Posts
Mark Guerena 2004
October 24, 2004
Unit 24B, Arizona
Mark is 10 years old and this is his first deer!
He got it around 10:30 am with a 250 yard shot from a .243. Mark’s father (also named Mark) is next to him in the first photo. This deer was taken during the juniors only hunt. I know they hunted hard and walked a lot of miles in that hunt. Congratulations Mark!!
Dan McKaskle 1960
around 1960
South of Tucson, AZ
Colby Shepherd (the one in the blue shirt) sent me these photos. He says that the large non-typical was taken by Dan Mckaskle around 1960. He says it’s a 10×7 that gross scores 140! Pretty amazing buck.
The smaller, typical buck that Colby is holding in the middle photo is a pickup from Mexico that scores 110.
Jason Stailey 2000
Dec 2000
Unit 30a, Arizona
This was Jason’s first Coues deer. He took it with a .300 Win Mag. It’s a 3×4 (including eyeguards) and they say it scores around 80-85 inches. His father took a 98 inch buck, but I don’t have that photo for you yet.
John Howard 2002
2002
Unit 32, Arizona
John says this is a 101 inch buck. Hard to see it real well in the photo, but looks like a nice one.
Butch Barrett 2003
Dec 2003
Unit 30A, Arizona
Once again, Butch and his son glassed him up a nice buck at about 500 yards away. And once again, they were on the top of one mountain, and he was across the canyon on the adjacent mountain. They watched the buck bed down under a big oak tree. Butch told Mike to keep an eye on him while he put the stalk on him. Mike and Butch were in constant contact with miniature walkie talkies. It took Butch what felt like an hour to circle around the mountain that they were standing on, and arrive at a large rock outcropping that was about 300 yards away from the buck. He got settled in at the outcropping and spotted the buck napping under the oak tree. Mike told him, that the deer never moved, the whole time he was moving to the new vantage point. It was about 12 noon when Butch arrived at the outcropping. He figured it would be best if he just waited until the buck decided to get up and start feeding again. Well, they watched that buck lying there under that tree until 4:00 P.M. They were losing daylight fast and he still hadn’t got up. Mike suggested that Butch shoot a round at a big boulder that was directly behind the big guy and see if that would get him to stand up. With no other options coming to mind, Butch did as Mike suggested. The round slammed into that rock just above the buck’s head. He reacted just as they had hoped. He stood up and ran out from under the tree and suddenly stopped. He was looking back at the tree trying to figure out what had just happened. Unfortunately for him, he also presented another perfect broadside shot. Butch took his time, held the crosshairs even with the top of his shoulders, and squeezed off a round from his .270. After he recovered from the recoil of the rifle, he could not find him in his scope. Butch searched the mountain up and down, and could not see him. About that time, Mike was on the walkie talkie excitedly telling him that the buck had jumped straight up in the air, and fell behind a large clump of bear grass. He said, that the deer never got up again after he hit the ground. Mike said, that it was exciting to watch everything unfold through his binoculars. He said that, if he had a video camera with him, he probably could have put the tape on the next issue of “Buckmasters”.
Butch Barrett 2000
Dec 2000
Unit 35A, Arizona
Butch and his son Mike spotted the buck two days before but he was too elusive and wary. On the day that Butch shot him, they spotted him across the canyon from them at about 800 yards away. As you can tell from the photo, there wasn’t a whole lot of cover for them to stalk him in order to get within range of my .270 Winchester Featherweight. Mike stayed on the ridge to keep and eye on him while Butch slowly “low crawled” over rocks and cactus to a lone juniper tree which put him about 360 yards from the buck. The buck was looking in his direction the whole time that he was stalking him. Pretty surprizing he never saw or winded Butch. By the time Butch arrived at the juniper, he took some time to catch my breath. The buck was still standing on the side of the mountain, giving him a perfect broadside shot. After catching his breath, he held the crosshairs of his scope just slightly above the buck’s shoulders and squeezed off a round. One shot was all it took, he dropped in his tracks.
Chris Pro 2000
October 2000
Unit 29, Arizona
Chris jumped up a smaller buck at 100 yards, but as he was getting ready to shoot that one, this larger buck jumped up at 40 yards. Chris made the shot using a .270 with a 150 grain bullet. He and his brother-in-law, Chris Yrigolla, saw a total of 10 bucks in their 4 day hunt. But they were mostly just young bucks. This buck roughly scores about 96 inches.
