Just got back a few days ago from my Coues Deer Hunt down south here in Az. What a roller coaster ride of weather and emotions this year. Got to our camp spot on Wed before Thanksgiving hoping to do a little scouting but the weather had other plans. Torrential wind and rain for 2 1/2 days pretty much stopped that. The weather finally broke 11am opening day on Friday with everyone else showing up and We filled 4 of 6 tags opening weekend with some nice bucks, and only me and my buddy were left. He also had a Desert Bighorn Sheep tag, so left camp sat night to go get his Ram and was successful. I stayed and continued to hunt, with another friend. We had no problem finding deer only problem was they didn't have the pointy things on their heads. Eventually he had to leave and I was back to hunting solo for a day and half till buddy was able to make it back down. We found a great buck the next day and he took off to close some distance and try to get in front of it as it was moving across the face of a slope way up high. He anchored his buck with a couple shots just under 500 and we spent the rest of the morning packing out and taking care of his buck. Now we're down to me and again had a afternoon of glassing up 16 Does and no bucks. Now on the morning of day 9 my last morning to hunt we hiked up to a saddle and set up to glass. Finally a nice buck, and he is within range but feeding around the top the hill and wasn't very far from moving around the top and out of sight. So I quickly get set up and was lucky to find a flat spot to shoot from. I take the shot but missed to the right, and the deer moves up higher and littler farther away, he is now at 815yds. Lucky for me a have a good spotter to tell me where I was off. I dial for the new yardage corrected my hold and took my second shot. I was quickly rewarded with the sound of the impact, but hit him a little further back then ideal, right where the diaphragm meets the guts. He's still standing so I load one more and put it right in the crease on the near shoulder and down he went. Wow after 9 long days finally had my buck on the ground. What a hunt, one for the record books for me. Thought I would share some of pics, it's steep and rugged and beautiful country. If you ever get chance don't pass up a hunt down here.
