Backpack hunting for coues

[mason a]

When you hunt an area that is either wilderness or access is cut off for one reason or another, How far do you hike in with everything on your back for a 3 or 4 day hunt?

Assuming you can pump water from a spring, close by your base camp. How far is just a little crazy? Or i guess how motivated are you?

We hike in 2 to 3 miles from the nearest road , climb about 1500 feet in elevation , Im sure for some of you thats a walk in the park.

This year we may be going in farther , about 4.5 miles each way ,mostly ridgelines and game trails, no nice hiking rails at all, plus 2500 feet of elevation climb.

oh yea, one more thing ,my pack ends up weighing about 75 lbs,you know what they say "If your going to be dumb , you better be tough".

 

So how far is to far to hike to set up a base camp?

[FlyingW]

Base camp doesn't have to be way out in the boonies. I dont believe further is always better. A lot of the places I hunt are no more than a couple miles from the truck and hold plenty of quality deer. But the country very nasty and most people aren't willing to walk it. There's no sense in loading yourself down and walking to the next county if you dont have to .IMO . Learn the country you hunt like the back of your hand and you just might be surprised at what it really holds....

[ScottAdams]

The farthest I've hiked in for Coues deer is 5 miles. It was a brutal hike in and out, but it produced two nice bucks, one of which scored 123. Of course we had the area all to ourselves. On the other hand my 124 buck from last year was only about a mile from the road.

[AntlerObsession]

Depends on so much. If I don't know an area very well, I'll go for 4 days and repack every morning, keeping all my stuff with me. This allows me to do a huge loop and see everything an area (6-8 sq. miles) has to offer(water, sign, accessibility). If I know an area and I'm going to be at base for 3 whole days, I'll go as far as I need to hit my favorite 2-3 glassing spots in 2 days, leaving the 3rd day for whichever is jumping at the time. The furthest I've gone to base is 3 miles with a 1800 ft. change. Would I go 6 miles and up 3000 if it meant a 120"+ buck? In a heartbeat!!! But I agree there are giants watching you turn off the highway onto that 10 mile 2-track!!

 

[mason a]

Depends on so much. If I don't know an area very well, I'll go for 4 days and repack every morning, keeping all my stuff with me. This allows me to do a huge loop and see everything an area (6-8 sq. miles) has to offer(water, sign, accessibility). If I know an area and I'm going to be at base for 3 whole days, I'll go as far as I need to hit my favorite 2-3 glassing spots in 2 days, leaving the 3rd day for whichever is jumping at the time. The furthest I've gone to base is 3 miles with a 1800 ft. change. Would I go 6 miles and up 3000 if it meant a 120"+ buck? In a heartbeat!!! But I agree there are giants watching you turn off the highway onto that 10 mile 2-track!!

Part of the reason I hike that far is that part of my brain keeps telling me the farther away ,the better chance you have at getting a huge buck.

But at the same time I really enjoy getting in shape for the hike , going over my list 10 times , not seeing any hunters during the whole hunt,just our small group.

One of these hunts it will pay off with that big one , but either way every backpack hunt is special with great memories and lots of 85 -90 inch bucks, and sore feet .

[Coach]

I used to believe that getting in further would put me in better deer country. Sometimes, that turns out to be true. On the other hand, sometimes, that's just what everyone else is thinking, and a lot of amazing country gets overlooked because it is so easily accessible. I hiked and backpacked the backside of the Apache range years ago, thinking I would see lots of huge bucks. Instead I found well-fed lions, and a few skittish bucks. Now, I think it's because I was further in than the ranchers let their cattle roam, and manage the cats. Who knows? I still bet there are some stud bucks in that country, but after 3 days of drinking melted snow and eating trail mix, the biggest buck I saw was an over-the-hill 2x2.

 

A couple of years later, I packed into another area on the higher end of the Apaches day after day, a long, cold, hour-plus hike to get away from the masses. Another guy in our camp made a nice breakfast, drove to a good glassing spot and found WAY more deer than we were seeing, and much bigger bucks. I eventually came "off the hill" and was fortunate enough to take the bigger of the bucks he had spotted.

 

Another story - a buddy of mine bought the "governer's" tag for unlimited, state-wide coues hunting with the stated goal of taking the world-record coues deer with a muzzle-loader. He ate tag soup, but chased an amazing high 130's buck for days, and the country he was hunting could be accessed from a paved road. He eventually killed one of the top-scoring SCI ML coues in Mexico a year or two later, but what stuck with me was how close to paved roads the potential WR ML coues was hanging, and how many 120+ bucks he passed over without hiking more than a few hundred yards from either paved roads or well maintained dirt roads, that literally hundreds of die-hard hunters drove past for days throughout the season, looking to get to the "end of the road" and then hike in. You would be amazed how many bucks you drive by on your way to the "secluded" spot.

