2018 AZ Coues Deer rifle hunt - Teaser alert

[lamrith]

Yes I am going to draw this out on you folks, no single sit down read thru and be done.  You will get just enough to pique your interest but leave you wanting more with one post a day for each day of the hunt.  I will give the 1st two in one big start post though.  Each will be edited as it is easier to post pictures via tapatalk from my phone and text from my laptop...
Pre hunt
Like anyone else that hunts out of their home state, the build up and prep is often longer than the actual hunt. Planning starts months in advance guessing at weather, gear needed, scanning maps for hunt locations and game plans.  Working up a reliable accurate hunting load for your rifle.  Changing options on the gun and verifying and re-verifying that they are good and how each change affects your point of impact.  Making sure that your gun is dialed in and ready for the hunt.  Packing, repacking, getting new gear from recommendations of others that have hunted the area and packing again.  Realizing that there is no way on earth you are going to fit it into two checked and two carry on bags.  Plus the fact that if you did you would have no room or ability to bring meat back without dropping serious coin on shipping meat overnight, or paying baggage fees ($75 with 50# limit).  So that means finalizing the gear and shipping it early enough to get to your hunting partner in their hometown at least a week before the hunt begins so that they have time to load in their rigs for the drive to camp.  It had everything in it except for one full set of hunting clothing, my primary glass and of course my weapon. Multiple sets of hunting clothes and options for expected weather, sleeping bag and pillow, kill kit, bags, backup bino's, spare rangefinder, radios, solar panel and batteries, etc, etc.  With the hunt rapidly approaching I shipped my 45# box of gear down 3 weeks before the hunt.  Whew, one thing done.  Now on to pack the carry on's.

T-2 Days to hunt
I wake up at my normal 5am since it is a work day and realize the backpack with laptop and some gear in it is just too big to fit under an airline seat, and my hunting pack is already maxed out.  I panic and try some reshuffling but to no avail.  The only option is to ditch the second set of boots, I will have to hotlap the one pair on this desert hunt, Ohh goody! 


I arrive at SEA airport with my hunting pack, laptop backpack and rifle case @ 830am for the 11am flight to Phoenix.  I go to the ticketing agent who gives me the proper firearm declaration forms and points me to the TSA area.  TSA goes smooth, the agent was a nice guy who actually caught that the ticketing agent had not tagged my rifle case, so I had to boogy back over to get that done.  The middle (biggest and busiest) security check point was closed with a line going all thru airport.  I jammed down to A gate check point which was open and shorter line but still had a 45min wait to get thru.  Waiting in the gate charging my phone and dreaming of Coues deer makes the time waiting to board fly by.  We take off a few minutes late, but the flight was shorter than expected, either the pilot had a date tonight or the jetstream was in our favor  We landed and I hustled off to baggage claim, then had to wait 30min for them to bring my case up a special elevator.  I called Ben (step-dad) and he arrived shortly and we loaded my gear in the truck.  I hopped in and we started heading south.  After "quick" stops at In-n-out, his buddies house for a tent, and Sportsman's warehouse for my last tag, we left Tucson heading south!


We get to camp around 8pm and have the privledge of setting up the tent by truck headlights before rolling out our sleeping bags a crashing out for the night.





To be continued...

[lamrith]

T-1 day to hunt
There is just nothing like sunrise in the desert, the day broke clear and bright, a good omen for the hunt to come. 


We started off the morning  with a quick tour in the ranger (side by side utv).  The first spot we sat in to scout is one that looks way out in "The basin", it is an area the group hunts every year and it always has deer in it.  We settled in and at around 10am and saw 3 does out feeding.  Def a good sign there were deer in the draw, but our spotting location was not a place we could shoot from (1000yrds) and, we saw no bucks.  Weather was nice and clear, but "hot"  The Desert rat I was hunitng with thought it was perfect, but being a WA guy, the 77* and blazing sun was like walking in an oven and I was glad to sit in the shade of the Side by side for the ride out.


We left that spot and ran back past camp and up into another spot much farther back.  We spent a few hours there and glassed up more does in the afternoon.  Great news they are up and they are moving outside of twilight hours, not so much luck that not a single buck was seen.  We made our way back to camp and another member of the group had arrived.  We spent the remainder of the afternoon setting up camp, then had dinner and relaxed by the campfire talking about the plans for the next morning.

