August day one Non-typical Velvet Buck

[archery_hunter33]

Closed the first day of this August hunt with this little monster. A buck up f a lifetime and the best part is my wife was with me to see it all go down. With a now official score of 119 2/8 gross 112 7/8 net Non-typical. He should be the #2 velvet non typical Coues deer in Pope and Young.

 

Updated: Sorry its taken me so long to get back here and update my post. Here is the story of the hunt. It begins in January 2016..I love chasing Coues deer during the rut and Ive taken three Pope and Young bucks doing just that. This year was different, I wasnt hunting alone. My wife, son, and father decided that they also wanted to archery hunt in January. I made the decision that if I didnt find a giant buck in January I would wait until August and get a Coues buck in the velvet. For most of January, I played guide for my family and we did quite well. My wife harvested her first deer with her bow on January 23rd (pictured below) and my son harvested his deer on the 25th, his second Coues deer with a bow. Unfortunately, my dad couldnt find the buck he hit during his week of hunting. I also had some bad luck and could not find a 110 inch buck I hit on the second to last day of the hunt. I reviewed the video and saw that I only got 2 or 3 inches of penetration. After that shot, I no longer use expandable Broadheads. My new weapon of choice is the Slick Trick Grizztrick.

Now to August 2016 Friday the 19th was the first day of the August archery season. I had four different bachelor groups of bucks located. I spent the morning sitting in a canyon overlooking a spring and saw nothing but does. After the uneventful morning, I went to lunch and headed back out into the flats. It didnt take very long before I decided to move on to bachelor group number three. Out in the flats, I spotted five different trucks within 1,000 yards of each other. So, I moved into another area about an hour and a half before dark. It was still monsoon season here in southern Arizona and the clouds were moving in and it was getting dark quicker than I anticipated. My wife was off work and joined me. We spotted a unique buck with a typical 3 point on one side and a mess of junk growing out of the other side. I thought he would be a great first velvet Coues deer. I made my way down wind and my wife waited behind me as I glassed for the buck. I didnt find him but I did find three very nice bucks feeding 230 yards away. They were feeding out of the thick mesquites and into the bottom of the draw. My plan was to sneak down the bottom of the draw and let the air out of one of them. As it usually goes I didnt make it very far into my plan, or the draw, before I had to change things up. At about 200 yards out I walked around a juniper and I saw a buck looking right at me from 90 yards away. I slowly moved back behind the juniper and waited. Fortunately, it didnt take long before things got interesting. I watched through the branches waiting for that buck to move on or bolt and I saw something moving behind him. It was a couple more bucks that had no idea I was there and they started down the draw right towards me. I held tight behind the juniper and the bucks started filing across the hillside at 60 yards. I started to count and got to 9 before I saw what I thought was just a nice 4x4. I waited for him to stop. He was quartering towards me slightly when I released the first arrow. It hit him perfect and he jumped up the hill and stopped broadside at 60 yards again. Without hesitation, I sent another arrow sailing through him. Still having no idea where I was, he ran off the hillside and bedded 40 yards in front of me. It started raining and I could see his head still up and alert. With the rain coming down I decided to sneak around the brush and shoot him again. As I got closer I heard what sounded like him kicking, maybe trying to get up. It wasnt him...a herd of Javelina popped up out of the draw right in front of him and he jumped up and ran around the brush right to me. I was ready and I put a third arrow through him at 15 yards. After the third shot he ran over a small berm and out of sight. The rain started coming down a little harder and I wasted no time looking for blood and the buck because I knew after three arrows he couldnt have gone far. I found him dead about 40 yards from where he disappeared over the berm. As I walked up, I noticed a couple extra points on him. I didnt pick him up immediately because I wanted my wife to see. I went back to get her from her vantage point where she informed me she watched the action unfold. Once we got back to the buck and pulled his head out of the brush, I knew this was a monster Coues buck. I had no idea when I shot him that he had all those extra points or the incredible mass. I was speechless, I had my first velvet Coues deer and he is a buck of a lifetime. He has 8 points on one side and 6 on the other.

 

[naturebob]

Wow. Fantastic Buck. Hope He doesn't shrink either. Congrats.............BOB!

[ccran]

Very nice, congratulations.

[trphyhntr]

 

 

what a buck!

[RackTracker]

Freaking stud buck!! Congrats man!!

[PseAZ]

Sweet buck dude, congrats.

[olmos1010]

Buck of a lifetime right there, still had some growing to do too. Huge congrats.

[Brow tine]

Wow what a deer. Congrats

[BOWUNTR]

Oh my... that's a whopper. Congrats. Ed F

[Shawn]

Killer buck! Congrats

[hunter4life]

Awesome deer. I do not know how much a deer in velvet shrinks, but I would guess quite a bit.

The Governors tag elk that are killed in velvet shrink between 30-60 inches.

[223VARMINTER]

Wow that is nice. Congrats!

[tjhunt2]

You are definitely going to get a lot of congratulations on the buck. CONGRATULATION ! That is awesome to have had your wife witness this.

 

TJ

[Ernesto C]

You have done great! Congratulations.

[Lucky Draw]

Congrats!