Terry Reeves 2002
November 2002
Unit 36B, Arizona
Terry shot this buck with a .300 WSM at 20 yards! It scored 108 4/8 and is entered in the state recordbook. It received honorable mention at the recent recordbook awards luncheon.
His son & another buddy were moving East along the base of a mountain, stopping & glassing every few minutes, about 100-200 yards apart. Terry was northmost, buddy in middle and son southmost. His buddy had already jumped a doe out in front of him a few minutes earlier. Terry sat down to glass the side of the mountain and his buddy jumped the buck, who ran out over a little rise about 40 yards in front of him. It came STRAIGHT at Terry and looked like it was going to run over him (literally). A friend of Terry’s later called the way they were hunting “quail hunting for deer” (walking through an area to jump deer) and suggested it was the proper way to hunt in those conditions. Terry says he just felt ridiculously lucky…However, having hunted the same unit for the last 5 years without even SEEING a buck, he also feels like he had put in his time. It was the first whitetail Terry had ever taken in Arizona.
Jose Carrasco 2002
2002
Arizona
Jose got another exceptional buck just a year after his first! This buck scores 106 2/8 and was also taken while on a hunt with his father.
Jose Carrasco 2001
2001
Arizona
This was Jose’s first Coues deer! He shot it while on a hunt with his father, Danny. Jose was 10 years old and the buck scores 108 2/8.
Dudley Britt 2000
Dec. 2000
Unit 32, Arizona
Dudley took this buck at 200 yards with a .270. This was his first Coues deer. It has 5 points on each side, including eyeguards. This buck was trying to breed three mule deer does.
Jeff Davison 1995 and 1997
1995 and 1997
Unit 32, Arizona
The top two pictures show the buck Jeff got in 1995 with a 200 yard shot from his .270. Jeff shot this buck in its bed. He missed with the 1st shot, but got him with his second. It was his first Coues deer and has four points on each side.
The bottom photo shows two Coues deer mounts (the ones with hides). The one in the top right of that photo is the same deer as the one shown in the field above. The bottom left is the deer he shot in Nov of 1997, it has 3 points per side and no eyeguards. He took that one with a .243. The other deer racks in the photo are southern California mulies. During that Nov 97 hunt, Jeff and his friend also found a lion-killed buck.
Ed Kneiter 2001
November 2001
Unit 34A, Arizona
The buck on the right was Ed Kneiter’s very first buck ever. He took him in the Santa Rita mountains, 300 yards off Highway 83. It was about 100 yard shot with my 30.06. Ed’s best friend Robert is holding his nice 3×3 (the buck on the left in the photo). He killed that buck less then 5 yards from the side of the road. Ed says it’s a good thing too, because he was a big boy in a lot of catclaw. Robert has had a lot of experience hunting in those mountains and did a great job scouting for Ed and showing him the ropes on how to hunt Whitetails. Because of Rob, Ed is proud to show the buck that he killed along the one Robert killed. Both these bucks were killed in the November hunt in the Santa Rita Mountains.
Vern Palmer 2003
Vern Palmer Nov 2003
Unit 34A, Arizona
Vern got this nice buck down toward Rio Rico where he lives. He always hunts that unit and got this buck as it was running away from them in a canyon they had just started glassing.
I scored the buck for him and here are the measurements:
| Right | Left | |
| main beam | 17 1/8 | 17 1/8 |
| 1st tine | 2 7/8 | 2 7/8 |
| 2nd tine | 7 1/8 | 8 1/8 |
| 3rd tine | 6 5/8 | 4 2/8 |
| 1st circum. | 2 7/8 | 3 0/8 |
| 2nd circum | 2 6/8 | 2 6/8 |
| 3rd circum | 2 6/8 | 2 5/8 |
| 4th circum. | 2 0/8 | 2 2/8 |
| inside spread | 13 6/8 | |
| Gross score: 100 7/8 | ||
| Net score: 97 0/8 | ||
Ray Smyers 2003
Dec. 2003
Unit 24A, Arizona
Ray got this buck while hunting with his son (shown in top photo). They were stalking another, much smaller buck, when this monster showed up. He made a decision real quick to shoot him. What a great buck!