To be continued...

[WAcoueshunter]

Tag!

[elkrack]

 

[lamrith]

Day 1 Morning
We decided to do a traditional opening day hunt and hunt the draw right outside of camp.  We walk up and get to our spots just as the sun crests the mtns.  Have I mentioned how cool desert sunrises are?


There are some cattle on the right side of the slope we are facing right at 1st light.  After 1.5hrs we finally see a pair of does off on the left, then a 3rd joins them after about 20min.  They are in the tangles of Ocitillo, just relaxing and oblivious to our presence.  After 45min a large solitary javelina shows up.  He was a big fatty that could have made great eating, but it was not Javelina season.  Around 10am we break from that spot we are in and join back up with the other hunter and make a plan to walk/push to the head of the draw and then rest in shade having a snack.  We bust one doe out on the push up the draw, but nothing else.   After our snack we push the next canyon over back toward camp.  We make the push and saw a whole lot of nothing.  The one moment of excitement was a brief drive by from border patrol who got out to get a better look at us and I could hear them say, "It's ok, just hunters."  This was a long morning and we are all beat and exhausted when we reach camp for lunch. 

To be continued...

[DOUBLELUNG]

Tag

[lamrith]

Day 1 Evening
For the evening hunt we headed to "The coral", it is a spot that the group hunts all the time and last time I was there 3yrs ago we pulled a spike out on opening night and could have had 2 spikes that night (I decided to pass on that second spike and we never saw another deer for the entire hunt, DOH!  It is a decision I have regretted since I made it).  We got into our glassing spots around 3, and all was quiet.  Around 4pm we catch movement and see a couple does working on the left side of the draw.  One is nervous and watching to the right all the time frozen, ears forward, twitching, then she would relax and eat, then head pops up and twitching again.  We pan over constantly and try to find what is bothering her but no luck, so we stay on her for a very long time. 

We keep checking to the right and light is fading when Ben suddenly see's movement and a bunch of does on the right side of the draw in the direction the doe had been looking.  I could not find them so go over to Ben and he shows me where they are.  I go back to my glass and sit down.  When I look through my binos to get ready to shift them to the does I am looking right at a spike buck sneaking along in a shaded area!  Adrenalin dumps and I turn to Ben and say BUCK!  He tells me to get my gun up and ready and before I stop to think and fix the buck's actual location on the hillside I pulled my binos down and put my rifle rest on the tripod.  DOH.  I literally had no idea where my glass had been pointed at as I had just sat down and gotten behind them to start looking for the does.  I start looking by naked eye to find deer and then scanning each thru my scope and see a couple of the does but cannot pick out the spike.  Ben comes over to ask where I had seen the buck and I tell him I was not sure.  Light is fading super-fast and he goes back over to his binos to try and spot him, two of the does catch him moving and all hell breaks loose.  We are suddenly looking at a hillside of fluffy white tails busting up and over the saddle.  We count over 9 in total which is many more than we had seen prior to the mayhem.  It is so dark at this point I cannot make anything out in my scope.  We pack up while a single straggler deer snorts at us.  We head down the hill with headlamps as it is now pitch black.  Day one ends busted and frustrated with a missed chance at a buck at less than 140yrds.  At this point other than vehicles passing camp in the morning we have seen no other hunters on the ground or up on hillsides glassing.

To be continued...

[lamrith]

Day 2 Morning hunt
The 1st day of hunting had taught me one thing.  Hiking with a medium weight rifle (Savage Hog hunter in 308) with heavy glass (PA 4-14x44 FFP Mildot) and a heavy suppressor (Form1 10" 30cal) really sucks.  The extra weight on the barrel makes the gun not want to stay tucked in behind your shoulder and has it rotating the butt of the stock forward, plus the extra 10" ontop of the 20" barrel gets it caught on everything.  I pulled the suppressor off completely and left it in camp.  The gun carried much better, and helped get thru some tight spots on the walk in.

