Wife's first Coues

[DotShot]

So this year I decided to ask my wife if she would like to put in for a Whitetail hunt in an attempt to get her interested in my passion for Coues deer hunting. She agreed and I put her in for one of 2 hunts down at Fort Huachuca and as luck would have it she was drawn for the first non-junior hunt that started on the 16^th of November. Now, one must know that my wife hadn’t shot a deer in thirty years with the last one being when she was 14 and not to mention that the deer she shot was taken in South Texas hunting from a blind over a feeder, much different from how we do things here in Southern Arizona.

 

She decided that she wanted to use my Remington 700 XCR chambered in 300 WSM as she has no issues shooting large caliber guns. Now this gun is dialed in pretty nicely shooting Vor-Tx 165gr Barnes TTSX bullets and is topped with a Leupold VXII 4.5x12-40AO with a custom Kenton Industries turret. Up until the hunt she had shot this rifle 2 times and was pretty dead eyed with it.

 

We Departed our house on the 16^th after I had just underwent a procedure to try and eliminate chronic low back pain that I have suffered with for years. We headed for Fort Huachuca after the procedure and arrived at our trailer that I had pulled down the week before for our son’s junior hunt. Well, we didn’t get down and checked in much before dark and only had about an hour to glass a little bit which proved fruitless so we called it a day and made our plan for the next morning.

 

We awoke early on Saturday morning a gathered all of our gear, packed our breakfast and lunch then teamed up with a good friend of mine and his son who had a Juniors tag for the same time period. As we discussed the plan out by our vehicles the light rain began to fall and I had visions of a horrible morning hunt but much to my surprise by the time we got to our glassing spot the light rain had ended and the wind was minimal. We gather up all of our gear, tripods, binos, chairs, backpacks, and firearms and proceeded to walk the 100 yards up the hill to a very good glassing point.

 

Once settled in I decided to put her behind my Docter 15x60’s and gave her a relatively quick class on how to manipulate the tripod head as well as pointed out a very good hillside that consistently holds bucks. We had glassed for no more than about 30 minutes when she glassed up her first deer, a doe, feeding on the hillside. Shortly after the doe she tells me she has another deer and he has horns. I quickly relocate and put my Swaro’s on the buck to get a good idea where he was and sure enough the deer was indeed a nice little 2x2 with eyeguards. I asked my wife if she wanted to take him and she stated that she did at which point I lased the deer with my brand new Leica CRF-1600B rangefinder and the deer was at 666 yards. Knowing this was beyond her range comfort my friend mentioned that if we managed to work over to a little knoll that was just down the hill we could get within 400 yards and option we quickly agreed upon and set off.

 

We left my friends son behind in some bino’s to keep an eye on the buck and make sure he didn’t give us the slip which proved to be a smart move. Once we got set up on the knoll I proceeded to get the gun set up on another tripod that was topped with my Triclawps gun clamp. Once all set up we began searching for the buck which proved a little challenging due to the dense vegetation. After consulting with my friend’s son we were told the deer hadn’t moved yet and was hidden to us behind a small juniper tree. We picked up the tree he was behind and began the waiting game hoping the buck would give my wife at least one shot. After a few minutes the buck began to move from our left to right in a straight line but always managing to keep himself behind some sort of vegetation. After a few frustrating attempts to get a shot at him as he passed through very small openings, the buck took a trail that would lead him into an opening that would give my wife about a 10 second opportunity for a shot. As we waited for him to hit the reach the opening I had time to laze the opening which ended up being 382 yards which I dialed into the scope and got her set on the opening. As the buck entered the open space it looked as though he was not going to hesitate for a shot but as luck would have it he did just that. I was in the binos and heard my wife take 2 deep breaths and then BOOM, I saw the bullet hit the deer right at the shoulder but told her to reload and get ready for another shot, a shot that was not needed. I watched the buck run about 30 yards down the hill and go white side up and ceased all movement.

 

She had told me from the moment she found out that she had been drawn that if I got her on a buck she would connect, no matter what, a statement she made good on. I think what made me the most proud was the fact that she glassed up the buck and closed the deal just as she said she would. Now most of you will consider this a small buck and that is fine but to her it’s a trophy because she did this pretty much on her own. I am proud as heck of her and I think the excitement I showed really caught her off guard. One thing I tell all the folks I talk about hunting too is simply this, I get as excited today when I am successful at taking a deer as I did the day I shot my first, and when that excitement is gone then I need to hang up my rifle. Below are a couple of pictures I took, the first is the 2x2 Mulie buck my son shot on day 1 of his Juniors hunt (251 yards) and the second is my wife and her first Coues buck and first deer in 30 years! Congrats Baby, you never cease to amaze me with all the things you do!

[jim]

Awesome story and theres nothing wrong with that buck at all.

[Pine Donkey]

Great job. I love the fact she wanted you to buy a new gun. Good stuff!

[Chef]

Congratulations to both you and your son!

Looks like one big happy family right there!

Pretty awesome too how she herself glassed up her own buck.

[John O]

Way to to go! Congratulations on a nice buck.

[trophyhnter]

Great story! Thanks for sharing!

[Mocha1545]

Great Story! that Buck is just Fine! She should be proud!