nakneker
Gold $$ Contributor
I spent most of this past week helping my 18 year old niece and brother on a Couses deer hunt in Arizona, she’s had two elk tags and one deer tag prior to drawing a December whitetail tag in Arizona this year. It’s a coveted tag, simply because part of the hunt takes place when the rut starts. Me and my brother work together, we don’t get to hunt together often but he asked if I could help on this hunt, I wasn’t able to join in on the previous 3 hunts and I was happy to get the invite to make this tag a cherished memory.
I arrived at camp this past Monday night, my brother and niece had been seeing several does each day but no bucks. They had spent 4 days in the field since 12/15 and each day it was the same, more does And a few small bucks. They had also seen some big rams, wolves and glassed one small mountain lion but the big Couses bucks were being elusive. If you’ve ever hunted Couses deer you understand why they have the nickname “the grey ghost”, they are crafty creatures and they don’t get big by accident. The goal was to fill the tag with a mature buck. The season goes till the end of the year but my brother had till this past Thursday and then he needed to get home for family reasons, his daughter would have to return with him so that left us three days to get the job done.
Me, my wife and oldest daughter spent Tuesday scouting areas we know have good populations of Couses deer, places we’ve tag out good bucks in the past. We saw 20-45 does on Tuesday, then again on Wednesday but I did glass 9 Couses wednesday late morning that were acting like some rut activity was going on, they were running around chasing each other and bucking, acting goofy. One big bodied deer was with them but kept in cover. I was watching this from 2600 yards with two big canyons between me and them. We met my brother and niece back at camp and I told them I thought a big buck was with that group of deer. We made a plan to hike into that area and see if we could get a better look that afternoon. We made the hike but when we got into the area the lay of the land was a little different than I thought it was. We couldn’t see that small Mesa like I had hoped. We did glass several does and two small two points one of which was following a doe who was highly irritated with his chasing. We were losing light and the truck was a solid hour away so we left and made our way back to the truck with headlamps.
Thursday morning was it, last chance. My brother didn’t think they would make it back to hunt the balance of the season. There was a place I hunted for years that has large number of deer but gets pounded in the early season but I hadnt seen anybody hunting there as we drove past it on Tuesday and Wednesday, we decided we would give it try. As dawn broke me and my brother were glassing right off the highway and immediately saw does in two areas but no bucks. I could tell my brother was getting discouraged. We moved down the highway and set up on a point with a lot of glassing. All of sudden he had some excitement in his voice and called me over to look at a buck he had glassed. When I got there the buck was gone, he went into some buck brush and shrub oak and we never saw him again but we did glass five does about 80 yards away and we guessed that buck had checked them out and was moving on to find more. We thought we could move closer onto a Mesa not far away and get a better advantage point to glass that area and get to within 5-600 yards without being noticed. We threw on the packs and the three of us started the hike, it wasn’t a long hike but there was a nasty canyon between us and them that took a good hour to cross. Once we were on the intended vantage point we wanted to get to, we again set up the tripods and started glassing, we didn’t see a thing and by now it was mid morning, 9am. After glassing for a bit my brother wondered over to the other side of the point we were glassing on and started glassing the side of big steep mountain, it was all open grassland with a couple ravines with cedars and buck brush, not where we would expect deer to be, at least the open areas. When he set up he had deer in his first field of view and called me over. Within 10 minutes we had several groups of does out in the open, it was strange to see this at this time in the morning and where it was. After about 30 minutes of watching these different groups of does we finally saw a large buck leaving two does and headed to check in on a group of three more does. The rut was finally happening and the excitement went up a bit. After 10 minutes of watching the big buck we started trying to find a way to get to him for a shot, there was no good approach. The big buck was just under a 1000 yards away and we had imposed a limit of 750 yards for a shot. My niece had been banging steel all summer at that distance and closer and we were confident she could do her part if we could get her the shot. The big buck was in the open and the closest high point that would allow a shot was a good 30 minute walk but the odds were good something would go wrong. As we discussed what to do two more bucks showed up. A small two point that was walking fast and appeared to be looking to bed down, with him was a decent 3 x 4 with good eye guards that was around 100 inches. These bucks were a bit over 850 but they were coming down the mountain and headed our way. We decided the odds were much better for this 3x4 than the big 3x3 we had been watching and this was the last morning they could hunt. We switched bucks.
