We were all too excited when we found out that the three of us had been drawn for a Coues deer hunt. That is our favorite animal to hunt. On the other hand, we knew we were going to have our work cut out for us. We all drew the same tag despite not putting in together. It was a challenge our family was up for. We had hunted this unit before and knew it pretty well.
We started scouting in the summer, and our tags were for the beginning of November. We drove and then hiked in several times to find some bucks. We watched a group of three all summer, two of which were shooters. One in particular was very wide and looked to have good mass. Off we went, making our plan on how we could take down two of these bucks at once and fill two of our tags opening morning. Our hunt time was limited because of work, school, and the kids’ sports.
The Wednesday before the hunt, my 10-year-old daughter and my husband loaded up the truck with all of our stuff to take out to our spot. They left the truck on the main road and took our side-by-side the rest of the way to set up a spike camp. They hiked out to glass to find our bucks for opening morning. Thursday, they glassed some more and then had to drive back to the main road to pick my son and me up to join in. We made it back to camp and had enough time to glass that night before the big morning. We were a little worried because we had not seen the bucks we had been watching all summer. There was little daytime deer movement because of the full moon.
On opening morning, the four of us hiked to our glassing point. At first light, we found the three bucks, but they were already on the move to their bed in the thicket. We had to get on it if we were going to get closer for a shot. My husband, my daughter, and I set out down the steep, rugged mountain to get closer. My son stayed on top of the mountain with the glasses to keep watch. We tried to get closer, but the bucks were moving fast to their bed. My husband and daughter decided to sit in a closer shooting spot and wait until the bucks came out. I headed back up the mountain to sit and glass with our son. He told me of a buck he had seen that was grazing out in the flat. I looked but could not find him. It’s a good thing we packed food and enough water because all four of us sat all day but did not see another buck.
We all met back at camp, ate our first MRE, and discussed our plan for Saturday. We were nervous because we hadn’t filled a single tag and our time was dwindling. We decided to glass from the same area because we knew those bucks were in there and we were determined.
The next day, we got up early again and hiked into our glassing spot. Sure enough, we saw two of the three bucks moving to the same location where they had bedded the day before. Once again, we hiked down to a ledge that we could shoot from. As we got there, they were moving through the thicket in a wash. We caught glimpses of them moving through the trees. We were going to have to wait it out again. I kept watch with some 15s on the area we saw the big buck disappear to, and my husband decided to glass with the 10s in the area my son saw the other buck the day before. Sure enough, there he was out in the flat 710 yards away. He looked decent but not huge at that distance. We learned on this trip that when you are not looking through a spotting scope, just because he doesn’t have width doesn’t mean he doesn’t have mass and trash. We asked my daughter if she was OK to shoot that far, knowing pre-hunt she said she felt comfortable at 500 yards or less. We also knew we could not get closer because we would lose elevation and we would surely lose him in the trees if we were level with him. My daughter ethically told us she didn’t feel comfortable shooting that far, and I’m proud she could make that decision as a hunter on her own. I then lay down and got him in my .270’s scope. I had a good rest and was confidently locked on his vitals. I shot, and he immediately dropped. We watched to see if he was dead. He was. We then looked to see if we had spooked up the other deer we were watching for my daughter. We hadn’t. The four of us then hiked down to get my deer.
As we got closer, I could see his antlers and I thought he looked bigger than he had in the scope. He must have landed on something that was propping up his antlers to make him look bigger. Now I was standing next to him, grabbing his antlers in disbelief. My husband was setting his pack down, getting out his knife. I kept calling his name to look at what I had just shot. He finally did and said, “Oh my gosh, that is not the deer you shot!” He was huge! He was a 6x5 with tons of mass. We rough scored him between 118" and 120". He was beautiful! We all cheered and celebrated. My daughter kept her composure well, even though I knew she was secretly wishing she had shot him, as any normal hunter would have been. We skinned and quartered him to put in our packs to hike back up the treacherous canyon to our camp.
When we finally made it back to camp, we decided my son and I would load my deer into our side-by-side and drive him home to put in our freezer. My daughter and husband would stay and hike out to hunt the evening, and we would bring back a celebration pizza to camp. We made it safely home and snuck in a quick shower.
While I was in the shower, my son came tearing into the bathroom, screaming, “Cameron shot a deer, and it’s just like yours!”
At first I thought, Yay, awesome! However, I was also skeptical that it was just like mine since he was so huge. I thought my husband was just pumping it up, so I told him to send some pictures. I guess after my son and I left, my daughter and husband hiked to a smaller canyon to glass and found a giant in his bed at 750 yards. They stalked in to 320 yards where my daughter found a spot to lay down and shoot. She did a dry fire to get the jitters out. She was nervous, and I know my husband was too, but he did not want to let on the magnitude of this buck to her to make it worse. She got ready and fired. The deer jumped up, staggered around a bit, and then fell. It was a perfect shot right in the vitals. After she stopped shaking from the adrenalin dump, they hiked over to it. She killed a rough score of a 107"+ Coues buck, and that was with a broken G2. Unbelievable! They skinned and quartered him up and hung him in a tree to hike out in the morning. Two out of our three tags had been filled by monster Coues bucks.
My son and I finally arrived back at camp with our celebration pizza. We pigged out, laughed, and talked about our crazy day. We went to bed with a plan for the next day, our last day. We came up empty-handed that day and packed up our deer and spike camp and headed home.
Later in the week, my husband and I snuck out while the kids were in school and he harvested a 3x3. We did it. We filled three out of three tags, two of them being bucks-of-a-lifetime. My buck officially scored 123 6/8", and my daughter’s buck officially scored 105 4/8". What a trip. The four of us made some memories for years to come. Like I said earlier, Coues deer hunting is our favorite.
Coues Deer AZ
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