Black Tip Down

[JLB]

The first few days of our 2011 Coues deer hunt were very forgettable except for all the hard work and hot weather (it was still in the 90’s during the afternoons). My friend Rich and I had packed several gallons of water for the 2 ½ hour hike up our favorite mountain two weeks before the season, then hauled our tent, sleeping bags, food etc. up the same mountain the day before the hunt began. Unfortunately, we only glassed up 25 does and a lone spike buck in three days of hard hunting. So much for our favorite area for this year! I guess that’s why they call it hunting and not shooting. Anyway, Rich had to go back to work Sunday night and I was hoping my luck would change as there was a change in weather coming as well as a new moon that was almost upon us.

 

My long time hunting partner of mine, John (now 76 years old, but in very good shape) came up before morning light for the Monday and Tuesday hunt. Monday was day 4 for me and it started just like the others as we worked our way up another steep canyon before dawn to sit and glass for the morning. After glassing for 4 ½ hours, we had only seen cattle, rabbits and a couple of hikers who didn’t know that it was deer season. Very discouraged, we came back to camp for lunch, liquid, some shade and to formulate a plan B.

 

Over lunch, we discussed the best choice for the evening hunt. John and I decided to try an area where we have had some success in the past, which has a lot of thick cover and gets a lot of afternoon shade. Years ago, I killed a large bodied very old fork horn buck in this place in some very thick cover. We had seen 3 lions hunting together in the next canyon over a few years ago, so if the lions were still in the area, maybe another old Coues deer could be hiding out in the canyon with thick cover. At about 2:30pm John and I left the truck and carefully climbed up a pretty steep hill to get some elevation for glassing that evening. We worked our way up the mountain very slowly and stopped often to glass both sides of a ridgeline.

 

At about 4:15pm, I was glassing a small open area slightly below and a couple hundred yards from us across a small drainage, which was about 100 feet deep. My glasses picked up the rump of a deer sticking out behind a cedar tree. Having glassed all those does in the first 3 days I was pretty sure this rear end was a buck due to its shear size and musculature. I told John where I was looking and immediately got out my range finder and took a reading on the tree where the deer disappeared. The range was 230 yards. I grabbed my rifle and slid over to sit just below John so we could both communicate quietly as we waited to see what would transpire. I extended the legs of the bipod to their longest point and sat behind the rifle. Our location was too steep for a preferred prone shot. The deer moved completely behind the tree so I started looking in front of the deer to find an opening where we might see the deer come out. About 20 yards in front of the deer was an opening that was about 15 yards wide. There would be no way to see the deer in between due to the tight cover. After about 15 minutes of picking the trees and bushes apart with the binoculars, we had not seen anything move. Had the deer turned 90 degrees and walked off in another direction? Had it bedded? Was it just feeding slowly? Doubts started creeping into my head of whether we’d see it or not in all the thick cover. Finally, 5 minutes later there was some movement near the clearing. A deer’s nose appeared from behind a live oak tree. What’s going on? A large doe walked out in the clearing and stopped to feed. Looking at her size I was even more convinced that the deer butt I saw was a much bigger deer. Then, there was more movement from behind the tree. Another doe and then a third came out and started grazing in the opening. One of does looked back over her shoulder a few minutes later and then jumped a bit as if startled by something. There must be something else behind the trees but why would there be a buck with does in October when it is still so hot? Maybe extra eyes and noses for lion protection, I don’t know. The three does moved forward and disappeared into the thick brush. I was convinced there is still another deer behind the trees, but would it come out into the opening before dark?

 

John and I had the binoculars glued on the clearing and surrounding thick cover. I kept moving my glasses to an area behind the deer to make sure nothing was moving away in the direction they came from. Another 10 minutes passed by and our eyes were still boring holes in the trees and bushes around the beginning of the clearing. Finally, John whispered that something is coming out into the opening. I immediately saw the nose of a deer and after another slow deliberate step I saw antlers coming into the clearing. It looked like a nice 3X3 but I’d like to see the spread and eye guards if possible before the shot. Just then, the deer stopped and turned to look away from us and I got a great look at the eye guards and the spread. It was definitely beyond ear tip wide and John now whispered that he thought it was a shooter deer. Unfortunately, he had stopped short before completely emerging from behind a thin mesquite tree.

 

At this point, I didn’t know if he would continue to come out or if he stopped because he sensed something behind or beside him. If he bolted, one bound would put him out of our sight. I had already moved the scope to full power and had my cross hairs buried right below the front shoulder, but there were a few small branches between my gun and the deer. I picked out an opening that was still in the front shoulder. John whispered “you’d better take him now”. I don’t think that he finished the word “now” when I fired. I had already taken some slow breaths and had started squeezing the trigger just as he spoke. I heard the bullet hit the deer with the distinct “wap” and when the rifle settled back on the bipod I saw that the deer was down. I was extremely happy and relieved that the deer had come out before dark.