As the two bucks came down the hill the 3x4 kept stopping to rub his rack on bushes and cedars. My job was to watch him and range him. My brother thought a shot might happen so he was getting Jessie set up on a nice spot for a prone shot. He layed out a shooting mat, got her on the bipod, used a couple packs under her chest to help her get comfortable. I kept clicking the sig kilo6k range finding binos I was using, they were my brothers and had the ballistic profile in them for the 6.5 PRC Tikka that was being used. I kept sounding off the yardage, 800, then 780, then 770 and finally 757. It was now or never, another 30 yards and we would lose sight of him and probably never see him again. The buck stopped broadside and was looking at a doe that had shown up during this episode. My brother gave Jessie the green light and the first shot was off, it center punched the buck, he humped up, she immediately had a second shot in the air. It landed 3” from the first shot and the buck crumpled.
I don’t think I’ve seen my brother so excited to fill a tag as I did that morning. He and his daughter were giving out hugs, high fives and all kinds of victory sounds. It was amazing to watch. My niece gave me a heartfelt hug and we just sat for a minute and took it all in. It was a nice buck and it came in the last minutes of the hunt. It was the first tag she got to wrap around horns, all the early mornings, cold mornings, miles of hiking rough country added up to be a cherished memory among family, one that will never be forgotten.
We got back to the trucks, called my wife and daughter to help get the buck out and that was that, the rest of the morning we got to her buck, took some pics and listened to my brother recount the event about 10 times while we cleaned the buck and loaded some packs.. Jessie is an 18 year old girl, she loves the outdoors and is game for any challenge. Most all she loves being with her dad, they have made a bunch of memories motorcycling, hunting, fishing, hiking and I’ve been lucky enough to be there on many of them. She certainly put in the time and effort and deserved this buck. The buck scored 103, a nice couses buck, she was happy.
Sorry it’s so long… just trying to describe the moment proper.
I arrived at camp this past Monday night, my brother and niece had been seeing several does each day but no bucks. They had spent 4 days in the field since 12/15 and each day it was the same, more does And a few small bucks. They had also seen some big rams, wolves and glassed one small mountain lion but the big Couses bucks were being elusive. If you’ve ever hunted Couses deer you understand why they have the nickname “the grey ghost”, they are crafty creatures and they don’t get big by accident. The goal was to fill the tag with a mature buck. The season goes till the end of the year but my brother had till this past Thursday and then he needed to get home for family reasons, his daughter would have to return with him so that left us three days to get the job done.
Me, my wife and oldest daughter spent Tuesday scouting areas we know have good populations of Couses deer, places we’ve tag out good bucks in the past. We saw 20-45 does on Tuesday, then again on Wednesday but I did glass 9 Couses wednesday late morning that were acting like some rut activity was going on, they were running around chasing each other and bucking, acting goofy. One big bodied deer was with them but kept in cover. I was watching this from 2600 yards with two big canyons between me and them. We met my brother and niece back at camp and I told them I thought a big buck was with that group of deer. We made a plan to hike into that area and see if we could get a better look that afternoon. We made the hike but when we got into the area the lay of the land was a little different than I thought it was. We couldn’t see that small Mesa like I had hoped. We did glass several does and two small two points one of which was following a doe who was highly irritated with his chasing. We were losing light and the truck was a solid hour away so we left and made our way back to the truck with headlamps.
