Harvested 2 Bucks…& saved well over 50

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

Well it was a trip months in the making…

 

Tina (my Wife) had drawn an early Kaibab tag (8 bp’s)…. And as luck would have it my cousin (Justin) and I drew Coues deer tags for the same weekend. Of course our coues tags were back burner, but a good friend (Gary) offered to hunt with my Cuz on his first true deer hunt, so that I would have no worries about rushing back to help (Thank You, Pal… I owe you). Now to focus on my Achilles Heel… Carp deer… in a unit I’d never hunted before! We arrived 6 days early, set camp, and the next day some old friends, who had tags, joined us. After 2 days of looking had not seen a deer and no buck tracks at all, I was getting concerned and decided I’d better phone a friend…. My life line was Lance from TLO… His advice? “Quit messing around there and get over here! Move your camp and all… let me know when you get here.” After 6 hours of repacking, driving, and re-setting up camp we were ready to Rock! ...and very tired...

 

The next morning found me scouting new and awesome country that promised TONs of Deer… I saw NONE!!

Now I was really sweating… I made the drive to Lance’s camp and was greeted by the Crew…. Lance, Jake (TINES), and Ryan… they could see my frustrations and they gave me the “crash course” of TLO Kaibab 101… My eyes were opened and the deer where everywhere I looked… and so were my TLO friends…HaHaHa! I can honestly say that that crew knows how to get it done on The Bab… they are fast, clean, & GOOD! I could never thank them enough for the professional courtesy and friendship they showed us up there. And they (TLO) are the only Outfitter I’d recommend for hunts on the Bab. Congrats to them on all the Great bucks that hung in their camp!

Now to the Story of our hunt…..

The day before the hunt my good buddy, Stuffy, showed up with all the optimism in the world… and a big smirk cuz I was struggling with ”Carp” deer, his Fav! (Thanks, Brutha! Can't thank you enough for coming!) I told him what I had learned, and we spent the afternoon’s Rainy weather looking at some new country as a backup plan… but it didn’t pan out.

Opening Day we arose cheery and ready. I had Plans “A”, “B”, &“C”, but we got beat to “A” and skipped to “C”…LOL… we took it and ran with it. It was Crap weather… windy, cold, and Tina was Hating life. We saw deer but few and quit knowing we had more hunters than moving deer around us… We went to my “B” spot and found that no one actually went in there so we checked it out but the wind had everything hunkered down so we went for lunch…. The Evening hunt found us in my “A” spot… as we worked our way in we met 4 nice guys from Tucson heading out. (Wish we would’a got their names, they were great guys who hunted clean and hard, and we saw them almost every day.) We chatted for a minute and on we went we hit a likely looking point and sat down. I no sooner got my eyes settled into my bino’s and I had a deer… a buck… a Good Buck! He was almost 500 yards and standing behind a tree, the minutes stretched on. Then he turned took 3 steps back out of the wind and bedded in the Wide open! We grabbed our things and moved… we closed to 375 and as we began to set up, Poof! Deer were running everywhere! We even had deer running right passed us on our hill side!! Our buck was lost… he covered 3 ridge tops before we lost him in some thick stuff… game over…. Day One, over.

Day 2… was colder, fog, and windier and we were HATING life… there were very few deer in my “A” and I was puzzled…

Day 3… Guess what is was windy again and the day promised to be just as foul as the last… We were back in my “A” again much to my Wife’s dismay, but I knew there were deer there and all we need was a break! We walked back out to my point and the first place a put my bino’s is where the big buck had bedded the first day… no deer… but… What the…!!! Hey! That is a Lion! Tina had never seen a lion in the wild, so I show her, then I ask Stuffy… “Should, I shoot it? It is 525 yds! I think it is covering a kill.” His response had no time for thought…” Smoke it!” I set up my double tri-pods and asked my bride for my gun…. Why me? Well of the 3 of us, I was the one with a tag…. They will both have one next time I’ll bet! HaHa! The wind was Wicked but steady…. I thought I had it figured…. Dialed to 525 yds, held for the windage in my Huskemaw, and squeezed… nada... the cat just looked around! (The red dot is where the cat was.)