For the second morning we decided to head to "The basin" for the 1st time since scouting it.  But this time we eased our way in and to a spot that provided shots all under 300yrds to the slope we had seen deer on during scouting.  I caught movement on the way in but lost that deer as we kept working to our glassing spot.  We got setup in a good spot and started glassing.  We had does on the left slope that we watched for a while, then noticed movement on the main slope.  Two more does up and feeding, then a couple more.  Despite all our prayers and begging, none of them sprouted antlers.  Overall, we saw 9 does in 2hrs of glassing, all up feeding and milling around without a care in the world, but not a single buck.  We are in deer which is good, but the girls are off limits.  The Girls are in town partying, where are the boys!?  The day is calm and warm, and not much else is moving around, we see no other hunters in the area and hear no shots.  We hike out quietly around 11 and back to camp for lunch.  The last member of the hunting group was there in camp waiting when we get to camp.

To be continued...

[boneaddict]

Exciting so far....  Coues deer are TOUGH

[lamrith]

Exciting so far....  Coues deer are TOUGH

That they are.  Grey ghosts of the desert.  Thankfully early on in this hunt we at least had lots of does.  Even if nothing legal to shoot, seeing deer makes all the difference in the world keeping you engaged when the hunts require hours behind glass taking apart the landscape.  They also tend to give away their mates at times.

[boneaddict]

I had read that expression for years but really didn’t comprehend it until I spent time in the desert.  They literally appear and disappear like apparitions.  And the country they call home....it doesn’t look like much, but I swear there isn’t anything out there that isn’t trying to bite, scratch or poke you.
I saw your muzzleloading post and thought dang....if you aspire to knock one of these babies down with a Trad muzzle, yowzher that would be the hunt to end all hunts.  I’m not talking a scoped, primered in line though. 

[lokidog]

 

[bearhunter99]

Been down there twice during archery season.  Tough hunting!  That country can kick your butt in a hurry.  My brother was successful on a nice three point.  Lots of close encounters but was never able to pull it all together.  Timing our trip with the rut was tough, the 3 point my brother got was during the rut, which ended the day I got there....(he went down a week earlier).  The next trip we left earlier but it was a dry year and they didn't go into the rut until well after we left.  Did see the biggest 3 point muley buck I have ever seen down there as well.

[lamrith]

I had read that expression for years but really didn’t comprehend it until I spent time in the desert.  They literally appear and disappear like apparitions.  And the country they call home....it doesn’t look like much, but I swear there isn’t anything out there that isn’t trying to bite, scratch or poke you.
I saw your muzzleloading post and thought dang....if you aspire to knock one of these babies down with a Trad muzzle, yowzher that would be the hunt to end all hunts.  I’m not talking a scoped, primered in line though. 

I am looking Muzzy for there mostly to open up Elk and Muley hunts.  Not going Trad though, inline scoped for me!  I just watched a video the other day of a young lady  shooting a 100"+ Coues @ 340yrds with a ML.  Even with my good glass they were just appearing and disappearing right in front of us.

Been down there twice during archery season.  Tough hunting!  That country can kick your butt in a hurry.  My brother was successful on a nice three point.  Lots of close encounters but was never able to pull it all together.  Timing our trip with the rut was tough, the 3 point my brother got was during the rut, which ended the day I got there....(he went down a week earlier).  The next trip we left earlier but it was a dry year and they didn't go into the rut until well after we left.  Did see the biggest 3 point muley buck I have ever seen down there as well.

Yeah I know people knock them down with archery gear.  Honestly I do not see how they manage it.  Unless they have scouted well, can sit water, or maybe rattle them in during rut.  I did manage to kick a cactus into my leg one day, big fun, yes everything is trying to kill you down there.

[lamrith]

I will jump ahead a few hours in the story...
Day 2 Evening hunt
We decide to break out of the usual spots and head up the road into steeper areas.  One is a place we had glassed the does from the evening before the hunt.  We drop the other two hunters off at the head of that road with the plan for them push up that road and sit in a deeper draw.  Ben and I head up around the corner to see what else is around and end up on a sub-peak with a small camp-spot and a couple hunters in shade waiting out the heat to glass for the evening.  15min of small talk and we ask were they planned to hunt so we can stay out of their way.  They are glassing the far distant side of the area.  We part ways and cross hill around the ridge we are on to get to the other side of it looking in the general direction that our partners were heading.  We find a nice shaded spot with decent view of the closest draw and settle in. 


