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Arizona
New Mexico Outfitters and Guides
Coues Deer
Hunting Articles
The following is a
collection of real life entries as written by the outfitter, guides, and past
clients. Their purpose is to give potential hunters an idea of our hunts.
The
Last Day Coues
Deer
by Pat Feldt
 There was not
a Coues buck in sight. I had glassed the opposite canyon five times over and had
only seen six Coues white-tailed deer does.
It was the last day of the 1991 December coues whitetail hunt and I had not
yet tagged my yearly buck.
Twenty-eight Coues deer bucks were “passed-up” during the season but
none of them was what I was looking for. The
hike back to my brother was going to be a long and depressing one.
A feeling I had felt a couple times before. Ryan was glassing another ridge closer to the truck and I could only hope
he had found a good buck for me to shoot.
An hour later, I approached my brother’s glassing spot
and sat down with disappointment. “Well,
what ‘ya see?” we both asked. “Just
a small 8-point, a fork and a few does,” my brother replied.
He was packed-up and ready to leave due to the uneventful morning, but I said,
“Since this area is so big, let’s just glass it one more time to see if
something was missed.”
The area we were hunting was vast. The canyon was
more than 1200 yards across at some points with other distant ridges being over
one mile. I set up my 12x50 Docter Binoculars on the tripod and began to
scan the area. With much amazement, I spotted what seemed to be a buck
sparring with a tree. I had not glassed more than five fields of view
before spotting him. This deer had to be
over a mile away. I had no spotting scope with me and could not make out
the antler size of this rutting deer through the 12 power binoculars. Ryan
suggested I set up the gun on the bipod and view him through the Leupold scope
cranked-up to 20X. After I found the buck on 20x, there was no mistaking
him. It was the buck we were after, an estimated 105 Coues whitetail buck we had seen
the month before while guiding a friend.
He had been seen during the November hunt traversing some cliffs, which didn't
leave us much chance for a shot. Now,
he was preoccupied wrestling with a mesquite tree, trying to impress the two does next to
him. It was quite interesting
watching as branches were literally being
torn off and thrown into the air.
Knowing he would be there and busy for a while with these
females, we decided to go for it. The
approach was going to be a tough one. We
estimated he was 1 ¼ miles away from our vantage point but mostly uphill.
We thought we had better hurry before he topped the mountain and we would
never see him again!
Forty-five minutes later found us on the opposite ridge of
the big Coues buck, but there was a problem.
He was above a 200 ft. cliff and silhouetted on the skyline.
There was no way to get closer. The
best bet was to set-up the gun where we were or not ever see this deer again.
The rangefinder read 525 yards, but the angle was so
drastic, probably 60 degrees uphill, that the ballistics were going to be
different. I lay down, flipped-out
the Harris bipod and adjusted the target turrets on the 20X Leupold for 6
minutes of angle, a minute less than if there was no uphill rise.
My brother replied, “You better hurry, he’s about to follow the does
over the mountain.” So, nestled
behind my Remington 700 BDL chambered in .300 Winch. Mag., I held the crosshairs
behind the shoulder of the Coues deer’s chest and slowly squeezed-off a round.
The shot felt good.
“He’s down,” replied my brother with amazement.
Not being confident of the shot with all the rushing and uphill angles
involved, I said, “Are you sure?” “He
dropped like a rock” was his reply. I let out a great roar of joy!
The next two hours found us climbing the steep cliff walls
in order to reach the old Coues deer buck.
It was worth all the trouble. He
was a nice-racked 8-point that ended up grossing 102" and netting 101 5/8 B&C.
An excellent deer in any Coues deer hunter’s book!
My Quest For a Coues with
a Handgun
By
Anthony Ransom of
California
This article appeared in SIX
GUNNER MAGAZINE
 Well
after a spectacular year hunting in CA I had decided to head to AZ for my
fourth leg of the deer slam with a pistol. Yep, I wanted to put a coues on my
wall. Being a hand gunner, a book buck was not necessary; rather a respectable
mature male would suffice. I have hunted coues with a bow (to no avail). This
would be my first time to handgun the very wary coues deer… Much more
elusive than the Mulies and the Black tails that I hunt every year. And
certainly more so than the Eastern whitetail species that I have harvested.
Anyway, the trip was planned and booked with “Arizona Guided Hunts.” I was
to leave for a week in November to chase Coues whitetail.
Upon arriving I met up with the
outfitter in
Tucson. Pat Feldt is the Owner and one of the guides for AGH. I hunted
Javalina and coues with a bow with Pat prior to this hunt. Pat runs a first
class operation. Nothing for the hunter to do except bring your gun, your
sleeping bag and hunt. Arizona is very open in the areas we hunted. First
class glasses are a must here. Don’t take your daddies little 8x 42’s because the
terrain is vast. They will not suffice. I took my Swarovski 15x56’s and my Leica spotter. Pat carries 15x60 Docters and a
Leupold spotting scope, which both mount on a tripod for better stability in finding
Coues at long range. These deer are a bit small. The Big bucks
might go 90+ pounds. Many deer are much smaller than that. I took two guns for
the hunt. One was my Remington xp 100 pistol chambered for 338-350 Mag. This gun was to play
second fiddle and only be used if something went wrong with my other gun. I
get ¾ groups at 100 with this gun. The chosen load for it was the
Nosler BT 200grain. The gun does 2700 fps with my hunting loads. Earlier this
year it took a great Black Tail at 435 yards (another story though). My Other
Gun would be my 257 JDJ Thompson Pistol. I had not yet taken game with this one. It really
shines at the range with the 100 gr. Nosler BT. I have been shooting AA 2520 at
2600 fps and getting sub 1 inch groups with this combo. I figured the 257 JDJ
and the Coues deer to be a match for success.
