odd places to see coues

[ctnwdbwhntr]

Hello all, I am new to the site. Love those little whitetail! Any way I was fishing on the verde river, near deadhorse state park, and saw two coues does. seems strange to me, because its very close to homes and lots of people. where is the strangest place you all have seen them? vance newton

[COUESAZ]

Let me be the first to welcome you to the site. I think the strangest place I have seen one is on my trophy wall.

 

have a good time on the site and good luck in the draw.

[bullwidgeon]

They are very adapatable with people, dogs, neighborhoods and the like. I used to see them cruising around Saddlebrooke all the time eating all the old geezers flowers and hanging out on the golf courses. I know there are quite a few deer in unit 33 that seldom get more than 400 yards from the nearest houses.

 

Bret M.

[standman]

The oddest place i have ever seen a coues would be on the boat ramp at Windy Hill on Roosevelt Lake. I was launching my boat when I saw two does coming off of Windy Hill down to the water to get a drink. I have seen quite a few muleys there before but these were the first coues.

 

Brian

[Guest Guest_idahocoueshunter]

I remember, as a young kid, going to a shooting range just north of Tucson at the foot of the Catalina Mountains. We were sighting in our rifles, when four whitetail ran across the rifle range. I guess they felt safe after seeing us shoot.

 

 

I've got high hopes for the upcoming draw. Good luck to all.

 

Craig.

[az4life]

I have seen them in various units Running WITH Mulies. Strange but they seem to congregate in the later part of the day. Seeing a Coues buck hearding Mule does is pretty odd wherever you see it.

Edited January 1, 1970 by az4life

[Guest Guest_billrquimby]

Re: Odd places I've seen Coues deer.

 

Here are just two:

 

== The Black Hills north of Oracle/Oracle Junction. I was hunting javelina there 25-30 years ago and watched a doe feeding below me. Not far away in Tucson Wash (it reaches the San Pedro River at Mammoth), I was hunting mule deer when I jumped a small forked-horn Coues deer. This was long before the #$%$@! deer hunting lottery was imposed upon us. Any antlered buck was legal game, and I shot it. (Incidentally, I also saw a coatimundi in that same wash. It was the only time I've seen a "chula" in low desert terrain. Every other coati I've seen has been on oak-covered hillsides near shale.)

 

== On Benny Creek at Greer, and at South Fork on the Little Colorado River. We've been seeing them there for the past 10 years or so. Before that, I would have sworn the closest Coues deer to my cabin in Greer was 30 miles away in what now is Unit 27.

 

== The Salt River Canyon. There are quite a few Coues deer high on the slopes and it's not unusual to see them once you top out the Show Low side of the canyon. However, I've seen them very near the bridge several times during a lifetime of driving that road.

 

== The desert mountains near Stanfield before they built the present highway through there about 25 years ago.

 

== A range of mountains whose name I've forgotten near Gila Bend. In the 1950s, we often shot wild burros there. I remember seeing Coues deer there on two occasions.

 

== The Apache Maid country southeast of Flagstaff. We hunted elk three times with our bows there in the late 1970s and found Coues deer in a long canyon southwest of the fire lookout tower.

 

As for Coues deer living close to humans, one the best places to see this (or at least it used to be) was on the Fort Huachuca military post. In 1955, when I was scrambling to make enough money in the summer to pay my UA tuition, I had a job sandblasting rust off the walls inside the fort's water tanks. It was common to see a dozen or more whitetails at any given time in the mornings from the top of those tanks. We also saw many whitetails crossing the roads and bedded virtually on the doorsteps of houses and office buildings.

 

Bill Quimby

[Rembrant]

Bill,

I applaud you for the shooting of burros. It is incredulous to me that it is a federal offence to do so. It should be a federal offence for anyone to allow a habitat degrading exotic animal to roam free.

When I was a kid, I assisted a mamologist on a Colorado River research trip. We were setting live mammal traps on both sides of the river. On the side of the river where there were no burros, the habitat was normal and we would catch near 100 rodents a night. On the other side were the burros were allowed to run rampant, the habitat was tore up and we would catch only 10-12 rodents a night. This is critical desert bighorn habitat. Burros are more important than bighorns? Why not? Lions are more important than people!

Anyway, one of my brothers killed one of his best Coues deer on the south side of the road into Bartlet Lake - way down in the low desert.

Mike

[CouesWhitetail]

Here is one of my favority photos showing an odd place to see a coues deer buck. The photo was taken by Wade Sherbrooke when he was research director at the Southwest Research Station near Portal in the Chiricahuas.

 

Of course it's not unusual to see a coues deer in the Chiricahuas, but I just love this one standing under the laundry line. Since there is no hunting at the research station, the deer have little fear of people and love to grass on the developed lawns.

 

 

Amanda

[Diamondbackaz]

Odd places to see coues?? In the trunk of my chevy berretta, hanging upside down in my garage, and I see them going in and out of my freezer//