nakneker
Gold $$ Contributor
Me and my wife were fortunate enough to each draw December Coues deer tags in one of our favorite Arizona units. The hunt started on the 13th and goes to the end of the month. We’re hunting some pretty rough country, but we’re putting in the miles and looking at a lot of deer. So far we’ve seen just over 50 coues bucks and a lot of other wildlife too.
A couple days ago my wife filled her tag with a fantastic buck, her best to date, it’s pictured below. If you’re an eastern Whitetail hunter, it might be hard to appreciate a big Coues deer. I’ve seen hunters who aren’t familiar with Coues deer pass on some mighty big bucks. Coues have a way of getting in your blood, it can be a deep rabbit hole. Big Coues can be a hard species to get a mature representative of the species. They don’t call them the “grey ghost”for the heck of it.
We are home today till Thursday and then we head back out. I was helping my niece on this same hunt last year. Last year the conditions weren’t nearly as good as this year. It’s very warm for December here BUT the bucks are starting to rut, something that didn’t happen past year. Some of those big elusive Coues bucks are showing theirselves chasing does and hanging out for a good time. We watched one nice buck and his girlfriend for a couple hours as we sat and glassed an area, they were in full honeymoon mode.
The biggest buck I glassed up on this hunt thus far was at 2400 yards. We made a move on him but he gave us the slip, he’s a solid 125” buck, four points on each side with giant eye guards. We went back in that spot yesterday and only saw part of one deer but didn’t get a look at his head gear, he was big bodied Coues, pretty sure it was a mature buck and maybe even him. We did watch some beautiful bighorn rams though, that was a bonus. Unfortunatly all we have to show for our efforts was another 12 miles logged and sore backs but we did find a neat pair of elk antlers and saw some amazing country, country I’ve wanted to explore for years.
I’m pretty determined to not wrap this tag around anything smaller than I’ve already been fortunate enough to cross paths with. My biggest buck to date is 116”, I have a dozen of them over 110”. I’ve been applying for this hunt for 20 years, they only give out 30 tags, draw odds are low. Its a good opportunity to take a solid buck.
She was shooting a 6.5x47 that has filled It’s share of tags. 507 yards, one shot, Berger 140 VLD hunters. Bullet performance was exceptional.
I’ll update this thread when the hunt ends, hopefully with a picture of another good buck.
A couple days ago my wife filled her tag with a fantastic buck, her best to date, it’s pictured below. If you’re an eastern Whitetail hunter, it might be hard to appreciate a big Coues deer. I’ve seen hunters who aren’t familiar with Coues deer pass on some mighty big bucks. Coues have a way of getting in your blood, it can be a deep rabbit hole. Big Coues can be a hard species to get a mature representative of the species. They don’t call them the “grey ghost”for the heck of it.
We are home today till Thursday and then we head back out. I was helping my niece on this same hunt last year. Last year the conditions weren’t nearly as good as this year. It’s very warm for December here BUT the bucks are starting to rut, something that didn’t happen past year. Some of those big elusive Coues bucks are showing theirselves chasing does and hanging out for a good time. We watched one nice buck and his girlfriend for a couple hours as we sat and glassed an area, they were in full honeymoon mode.
The biggest buck I glassed up on this hunt thus far was at 2400 yards. We made a move on him but he gave us the slip, he’s a solid 125” buck, four points on each side with giant eye guards. We went back in that spot yesterday and only saw part of one deer but didn’t get a look at his head gear, he was big bodied Coues, pretty sure it was a mature buck and maybe even him. We did watch some beautiful bighorn rams though, that was a bonus. Unfortunatly all we have to show for our efforts was another 12 miles logged and sore backs but we did find a neat pair of elk antlers and saw some amazing country, country I’ve wanted to explore for years.
I’m pretty determined to not wrap this tag around anything smaller than I’ve already been fortunate enough to cross paths with. My biggest buck to date is 116”, I have a dozen of them over 110”. I’ve been applying for this hunt for 20 years, they only give out 30 tags, draw odds are low. Its a good opportunity to take a solid buck.
She was shooting a 6.5x47 that has filled It’s share of tags. 507 yards, one shot, Berger 140 VLD hunters. Bullet performance was exceptional.
I’ll update this thread when the hunt ends, hopefully with a picture of another good buck.
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