Interesting Coues Stories

[CHD]

In December 2002, I hunted unit 32 (the north end) for about two weeks. One evening, I decided to sit and watch an area that I had seen a few deer in and was 1/4 mile down a gentle draw from an active tank. I sat from about 2 hours until dark to dark glassing with my handheld Zeiss 8 x 56's out to about 500 yards. The area didn't have a lot of cover or feed, but had plenty of recent tracks. I thought I might get lucky.

 

About an hour and a half before dark, I spotted a lone doe up and feeding at about 400 yards. I kept looking for another deer, but saw none. After watching for about 30 minutes, I spotted movement about 100 yards west of her. As I watched, a buck moved out of his bed behind a tree and immediately began looking toward the doe, trying to home in on her exact position. He obviously knew that she had bedded there all day, and was trying to reaffirm her location. As the buck "hopped" around the tree, I identified the reason for his hop. He was missing his left rear leg below the hock. There was no bone sticking out or no skin hanging, just a smooth ending to his leg at the joint. He was a large forky, and seemed to be making a good living. HE OBVIOUSLY DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THE WORD "CRIPPLED" MEANT!!! He immediately began hopping toward the doe, and climbed up over the rocks to get to her and "rut" her a little bit, since he knew the program. This was about December 25.

 

She very much enjoyed his attention, because she obviously knew the program too. She bounced and flirted and ran in a big circle away from him, because he was supposed to CHASE HER AND CATCH HER, right??? But after moving about 75 yards from him AND LOOKING BACK CONTINUALLY and watching him struggle to chase her (with his one hind leg) over the rock ledge, she realized that HE WAS HANDICAPPED AND COULDN'T PURSUE HER LIKE OTHER BUCKS would. She IMMEDIATELY turned around and ran back to him, flirting with him and making smaller circles around him THAT SHE KNEW HE COULD CATCH UP WITH!!!

 

Who says Coues deer aren't beautiful, magnificent, intelligent animals!!! I enjoyed this incredible, rare episode and still think about it all the time.

 

Good thing that buck wasn't 100", or I would have had to pass on a super duper buck!

 

Chris Darnell

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anybody else have any unusual stories to share?

Edited January 1, 1970 by CHD

[CouesWhitetail]

Great story Chris. Thanks for sharing it!

 

Did you ever see that buck again? Know how long he lived with that injury?

 

Amanda

[CHD]

Hi Amanda,

 

The buck was not a yearling. I hunted that spot off and on for two weeks and only saw that buck the one time. I probably wouldn't have seen him at all except for the rut. He had water, adequate feed, and some cover all in a small area.

 

I have seen three 3-legged deer in my life. One muley, an eastern whitey, and that coues buck. All were making a good living. On the surface, it appears that a 3-legged deer would be easy to kill and it is a wonder that they have survived. However, looking deeper, I think that a 3-legged deer IS ACTUALLY HARDER TO KILL than a regular one! Why? Because they know their limitations. They are obviously "hiders" and not "runners", right? They live in a very small home territory, and probably have nerves of steel. You might have to kick them in the ribs to get them up during daylight hours.

 

I have seen pictures of deer with an injury on one side that grew an abnormal antler on the OPPOSITE side. I have read that it is common for this to happen. This coues buck had a symmetrical rack.

 

How do you reckon he lost his leg? A birth defect? Injury as a fawn? A compound fracture that caused the leg to eventually fall off? The stub was very smooth and was healed over with no hanging skin or protruding bones.

 

Chris Darnell

 

 

PS - I have another neat story from the same hunt that I will post in a few days.

Edited January 1, 1970 by CHD

[bullwidgeon]

I watched a buck mount a doe on Sunday in the Catalinas. A doe and a yearling were chasing each other around and this buck came out of a catclaw patch, ran the big doe down and actually mounted her. The he followed her around and stayed within 50 yards of her all day long. I have never seen them act like that so early. I can not beleive the rut has started and we did not see any more activity like that during the next 2 days. Maybe it had something to do with the eclipse the night before?