[Guest Bandido]

"Bucks are where you find them." The late great Jack O'Connor.

[308Nut]

Sometimes a backback hunt is more than just about good quality and or quantities of game. It is the solitude, quiet, scenery, testing yourself both physically and mentally. Being able to survive in harsh elements. Good game is just a bonus.

 

In Arizona country, 10 miles is not too much but 5 miles gets you in far enough so long as you are not hiking towards other roads.

[BML]

Sometimes a backback hunt is more than just about good quality and or quantities of game. It is the solitude, quiet, scenery, testing yourself both physically and mentally. Being able to survive in harsh elements. Good game is just a bonus.

 

 

I haven't done one yet, but this is the exact reason I want to do a backpack hunt!! Hopefully my first trip will come soon.

 

[DesertBull]

Sometimes a backback hunt is more than just about good quality and or quantities of game. It is the solitude, quiet, scenery, testing yourself both physically and mentally. Being able to survive in harsh elements. Good game is just a bonus.

 

In Arizona country, 10 miles is not too much but 5 miles gets you in far enough so long as you are not hiking towards other roads.

 

 

There in lies the problem with a lot of areas. It's hard to find spots that are 5 miles from a road and if you do, it's because there is little to no water in the area. Where there is water, there are usually roads.

[vegasjeep]

I have seen some of the biggest bucks in the low rolling hills. It always amazes me and I think hard to get to areas, then Ill hear of or see a guy leaving from the low flats with a good size quality Deer

[draggingnuts]

I love hunting the wilderness area but we dont hike in we take horses and pack horses. That makes it nice because we can ride in 10 miles and not kill ourselves doing it. We usualy set up a base camp and then hunt from there. It is so nice to get away from everyone and the solitude is so nice to. so if you have access to some pack animals you wont be dissapointed!

[AntlerObsession]

What stuck with me was how close to paved roads the potential WR ML coues was hanging, and how many 120+ bucks he passed over without hiking more than a few hundred yards from either paved roads or well maintained dirt roads, that literally hundreds of die-hard hunters drove past for days throughout the season, looking to get to the "end of the road" and then hike in. You would be amazed how many bucks you drive by on your way to the "secluded" spot.

 

+1. I heard a story about a guy glassing from a high road with his high power spotting scope for hours and hours. He glassed finger after finger, for 2 days. On the last afternoon, him and a buddy starting rolling rocks off the side of the road just for the heck of it (I wrote in h e c k), and up jumps a big 120" buck that had been hanging out just below them. The only hillside in that whole country that hadn't been glassed was the one just below the road, and that d a n g buck knew it.

[308Nut]

Sometimes a backback hunt is more than just about good quality and or quantities of game. It is the solitude, quiet, scenery, testing yourself both physically and mentally. Being able to survive in harsh elements. Good game is just a bonus.

 

In Arizona country, 10 miles is not too much but 5 miles gets you in far enough so long as you are not hiking towards other roads.

 

 

There in lies the problem with a lot of areas. It's hard to find spots that are 5 miles from a road and if you do, it's because there is little to no water in the area. Where there is water, there are usually roads.

 

I agree with you for the most part. However, there are many a spring in the middle of several wilderness areas more than 10 miles deep.

[mason a]

Sometimes a backback hunt is more than just about good quality and or quantities of game. It is the solitude, quiet, scenery, testing yourself both physically and mentally. Being able to survive in harsh elements. Good game is just a bonus.

 

In Arizona country, 10 miles is not too much but 5 miles gets you in far enough so long as you are not hiking towards other roads.

 

 

There in lies the problem with a lot of areas. It's hard to find spots that are 5 miles from a road and if you do, it's because there is little to no water in the area. Where there is water, there are usually roads.

 

I agree with you for the most part. However, there are many a spring in the middle of several wilderness areas more than 10 miles deep.

I have hunted this area for years , and i was convinced that I knew where all of the water souces were. I was wrong , We found 3 seaps just in the last 12 months , that are not on any maps, that were right under our noses the whole time. More sign here than at any of our springs that are on the maps. And these seaps had water last year when most of our springs were bone dry.

By the way , I do agree, you are not guaranteed a bigger buck just because you hike in farther.

Hiking in has its pros and cons ,Me and my 12 year old son love it, and we usually go with a couple of brother in laws, it makes for lots of fun stories at thanksgiving dinner and get togethers

I posted a picture of one of the seaps we found, when we were retrieving my sons deer last year , pure luck finding it . sorry the pictures are out of focus, The last picture was the hike out almost back to the truck,and we were tired .