Newbie for coues needing a little help

[cvitech2]

I am getting ready to put in for a tag for a Coues deer. I am an experienced hunter in North America; I will be hunting with 3-4 other people, in which only one has experience. They want to hunt Mulies while me and another put in for Coues. I have looked at 30A, 30B and 32. We do not have high expectations for this hunt. We have never hunted in AZ, and I myself have never even been to AZ. If we were lucky to get some shot opportunities at either species we would consider ourselves luck. Planning on choosing some dates in early Nov to late Nov. Any thoughts would be appreciated......

[PRDATR]

I have no experience with the 30's but have hunted 32 a few times. It has both Mule and White Tail deer and on the west side of the Winchesters I have seen both. The closer you get to Muleshoe the WT may not be around there but I have seen some big Mule Deer in that area.

You can also expect to see Javelina and the last time I was driving on the Three Links Rd I saw a heard of Antelope, about 5 years ago.

If you hunt the early hunts expect to see snakes. Here is the Hunt Unit info from G&F.

http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/hunting_units_32.shtml

[Willyhunts2]

Check out the where to hunt section on the az game and fish website. You can look at some areas they give you on google earth and check out diff terrain. If you get to a good vantage point and glass a ton you will find Coues in all the units you mentioned. The areas game and fish give are good starting points. Good luck!

[hunter72]

I would stay away from the 30a 30b hunts as they are a very tuff hunt with small deer numbers.The 31 32 33 units have better deer numbers and some big bucks.

[cvitech2]

I will check out those sites, and I appreciate the help. I am sure when time gets closer I will have some more questions.

[Archaic]

I'm one of the other guys that will be going on the hunt with CVITech. One of the reasons we were looking at 30A,B is because of the opportunity for some of the guys who want to hunt mule deer to get shots. One of the other reasons is that we'd like to try a unit that gives us a decent chance of getting a draw. We'll put in the work and don't mind a tough hunt, but we'd like to max our chances of getting tags first.

[Flatlander]

It might be a little tougher in the 30's to find some overlap areas. There are quite a few places you could find either species in 32. Draw odds for WT in 32 are favorable, but tougher for the muley hunts. If your idea is to party hunt and be able to shoot no mater the species fo the deer, be careful because the laws out west are more restrictive and you could find yourself in a heap of trouble if you got caught. Not trying to accuse you of anything, just giving you a heads up. Good luck, I hope you get into a bunch of deer.

[Tines]

If I'm understanding you, you want to hunt wt and your buddies want to hunt mule deer? You'll have a difficult time doing that as a crew since the two hunts don't coincide. It's been several years since both deer hunts started at the same time down here. Either put in for the same species or plan on hunting at different times. Kinda defeats the purpose of putting in "together".

[cvitech2]

Flatliner, I think you are misunderstanding our idea. Let me give a quick overview and you guys please feel free to shoot holes in it. We need all the help we can get. We have a total of 6 guys, 1 California, 2 x Texas and 3 West Virginia. We were going to put two separate applications in 3x Couse and 3x Mulie. Then camp at a campground in our area, then hunt daily in groups of two from different trail heads. We would be hunting day hunts, and some would be packing in for overnight stays. We always planned to stay in groups of 2 with both parties having 1 of each tags. Now for the problems.... 1) We think the campground is the best option for base because we don’t feel comfortable leaving vehicles and base camp at trail head for a week. 2) We have the problem of not drawing at the same time, which is turning into our biggest problem. Is it possible to go 4 on an application and let the other 2 guys wait and try and buy non-resident over the counter. 3) We have hunted in Montana, Wyoming, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia and Florida....But this AZ thing is throwing us off with the difference in tags, license and all other aspects of the hunt.

[sherman]

The problem it there are two different types of tags MD and WT.It is not like some states where 1 tag is good for either one. I would say get on the same page with each other and go for one kind. I have hunted 30 B befor I thought there was good numbers of wt there not so much luck on Md. And you wouldn't need to pack in for days on end. I hope this helps

[ylclaret]

Are you planning on staying for at least two weeks? Because most of the hunts are about a week long and only one species is legal at any given time (for the most part) so the hunts alternate every week.

[ylclaret]

Have you considered an archery hunt in December or January? That would give you a lot more freedom in where you could hunt, it's over the counter so no stress on drawing a tag and you can shoot either species

[654321]

There are a few units you could choose that are any antlered deer, the problem with those units are you would really have to put your time in to find whitetail and draw odds probably not real good. For example hunt # 1005. Another option is to put 3 or 4 guys on one app. for mule deer and if they draw the other guys look at getting whitetail leftover tags. This option would force you to split the hunt in 2 segments and you would also have to hope for leftover tags, for example the guys interested in hunting mule deer put in for lets say mule deer in unit 32 which is hunt #1055. Lets say they draw that tag now the guys that wanted wht. check and see that there are leftovers for hunt #1114, this hunt goes from Nov. 8-14th and the mule deer hunt #1055 goes from Nov 15 -21st. Now if time is no problem the whole group comes out together and the wht. guys hunt first and then the mule guys. If time is an issue then everyone can still come out together just have wht. guys hunt the last few days of their hunt and then the mule guys hunt the first few days of their hunt. Hope that makes sense.

[roninflag]

no over counter MD tags. few over counter WT. the two specie thing complicates the logistics a lot. pm sent. roninflag

[azgutpile]

If you are set on hunting southern Arizona, I would abandon the mule deer hunting and stick to Coues. If they are set on hunting mule deer, I would suggest looking at a different unit or different state.