STOMP442
Gold $$ Contributor
After decades of waiting, I finally drew a late December rifle tag for Coues Deer here in Southern Az. I have friends who have drawn this tag multiple times but I have never been able to. Needless to say, I have been very excited and December couldn't get here fast enough. I made my first scouting trip in early September with a couple friends of mine and that was the first time we found this buck. We knew then he was going to be something special. We also noticed he had a very distinguishing trait that made him easy to identify. His backside is nearly all white even his tail, very unique for these deer. I was able to locate him again in October and by this time he was hard horned and I knew for sure I wanted to try and harvest this buck come December. He still had to survive two more rifle hunts before I got a crack at him and with public land hunting my biggest fear was someone else would get to him before I could. We never saw him again for a few weeks and I was afraid my worst fears had come true and someone else had got to him. Luckily, my friends, Bobby and Dave were able to glass him up the week before my hunt started and settled my nerves a bit. Opening day my brother and I were at our glassing position well before sun up. We immediately started seeing deer as soon as the first morning light started illuminating the mountainside. We had bucks feeding below us and bucks chasing does up the canyon but ol white butt was never found. We ended the day seeing about 14 bucks in total with a couple of those being some decent 90" bucks but not the one we were looking for. Unfortunately, I spent the next few days battling the flu and had to go back to work after that. Luckily this hunt lasts three weeks so there was plenty of time. The following weekend my Friend Dave was able to go with me and we set up a few hundred yards further down the ridge than my brother and I did the week before. After glassing about 10 minutes my friend dave excitedly says he's got a "white butt"...."It's Him!" He was chasing does a couple canyons over about 3/4 of a mile away. So we packed up our stuff and bailed off the ridge we were glassing on in hopes of getting at least a canyon closer to try and make a shot. After making our way through a brushy miserable cat claw bottom we found ourselves up on the next finger frantically glassing trying to pick the buck up again. We finally found him way up the finger on this mountain just in time to watch him work his way around and out of sight into a rocky bowl. So we picked up our equipment again and made our way up the finger we were on to try and get a better look into that bowl and see if we could pick him out. Another four of five hundred yards up we found ourselves in a nice rocky clearing that should give us a good position to shoot from. We decided to set up there and wait it out. He either had to go on over the top or he was going to continue to chase does and pop out again somewhere. Thankfully we didn't have to wait long before we started to see does coming out of some cat claw brush. I get on the rifle and get the bi-pod and bag adjusted to where it needs to be and start taking some deep breaths to try and calm my nerves. After what seems like forever Dave finally says "there he is! coming out the bottom!" I ask for a range......"756".....dial my turret and wait for him to stop. He takes a few more steps and stops to sniff the ground, I hold the crosshair on his shoulder and squeeze. I don't even remember the rifle going off just the sound of impact and watching the buck tumble backwards down the mountain. At 8:45 am, White Butt was finished and my hunt was over. It took us another hour to get over to where he lay and until 2:30pm to get him back to the Jeep. Hunting these little deer is such a challenge and so addicting. I am extremely thankful to good friends for the help and the opportunity and freedom to hunt these deer.
