Traveling for coues MO to AZ part 2

[CumminsRig]

Opening day found my good friends Mike, Cowman, my uncle Tom, and myself making a 3 mile hike in the dark into some remote country. By first light we had made it to where we had wanted to be setup to glass, shortly after setting up our tripods it started to rain. We sat glassing in the rain until about 10 A.M. Finally the rain quit and my uncle found one doe and Cowman found one small buck about a mile away. By noon we had not found anything else so we made a small hike up and over another high point to look back into another basin. Shortly after getting setup I found a spike and a tall 2 point. I got my uncle's attention and he says if you don't want him I'm gonna take him, so I said go ahead I have time to hunt and want to see if I can take a bigger buck. A quick range of the buck of 347 yards and my uncle lets one fly from his 25-06 and the buck drops in his tracks. We took some pics and deboned the buck and started our pack out. We glassed a couple more spots on the way out only to find one lone doe. We made it back the truck at last light and headed back to the ranch to see how my dad and his friend did for the day. When we pulled up we could see a quartered up deer hanging which turns out to be a young 3 point my dad's friend had killed. So day one ends with 2 out of 4 tags filled.

 

Day 2 finds my uncle Tom, Cowman, and me on top of a bluff glassing some steep nasty country getting beat on by the 20 to 30 mph winds. My uncle finds a doe bedded about 150 yards from us trying to stay out of the wind. A couple hours later I find a young 2 point at 292 yards. My uncle jokingly tells me to take him and I say I have never shot less than a 3 point and I'm not gonna start now. Followed by me saying I will probably not see another buck now that I said that but it is still early in the hunt. After about an hour of watching this young buck and doe on the not so windy side Cowman says I'm going to the windy side to look and I'm gonna find some deer. After about 5 minutes me and my uncle figured we couldn't let him get blown away by himself so we joined him on the really windy side and just as Cowman called it he found two does about 3/4 of a mile away and then another doe or young spike right as it bedded. It was to windy to see in the brush to make out if he had horns or not. After about 30 more minutes of trying to hold our tripods from blowing over and trying to glass we decided to go back to the other side and see if we could find anything else. After coming back we noticed our doe had moved and we could not find her but the little two point had only moved about 30 yards and was still bedded. We ended up finding some pigs and they were the only game that was up moving towards the bottom of a canyon. After watching the pigs and little 2 point and not being able to find anything else I say to Cowman what do you think about working our way back out and glassing the little pockets that are on the not so windy side. Cowman just said its to late to throw another plan together lets just stay and see what we can find. After about an hour of snacking, glassing, and BSing Cowman pulls his eyes out of his Swaros and looks down and to his right and says deer. BUCK. We both swing our binos down to the deer and out steps two more deer. In all of this Cowman says Big BUCK he needs to die get your gun. I was already trying to lay my binos and tripod down so they didn't blow over. I get to my pack and my uncle is already calling out the yardage of 192. I grab my gun and pack and start to walk back over the edge of the bluffs and Cowman says get down one of the bucks is looking back up this way. So I hit my knees and then wait for only about 5 seconds but seemed like forever cause I could not see the deer and had no clue what they were doing. Then Cowman says OK get up here I hand my pack to Cowman and tell him to set it on the big rock just to the left of him. He sets the pack on the rock and I get settled in behind the 280 Rem. I look through the scope and ask which one is he not wanting to shot the wrong buck as I knew there was one big buck and another decent buck along with a spike. Cowman says he is the one in the back and I said are you sure as I had the middle buck in my cross hairs and could see a nice rack. Cowman said Travis THERE IS NO DOUBT THE BACK BUCK IS HIM. I said OK. Cowman says this is a straight down shot hold low and let me know when you are ready as I'm jacking in a round and then he says OH I guess your ready. The buck was quartered away from us and as I get back on the buck I said OK you ready and both my uncle and Cowman say let her fly whenever. I squeezed the trigger and hear the whoop and get back on the buck instantly and can see he is hurt but not fatally and they say you hit him but you hit him in his right hip. I jack in another round and the deer ran forward about 10 yards and stopped straight away from us and I squeezed the trigger again and get back in the scope to see him hit the ground. The buck kicked a couple times and then lay still with me still in the scope I hear Cowman let out a loud WOOO!!! You just killed a toad. I still had no idea how good the buck was as this all happened in probably less than 2 min. We packed our gear and picked our way off the steep bluff and as we approached the the buck I could start to see how good he was. When I picked up his head I was pretty much speechless. We took lots of pics and got him deboned and made it back to the bikes just after dark. End of day 2 found us with one tag left to fill as my dad did not hunt as he went to help a neighbor.

