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LAST EDITED ON Dec-02-11 AT 03:15PM (MST)[p]Attached are a few pictures from our Coues deer hunt in AZ over Thanksgiving. It was a fun hunt, and I think I will try to do this again for a few years and look for a really ?big? one. The deer I shot is really just a representative example of a mature Coues deer, nothing very special, but I am happy with him nonetheless. It is my first Coues deer.
The hunt opened Friday after Thanksgiving, and I left Tucson at 5:00 am in a steady rain with temps about 40 degrees. I thought it was supposed to be warm in AZ??? We unloaded the ATV in the dark when we reached the National Forest boundary, and dressed for winter we proceeded on 4 wheel drive roads to preselected vantage points. Most of these were actually up in the clouds / fog, making glassing impossible. It was really a pretty discouraging day with high winds keeping the deer down, and no way to glass the low country when all the high points were in the clouds. We managed to spot about a dozen different does, but didn't see a buck all day and went home thoroughly chilled at dark.
Saturday morning we were on the road again by 5:00, and lack of sleep was starting to take its toll. The day was clear and cool, but quickly warmed up with the rising sun on a beautiful fall day in southern AZ. We were already at our first glassing point as dawn broke, and we easily spotted a few does and a forked horn buck not far away. We kept glassing from this ridge for the next couple hours, eventually spotting a bedded 4 point buck at about 900 yards. Lots of study confirmed this was an average buck, but eventually I decided to hike around the basin and try for a shot. My wife stayed put behind the spotting scope, so she could signal me if he moved. I spooked a bobcat out of the low brush when I was within 150 yards, and the cat ran right through the area where I had last seen the buck. The buck stood up out of bed and moved into the open, barking and snorting at the cat which ran right on by. A second buck also materialized, and I had to pause and study both for a minute to make sure I was shooting the correct buck. The other deer was an average 3 point. Taking a knee on the steep sidehill, it was a pretty easy shot with my 270 Win Featherweight, and the deer didn't go far before rolling down the hill to its death bed. It was just about 11:00, and I was now in a T-shirt with temps in the upper 60?s. My wife watched the whole stalk unfold, and met me an hour later at the truck. I boned the whole deer out getting ALL the meat in my daypack. These deer are really teeny, with only about 50-60 pounds of boned meat! The GPS showed I was only 0.60 miles from the ATV, so I was back to the vehicle in short order and resting with a cold coke and sack lunch in the shade of a mesquite tree. We took a couple mile hike that afternoon into the wilderness near where we were hunting to scout for future years, and still made it back to Tucson in time for dinner. A pretty short hunt, but a pleasant way to spend the Thanksgiving weekend.
Hope you enjoy the pictures.
The busck scoes in the low to mid 70's.
The hunt opened Friday after Thanksgiving, and I left Tucson at 5:00 am in a steady rain with temps about 40 degrees. I thought it was supposed to be warm in AZ??? We unloaded the ATV in the dark when we reached the National Forest boundary, and dressed for winter we proceeded on 4 wheel drive roads to preselected vantage points. Most of these were actually up in the clouds / fog, making glassing impossible. It was really a pretty discouraging day with high winds keeping the deer down, and no way to glass the low country when all the high points were in the clouds. We managed to spot about a dozen different does, but didn't see a buck all day and went home thoroughly chilled at dark.
Saturday morning we were on the road again by 5:00, and lack of sleep was starting to take its toll. The day was clear and cool, but quickly warmed up with the rising sun on a beautiful fall day in southern AZ. We were already at our first glassing point as dawn broke, and we easily spotted a few does and a forked horn buck not far away. We kept glassing from this ridge for the next couple hours, eventually spotting a bedded 4 point buck at about 900 yards. Lots of study confirmed this was an average buck, but eventually I decided to hike around the basin and try for a shot. My wife stayed put behind the spotting scope, so she could signal me if he moved. I spooked a bobcat out of the low brush when I was within 150 yards, and the cat ran right through the area where I had last seen the buck. The buck stood up out of bed and moved into the open, barking and snorting at the cat which ran right on by. A second buck also materialized, and I had to pause and study both for a minute to make sure I was shooting the correct buck. The other deer was an average 3 point. Taking a knee on the steep sidehill, it was a pretty easy shot with my 270 Win Featherweight, and the deer didn't go far before rolling down the hill to its death bed. It was just about 11:00, and I was now in a T-shirt with temps in the upper 60?s. My wife watched the whole stalk unfold, and met me an hour later at the truck. I boned the whole deer out getting ALL the meat in my daypack. These deer are really teeny, with only about 50-60 pounds of boned meat! The GPS showed I was only 0.60 miles from the ATV, so I was back to the vehicle in short order and resting with a cold coke and sack lunch in the shade of a mesquite tree. We took a couple mile hike that afternoon into the wilderness near where we were hunting to scout for future years, and still made it back to Tucson in time for dinner. A pretty short hunt, but a pleasant way to spend the Thanksgiving weekend.
Hope you enjoy the pictures.
The busck scoes in the low to mid 70's.
