Over the summer, I took on a new job at a plant, that shut down over the Christmas holidays. Having 14 days off, I needed to go find something to do other than sit around here in Illinois. The research and planning started, and I settled in on an Arizona deer hunt. To start off, I was more interested in a mule deer, but as I studied more, and looked at different units, Coues Deer began to light a certain kind of obsession in me....I wanted one. Over the last year or so, I have started dreaming of hunting sheep, and as I researched the Coues Deer I often heard it described as a "Poor Man's Sheep Hunt". I couldn't wait. This was also going to be my first attempt at hunting out west. The tag would be good for both Mule Deer and Coues deer bucks. There were a few things I came across when trying to find out tips and tactics about spot and stalk Coues hunting with a bow: 1) It's a hard. The specific unit we went to, with an OTC tag with archery tackle was something around 1% success rate for all seasons. 2) You have to be in shape....not only physically, but mentally. You will spend HOURS doing nothing but sitting behind your binoculars and when it's time to move, you have to do it in a hurry. 3) Be comfortable shooting very long distances. Many stalks can only get you within 70 yards and that may be your only opportunity. 4) You have to be a little crazy. You're probably going to fail. Be able to accept that going into it. 5) If you want to know what hunting a Coues Deer is like, take the cagiest old doe you have ever encountered, cross breed her with a Bighorn Sheep, slap a 70" rack on it, and stick it on top of a mountain with no cover, where everything that grows has thorns, and will stick you. Now go try and kill that with a bow. Something about this challenge took me over. I built new arrows, bought a new 3 pin slider sight, practiced and hunted with my quiver on this year for this hunt to get used to it, and flung 1000's of arrows at long distances to prepare myself. I was on the right track to get myself physically in shape, until the Illinois rut hit, and my free time was spent sitting in a tree stand waiting on a mature buck instead of running and lifting, but was still not far from where I wanted to be. Somehow, in the early stages, 3 of my friends thought this sounded like a good idea. It wasn't long before my friends Ryan, Bubba, and Kyle were committed to joining me. The 4 of us settled on a unit, and we awaited for December 25th to arrive as we would head out after our Christmas obligations were completed. The 25th came, and we met at Kyle's house to depart. The enclosed trailer was already loaded down with all of our gear. The plan would be to drive through the night and arrive in Arizona the next day with enough time to do an afternoon hunt and get a game plan ready for the next day. We would then have 5 full days after this, before leaving out after the season closed on the 31st and getting home in time to get Kyle to work on Sunday. Moral and hopes were high as we left Illinois and pointed the truck and trailer west on Interstate 44. The Gritty Bowman podcast was getting everyone in the right state of mind for our first western hunt attempt. Then somewhere around 4 hours after we left, the oil pressure in Ryan's truck started plummeting. We got out, checked the level and he was a quart low. Okay, put a quart in it, and it's back up. A little weird, but we're on the road again......but only for 30 minutes as it does it again. We limp it into Springfield, MO and it's about midnight. We get a hotel room and figure maybe we'll get lucky and find a mechanic open the next day and still be able to salvage the hunt. We do find a mechanic open, and it turns out to only be an oil pressure sensor and we are back on the road. All is well, and we are making good time now until we hit Amarillo, Texas. I take a look at the radar as a winter storm was approaching the area. Our route through New Mexico was going to get hammered with a foot of snow and 80 mph winds. Okay that sucks....time for a detour. I find a route that will be loop around south into El Paso and get us back on track in southern New Mexico hopefully missing the heart of the storm. We ran like the wind south trying to make up some time before we hit the storm