Posts
Mike and James Watson
Unit 36B, Arizona
Mike shot the two on the right and James shot the one on the left. These bucks were taken within a mile of each other.
Travis Milne 1998
198
Unit 36, Arizona
This was Travis’ first Coues buck. He never got it scored. He was meeting up with my brother and father in the bottom of a large canyon- this buck jumped up between them and almost ran them over- Travis yelled “coming at you”! The buck ran up the steep side hill, and he fell with one shot from a little Remington 600 in 308.
Rich Thompson 2003
Dec. 2003
Unit 32, Arizona
Rich got the great buck with the help of his brother-in-law Mike. He got this buck early in his hunt, which is uncharacteristic of how his hunts usually go! He usually is waiting until the last day. But he couldn’t pass up on this 111 inch buck.
You can read the details of his hunt in the story he wrote for this website.
Justin Benson 2003
Nov 2003
Unit 36A, Arizona
This is Justin’s first Coues buck. He shot it at about 350 yards when Justin was 14 years old. Congratulations Justin!
Byron Benson 2000
Nov. 10, 2000
Unit 36A, Arizona
Byron was 15 when he shot his first Coues buck (in photo). That buck was a really nice one scoring around 100 inches. He uses doctor 15×60’s on a tripod to hunt. He shot this buck at over 400 yards.
Roger Rohrbach 1983
Unit 23, Arizona
Roger got this great buck back in 1983. It is personal best and it nets 119 7/8 and has 7 points on each side. Awesome buck!
Nick Cruz 2003
Nov. 1, 2003
Unit 37B, Arizona
Nick took this fine 5×4 (including eyeguards) buck which scores 88 7/8. He got the deer with one shot from 276 yards with his 300 win mag.
Randy Cramer 2003
Dec 2003
Unit 29, Arizona
The buck is a 3×4 (plus eye-guards) and it has double eye-guards on the right side. The buck has great mass all the way through his points and he scored 95 & 1/8. Randy shot him on the last day of his hunt at 400 yards.
Jade Goodman
Arizona
Jade shot the buck in the top photo about 20 years ago. It’s his personal best and scores around 112-115. Unfortunately, the guy who mounted the deer broke the skull plate and so it can’t be officially scored. Jade is looking to get that buck remounted with a new cape, so if anyone has one, let me know and I will pass the info on to him.
The buck in the lower photo is of a buck that Jade got last year. He hasn’t measured it and doesn’t have any field photos because he left his camera on the side of the hill!!
Craig Stury 1993
1993
Unit 36A, Arizona
Craig became hooked on Coues deer hunting when his father took him out in 1990. A few years later he killed the monster buck shown in the top photo. He rough measured that buck at 129 inches.
Craig also sent in the bottom photo which shows two bucks. The one in the top part of that photo is a huge non-typical found by Pat Taylor in 1997 (which ranks as #4 in the B&C book, net 151 3/8). Then underneath that photo is Craig’s buck. Craig sees alot of similarities in the antler formation of both bucks. And they were taken in the same area. Check out the forked eyeguards, similar drop tines and abnormal points, and similar palmation. Pretty interesting.
Mark Wood and Quintin Ochoa 1998
Dec 1998
Unit 24B, Arizona
Mark Wood and Quintin Ochoa shot these two bucks traveling together in late December of 1998. At first Quintin saw only the 2 point, then when he took the shot at about 275 yards away the bigger 3 point was seen by Mark and he took a shot after Quintin had shot the 2 point.
Christy Ochoa-Wood 1996
Dec 28, 1996
Unit 24A, Arizona
This was Christy’s first hunt and she was using a 308 rifle. She was approximately 300 yards away, and the buck was with several other does. She was hunting with her father Quintin Ochoa. She shot this buck on last day she was able to hunt after hunting 13 days straight.
Amy Ballard 2003
October 2003
Arizona
Amy had a tag for the October 2003 hunt. The first day of the hunt her and her husband spent the night in the truck and began hiking with flashlights in hand.
Within 2 hours of glassing her husband, Ryan, found this buck over 1000 yards away. Amy took out hiking by herself with the 22-250 and the 1000yard range finder while Ryan kept the buck in view with his binoculars. She got within shooting range and told her husband over the radio that it was 407yards away.
He told her to go for it. She shot the 50 grain bullet and killed it in one shot. Her Grandpa Eugene Merrill says, “it’s a better looking buck than his nephews Sean and Loren Merrill’s (whose bucks are on this website too).
Gunner and Bridger Hubbard 2003
October 2003
Unit 32, Arizona
Gunner shot his mid-day the first day. It’s a nice heavy 3×3 plus eyeguards that scores in the 90’s. Bridger got his the second morning first thing. It’s a small 3×3 and his first Coues. Bridger had a football game Friday night and they all left after the game (which they won in the last seconds, coming from 10 pts down to win 21-17 over Higley!) and didn’t get to camp until 2 am. He could only hunt Saturday and Sunday, so he busted the first thing decent he saw. Gunner used his trusty .243 and Bridger used a .300 mag they call “Farkiller”. Their father, Lark, is thrilled to see his kids carrying on the hunting tradition.
