Coues Hunt SW New Mexico

[coueselk]

Ok, I'm back from New Mexico. Here is how the hunt went.

 

Opening morning I spent glassing lower hills only seeing does as I made my way up a really steep mountain. When I reached the top, I spent the next six hours glassing the ridges on the other side. Only saw one doe there. First day was very frustrating. No bucks to be found.

 

Day two, I changed locations. This started out like day one, only spotting does. The wind picked up on this morning, so I decided to try some small canyons that I have never hunted. They looked like they could possibly give some good wind cover for the elusive gray ghost. As I was hiking back into one of the canyons, I noticed some large deer tracks in the bottom. Much to big to be a doe, so I knew there had to be a buck in the area. The wind was still blowing pretty good in this area and it was hot, but I persisted. I climbed to a small ridge top that gave a good vantage point up one of the small canyons.

 

Here is the canyon.

 

As I started glassing up near the top, low and behold, laying in the bear grass was a nice buck.

 

 

I could see through my spotting scope that he clearly had four points on his right antler, three points on the left, was wide and had good mass. Points weren't too long, but I'm a sucker for extra points. (Tired of just 3 points).

 

I glassed some more around the area with my swaros, not seeing anything else with him, I decided to give him a go. I ranged him at 360 yards. This year I wanted to get some video, so I had lugged my video camera along. I set up the camera and then prepared for the shot. As I ran my scope across the trees to the left of him, I noticed another buck that I had missed while glassing. So, I took the camera off the tripod and back went the spotting scope. The other buck was a smaller 3x3. I then glassed all of the surrounding area with the spotting scope, leaving no rock or bush uncovered. I was confident that they were the only two. So I set up again for the shot. Being confident with my .270WSM, I checked my elevation chart taped to the butt of the rifle. 330 yards 3 inches low and 420 yards 8 inches low. I placed my crosshairs about 4 inches over his back and squeezed the trigger.

 

Continued............

[bullwidgeon]

You shot over him, and that canyon was so small he topped out before you could rezero and flop him? Come on, we don't want suspense. Awesome pictures by the way.

 

Bret M.

[More D]

Yea, why four inches? The waiting for the end of the story is only fun at the end.

 

So.......

 

 

 

 

[coueselk]

You guys hit it right on the nose. I wanted to see if you would catch it and I wanted to confess to my screw-up.

 

Yes the shot went high. I really don't know what I was thinking. But, the buck just laid there. He turned his head to see what made all the dust behind him, but never got up. So, thinking that I pulled the shot and I still had 400+ yards stuck in my head, I put the crosshairs in the exact same spot and squeezed off again. Another shot went high, I said some choice words about myself on what I was thinking of the yardage, but the buck continued to stay down. I then put the crosshairs two inches down from the top of his back and squeezed off.

 

That was all I needed. My math calculations inside my head that day was way off. But I was successful in the end. Here is the outcome.

 

 

I did a quick scoring job last night and came up with 97" gross and 93 1/8" net. He had a 18" outside spread. This buck is also the biggest bodied coues buck that I have ever shot. I think that he was pushing a 120 pounds dressed out.

 

Here is a picture of the 3x3 that was with him after the shot. He got up and looked at his friend, but soon laid down again. He watched me come up the canyon until I got about 70 yards from him. Then he got up, looked at his buddy laying there, almost looking like he was saying "What are you laying there for." and walked over the top, stopping to look back about every twenty yards or so at me and where is buddy was laying.

 

 

I'm off to 36A this afternoon to take my daughter on the last three days of her hunt. Should have another story and pictures.

[CouesWhitetail]

Great buck Danny!! After your first post I thought, man isn't that hold over gonna miss the buck? Guess you are lucky he held tight.

 

Congratulations, he looks great!

 

And you got back in time to take Alex out, that's awesome. Hope you guys score again.

 

Amanda

[DEERSLAM]

The coues gods must have been smiling down on you! Three chances

Congrats on a great buck and best of luck on your daughters hunt.

[az4life]

Great story and very nice buck Coueselk.

 

How did the video turn out? I am impressed that you can take so many pictures and video while that buck was calling your name!

[stanley]

Awesome story! The pics along the way were great.

 

Good luck to your daughter!

 

S.

 

[BRYCE CANYON]

Nice job!

[Shiras]

Nice buck Danny. Beautiful country and grat pictures. Good luck with your daughters hunt. -Shiras

[jamaro]

Great Job.

 

Jason

[More D]

Nice buck and a nice post!

 

Good luck on your daugters hunt, looking forward to your next post!

 

 

 

[ScottAdams]

Way to go Danny!! Way to smoke a nice one!!! Yu sure you didn't have a little of the fever?

 

Hey have you heard about the buck that Cochran killed in 31? I'm waitin' for the photos.

 

Scott

[hunter4life]

Nice buck, and great pictures!!

 

That buck looks to have a real big body for a coues. I have learned that one of the first things to do to judge a coues is look at the body to see if I can tell if it has a big body or a small one. I learned this after judging a buck last year 15" smaller than he turned out to be because he had a huge body, and another buck 15" larger than he was because he had a little tiny body.

[Rembrant]

That is a beautiful buck!!!

Mike