This draw is steep and rocky and screams mountain lion to me with rock outcroppings, small caves and crevasses all over it.  After about 2hrs nothing at all is moving other than the bugs buzzing in our ears and it is getting tiresome.  I finally get to the point I consider bouncing to a new spot while there is still some twilight left and I ask what are we doing here this is a dead spot.  We have a small snack and decide to start checking out far out ridges (800-1500yrds out) just in case there is something we can chase the next day since this draw is a dead-end.  After 30min or so I start glassing up into trees in our draw again, we are here and hunting this draw after all, got to give it an honest attempt.  Bored and honestly a bit bummed that we sat in a dead draw I sit back out of the glass and scan around with naked eye.  I glance below us and see movement.  DEER!  I get behind my 12x56 Vortex Vulture Binos and swing that way to see one tail vanish into shadows.  I swing a touch right to the second deer and see forks.  I turn to Ben and say "BUCK" at the same time yanking my binos off the tripod and putting my rifle v-block on in their place and grabbing my rangefinder.  I knew it was going to be a longer shot and the SIG Kilo2000 rangefinder confirms, 375yrds AMR (More on this later).  Hhrmm, farther than the drop table I have printed in my scope lens cap.  Ben is asking location and I verbally guide him in to where they are located as I pull out my phone and punch the range info into strelok+.  It spits out I need to correct up 1.9MIL.  I quickly decide not to alter turrets,  I have a Mil/Mil scope with markers every 1MIL out to 5MIL on the Reticle, at the range calculated the 1.9MIL is only 1.35" low versus 2.0Mil.  I pick up my rifle and verify the turrets are still at 0 and had not been bumped during our hikes.  As I was entering the info into strelok and verifying my turrets, Ben has the deer in his binos.  I hear Ben say "He's gone, just went into trees."  I keep getting ready and get the tripod reset to the lower height needed for the gun and make sure it is stable.  I zoom in to max power on my 4-14x scope as I know I will need to see the deer at this distance.  As I finally get behind the gun Ben says "he is back out, in the shadows top left of the clearing, the doe is back also in the same clearing."  The Doe helps me verify the correct clearing and then I see the buck.  Man, these are tiny deer!  I settle in and get my offhand set under the rear of the stock and locked into my shoulder.  I anchor my cheek into cheek rest but the scope is bouncing all over like MC Hammer on crack.  It has been 1 1/2 min since I 1st saw the buck and my adrenalin is spiking hard.  I try to steady the gun and cannot.  The good news is that he is stationary, and the doe is feeding calmly, so I take a risk and sit up away from the gun.  I take a couple big deep breaths with my eyes closed.  r-e-l-a-x.  Eyes closed I get behind the scope again and open my eyes then find buck in the same place, only this time with a steadier sight picture.  I ask Ben, "You on him?"  "YUP." "ok taking shot” I start to squeeze the 3.5# trigger and the shot surprises me, just as it should, I hear the PPFFFFSHHHT of the round leaving the suppressor.  (Over lunch I had thought about the issue with carrying the rifle with suppressor and decided to put it back in my bag, the benefit for shooter and spotter is just too great to ignore and worth the extra weight in the pack.  Once we got settled in to glass I pulled it out and installed it back on my rifle.)  The gun jumps off target, then I hear the crack as the supersonic 165grn Sierra Gameking bullet goes down range @2650fps.

You jokers did not think I was going to go straight thru and tell you the outcome after that lead up did you?   

I mentioned coming back to AMR as I did not want to break from the action at the time.  AMR stands for Angle Modified Range, that is the term SIG uses for the distance a shooter uses to dial in or sight in on a target from angle (uphill or downhill) to compensate for gravity due to the shot angle.  I mention this because my rangefinder was automatically calculating the angle and telling me the desired yardage for drop calculation, not the actual distance to target.  I did not get a hard angle number when I took the shot, but a few days later when in the area took a rough reading and got between 30 and 38* angle for the shot.  Running the calculations that puts the shot at 430 to 475yrds from muzzle to deer. 


I mention this for two reasons, one so other people are aware off it, lets be honest 99% of us shoot at a range when practicing.  All flat shots and most probably have no idea that vertical angle changes point of impact, taking your shooting out of the range into real world changes things.  Hopefully this helps some other shooter or hunter having the knowledge ahead of time so that they are prepared ahead of time and do not miss that trophy buck, or worse, wound it.  The second reason is that this ended up being the farthest distance I had ever taken a shot at any target.  If I had realized the actual distance I might not have taken the shot, and definitely been more nervous.

To be continued...