Third time in Mexico with Reynaldo finally paid off!

[GRONG]

Couldn't help but book another hunt with Jim Reynolds (Reynolds Coues Connection) again for this January. My buddies Gail Herrick, Nate Jackson and Nate Schrieber booked also.

 

First morning out, me and Nate Jackson got to enjoy fantastic scenery with deer all over the place while Gail and Schrieber glassed from a familiar knob a mile away. We saw several decent bucks and one typical 3x5 that was very tempting but not worth a tag on the first of many more days to hunt. Mid morning Nate says, "Here comes a buck!" I whip over to where he's looking 1200 yards out and immediately pick it up as well. Holy smokes he looked heavy and nice. The buck was trailing 2 does (in the same flat I had killed my 109 buck in last year) and it happened to glance up our way and both of us go, "DID YOU SEE THOSE EYEGUARDS!?!?!?!" Not really knowing what we had seen we drove around and hiked into the flat and set up a ground blind. I told Nate he needs to be there 1st thing in the morning in hopes that it popped out again. He said no way man, that's your spot, you need to sit there. I said no way man you glassed it up. Next morning comes and again I told him to sit there and he said lets flip a coin for it. He pulls out a Mexican peso and says heads or tails? I call tails and it lands on tails! I drop Nate off and he hiked back up on the knob we'd been on the day before and I head around to hike in to my flat. This past fall a lot of rain took place in this area and the flat I like happened to have caught a lot of water so there's about 3 acres of standing water about a foot deep. As I sat in my stool inside the blind to get situated I look out one of the windows and I see a doe on the edge of the water feeding about 180 yards away. I couldn't believe she would've not seen me on my approach to my blind. I put the Swaro's on her and I see another doe behind her bedded in the weeds! Neither of them saw me! Couldn't believe it.... Lots of herons and ducks gave me something to look at as I sat waiting. Around 8:30 I see 2 does bust out of the tall brown weeds and I put the Swaro's on them only to see a big buck bust out of the weeds behind them. I could see what looked like a split G3 on the right side and it looked pretty similarly framed as the deer the day before and I had him in the scope in seconds. His does went through a barbwire fence and I knew if he got through it too I might not see him again. So as he hesitated at the fence I let him have it! He ran along the fence about 20 yards and stumbled and went head first in the mud then flipped over and never moved again. I called Nate on the radio and told him I killed a good one. He asked if it was the one from yesterday and I said I think so but not sure, all I knew was that it looked big in the few seconds I had to analyze it. I gathered up all my stuff and walked over to the buck and about did a double back flip in my tracks!!! I couldn't have dreamt up anything cooler on a deer's head than what this guy offered up to me! I called Nate again on the radio and I came UNGLUED!! I told him I had no idea how big it was but it was most definitely the biggest thing I've ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on out in the woods!

 

Here's the first view I got of the buck when I walked up on it. Notice the blind under the tree in the background.

 

This is the look it gave us the first morning that made us flip the heck out!

 

Here's a rub that I'm pretty sure my buck made. It was about 3' tall.

 

 

So after taking tons of pics and Nate dying to see it too, I covered the buck with my jackets, ran to my truck, hauled back around to Nate then back again. I made Nate turn around and not look till I took the jackets off it's head. He turned around and nearly had the same reaction as me! It was a great moment to share with such a good friend. We took a ton more pics of course and finally loaded it into the truck and hauled it back to camp. Jim showed up after we had it hanging and his jaw dropped open when he saw it too. He asked how big it was and I said around 125 maybe? He said BS man, this thing is pushing 140!! My eyes about popped out of my head when he said that. The whole morning went so fast that I didn't have time to really even try to put a score to it as I was still floating on Cloud 9. So after I finished skinning and caping out the head I put a tape to it. Right side beam was 21 1/2", G1 was around 6 1/4 I think, 8" G2, 5" G3 and over 16" of mass. Left side was just over 20" on the beam, 7" G1, 8" G2, 4 1/2" G3 and over 16" of mass. Add the 6 1/2" of extras on the eyeguards and the 14 1/2" inside spread and it was just over 135" gross. It was a fantastic 7 days of hunting. We saw lots of bobcats, literally we'd see several a day. Got to watch one crawl out of the water soaked as it had missed catching a duck. Saw the fight of the century! Two bucks duked it out then went into the water for good dive n brawl n swim session. Nate Jackson glassed up a lion and just lots and lots of deer, it was a great time.

 

Nate Jackson shot his best Coues ever, this 112" buck.

 

 

Nate Schreiber shot his 1st ever Coues buck, it went 116!!! Eyeguards are 5 & 6" respectively.

 

Gail shot this buck on the last day there.

 

 

Gail workin hard....

 

Last morning out right before Gail killed his buck I glassed up these buzzards eating on something. After putting the spotter on them I realized that they were picking apart a buck carcass! I could see extra tines on it and couldn't wait to get down there and see it! It looked like from the 3 new breaks on the rack that it possibly was wounded/killed in a buck fight and a couple coyotes finished it off. Buck scored and approximate 113", bummer....

 

 

From left to right. Gail Herrick approx 85", Jim Reynolds 119", Nate Jackson 112", Nate Schreiber 116" and my 135" buck.

 

 

Here's just a big assortment of deer and other animals I thought some of you would also enjoy. It was a great trip, thanks for sharing it with me

 

 

What is this guy eating?

If you guessed a dragonfly then you're right.

 

 

And last but not least, everybody's favorite...

[stanley]

GACK!!!!! AWESOME Josh!!!!!! VERY cool!

 

Thanks for sharing the pics and words!

 

S.

 

[Becker]

GOOD GOSH EPPERSON!!! What a FREAKING AWESOME BUCK DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thats all I can say.

[Elkaddict]

Great bucks!!! What more can a guy say except congrats to all !!

[Pine Donkey]

Increadible, just increadible.

[markhunts]

WOW!!!!!! Unbelievable Buck for you, and the rest are awesome too. Congratulations!! Doesn't get any better than that.

[rthrbhntng]

That is one of the best Coues I have ever seen.

Congratulations.

[Hunting6]

Josh,

Congratulations to you, Jim, and your friends...

That is a jaw dropper buck for sure....!!!!!!!!!

For Nate to do that for you, wow... good friend for sure.

All of those bucks are good ones...

Thanks for sharing the story with us.

 

 

Mike

[Jay Scott]

Great pics. great bucks and awesome write up! Congrats to everyone involved. Way to go

[shanehamblin]

Good grief that buck is freakin unreal. Congrats on a buck of a lifetime!

[Viper]

HOLY TOAD-ZILLA!!! What a huge, beautiful buck! Wow!

[jmall]

AWESOME!!!!

[rcdinaz]

Great job! Definitely worth the wait!

[Kaffer62]

Unbelievable!!!! Wow What an absolute pig of a buck!!! I have never seen such a thing! Congrats on an amazing coues!

[Couestracker]

WOW! That is a wicked looking buck-just awesome! Congratulations to you and your friends on a spectacular hunt.