 

Bret M.

[coueshunter]

Brett: I saw a few things this past weekend that seemed as if pre-rut or whatever was happening. I was blown away by a couple bucks and what they were doing. I had a couple deer lightly locking horns kinda jousting and I saw one big buck running around like it was rut........good to hear you saw that buck mount the doe, then someone else saw some rut activity way way too early like me........AT.....

[CHD]

Here is another one from the same unit 32 December hunt last year. I hunted the Turkey Creek/Black Butte/Parsons Grove area. Lots of Coues and lots of coati's.

 

Later in the hunt around Christmas, I began checking doe herds that I had located over the previous week. One group of about 6 or 8 does and fawns was pretty predictable and stayed in a small area bedding and feeding. One afternoon, I sat on a ridge overlooking a hillside above some small feeder canyons. This herd got up and moved downhill out of the trees, crossed a fence and moved over a rise into a feeder canyon out of my sight. The wind was in my favor and they never knew I was there.

 

A few minutes after they went out of sight, one of the does came screaming back over the rise, running full out. She was moving so fast and low to the ground that I thought for a minute that she was a lion. No other deer came back with her. She ran full tilt several hundred yards back to the fence and suddenly stopped. She stared intently back up the hillside that they had just come down and had bedded on for the day. I looked hard, and down from the hillside came another doe who walked up to the first doe. The two of them together moseyed back over the rise to join the other deer. It took me a minute or two to fully realize what the heck I had seen.

 

The first doe had gotten all the way over the rise, and had suddenly realized that her friend had been left behind! She quickly went back and found her before she became permanently separated!

 

Perhaps these two were siblings or mother/daughter.

 

Am I reading too much into this incident, or are these deer really that smart? Can they really be that attached to each other?

 

Chris Darnell

[az4life]

CHD

One can only guess about that one. I don't think they worry about getting lost, but what do I know.

 

I had an incident about 20 years ago up in 4b. I don't remember the canyon name but it was pretty well known for Coues deer I found out several years later.

I was on the edge of a steep deep canyon and glassing the slope across the way. About 300 yards away from the top of the ridge I watched a doe Chase a Coyote straight down the slope to a point across from me. Not seeing any bucks for a couple days, I thought a Coyote pelt would be worth the hike so I shot him from about 150 yards. The doe stopped her pursuit, and then slowly went over to him and sniffed and nudged him. She stayed with him for about 5 minutes. I could not believe it. She looked around a bit and finally headed up the hillside in the same direction she was chasing the coyote.

 

Strange but true!

 

 

Strange but true!

Edited January 1, 1970 by az4life

[Rembrant]

One fine late December day I was hunting 24A's Mescal mountains and glassing several small "family groups" of 2 to 3 whitetails in each group. I had wondered for a long time through previous hunts why the Coues deer is ususlly seen in these small groups and very seldom in larger groups.

While I was glassing, two of these small groups came together and the deer began running amok, chasing each other around with no apparent danger present. I found this curious and continued glassing and eventually saw two mature does do the stand up fistfight thing. After that happened, this larger group of deer split in two and wandered off in different directions. It seems to me that these small groups are very close knit - immediate - family groups, and have very little tollerance for outsiders.

[CouesWhitetail]

AZ4life - I had a couple similar experiences with Coues deer sniffing dead animals, but they were all deer that were in the group with them before I shot them. One time I was in a thick white oak grove and a herd of bucks had come down the open hillsides to the grove. I was about 30-40 yards away from the bucks as they walked single file through an opening in front of me. When I fired, the noise was deafening, and the buck dropped instantly. But the buck that had already passed through the opening came back and sniffed his buddy despite a very loud gunshot having just gone off.

 

CHD- I think it's more likely that that deer was spooked by something and just ran back in fear. Then when she calmed down and saw that the other deer walking calmly toward her she settled down. But who knows. I do think they form attachments though. They are social animals.

