For the past five years, I have had the privilege to go on a work hunting trip to Sonora, Mexico with my coworkers and friends to hunt big rutting bucks in January. My regional manager and VPs of the company get the trophy tags, and I get a management tag, which I am happy with because there are some giant 3-point mule deer in Sonora. However, this year, I had the option to hunt either Coues deer or management bucks. After thinking about it for a few days, watching a few Coues deer hunts on the Outdoor Channel, and talking to friends who have hunted Coues deer, I decided I would forego killing another Sonora management 3-point because I was going to give it a go on chasing the elusive grey ghost. I had a good feeling about my choice and knew if I hunted hard and held off I would have a chance at a good Coues deer.
We would be hunting with Thomas Baker and his outfitting crew. They are a great group of guides to hunt with. The anticipation was high, and our hunting group was pretty excited. From day one, Baker told us it wasn’t going to be easy to kill a good Coues deer. The big, steep, rugged mountains where we would be hunting hold some Coues deer with really good genetics. Our hunting strategy was simple – hike early in the mornings to get to glassing points before the sun came up, glass for hours, hike to other vantage points and glass more, and then repeat those steps. These efforts were successful for finding seven to nine Coues deer a day, with two or three little bucks each day.
On day three of our hunt, my friend, Kelly, our guide, Martin, and I found a good buck bedded across the canyon at 750 yards. The heat waves and the afternoon shadows made it hard to tell exactly what he was, but he looked good. I was tempted several times to make the long-range shot on this buck, but I told myself I couldn’t kill a big buck if I didn’t hold out until I found a big buck. Kelly decided to move in for a closer look and make a play on the buck if it was a shooter. He and Martin got within 100 yards of the buck and gave it a pass. We both were hoping our efforts would bring us better options.
On day four, we decided to hunt further north on the mountain range. A change of scenery seemed welcoming, and it paid off. Fifty minutes into glassing, Kelly found a good Coues coming his way and he was able to seal the deal on the biggest Coues we had seen. It was a nice, heavy horned 105" Coues. Kelly was pumped, and so was I.
Time was on my mind. We had two days of hunting left, Kelly had killed the biggest buck we had seen in four days of aggressive hunting, and I seriously thought my chances of killing a buck equal to or bigger than Kelly’s buck were going to be slim to none. My desire to harvest a Coues was super high. I was almost ready to kill the next buck I saw just so I didn’t have to eat tag soup.
On day five, I hunted a small mountain range north of the big mountains we had been hunting. After several hours of glassing, I spotted a few little bucks but nothing big. While glassing for Coues that morning, I spotted eight big mule deer all chasing a few does that were in heat. It was fun to watch the action of these big bucks chasing each other off and fighting each other. We got back to camp for an afternoon lunch, and I showed everybody my video footage of these big rutting mulies. Two of the trophy hunters were on board to go make a play on these big bucks.
We loaded up and headed back to that small mountain range to relocate the rutting mulies. After hiking for an hour, we got back on the glassing point I had spotted the bucks from earlier that morning. It didn’t take long with six people behind optics to relocate these rutting bucks. I was glassing over the ridgetops of the rolling hills just below our glassing point. I was glassing over to view the mule deer when in walked into my field of view a huge set of antlers. They were 250 yards away on the ridgetop. I quickly realized it was a giant Coues deer. It was absolutely incredible how big this Coues deer looked in my binoculars. It was so much bigger than any of the Coues deer I had seen. I had to double check to make sure it wasn’t a small mule deer. When I realized I was watching a giant Coues deer, I told everybody I had found a giant and was going to kill him. People glassing by me looked at me like I was crazy because nobody had seen this giant Coues yet. Without hesitation I got off my optics and got behind my gun and lay down to make a kill shot. This buck was smart and was sneaking away from us. I had him almost in my crosshairs just as he walked over the hill and out of sight. I was sick. I grabbed my gun, left all my gear on the hill, and started down after this beauty. Still, nobody else had seen this buck, but they knew from my excitement that he was a shooter.
Baker came off the hill with me, and we made our way down the ridgeback as fast but as quiet as we could to where this buck had snuck over the ridge. I peeked over the ridgetop where the buck had crossed over and there he was. His tail was up, and he was running down the hill at 75 yards. I put my scope up, and it was all blurry because it was still on 20 power. I put my gun down and reset the scope to 7 power. Quickly, I got the buck back in my crosshairs. I saw he was about to hit a little opening. Baker and I both let out a voice deer bleep at the same time. It worked as the deer slowed down a little bit just as he ran into that little opening. I pulled the trigger and nailed him. I knew the big buck was hit well, but his momentum from running carried him out of our view and into a thicket of trees. He came back into view for a moment, and with his adrenaline going strong, I put another round in him right before he disappeared into another thicket of trees. He wasn’t going anywhere. Baker looked at me and said, “Nice shooting. That buck looks like a pig!” We gave him 45 minutes. We didn’t want to take a chance of making him bolt if he wasn’t hit well.
While I waited for this Coues to be good and dead, Baker and the trophy hunters went and made a play on those rutting mulies. Finally, I walked down to where we had last seen my buck go into the trees. I found his blood and trailed him for 40 yards and found him. Martin was with me, and in all my years of hunting, I have never seen a more excited reaction as I did as Martin and I walked up to this buck for the first time. It was a moment I will never forget. It was pure excitement as neither of us were expecting to see all the points this buck had on him. I knew he had a great frame, but we had no idea what he had on him until we laid our hands on him. It was a special moment being able to be a part of such a special deer and being lucky enough to find and harvest a buck of this caliber. We loaded him up on our backs and took turns packing him up the hill. When everybody else finally got to see what I had seen and killed for the first time, it was priceless. Nobody had ever laid eyes on this buck before. That’s what is so special about hunting. There are still bucks out there that are not on cameras, bucks out there that people have never laid eyes on before. A hunter gets a lucky break once in a while and has one of these true giants make a mistake and show himself. This truly was and is a special buck. It was a no brainer, a once-in-a-lifetime caliber of a Coues deer. I am grateful and feel very blessed to be the lucky hunter who was able to find this gem.
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