His buck grossed 116 7/8 and netted 113 5/8. Some of the details on the measurements are in the table below:
| Right antler | Left antler | |
| main beam | 20 1/8 | 19 3/8 |
| 1st tine | 3 3/8 | 2 7/8 |
| 2nd tine | 8 | 7 3/8 |
| 3rd tine | 6 2/8 | 5 1/8 |
| 1st circum. | 4 | 3 7/8 |
| 2nd circum. | 3 2/8 | 3 2/8 |
| 3rd. circum. | 3 1/8 | 3 1/8 |
| 4th circum. | 2 4/8 | 2 3/8 |
| inside spread | 18 7/8 | |
Ed Knieter 2003
Nov. 2003
Unit 35B, Arizona
This is a picture of the second deer that Ed has ever shot. Ed is on the left and his best friend Robert is on the right (in orange). Ed shot this deer early in the morning on 11/13/03 at about 110 yards with his 30.06 down in Patagonia. Robert shot a nice 3 x 1 (broken antler) a few days before that at 400 yards with his 270 and our other friend Howard killed a nice spike on the last day of the hunt. Congrats to all the successful hunters!
Eugene Merrill 1956
1956
Unit 32, Arizona
Eugene Merrill’s buck was shot in 1956 in area 32. it is a 3×3 plus eyeguards ( notice the length of the eyeguards). He was sitting down in the shade eating lunch and his brother walked down the hill and pushed it right towards Eugene. He shot it at about 7 yards.
Amy Ballard, who is Eugene’s granddaughter, sent in the photo. Amy has some of her bucks on this web site too.
The rack has been lost, but unofficially scores between 125-130.
Greg McBride 2004
Jan 2004
Cordes Jct, AZ
The Coues Deer was taken just north of Cordes Jctn., AZ at a distance of 70 yds. with a 25-.06. After the shot it took 2 days for myself, Mike Knickerbocker and Bruce Buchanan to get the buck out of the canyon bottom. Mike Knickerbocker is the guy in the bottom photo, George is in the top photo.
John Jordan 2003
2003
Arizona
John took this buck in an area about 10 miles from Douglas,Az. Many people believe the area to only hold muley but as you can see he shot this 80-90 buck over the small hill you see in the picture. His father Albert Jordan missed this same buck the day before on the same hill. John saw him the next day at 8am, he bedded down and didn’t move again until 12pm. Yes, 4 dreaded hours of waiting for him to appear. He went down on a running shot about 250 yards from my 30-06. They nicknamed this buck “THE VET” since he was K.I.A on Veteran’s Day.
Dave Vorhees 2003
Dec 2003
Arizona
Brian Fisher 2003
Dec 2003
Unit 36B, AZ
Brian harvested this coues buck in December of 2003 in unit 36b using a Ruger 300 WIN. MAG at 328 yards. He and his buddy had watched him tend a doe and then bed. Brian wasn’t totally convinced at first that this was the deer he wanted to harvest but made a last minute decision to take him when he got up and offered a clean shot. He is a 4 x 4 (counting eye guards). Brian guesses the buck scores around 90.
Danny Howard 1999
Dec 1999
Unit 36B, Arizona
Danny got this buck within a mile or so of the buck he took in 1991 (above). I will list score info after the contest since I show a photo of these two bucks together in Danny’s arms.
Danny Howard 1991
Oct. 1991
Unit 36B, Arizona
I am going to use this buck for a “Guess the Score contest” so I am not putting the score information up yet.
Danny Howard 1994
1994
Unit 31, Arizona
Danny got this buck on Mt. Graham. It gross scores 97 2/8, net 95 6/8. Main beams are both about 15 inches long. Eyeguards are 3 2/8. 2nd tines are both 4 7/8. Thirds are 5 7/8 (rt) and 6 2/8 (lft). 1st circum. is 4 0/8 (rt) and 3 7/8 (lft). This buck has a pretty narrow inside spread at 12 4/8.
Dustin and Dan Burnett
Unit 36B, AZ
Dan and his 11-year-old son made some great memories on this hunt. They glassed up both these deer together on opening morning and it was his son’s first deer. The buck he got is a 1×2 and the one his father got is a 4×4.
