It is not often you think your hunting trip will give you a crash course in current events, but as we found out on our recent hunting trip to Arizona, sometimes it does! The story begins almost two years earlier at the 2017 Midwest Wild Sheep Foundation Banquet. It is a yearly event we enjoy. That is where we met Dan Adler with Diamond Outfitters. At the banquet, I was able to convince Ron we should go on a Coues deer hunt in Arizona with Diamond Outfitters. The first year, we put in for a preference point to increase our odds of drawing the following year. In the summer of 2018, it was finally time to apply for our first chance at a tag. We wanted to hunt later in the season, in December, and we were told our chances of drawing for that season with one point was low, but as the saying goes, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” We must have been living right because the hunting gods smiled upon us. We drew our tags!
We started making plans for our first Arizona hunting adventure. I called Diamond Outfitters to finalize our plans for the trip. While talking with them, I asked about other hunting opportunities in Arizona. I was surprised to learn that mountain lion tags in our area were $75 over-the-counter. Dan told me they occasionally see them while hunting and there were no additional trophy fees for them while on the Coues hunt. Ron and I both thought that for that kind of deal, why wouldn’t we have that tag in our pockets? We stopped in Tucson on our way to meet our guide and added mountain lions to our list of possibilities.
We set out to meet our guide, Nick Morris, southeast of Tucson. Our hunt was in unit 36C, which borders Mexico. When we met up with Nick, the first thing he told us after his name was, “If you wander off alone, make sure you bring your firearm with you.” This got our attention. He said, “We may see illegals, but more than likely, at some point we will see smugglers.” Ron and I looked at each other and thought about how that wasn’t in the sales pitch, but we were still eager for our hunt. The rest of day one consisted of shooting our guns and a short scouting trip to a couple of spots we would be hunting.
On morning one, we hiked up to a ridgetop and started glassing at first light. After about an hour or so, we were only spotting does, so we hiked further up and over to the next ridge. We continued glassing, and Ron spotted something. A cat?
Nick asked, “Does it have a tail, or is it a bobcat?”
Ron said, “It’s got a tail!”
All three of us started glassing the area. Nick found it in his spotting scope and said, “There are two of them, and they are chasing a deer!” The mountain lions were over 2,000 yards away on the far side of the bowl we were glassing. Both Ron and I immediately wanted to go after them. Nick, being the voice of reason, let us know it was a long shot. However, with a little convincing, he devised what we all thought was a good plan.
Nick stayed on the ridge and glassed while Ron and I made our way down into the valley. Once we located them from our position, Nick started moving toward us. We tried a shot at 500 yards and missed. It's not a shot we get much practice with being from Minnesota. By this time, Nick had caught up to us and we decided to move in closer. It was amazing how much faster the local guides were able to move through the terrain. We continued across the valley floor below them and set up for the next shot at 400 yards. At this point, we could now only see one of the cats, and it was on the move. Nick had one in his spotting scope, and he described the mesquite tree the “lion” was hiding in. I found it in my scope and settled in on it for what seemed like an eternity, waiting until it was finally making a move and it started walking from one tree to another. Boom! I got a shot off. It was a direct hit. Amazing! We got a cat down on morning one of our deer hunt. We were all celebrating how the hunt had taken this turn, and we couldn’t believe our luck. Nick got back on the spotting scope to look at the mountain lion I had shot, and incredibly, he saw another cat moving in the same location. Ron got back into position. Bang! Cat #2 was down on the first morning of the deer hunt. We couldn’t believe it. It had to be a first! It was a long hike out of the canyon with the cats strapped to our backs. Up, down, up, down. We had finally made it most of the way out when we ran into one of the ranch foremen. He offered us a ride out the rest of the way, and we were happy to take it. He was surprised that we had bagged two mountain lions, and he told us he was happy to have two less to deal with on his ranch.
You may ask, how can the trip get any more exciting? On day three of our hunt, we got up extra early to hike back a couple of miles to a new spot before first light. We glassed all morning from a ridgetop but didn’t see any shooter bucks. After long hikes and not much activity, it was late morning, so we hunkered down for a snack and a little siesta before our afternoon hunt. Right away, Nick woke us up. He had heard something moving below us on the hillside. We all started glassing looking for what it might be. Shortly after that, to our shock, an Army helicopter flew into the canyon. It did a low fly pass over the entire canyon and shot right over our heads. It landed in the valley floor about 400 yards away. Three border patrol agents got out of the helicopter with what I think were machine guns. Their dog started scouting the area, going right down the drainage area we had just walked up during that morning while it was still dark out. The helicopter did another low fly over us, and the canyon we were hunting. They headed out and landed over by our truck behind a hill where we could no longer see them. After about 45 minutes, we saw the helicopter pick up their team at the end of the drainage and take off. We didn’t see if they picked up anyone they were tracking.
After all this commotion, we decided another location might be in order for our afternoon hunt. We started our hike down the hill. About 150 yards down, we came across the remains of a camp. We found full bottles of water that were covered in black rags to hide them. “Not the place to abandon them.” Nick told us the road they (smugglers) get picked up on was still miles away. Smugglers camp? We must have disturbed them that morning as border patrol was looking for them. It was an eye opening experience! We later learned from several of the locals that it wasn’t the illegal immigrants that were the risk but the many smugglers who were usually armed and dangerous.
Day four was back to a normal deer hunt. That afternoon, we spotted a nice buck near the top of the hill, but we were across the valley from them. Ron and Nick put a stalk on him while I stayed at the bottom as the spotter. Ron was able to get a great shot off at about 370 yards uphill. It was spot on! We all met on the top of the hill, took photos, and admired the view. After we prepped the buck, we set out for the long trek back to base camp. Daylight had faded fast, and it took us several hours to hike off the mountain in the dark. It was a new experience trying to find our way down a mountain with only headlamps to light the way.
The following day ,we hunted an area known as Smugglers Pass. It was a large valley. From Smugglers Pass, we could see a partial wall on the Mexican border. With the border so close and the events of the last couple of days still fresh in our minds, we were on high alert. We put a stalk on one deer, but when we got to the top, it had disappeared like the "grey ghost" that these deer are.
The final day, we were able to find another nice buck toward the evening. I nicked his leg at 500 yards. We stayed on him that night until dark and located where he had bedded down. The entire next morning was spent glassing that area, looking for him. At lunchtime, we finally decided to walk up and check the mountainside where we had last seen him the night before. We were doing a very detailed search of the area and only found a couple drops of blood where he had been bedded. As we continued to look, all of a sudden ,the deer leapt up between us and ran right past Nick. There was no shot with Nick in the way. We watched the deer run down the mountain and up the other side. We hiked for the rest of the day, glassing and looking, but never saw him again. Still, we had an incredible hunting experience!
I learned some things while hunting for the first time in southern Arizona. The terrain is not flat. I had thought it was going to be mostly flat desert, but it turned out to be small mountains. Being in shape creates more opportunities for hunters in this terrain. There are more things to be concerned about out there in the field than just your hunt. When I think back to the hunt, the last thing in my mind is not that I didn’t get a deer, but of the adventure of the hunt. How many deer hunts can you go on in life with mountain lions and border patrol helicopters flying just overhead? We had a great experience with our guide, Nick. Not getting a deer just gives me a good reason for a return trip. The hunt for a Coues deer will continue.
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