 

Now we faced the hardest part of the hunt. We needed to cross the arroyo with very thick cover, get to the deer, take a few pictures, get him gutted and cut into two pieces and tied on our backpacks for the trip back to the truck. Plus, it would be dark very soon.

 

It took us about 10 minutes to make it to the deer for our mini celebration and pictures before the work began. The deer turned out to be a nice mature buck and had black tips on his antlers from the velvet removal as you’ll see in the photos below. The flash on my camera actually went off during a couple of the pictures, which reminded us to speed up a bit. It was nearly dark when we got the two halves tied to our backpacks and started off down the very steep hillside. This is tough country to walk in with good light, so when it got dark and we were moving by flashlight it was extremely tough and potentially dangerous with the added weight on the backpacks.

 

We figured we were about halfway back to the truck and we were both feeling beat up and tired due to all the brush we were busting through. We were slipping and sliding down the mountain and I didn’t want my partner (or me) to fall and potentially break something. I told John to just leave his backpack near a dead tree and we would come back for it as soon as we could. This is where we could have used some game packers like we all see on the TV hunting shows, but no such luck here.

 

We stumbled forward with a flashlight that only showed us about 20 feet in front of us. This caused us to go into areas that were completely brushy and impossible to get through. We had to backtrack numerous times but we made steady progress. At around 8:30pm we busted out of some thick mesquites and onto the road where my truck was parked about 600 yards away. I dropped off my backpack with the deer and all my gear and walked to get the truck. After returning to camp and skinning out the deer it was close to 10:00pm. Neither John nor I were in any shape to go back in the dark to try and find his pack with the back quarters of the deer. I was totally bagged and had no appetite so we decided to just sleep. Lucky for us, it finally got a little cooler that night and the wind really picked up and it even rained lightly a few times during the night. When we got up the next morning we found John’s pack pretty easily and I brought it down the mountain to finish our skinning work. When skinning the rear quarters, we found the meat to be nice and cool so it all worked out pretty well in the end. The deer was in great shape with a lot of fat for the rut and the coming winter.

 

It was great to have another hunting trip with my long time hunting buddy John as we have been hunting together since 1984 when we took our first Coues trip together. The deer turned out to be a real nice deer that is estimated at 7 years old with good mass and nice main beam length. The main beams are 19 7/8“ and 19 1/8” and the bases are over 4 2/8” each. The G-2‘s are 7 7/8” and 7 1/8”. The spread is 14 4/8”. I hate to potentially jinx the official score, but I have green scored it at 113 6/8” total score without deductions. We’ll find out the real numbers in December. I hope you enjoyed our story. Without friends like Rich and John, this could not have been possible. Happy hunting and good luck to all of you this year.

[couesobsession]

Great looking buck! Interesting story, and a very well executed shot. Thanks for sharing and congratulations on getting it done.

[palivs2hnt]

Great buck! Thanks for the write-up and congrats!

[mklong40]

awesome, awesome buck bud!

[Couzer]

Sweet buck!!!

[Coues&Bass]

Good looking buck. I love the tine length

[bigorange]

Nice buck and great story..

[SDHunter11]

I love the black tips and the sharp angles on the main beams. Congrats!

[Hunting6]

Very Nice Buck... it is pretty amazing that your friend is able to hunt those tough areas at over 70 years of age. I only hope I will be able to do the same thing when I get there.

Thanks for sharing the story and pics

[SunDevil]

great buck, especially in such thick country.

 

it seems like it has been a weird year for velvet. lots of bucks taken in the oct hunts that still had velvet on them. seems like the bucks rubbed their velvet off 1 - 2 weeks later than normal. must be global warming. the buck I got still had some velvet on his antlers and his antlers were pretty light in color which I would take to mean he had not rubbed much on trees or brush.

[JLB]

Very Nice Buck... it is pretty amazing that your friend is able to hunt those tough areas at over 70 years of age. I only hope I will be able to do the same thing when I get there.

Thanks for sharing the story and pics

 

 

 

My buddy is a great hunter and scored 30 deer in 30 years here in AZ and he never shot a spike or fork, just a mature Coues or Muley (mostly Coues). I'll put that record up against anyones. He still gets around really well. We try to keep him in slightly easier country but Coues deer don't usually live there.

[ROBERT RIVERA]

sweet

[papa]

Great buck and story.

[rcdinaz]

Well Done!

[AZwest16]

Thats a stud buck! Cool story to go with it