in Lubbock, TX. It was my turn to drive, and it was 30 mph all the way from midnight to 7 am over ice and snow covered roads. Numerous accidents were around us, gas stations were out of power, and it was just a mess. We eventually got to a point where we couldn't see the road and slept on the interstate. After a nap we woke up and tried to find a gas station, and about 2 miles from one with a generator, we ran out of gas. We lucked out and a cop picked us up and gave us a lift. The rest of the drive wasn't too eventful, as once we got out of El Paso the roads were clear. We had lost 2 days of hunting and hadn't really slept any. We figured we were already this far, we might as well just keep trucking. We arrived in Arizona the next afternoon to a beautiful sunset and got camp set up. I had got a little intel from a rifle hunter in this unit from a different forum. He had just harvested a nice buck the week earlier, and had given me a few promising areas. One was real close to our base camp, so our first morning we piled in the truck and off we went in search of the trail head. Bubba and Kyle took one drainage, as me and Ryan took another. It didn't take long for the cold 20 degree air to turn into 40 degree sunshine as we gained elevation. We would walk a ways, then sit down and glass the drainage. About 3 hours after we got out of the truck, Ryan is walking in front of me and spots a mule deer doe. He dropped down a bit to see where she was going, and I pushed forward carefully. A minute or so later, I see antlers in front of me and slide into position. I can make out a fork horn muley buck at 35 yards and draw my bow. As I side step around a tree to get a clear lane, he bails out of there. I wanted a coues on this trip, but I was not going to turn down the opportunity at a mule deer with the short time frame we were given. A very cool experience though 3 hours into day 1. We get to the top of the drainage that morning and glass the rest of the afternoon. Ryan finds 3 mule deer does, and I unearth a very nice 6 point coues buck chasing 2 does. He does not offer us a stalk though as he disappeared into a draw and never reappeared. Day #1 comes to end, but it was a fun and educating one. Once we get back to the truck, Bubba and Kyle say they were stalking a 3x3 muley buck when a fork horn (probably the same one I had), busted them. Day #2, and we are headed back into the same drainage's as yesterday. I am with Kyle today, and we go to access the same area I saw the coues buck yesterday, but do it from the west side this day. As we are starting to get cliffed out in our route, I look up and see deer. 4 coues does end up mingling around us for quite some time, one getting as close as 5 yards. It was quite apparent they had not seen many hunters away from the roads. They finally move on, and we finish our climb to our first glassing point of the day. We sit there for a bit, and Kyle finds the buck from the day before. He is with 2 does, and he watches as he dips into a draw and doesn't come out. It's in a good spot to stalk if he stays in there, so we come up with a plan. On our way in, a spike coues buck stands up 200 yards away, but he has us pegged. Just a few more yards after that, Kyle sees a deer go into a brushy patch on the side of the hill. I loop around and get in a position and he goes to the other side and stalks in. The deer ends up walking by me at 60 yards, but it is a doe. We finally get to where we saw the buck go and split up to try and find him. I had glassed a water hole the day before, and set up there, while Kyle goes up hill to a saddle. I sit on the water hole for some time, but move about 30 yards off it to get a better view of the draw. Meanwhile, Kyle is glassing some does when he sees a 3x3 muley with eyeguards below him. It is too late for him to get a shot, but the buck heads my way. He enters right into the water hole I had just been at minutes before and crosses the draw. I watch him leave the area without ever offering either of us a shot. Lesson learned....stay put where your gut first tells you to. We hike our butts off the rest of the day, but we don't see another deer, but did find this neat desert stream. Bubba and Ryan saw a few deer as they stayed down in the flats, but no opportunities.
