2014 was my best year!!! Two great bucks.

[motoxno53]

This year turned out to be one of the best years I have ever had. I was blessed to have been able to find and take a good 170" buck in CO; however I can say for that without a doubt AZ was even better. I’m still in a bit of disbelief that I was lucky enough to harvest two great bucks in the same year. I have never considered myself to be a “lucky” hunter - but shoot I can’t say that for this year as there was a lot of luck involved. This buck was in an area that we have seen some other really good 110+ inch bucks. But we have never seen this buck prior to the day I took him. We have also been seeing some great bucks in our archery spots and so it was going to be 110 or bust for my rifle hunt.

 

I was unable to hunt the first 5 days of the 10 day hunt as my wife pulled rank and we had to go to the Sand Dunes. My partner, Greg, was hunting since opening morning and had been seeing bucks, but not having much luck on getting connected on a big one. The moon was full and not going to be much help at all and it was still unseasonable warm for our hunt. Come day 5 I roll into camp at 5PM, get set up, make some dinner and start trying to figure out where to go the following morning. Morning comes and we are up at 3AM. We eat breakfast and start our 2 ½ hour pack in to our glassing spot. We start seeing deer right away and as we start to get enough light we see small bucks. I am watching one small 90” buck and a bunch of other deer. I call Greg to come over as he was glassing a different area. As I start to pan to my right I see a good buck. He was 600 yards away, but I know it’s a good buck. For some reason my Swarovski 15’s were building up condensation inside and it was making it tough to really judge him, so I tell Greg I have a good buck. I get him on the buck and move to grab my spotter. As I am going for my spotter to really see how good of a buck this is, Greg says he is a great buck. Forget the spotter, I grab your rifle.

 

This is where hunting with a partner really helps. I do a lot of solo hunting and I love it. It is rewarding to get it done all by yourself, but there can be a cost. I cannot tell you how many animals I have glassed and missed opportunities as I am jumping from binos to spotter to rangefinder and then trying to get on the gun and I miss out as they disappear. Greg and I are a lot alike and he is a great hunter so I never gave it a second thought when he said its a shooter. As I prone out and get set up for my shot I range the buck at 650 yards. I dial my scope and start checking for wind. We have a very slight left to right breeze. I make my correction and settle into position. The buck is feeding and not moving. I have no shot - he is behind a bush. Both Greg and I are talking and both agree where we believe he is going to head and so we start scouting out potential spots he will pass through and any potential obstacles I may need to avoid in order to get a shot. That is when we notice that he has a small gap and a group of trees to our left and we are betting that’s where he is going. The trees are about 15 yards from him. After the trees we notice there is a small hill between him and us and if he gets to the trees he has 3 options:

 

1) Walk away from us in the trees and we would not have a shot;

2) Walk to our left and we would have two shot opportunities;

3) Walk to our left and toward us which was behind the hill.

 

He starts to walk out to the left and I get on him. I did not have time to take the shot as I needed to check the wind again. My correction is still good and I know he is going to walk out from behind the bush, so I settle down and place my crosshairs on him behind the bush. I know I have a small left to right breeze, I know he will be walking right to left and so I make my corrections for all of this and he gives me time to relax. I can see him the whole time, I just don’t have a clear shot. As he slowly makes his way out into the opening I squeeze the trigger. I lose sight in the muzzle flash, but Greg says “You hit him!” We both start to notice that we did not hear the report of the bullet impact. Just as we start to say it…. Whop the sound we were waiting for. The buck went only a few feet and we never see movement. I had another round chambered and was scanning the area. Nothing. We keep scanning for 30 minutes or so and then start the process of, do I go and let Greg guide me into the area he was when I shot or do we both go? We had some really good landmarks and so we both bail off the mountain and start over to where he was when I took my shot. As we are walking up to the area we see the classic white hide through the bush. Our adrenaline pumps again as we begin to walk up to him. His rack is tangled in some brush and Greg says “Well when the rack is big enough to get his antlers tangled up that is a good sign”.

 

As we walk up we begin to see what we had just done. I have seen enough deer to know he was a huge buck, but I had no idea he was a monster buck. His beams curve out so far that each time we saw him head on he would cover up two of his extra tines. We really had no idea he was as big as he was until we got hands on him. He is truly more than I could have wanted. My goal for a Coues was to hit the 120” mark. Well this one has been scored 3 times now, one of those times by an SCI measurer. He scores 130 3/8 SCI. Not only is he a great buck size wise, but he has a lot of character. All of his tines are bladed and almost make a triangle. When we were trying to take pictures it is really hard to capture all of his points as they are in spots that get blocked by other tines. He has 36” of mass, his bases are 5” and they are actually his smallest mass measurements.

 

This was the first time I have ever taken an animal on the first day of a hunt. Perhaps now my wife will stop harassing me when I say I will try and tag out early and get back home as soon as I can… So to all you wives out there this is proof it is possible. Oh wait, dang it, I did not come home early. I ended up staying the next 4 days and continued to help my partner try and tag out. I guess I will have to try and get home early next year!!!!!!!

[tjkazhunter]

Holy Crap!!! That coues has mass for days! Congrats!

[creed_az_88]

What a buck! His true size really isn't perceivable until that last picture where you're holding him next to the muley. What a giant.

[firstcoueswas110]

is there a story on the mule deer?

[Flatlander]

Stud buck. He's definitely packing some lumber!

[papa]

One nice Buck for sure.

[218buck]

Two great bucks in the same year that will be hard to top that coues is sick congrats

[Pixman]

Wow talk about mass, what a great buck!

[pwrguy]

Great bucks both. Congrats on a great year.

[desertbowhunter]

Wow great bucks!! But that coues buck is just amazing! Congratulations!

[OpticNerd]

Dang! That coues is crazy big! Congrats man!

[Kaffer62]

What a year. I am truly jealous.

[randyolson]

SMOKIN!!!! Congratulations!!!

[wildwoody]

Ya I'm jealous

[out2hunt]

That is one of the heaviest gnarliest bucks I have ever seen, Mass for days, blading, hooks, trash with symmetry! Kudos offically Jealous!