More windage? I took aim again and sqqqueeeezzzed… Boooom…… Whack! Re-aquired to find the cat twitching where she had stood... right on top of her freshly killed button buck.

High 5’s and hugs, then we went back to glassing for deer! The cat was dead in plain sight and the wind was strong enough that we hoped to still pick up a bedded deer someplace… Nada. So Across the big canyon Stuffy and I went. A few quick pictures and we set into the work…

2 hours and 20 minutes later found us climbing into the truck and heading for camp. Oh and the wind was still whippin’…

 

For that evening’s hunt we left our “A” spot and went back to the “C” spot… We worked hard and dug up a few deer but no bucks.. and it was getting late… I told Stuffy, “Let’s hit that spot there and then head out, we got a walk ahead of us…” and he nodded. We stood there picking apart the landscape and it happened…. I saw a face… the side of a buck’s head, white with a black eye and nose… and then what appeared to be a bit of Beam… We made the move and came out straight across the canyon at 220 yds and he was sooo brushed up we could not tell how good he was… only seeing part of one side. After what seemed like an hour (minutes) I swore I saw a Big frame on the deer and made the call that Tina should shoot him. She was in a bad spot to get him in the scope he was in a bad spot for her to kill him and the first shot was a clean miss!! The wind was our friend, the buck had no clue where we were and just stood 30 yds to the left and Tina had to move to re-acquire him…. Boom… Whack! “You got him but, get him again!” He was slowly trying to work over the hill but could not go up hill… as he side hilled he was broad side and she put him in the scope again… BOOM! … Whack! And he was gone… he wheeled and was over the hill in three jumps… gone.

“You got him… he is done for, Babe.”.. “He is gone… how can you be sure??” She was visibly upset for not making it a one shot kill. Stuffy chimed in and said the same, as I did…. as the darkness closed around us. “We can’t go after him in the dark he may need a bit, but he is ours… You will be holding your buck at first light.” That was a light stepping crew as we came out of the woods that night, but around the Campfire, Stuffy and I were making the Buck smaller and smaller…. Neither one of us had looked at horns after the first shot… we each had our own idea of what the buck was and we both prepared ourselves for the possibility that we may have made an error… but we were happy for Tina either way… She was also happy with our decision to kill the buck….

We slept well and as day 4 (Monday) cracked; we were walking in the grey light toward where we had last seen the buck top the rise. We quietly reached the spot in the deep fog and blustery conditions. A track... a drop of blood then a “kick out” ( at the last shot location) and then Lots of blood out both sides… we hit the top of the rise and the buck had made it only 20yds out of our site before he took a dirt nap!! We had her buck and all our doubts about size were washed away!! She had the buck she came to the Kaibab for!! We were all smiles and hugs and chatter. We took a few photos and set to work knowing the weather was getting worse… The Meat was all chilled by a cold night and our friend the wind.

By the time Stuffy and I had our Packs loaded with all the meat, cape and horns it was raining and sleeting pretty hard and we were completely fogged in.

Only a Mile to the truck and we set out…. The wind howled and trees were crashing to the ground all around us… man were we glad to get in the truck and out of the woods! Wet, Cold, and Happy!!

After checking the buck we high tailed it to camp… and broke camp in a snow/hail storm… we had to run a heater in the tent just to get enough ice off so that we could lift the canvas into the ranger and drive it on the trailer!

We were packed and heading South by noon… and we were hammered down… there was more hunting to be done!

Tuesday morning found me heading down the highway toward my waiting cousin….He and Gary had hunted hard for 3 days and had not much to show for it… the wind is never good when hunting Coues. When I got to camp we packed our gear and headed to the woods. We found bucks shortly after arriving at my glassing spot and made a move in the late afternoon to get to about 300 yds… the best buck only gave Justin a couple of clean shoulder shots but he was not ready to pull the trigger and the buck lived on…

Grey light the next morning had us on a small hill looking up the mountain…. 20 minutes later we had a buck and we were trotting up the mountain… 1200…. 600…. 340 yards…. We set Justin up and the buck grazed out from behind a tree… BOOM!! The buck jumped forward and stood looking around…. BOOM! …and down he went! Justin had his first Buck!!! We took pictures, ate a burro, and wallowed in the moment. Thanks Cuz! It was and honor and a pleasure... To Many More!!!

