, for 7 hours before finally deciding that even broke he'll still score high and he can be fixed. That buck had a single hot doe and we watched him do anything and everything a big coues buck does in his daily life during the rut and that was awesome! My client made a single shot at 380 yards with my "Coues Cannon" putting him down quick and words cannot describe what it was like to hold that rack for the first time! Here's Troy with the Heartbreaker buck which still scores 117" even after missing 16-18" of tines!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, so now you all know I'm stupid and I was informed I probably shouldn't tell what I did, but oh well, I still got to put my hands on em' and my client was ecstatic to have em' so it's all good. I guarantee I'll make sure I know what type of buck I'm shooting at next time!

 

 

Now that Troy was done on the first day we decided to try for a second buck on a different ranch that we had heard about. The first day there we got rained out so we were at our glassing knob early on the second day. It was raining again and just as we were getting packed up to head out I saw a giant buck trailing a doe directly across from as at just over 200 yards. This buck was a straight up 4 point, incredible length, mass, width and his beams looked like they almost touched! I freaked out, told Troy "shoot, shoot", but Troy couldn't see through my scope because of the rain and fog on the lenses! I stopped the buck repeatedly from 230 yards on out to 340 yards before he finally dissappeared and no shot was fired! Troy was upset as was I at our lost opportunity, but we weren't done! We took off, climbed a huge mountain to get a good vantage and shortly there after I glassed up a different great framed buck! I studied em' hard and knew he was considerably smaller than the buck we were trying to relocate, but this was a stallion of a buck and the decision was made that he was good enough! I ranged em' at 385 yards, Troy laid prone with the Coues Cannon and smacked em' high above the spine. The buck stumbled into the trees and bedded. I finally relocated him at 351 yards and with a small hole to shoot through Troy laid the smackdown on em' and he was down! This buck scores just over 112" regardless of smaller G3's!!! Here's Troy with his 2nd great buck in 4 days!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Troy is one lucky feller and I'm jealous as heck of his Coues collection now but he's worked hard and deserves the success for sure! We hunted for Muleys for a few days and never seen a buck worthy so that was the end of my 2nd week.

 

Next up, my brother Matt and good friend Wayne were headed down with there bows for a few days to try and whack their first archery bucks!

 

I'm out of space here so I'll have to continue this in another post.....thanks for following along!

[COOSEFAN]

OK, so now my brother Matt and good friend of ours Wayne showed up with bows in hand and ready to whack their first archery deer with me! This was going to be fun as I had some great bucks hitting water! Here's some of the bucks.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matt and Wayne decided to sit together in the same blind as Matt was supposed to videotape Wayne. Around mid-day a 97" buck comes running in to the water and Wayne draws back. Just before the buck gets to the water, another, bigger framed buck charges out from right next to the blind and chases the 97" off! This bigger buck runs in to the water, stands broadside and Wayne punches em' through the ribs, the buck bolts with blood flying everywhere and dissappears. Just then the 97" buck runs back in and Wayne just hands Matt his bow and says "take em'"! Matt draws and hammers this buck as well and it dies less than 100 yards from the tank! This all took place in less than 10 seconds and those boys were beside themselves with excitement! They waited 1 1/2 hours before tracking Wayne's buck which they felt was the easiest one to find. They bumped the buck which was amazingly still alive and then backed off and went to get Matt's buck. Matt's buck was done and for the rest of the day a bunch of us followed the tracks of Wayne's buck. There was no blood trail, just where he rubbed on brush but that soon dissappeared. Wayne and Matt stayed 1 more day and we had horses and folks on foot scouring the country looking and couldn't find his buck. Wayne and Matt had to leave for home as they only had a few days anyway and I swore we'd give it our best in the search after they left. For Two days we were on horseback and on foot and finally on the 3rd day one of the cowboys finally found Waynes buck! It had stayed in the same line of travel but had gone another 600 yards from last blood with a center body liver hit. Neither Matt nor Wayne looked at tines when they shot this buck, they just knew he was a shooter. This buck is almost 100" as a 2 point and has over 5" G1's and over 18" beams with good mass! Wayne and Matt are stoked to say the least with their great archery coues bucks, congrats again guys! Here's Matt's buck, the "deer findin' posse" and me with the horse that, aside from dragging me under a few low trees, he was pretty gentle with me! And the only pic I've got so far of Wayne's big ol' 2 point!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And lastly, my friend Scott and his buddy Brian decided to give the Muleys a break and we went out for a day and Brian hammered his first ever Coues buck! All he needed to see was those eyeguards and the lead was flyin'! Congrats to Brian also, he was very excited to tag out on a great first coues buck!

 

 

 

 

If you've read through this entire, drawn out story of mine, thanks!! I was down there for a long time but it was an incredible experience to say the least and I can't wait till next year, I've got a couple bucks that know I'm gonna be after em' again and next time I won't mess up! Here's a couple last pics of a neat fog-filled morning i had last week, thanks again and take care, JIM>

 

 

 

 

 

 

I almost forgot.....check out this beast that was found on one of the ranches! 144" as is!!!

 

 

 

 

 

[willhunt4coues]

Great write up and I think you need to do a life size mount on your buck. I would be VERY satisfied with that buck. DIFFERENT and you probably will never see one again like it. Congrats again.

[FlyingW]

Nice bucks , great story and congrats to all !!! Most everyone who has hunted for quite some time has grossly misjudged an animal a time or two.... Don't beat yourself up too bad over it .

[joeybari]

my god thats a dream come true nice write up nice bucks wow

[ehunt]

Awesome story jim!!! You guys killed some fantastic bucks, congrats on such an outstanding trip!!! That broken buck is one of the greatest coues bucks i have ever seen!!

[azcouesandelk]

I wanna go!

 

Great job down there Jim!

[coyotekid]

congrats on a great hunt. awesome write ups and pictures. thanks for sharing. I dont know if this has been covered on another thread but what does your "coues cannon" consist of? I like the looks of that rig, and with a 700+ yrd kill its not just a looker!

great job again. Im sure Im not the only jealous guy on here.

-sam

[Coues Sniper]

Holy genetics. Hold on to that Ranch Jimbo Congrats.

 

Shame that big buck was so broke up.

[The Claw]

Im sure Im not the only jealous guy on here.

 

Uh, I had a great Mexico trip this year and I'm jealous! Those are some amazingly large framed deer. Congrats Jim and gang on some very beautiful deer!

[Santana Outdoors]

 

 

Sweet! Thanks for sharing. Great story and photos, you only left out one thing, ME!

[Chef]

Nice writeup!

Love the pics and I love that first buck your client shot!!

[BML]

Congrats to all the hunters!!!!

 

Thanks for sharing all the cool stories of the hunts and all the awesome pictures.

[cramerhunts]

Very cool Jim! Those are some awesome bucks for sure! Congrats to Matt and Wayne on a couple of great archery coues! Kevin is right on with "holy genetics"! Congrats to you all.......and yeah even though I spent alot of time down there this year.....I'm jealous too!

[shylopolito]

Massive bucks!

Congrats to all involved!