Coues Rookie

Fortune shined on me this year and I drew a unit 34A tag in Arizona for the December rifle hunt. I live in Washington State and have never seen a Coues deer in the wild so I am at ground zero. I am looking for any advice at all that might help me in my quest. Life has been well? busy and I am just getting started on my information gathering. I prefer getting off the beaten path and enjoy backpack hunting. I am however concerned about a couple of things first water and second drug packing illegal aliens. Thanks in advance.
Andy

I have never hunted 34A but I have hunted the desert quite a bit. You will not be able to find drinking water in multiple locations, but you could probably find it in one location and fill up a couple days into your hunt. As far as the illegals, I have never had a problem, but it is a risk. Is your hunt solo? If you are alone make sure people know where you are and take a wide berth if you encounter anyone looking suspicious. Most importantly, get ready to have the time of your life, these little buggars are addicting. I left AZ 4 years ago and have been chomping at the bit to get down there again. Believe it or not while I was in ID I missed hunting these things more than I missed the incredible elk hunting. I will be down there in Oct. for my first Coues hunt since leaving. Good luck and feel free to speak up if you have any more questions.

Andy, call me at 602-454-2146. I tried to email you. I will help where I can......... Thanks, Allen Taylor......

You drew a decent unit. Be sure to check out the canyons along the road going up to the observatory.

TONY MANDILE

How To Hunt Coues Deer

Thanks; by the way I ordered the book today

Andy

Binoculars, tripod and the seat of your butt will find a lot of deer without backpacking.

Here is the result of my first Coues hunt. Had a great hunt and cant wait to do it again

let me try this again

third times a charm

Let me to be the first to congratulate you. Very nice buck. Let's hear the story.

Congrats on a fine buck. It appears he was a real battler, eh?

TONY MANDILE

How To Hunt Coues Deer

You did great for your first coues hunt. Congrats.

Cool buck! Good mass, bladed eyeguards and broken up!

Did you scare him to death?!?!?!? No bullet holes?

Great deer DIY man. Congrats!

Sweet buck congrats.

The story is my hunting partner was good enough to take time and make the drive down there with me. Neither of us has ever hunted the area or Coues before so it was all new. I did get some help from a few people to include Bura Nut and a friend of mine that lives in AZ. We got into the area after dark the night before the opener. Opening morning we did spot one buck at over a mile away. The remainder of opening day we were travelling around deciding where we wanted to spend our time. The following morning we found ourselves in a good spot and saw a couple of bucks; one 3 point made me really think about it but I decided to pass. The third morning we were on the same glassing point as the afternoon before. It was about 0830 when my buck came over the ridge and started to interact with 3 small bucks down in a draw. It was fun to watch him make rubs and posture around the other bucks. When I saw him I called my buddy over we both thought he was too good to pass up. As the deer were over 900 yards away I had to move up. My buddy stayed behind to watch them. The wind became a bit unstable so I just sat tight. Well doing that the buck moved out of the draw and crossed above me. This would have been great if I had seen him earlier but as it was he was literally about 3 seconds from going into the trees and over the ridge when I saw him. He was a bit over 370 yards out when I got on the sticks and promptly shot over him. As fast as the mountain would let me, I made my way up and looked for blood. I did not see any but had a good view of the back side of the ridge so I sat down and started to glass. Within a couple of minutes, I found him feeding thru a small opening in the trees. I could tell it was a mature deer but was not 100% positive it was him. I was too afraid to spend too much time looking at him for fear of him going into the trees and being gone. This time it was only 188 yards and the shot was good. He died right there but he was completely upside down I had a bit of anxiety that it might have been a different buck but after my buddy got to where I was we made our way down to him and found it was him. As for the broken up rack I thought he did it when he fell but my buddy said that he could see thru the spotting scope that he was already broken. As for the bullet hole, it is there just got lucky and it covered up nice, but I uglyed him up on the far side.