Then we stripped all the meat and made a nice downhill mile pack to the Ranger.

What a morning… What a Way to End the season!!!

I hunted the rest of that day and all the last day for myself, half heartedly, for how much better could it get??? My Bride had Smoked a Fantastic Kaibab Buck with Stuffy and I… I had managed to find another lion and bring it home… and I was able to help my eager Cousin learn about an addiction we call “Coues” and to harvest his first deer… what a week! Thanks to all the characters in this long winded story…. Each and every person mentioned is part of the success… Without every one’s efforts the ending would have not been as memorable, and it truly was a hunt of a Lifetime… one I’ll not soon forget!!! I was once again impressed with my 300 WBY Mag (The Tradition), the Huskemaw Scope, and the Berger 168 gr. VLD's....

 

A special Thanks to my buddy Mike, (GH), for getting my Trailer on the Road when things looked bleak....and for hand loading all the ammo used on these hunts...

 

Whackin' and Stackin'!!!!

 

My Elk hunt is soon to come!!!!!

[Codywhi]

wow great job guys great story...

[anthonyrmatthews]

Congrats! Well written story, thank you for sharing it with us...

[lucky2hunt]

Wow what an adventure! Congrats to all of you and especially Tina for taking a truly incredible buck! Nice job on the lion as well!!!

[CouesWhitetail]

Awesome!! Love the story! Way to stick out in the cold Tina! Congratulations on all the success!

[gotcoues]

That is just awesome, I'm jealous! To endure and triumph makes the trip so memorable.

[GameHauler]

Great write up Gino and congratulations to all.

[firstcoueswas80]

Awesome job Gino... I just have ONE problem with your story...

 

 

“Should, I shoot it?"

 

 

That shoulda been what you call a No Brainer!

 

 

Great job on all accounts. That looks like a pretty big female. What was Zip's reaction to the lion?

[Red Rabbit]

Tina and Gino,

Congrats on a nice buck and lion. You did well despite the weather you were given.

 

Doug~RR

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

Awesome job Gino... I just have ONE problem with your story...

 

 

“Should, I shoot it?"

 

 

That shoulda been what you call a No Brainer!

 

 

Great job on all accounts. That looks like a pretty big female. What was Zip's reaction to the lion?

 

 

LOL! Yes well I asked my Carp deer liasion so that I did not ruin my brides hunt for the morning... or get me in trouble! .... Yes, I was only looking for one answer!

 

Zip was a hoot!! We hung back as we aproached we could see the cat and the kill and he was sniffin' around.. when he smelled the cat he bristled and growled and would not approach till I did...HaHa... then he picked up a few scraps off the kill while we workd on the kitty. Good Times!

[DesertBull]

That's awesome. Congrats!

 

I was not able to get it done on the west side. Saw 4 bucks I was willing to shoot, with 2 being LARGE but was not able to get the shot. Trying to shoot through the thick burn these bucks were holed up in proved too much for me. Has one buck at 150 yards with absolutley no shooting lane.

 

I think I saw a 2 point hanging in every camp.

 

 

PS. I think I might have been sitting right next to you at the Jacob Lake Lodge counter one day, but not sure. If not, it was your better looking twin.

[Pine Donkey]

I enjoyed reading the story, congrats to all.

[Jimmer Negamanee]

Awesome! Great hunt! Thanks for posting the story and all the pics.

[COOSEFAN]

Great story of a great hunt Gino!!! Tell Tina I'm happy as heck for her and she deserved such a great buck no doubt! I was down south showing off the picture of her and that buck to everyone I ran into as well as your Lion pic, what an awesome experience that all must've been bro! Congrats to you both and thanks for the extensive write-up! JIM>

[Tines]

Congrats on the lion and especially to Tina and her great buck!