Thursday morning was it, last chance. My brother didn’t think they would make it back to hunt the balance of the season. There was a place I hunted for years that has large number of deer but gets pounded in the early season but I hadnt seen anybody hunting there as we drove past it on Tuesday and Wednesday, we decided we would give it try. As dawn broke me and my brother were glassing right off the highway and immediately saw does in two areas but no bucks. I could tell my brother was getting discouraged. We moved down the highway and set up on a point with a lot of glassing. All of sudden he had some excitement in his voice and called me over to look at a buck he had glassed. When I got there the buck was gone, he went into some buck brush and shrub oak and we never saw him again but we did glass five does about 80 yards away and we guessed that buck had checked them out and was moving on to find more. We thought we could move closer onto a Mesa not far away and get a better advantage point to glass that area and get to within 5-600 yards without being noticed. We threw on the packs and the three of us started the hike, it wasn’t a long hike but there was a nasty canyon between us and them that took a good hour to cross. Once we were on the intended vantage point we wanted to get to, we again set up the tripods and started glassing, we didn’t see a thing and by now it was mid morning, 9am. After glassing for a bit my brother wondered over to the other side of the point we were glassing on and started glassing the side of big steep mountain, it was all open grassland with a couple ravines with cedars and buck brush, not where we would expect deer to be, at least the open areas. When he set up he had deer in his first field of view and called me over. Within 10 minutes we had several groups of does out in the open, it was strange to see this at this time in the morning and where it was. After about 30 minutes of watching these different groups of does we finally saw a large buck leaving two does and headed to check in on a group of three more does. The rut was finally happening and the excitement went up a bit. After 10 minutes of watching the big buck we started trying to find a way to get to him for a shot, there was no good approach. The big buck was just under a 1000 yards away and we had imposed a limit of 750 yards for a shot. My niece had been banging steel all summer at that distance and closer and we were confident she could do her part if we could get her the shot. The big buck was in the open and the closest high point that would allow a shot was a good 30 minute walk but the odds were good something would go wrong. As we discussed what to do two more bucks showed up. A small two point that was walking fast and appeared to be looking to bed down, with him was a decent 3 x 4 with good eye guards that was around 100 inches. These bucks were a bit over 850 but they were coming down the mountain and headed our way. We decided the odds were much better for this 3x4 than the big 3x3 we had been watching and this was the last morning they could hunt. We switched bucks.
As the two bucks came down the hill the 3x4 kept stopping to rub his rack on bushes and cedars. My job was to watch him and range him. My brother thought a shot might happen so he was getting Jessie set up on a nice spot for a prone shot. He layed out a shooting mat, got her on the bipod, used a couple packs under her chest to help her get comfortable. I kept clicking the sig kilo6k range finding binos I was using, they were my brothers and had the ballistic profile in them for the 6.5 PRC Tikka that was being used. I kept sounding off the yardage, 800, then 780, then 770 and finally 757. It was now or never, another 30 yards and we would lose sight of him and probably never see him again. The buck stopped broadside and was looking at a doe that had shown up during this episode. My brother gave Jessie the green light and the first shot was off, it center punched the buck, he humped up, she immediately had a second shot in the air. It landed 3” from the first shot and the buck crumpled.
I don’t think I’ve seen my brother so excited to fill a tag as I did that morning. He and his daughter were giving out hugs, high fives and all kinds of victory sounds. It was amazing to watch. My niece gave me a heartfelt hug and we just sat for a minute and took it all in. It was a nice buck and it came in the last minutes of the hunt. It was the first tag she got to wrap around horns, all the early mornings, cold mornings, miles of hiking rough country added up to be a cherished memory among family, one that will never be forgotten.
We got back to the trucks, called my wife and daughter to help get the buck out and that was that, the rest of the morning we got to her buck, took some pics and listened to my brother recount the event about 10 times while we cleaned the buck and loaded some packs.. Jessie is an 18 year old girl, she loves the outdoors and is game for any challenge. Most all she loves being with her dad, they have made a bunch of memories motorcycling, hunting, fishing, hiking and I’ve been lucky enough to be there on many of them. She certainly put in the time and effort and deserved this buck. The buck scored 103, a nice couses buck, she was happy.
Sorry it’s so long… just trying to describe the moment proper.
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