 

Day 3 found us splitting up into two groups to try and find my dad a buck about 2 hours into the morning and doing our best to hold our tripods steady from the brutal winds that kept changing direction we decided to regroup and hunt some lower country shortly after relocating and setting up we found a couple does and fawns and a few hunters walking the hills. We split up after lunch and found some pigs and a couple does and a fawn. Then my dad radios me and says they have found a decent buck that is fairly tall and they were going to try and make a play on him. About 45 minutes later we thought we heard a shot over the wind and a few minutes later we get a call saying my dad had connected on the buck. When we made it to them we find that he had taken a nice old buck with lots of character. The old buck was was missing a few teeth and had been shot a couple days before in the back right leg and the hind quarter was starting to rot. He also had a crazy right horn that has a nice funky kinda twist. It was nice to be able to take an old deer and especially since he did not become coyote bait or die from the gun shot wound.

 

All in all it was an awesome hunt that ended with us going 4 for 4 in 3 days. I had a great time spending it with great friends and family. A huge thanks goes out to all that made this one of the best hunting trips I have been on. A special thanks goes out to my uncle and Cowman for helping me harvest my trophy and best buck to date. I also want to say thank you to my loving wife who never gripped about me hunting and missing on our 5 year anniversary on opening day, you are the best. Enjoy the pics.

[CumminsRig]

Here are a couple more pics.

[Millhouse]

Wow! Great trip. I would say that it was definately worth the time and miles it took to get here. Looks like Cowman did a great job getting others some nice deer!

[Cowman]

Good friends, good hunting and a few cold drinks! It doesn't get much better than that. Way to go buddy on a hard earned "No-Brainer!"

[Pine Donkey]

Those are some very nice deer. I have always liked the look of the tall bucks. Congratulations on the good time, and great success you all had. Thanks for posting your story.

[bobbyo]

Since you shot all the good deer in Arizona it is only fair you get us some Missouri deer.

Congratulations,

Bob

[BirdDog20]

Congrats to everyone on filling ... and man - Talk about a beautiful buck. Ideal. I start driving Wednesday for my hunt.

[jgabler]

Nice job. Congrats to all 4

[CouesWhitetail]

Great job guys!! Thanks for sharing the story and pics with us!

[CumminsRig]

Congrats to everyone on filling ... and man - Talk about a beautiful buck. Ideal. I start driving Wednesday for my hunt.

 

 

Be careful man have a great trip. Hope to see some pics and story to read about. Thanks he only has an 1 1/2 deductions he scored 103 6/8. The big two point scored 85.

[Elkaddict]

Good looking bucks!! Congrats!

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

Whooooo Haaaaa! Great job Fellas,Congrats!!! I love it when a plan comes together!! Awesome!!!!

[reganranch]

All Great Bucks! Your Uncle Tom looks alot like our good friend Tom Vanharen. Great guy he sold his F350 turbo diesel to my dad who gave it to my brother. Have a great winter guys.

[Cowman]

All Great Bucks! Your Uncle Tom looks alot like our good friend Tom Vanharen. Great guy he sold his F350 turbo diesel to my dad who gave it to my brother. Have a great winter guys.

 

 

Indeed...your good friend made a heck of a shot on a big heavy old 2 point!

[CumminsRig]

All Great Bucks! Your Uncle Tom looks alot like our good friend Tom Vanharen. Great guy he sold his F350 turbo diesel to my dad who gave it to my brother. Have a great winter guys.

 

Hahaha that would be the same guy. Thanks.