The first day out proved to be
uneventful. With the windy conditions Pat and I felt it would be best to use
the 338. The weather was warm and the wind blew 25 mph. Gust had to be much
higher. We spotted many deer and covered lots of territory, but no biggins
were found. Most of the hunting involves hiking to high vantage points and
setting up your glass and scouring the canyons for deer. The terrain is steep,
rough, and featureless. Just Cactus and rock populated the terrain. Not much
else. We stayed out all day the first day of the hunt to no avail (slump).
There was another hunter in camp. Chris and Guide, Bryan, managed to get a
decent 80 incher the first day. He used a 300 ultra mag and after an all day
stalk got his chance at 350 yards. It was a big uplift of spirits that night
to see a good deer in camp. I was very excited.
The next day out Pat and I tried a
different ridge. We glassed till lunch and went back to camp. Camp is a large
wall tent with all the accommodations one needs. Cots to sleep on, a wood
stove for heat and all the other amenities you would expect from a good
outfitter. After lunch we headed out to do some more glassing. About an hour
before dark Pat managed to glass a couple of decent bucks feeding two ridges
over. We did not have much day left, but decided to try a stalk anyway. We got
where we needed to be, but ran out of light before we could find the bucks. We
made a plan to try again for the bucks at first light.
The next morning we found ourselves
close to where we had seen the bucks the day before. Pat glassed them up
feeding in the same spot as the evening before. I slid in behind a rock and set up
my .338 pistol on a rock and bipod. Pat let me know which one to take. I got the cross
hairs steady and squeezed one off. After the recoil I lost sight of
everything. Pat said I missed, I WAS SHOCKED. The distance was only two
hundred yards…what happened? The bucks were looking around trying to figure
out what had happened. I set up again and squeezed another off. Missed…Pat
mentioned I was shooting high. The bucks were on the move now. One slowed at
about 300. I got set and tried a snap shot…Ya I missed again. I was
thoroughly disappointed at this point. I was not sure what to do. Pat said it
happens, followed by "there is always next year!" I was starting to think he was
right. Disgusted, we packed up and headed back to camp. The other guys all
tried to convince me to take Pats rifle out and try again. NO WAY. After lunch
and much contemplation, I decided to set up a target at 200 yards and see what
was going on. I fired three shots at the target. The group was less than 2 inches. Good
group for shooting off of an ice chest. I had only brought ten rounds of 338
for the trip. The only thing that was wrong is that the group was over a
FOOT off of my aim. I am not sure where the scope got so far off, but it was.
Winds gusting like they were made me a bit skeptical of the 257 jdj, but that
was my only other option for handguns. The rifle comments came from the peanut
gallery again. NOPE, I'm not going to get my deer slam with a rifle!
That afternoon the successful hunter left.
Pat, Bryan, and I went out early in the afternoon in a completely different
area. We split up and kept in contact via two-way radios. Pat called me after
about ten minutes. He had found a buck bedded down. I worked my way to Pat and we
discussed it. He was bedded behind a Mesquite tree facing away from us 900 yards
across the canyon. Pat would stay there and guide me via radio. I worked my
way down into the gorge and then up a knoll approaching the bedded deer. It
only took about an hour to close within 300 yards. At that point the wind was
good, coming into me and not that strong. Since the ground was so crunchy, I slipped off my shoes and eased
closer, a trick I learned from bowhunting. I
was so excited and focused on being quiet that I didn’t notice all the
cactus I was walking through. There was a large flat rock on the knoll I
needed to get to. The buck was behind the Mesquite tree still. As I moved closer to
the rock the deer got up to stretch and then bedded up again. I got to the rock, set
up my tripod-mounted binoculars and ranged him. Only 276 yards. Perfect. I put my bench bipod on,
and set the gun up on the deer. Now I just had to wait, control myself, and
make sure I had my hold-over right. My gun was dead on at 100. I figured that
at a bit downhill angle, I would need to hold about 2” over the back. I waited and
listened to Bryan and Pat on the Radio. I heard Lots of comments about Rifles
and "maybe next year." They are quite comical. I disserved the ribbing. We waited for a couple hours (it
seemed) for the buck to get up and offer a shot. Eventually he did. The buck
got up and turned and got on a trail coming to me. I let him take about three
steps. I was ready and the gun was steady on him, I let it fly. Before I
recovered from the shot, Pat radioed "Great shot." I looked through my Binos and
he was down on the trail. I was elated. After gathering up my gear I headed
back to my shoes, now I noticed all the cactus around me and in my FEET. What
a painful trek back to my shoes. I picked out what thorns I could, put my
boots back on and headed to my Prize. I got to the buck and was pleasantly
surprised. This was the best buck we had seen on the trip.
Pat and I took pictures and then began the
chores of quartering the buck for packing out. Missing the other buck was now a good thing.
This buck was a nice 8-point and Pat scored it at
90 inches; a pretty good Coues with a
Pistol. All in all it was a great trip. I am glad I persevered and got to use
my 257 JDJ. The Nosler 100 BT performed great. It broke the front shoulder and
I found the bullet just under the hide on the off side. Thanks JD for a great
Gun and Arizona Guided Hunts for a great hunt!
Sincerely,
Anthony D Ransom (Pistolhntr@aol.com)
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