Travis Udall 2003
Dec 23, 2003
Unit 24A, Arizona
This buck is a 4×4 and it was fat. Travis shot him at a ranged 389 yards with one shot from my 300 weatherby with 165 grain hornady sst. He was with five other bucks, one of which was well in the 110-120 class. Travis missed him and was left with a chance on this little guy. Interestingly, his legs were speckled and blotched with white patches up to his shoulders. His brisket also had the same patches.
Travis’ 13 year old son was with him and helped pack him out. Travis says that made this hunt worth all the money in the world to have his boy with him and be a part of the experience. Travis will be haunted by the big one that he missed, but is very happy with this deer.
Tyler Weiss 2003
Dec 2003
Unit 35A, Arizona
Tyler shot this buck on Dec. 29th 2003 in unit 35A. He saw a big buck 600 yards above him, but when he tried to move in closer the buck disappeared. Then he spotted 2 bucks moving away from him at 370 yards. He connected with the larger of the 2 bucks and he fell to one shot from his 300 Win mag. After the shot 3 more bucks came out from the same draw. This buck scores 91 3/8 net. This was his first buck too! During the hunt Travis and his dad spotted 13 bucks all from this canyon.
Heriberto (Eddie) Coria and his brother Claudio 2003
Dec. 2003
Unit 24B, Arizona
These two bucks were taken opening weekend in unit 24B. The snow was great to contrast the deer but made for poor footing.
Eddie glassed several does and two bucks a mile away.
They got a closer look, but his little brother didn’t want to walk another mile and climb another 1000 feet. So his older brother decided to go with him. They got to about 200 yard and shot them both (they were small but we put in a lot of hard work to get to them).
Eddie shot his bedded (3×4 including the brow tines) and his brother (Claudio) shot the bigger one (4×1) when it got up. The 4×1 looks like it had damaged its antler probably while it was in velvet.
The top photo in this series shows Eddie and his little brother at their glassing point at first light. Beautiful photo!
Rodney Hendy 2002 and 2003
October 2002 and 2003
Unit 34B, Arizona
The buck in the upper photo is Rodney’s first Coues that he took in 2002. He got that buck on opening morning with an 80 yard shot. It is a 2×2 plus eyeguards and has an outside spread of 13.5 inches.
The bottom buck was taken just 400 yards from camp on opening day. An off-hand 180 yard shot took him down. It is a 2×3 plus eyeguards.
Mike Miller
December 2002
Arizona
Mike shot this buck at about 35 yards! The crazy part was that he got to his location to glass before first light and proceeded to look for deer for the next 3 hours. That morning he did get to watch one of the biggest black bear he has ever seen across the canyon.
Anyway, it turns out the buck (which he had seen late the day before) was bedded 35- 40 yards away from me the whole morning!! His taxidermist did a rough score of 107.
Mike says out of all the animals he has pursued, Coues deer are definitely one of his favorites.
Dana Schumacher 2003
Dec 20, 2003
Unit 21, Arizona
This awesome buck scores 113 3/8″ gross and a nets 111 7/8″ non-typical. It’s got 6 total pts on the right and 5 on the left. Beams were over 18″ long. This is Dana’s best buck so far and what a nice one it is.
Nate Nicoll 2003
Dec. 31, 2003
Unit 24B, Arizona
Nate got this monster on the last day of the season. Nate is the guy in the green shirt. He hunted with Gunner Hubbard. This buck is so big, they hesitated to shoot it. But you can see the Coues tail in the first picture.
The rough measurements so far put this buck netting between 120-125 inches. It has a 18 7/8 inside spread (check that tape in the photo), 20 4/8 main beams. It field dressed almost 120 lbs. They packed it out about 6.5 miles, most of it in the dark.
What a monster! Not bad for a last day buck!
Congratulations Nate!
John Turnman 2003
Dec. 30, 2003
Unit 36C, Arizona
At about 9:00 am, John spotted the buck, along with 2 smaller bucks and a few does. After moving closer for a better look, his partner and he decided it was a good buck (especially with only one more day left in the season!), but couldn’t get a clear shot. They watched it bed down and waited another 2 hours or so for it to get up. Finally at around noon, the buck began to browse, but did not present a clean shot opportunity. At about 12:15, the buck walked into an opening at 430 yards. A loud “blaaaaat” got the buck to stop momentarily and John fired one shot from his Rem. 700 .25-06. Its a 4×4 (incl. eye guards) with an outside spread of 15 1/2″. Not much for tine length, so it won’t score very high, but it is a definite trophy in John’s book. It was a very big bodied buck, heavier than any other Coues he has taken. John saw a total of 19 bucks (forked horn or better) during the five days in the field.
Mark Healy 2003
Dec 2003
Unit 24A, Arizona
This buck was with one other buck and several does. Although the bucks were with the does, they weren’t really chasing them. Mark shot this buck in it’s bedding area with a 263 yard shot from his 7mm mag.
Michael Perea 2003
2003
This is Michael’s first Coues buck. It’s a small 2×2, but for his first Coues, Michael is really proud.
Justin Copeland 2003
November 2003
Arizona
This was Justin’s first Coues buck and it’s a nice 3 point. He got this buck on the last day of the hunt. He made the 180 yard shot at the running deer with his .270.