Day #3 arrives and a change of plans is in order. The spot I spent most of my time looking at on maps was about an hours drive north on the other side of the mountain range down a long trail. Given how much we had pushed our area the last 2 days, we load up and leave early that morning. Bubba and Kyle take one drainage, as Ryan is going to hunt a big wash for mule deer. I take off solo, and cross a giant wash and get into position to glass several hillsides along with the rolling flats. It wasn't long when I see 2 deer up high on the mountain. I can't make out what they are from this distance, but my mind is made up that I am hiking up. It takes me about an hour, but I get up a pretty good ways to a vantage point and find a nice coues buck feeding on the other side of the bowl I'm in. I watch him as he feeds away from me and up over the peak into the next drainage. He's a long ways away, and the odds of me finding him on that hillside were slim by the time I got over there, so I mark him off. The bowl I'm now hunting had 6 small rocky, wooded draws in it that offered good cover. I spend the morning picking them apart, and moving around to find different angles, but I don't find any deer. At 11:30 I start to side hill around to cross a draw and get to a different peak to eat lunch and glass. As I pick up my pack and come around the corner, I see a deer. I drop to my knees and get my binocs on it. It has a spike on one side and a spike and brow on the other. Legal animal. I watch him for 30 minutes or so, as he finally beds about 120 yards from me uphill. The wind is dicey, there is no cover other than the tall grass, and he has about 200' of elevation on me. I quickly come up with a plan to loop around. I get my GPS out, mark a waypoint, and pinpoint where the buck is bedded at. I then belly crawl 50 yards to the draw and drop down 1000' to make sure I am out of his sight. I spend the next 2.5 hours side hilling around the mountain to get in position to come over the top on him. I drop my pack, get the facemask on, and take off with only my rangefinder, gps, binocs, and bow. I crest the peak, and slide into the best position I can get to. I quickly find the buck bedded, but I cannot get any closer than 94 yards. I have practiced out to here, but on a live animal, no way was I taking that shot. I slide back up over the hill and return to my pack for Plan B. Again, I loop around, drop the pack, peak over the hill, and slide down into position. 91 yards this time before I run out of cover. Time for Plan C. I walk a little farther this time as I saw a spot that should get me real close, but would make seeing his position tough. I'm out of options though, so I start looping around to come in on the buck. I think I can see the top of the tree I have him landmarked under, but I'm not sure. I make an adjustment to my position ever so slightly and move in. I carry my rangefinder in my pocket, and pull it up to make it easier to access if needed. I verify I'm moving towards the right tree and start getting myself in a better position ever so carefully. I know I'm getting close as I check the wind to make sure I'm still good. There are 2 rocks that are to my right. The plan is to sneak on top of them, and shoot the buck as I know I'm within 50 yards now, but I can't see over the small crest in the hillside. I plant my right foot on the first rock, and maneuver my left to get in position for my final step. As I step, there is a dead part of a cactus that I had not noticed that is lying there. I step on it, and it crunches. All in one motion the buck stands up and I drop to my rear end. He does not see or smell me, but knows something is there. I reach for my rangefinder and it's gone.....it fell out of my pocket after I got it ready for easy access...BIG MISTAKE! I know the buck is nervous so I guess his yardage at 45 yards and draw. He sees me now and peers through my soul. I figure he's going to duck the string so I hold my 40 yard pin on his heart and release. My arrow helplessly sails right over his back. I quickly nock another arrow and drop down the hill, but he is booking it out of the draw. I watch him as he enters a draw over a mile away and never comes out. I find my arrow, it's clean. I backtrack and find my range finder. I go back to the spot, and range the shot....37 yards. Maybe it was him ducking the arrow, maybe it was the weird position I was in when I shot, or maybe I just plain missed. Regardless of the excuse I choose to use, my arrow went over the bucks back. The picture below shows the spot. He was standing between the juniper and dead tree in the center of the frame. I call Bubba and tell him I choked and he talks me down off the ledge. It's 3:30 and I still haven't ate anything. I sit and eat lunch as I watch numerous quail run around. I don't know what the laws are on shooting quail with a bow in AZ, but they were looking mighty tasty! I have Bubba and Kyle, who have internet service in their drainage, trying to find the regulations on shooting a quail but they disappear before we find out. I