 

Your story reminds me of a time when I was mule deer hunting and I glassed up a frantic whitetail that had busted up out of the brush on to the top of a flat and was running around in terror. I couldn't figure what was going on. The deer kept was kind of going in circles and running back toward where she had flushed from as if concerned for something there. Then I heard this awful screaming sound and what I think happened was that this doe and her fawn had been jumped by a lion (which I never saw) and that the doe escaped but not the fawn. It was a terrible noise and it was pretty loud even though I was far away from it.

 

Amanda

[5yearcoueshunter]

Amanda, I had sort of the same thing happen to me one time. I was hunting coues when all of sudden I heard a series of high pitch screams. I looked up on the hill where the scream was coming from when I saw a nice coues buck being chased by what looked like a mountain lion. It was probably 500 yards away so it was difficult to see it real clearly. When the buck and cat came flying around the hill, they both went rolling in the dirt. The buck got up quickly and took off with the cat trailing behind. I don't think the lion caught up with the buck again. I guess it was the buck making those screams. I never heard anything like it.

 

Travis

[az4life]

Everyone

I can't help but notice quite a few Mtn Lion stories and references in the postings on this and other boards. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed first hand that there are more of them being spotted in the wild this year?

If so, is it Possibly our drought conditions have brought them more out in the open, closer to more heavily used hunting areas and private ranches????

Any thoughts?

I noted the AZGFD website has write ups for each hunt unit listing information on the type of game in each unit and likely areas to find them, but no mention of lions in my favorite 24b. I've seen signs of them, in the past but never seen one in that unit.

I would love to take one while hunting Coues. Perfect scenario would be to take a lion, chasing a nice Buck, and then get the buck too!

Sort of a payback for me and the buck if ya know what I mean.

[az4life]

One more question for those of you who have been out in the last few weeks hunting or scouting, Mentioned on other posts are hints that the rut will be early this year. Visual observations of actions and possibly the eclipse a week or so ago.

I was prepared for a no rut hunt due to how long it stayed hot this fall. Now if it starts early, great news, but what would cause the sudden change ?

Edited January 1, 1970 by az4life

[Guest robert]

I have been out scouting this past month in unit 32. I hunt about 1 to 2 miles in the wilderness. There are no signs of an early rut, I cant even find deer like I have in the past 2 years. But the thing about the lions wierd, are there more, or just having to move around more for food. The bear population is the same where I go, but there is a ton more lion sign. Maybe the lions came from west point of the Grahams? Another wierd thing is the private land I hunt, not many deer there, In the past I would use the private land for my last couple of days of the hunt, because it was a sure bet for large bucks because of low hunting pressure. One other wierd thing is there is a lot of lion sign there too, but no down cattle. But there are mulies, and I figured the mulies would have been gone long before the coues? Maybe it is just a strange year.

[Guest robert]

I have hunted this area for the past 7 years. this is very wierd. I saw some nice bucks in Aug. and everything seemed normal then. I even had a small buck walk 5 ft from me, sniff me, then walk about 10 yards from me for 500 yards or so, he just walked next to me, maybe I was the first human I saw.

[More D]

That same thing happened to my wife! We went scouting for Mulies 2 years ago in 32. My wife had a point and click camera that she brought along to "take picures of deer" I laughed and thought "yea right" but she was with me scouting so....

On a hill top watching a hill/mountian a fork whitetail came feeding down to us for about 30-40 min untill he got to about 150 yards or so, my wife stood up and said "I am going to go take a picture of him" and started to walk to him!!! I told her in MY EXPERT OPINION "Don't, he is going to run! Well my wife ignored MY EXPERT OPINION and got to 50 yards, click....40 yards click......30 yards click......20.....10 yards!!. She ran out of film walked with him as he feed for a while, then came back and said "I don't know why pepole say it is so hard to hunt Whitetails!!"

 

I told her that fork had never seen a human before and that is why he never ran. I think I herd my wife quietly ay "yea right"

 

Funny how Coues make our EXPERT OPINIONS more like EXPERT QUESSES!!