35B don't laugh. Lol.

[PowellSixO]

Well guys, I'm back from my first coues hunt with my buddy. What a trip, and what an experience. We started off the trip leaving northern AZ around 3 am on the 3rd. Climbing the hill into Flag we started to smell antifreeze. Uggg, this is how this hunt is going to start out. Lol. We pull over and find a small coolant hose that had a pin hole leak in it. We sat in front of napa waiting for them to open to get some hose, and get back on the road.

So we finally get on the road again and finish the 8.5 hour trip to Patagonia, Az. We get to camp finally (luckily one of our friends let us stay on his small piece of property for the hunt, which gave us running water, and power for the hunt), and got everything set up.

We had a few beers, and did some looking at the map to get familiar with the unit that night, and got our packs ready for the next morning. We woke up early, drove to a spot of interest, parked, and made the hike into our first glassing spot. As the sun comes up, we start glassing. As the sun gets higher and higher, we notice we're not the only ones hunting this canyon. In fact there are 4 other people hunting this same spot. Crap. They didn't seem to care we were there so we continued on. We ended up glassing 8 does, and not one buck.

That evening we went to a new spot to glass some more. Only to find that the new spot had more hunters in it than the first spot. Crap. But once again we stuck it out, and glassed up 11 does, and a spike! We let him go, and concluded our first day of the hunt. Over the next 4 days, we found a lot of the same except we finally made it away from the crowd. We saw probably 125 does over the course of the hunt, 4 spikes, one 1x2, one 2x2, and one small 3x3 in total.

With only 2 days left in the hunt, I decided that my goal of shooting a big mature coues buck wasn't going to happen, and that I was going to take the next buck I saw, so that I could at least say I was successful on my first coues hunt. The next morning I had my buddy drop me off at 4:30 am, and I made the hour and a half hike to the top of a hill I could glass 4 different canyons from at the same spot. I had my breakfast and redbull in the dark as I waited for the sun to come up. As soon as the sun came up I was already finding deer, but once again no bucks. After over an hour, 3 new deer came walking into the canyon to my left. I put my glass on them, and I see doe, another doe, and a spike! Lol. I watch them and I struggle with the choice of taking this buck. But after watching him for 30 minutes, I decide to take the shot. I range the deer, and it shows 585 yards! I put in my dope into my ballistics program, and adjust my scope for 585 yards, and a 10 mile an hour cross wind. I try and get as comfortable as I can on my shooting sticks, and take a deep breath. I start to squeeze the trigger, and pow......... smack! The buck dropped in his tracks dead as a door nail. I hit him right in the chest right behind the shoulder.

Officially the smallest deer I've ever shot. Lol.

Took the shot from the top of here.

My buddy helping me out (he was over in the next canyon).

The next day walking into a new canyon, this little guy ran out in front of us, and stood there. My buddy couldn't pass him up, so he shot him with his 6.5 grendel at a whopping 50 yards. Lol.

So after it was all said and done, we didn't get our trophy coues bucks. But we did learn a lot about hunting coues, and we did fill our tags. We had a great trip, and plan on coming back to hunt the grey ghost again! What a blast it was getting to hunt these little guys. I know some of you might get mad that we took immature bucks, and that's fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But this was a long trip for us, and we hunted hard. We weren't part of the road hunting crew, and we put many miles on our boots, cactus and fox tails in out legs and feet, and bruises on our asses sliding down hills in the dark. For a completely brand new unit, and our first coues hunt, I'm pretty proud of us honestly. But we will be back again, you can count on that.

[bigorange]

Your tags, your bucks. Be proud and thankful. Congrats!

[CouesPursuit]

Nothing wrong with spikes!! It looks like you put yourself in great country for first time coues hunters. Congratulations!

[PowellSixO]

Thanks guys. Yeah we had some learning to do. The next time we come down, I'll be looking for a wall hanger. We will be back for sure. We'll probably put in for a better unit, and wait for a December hunt. I think half the problem we were facing, was the bucks were bedded within 30 minutes of the sun rising, and weren't coming out of their beds until the sun was set. It was 35-38 degrees in the mornings, but would climb to almost 80 in the heat of the day. It was just too hot. But lessons were learned on this hunt, and I'm already excited for the next one.

[PelaPapas]

Great pics and story! Beautiful country out there! Congrats!

[PowellSixO]

Thanks everyone. It was a much tougher hunt than I expected. The hills looked a lot less steep from the road, and a lot less prickly. Lol. I picked out hundreds of fox tails, cactus needles, and other sharp poky stuff every day. It's one of the harder hunts I've ever been on, but one of the most rewarding. Definitely glad I did it. Plus I didn't expect the deer to be that small. I know now exactly why they call them the grey ghost. They're there one minute and gone the next.

[Edge]

Great story, great shot

[gotcoues]

My advice is do not wait for a December hunt. It's not worth the wait, even if you can't do any significant scouting IMO.

Might as well put it down for your first choice though, couldn't hurt. I would try the late November hunt as your second choice, the deer movement can be very good on this hunt and the cooler weather allows you to walk just a little further to get away from road hunters and hopefully find some decent bucks.

 

Spikes or big bucks, coues hunting can be an adventure either way!

[Mocha1545]

Nothing wrong with taking a legal buck. Bambi Veal! It'll taste really good. Congrats!

[PowellSixO]

One of the funnest parts of the trip that I forget to mention was day 4. I setup in a canyon glassing away first thing in the morning, when all of a sudden we hear a loud noise coming my way (less than 5 minutes after first shooting light). I'm thinking this might be a deer. Then it got louder. So I thought this has to be another hunter, or maybe an illegal immigrant. I loaded a round and got my rifle ready. This coues doe walked out literally 3-4 feet from me, and there was another deer behind it. So I keep my rifle up, and the doe walk right past me (I probably could have touched her with my rifle). The second one comes out and I'm thinking holy crap I'm going to kill a buck at like point blank range. Lmfao. Well it ended up being a spike even smaller than the one I killed. After they walked about 20 yards pass me, they caught my wind and were off like rockets. But I was super surprised how loud they were walking through the grass. Lol. I have a video of the spike on my phone after he passed me, but can't get it to transfer from my phone to photobucket.

[Guest oneshot]

Nice,,, You came, You Hunted, You learned alittle, You filled your tags... Sounds like an excellent Hunt to me... Congrats...

[Non-Typical Solutions]

That is more antler than I saw on my mule deer hunt congratulations on a great hunt!!!

[nw07heavy]

Nice spikes, and nothing wrong with that outcome! Congratulations.

[Quagmire]

Congrats on the spikes! Look at it this way, everybody has to start somewhere and you can only go up from there.

[azruger]

Never be ashamed of a kill. Your trash your decision. Any COUES is a good COUES. Congrats on the hunt and hope you have many more successful hunts on the GREY GHOST!!