finish my lunch, and it's back after the buck. I gain a bunch of elevation and find him again. He feeds out of the draw and into the next and I start going his way. I'm reading a text from Bubs and a 130ish 4x4 muley slipped right by him and Kyle. I don't take 2 more steps and look up and see another deer 100 yards away. Binocs show just an absolute slammer of a coues buck feeding in front of me. His 8 point frame will push him somewhere around 100". To put it in perspective, 110" is B&C. He feeds towards the smaller buck, and once out of sight, I channel my inner Cameron Hanes and start running up the mountain. I don't know if my legs are no longer attached my body, or if I just can't feel them by the time I reach the top. I glass up the 2 deer just before dark 300 yards away down from me. I don't have enough time to get the wind right, so I take a big gamble and start sliding down towards them hoping I get lucky. I get where I want to be and look over and the deer are gone. I figure they wind me and start back towards the truck. I don't go far and the ridge Y's. I take the easy hiking route, and 3 deer quickly stand up. It's another small buck and 2 does. I range the buck, just under 70, but after missing an alert coues at 37, I don't feel right about the shot. They run on over the hill eventually and my night is over. It takes me almost 3 hours to get back to the truck. Camp and bed were a sight for sore eyes that night. I cooked up our last frozen meal from the cooler as we discussed our plan. Kyle had to work Sunday, so we had to leave out by tomorrow night. I don't think any of us were going to be volunteering to drive through the night after another full day of hunting so we would wake up at dawn and pack up camp then would play it by ear. It turns out that camp chores weren't done until around noon, and we had to end up hitting the road. 3 days was not nearly enough time as a certain sense of defeat settled over me as I got in the truck and pulled away. It was a fun hunt, in some beautiful country. I will return one day for sure, but will definitely allocate more time to hunting and traveling. I learned a lot about western hunting in those 3 days, but mainly on the logistical side of things. It's a blast, and only stoked the fire to chase western game even more. There is something extremely intoxicating about sitting on top of mountain trying to find a 100 pound deer with a rack smaller than most 1.5 year olds from home. Waking up and getting out of a warm sleeping bag to a 15 degree morning makes the coffee and food taste even better. The deer were plentiful, the laughs were aplenty, and the whiskey was smooth. I'll be back to settle that grudge with an archery coues.
Sounds like an amazing hunt! I'm sorry you couldn't have hunted a few more days like you had planned on. Just getting that shot off and seeing those awesome sights everyday would for sure make that hunt one to remember, definitely a dream of mine!
Glad the planning finally came to fruition! Love the write up! That's an extremely difficult hunt, I know after I failed myself back in 2010 haha. Hoping to get back down there next January if time at work allows. Fun hunt Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Extremely difficult, but will be so satisfying when it comes together! The desert is a special kind of beautiful this time of year. It's not a hunt everyone will want to do, but they are missing something awesome. Hope you make it back out there next year. If you need a little info on a rugged, mountainous unit I know of a few drainages now that hold deer! Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk
The coffee and food tastes better says it all. Good read. Exciting to get into new places and new experiences. Sounds like you had good action for a brand new area. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Great write up. I hunted javelina in AZ many years ago in similar country. Had to go alone as my two partners backed out at the last minute. Had the time of my life and killed a javelina to boot. Good stuff right there; thanks for sharing your adventure.
Not only will I return for Coues eventually, but I am starting to build points for premium units with Elk, Mule Deer, and Desert Bighorn. Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk
Scott - thanks for the great story. I'm relatively new to bowhunting and have been chasing mule deer in Colorado and Nebraska the past 2 years and have started looking at other mule deer hunting opportunities, such as Arizona. THat's how I found your posting. Thanks very much - your article describes exactly the type of hunt I've been trying to find (without the truck/travel problems), seeing deer, spot and stalk, etc.
Great write up and photos. Thanks for including us in your hunt. great adventure with your friends....priceless!
It is a fun, but very tough hunt. I hope to try it again this year if my schedule allows me. Coues were my focus for this trip, but I think other areas hold better muley hunting. Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk
