Coues Hunt 2019

Unit 29 gets hammered in the early hunts. If you can glass from the roads so can everyone else, which is what most people do. The rut dosen't kick in usually until after Christmas anyway, but I saw a nice old buck with does in early November and heard from a friend that he saw something similar about the same time. The whole unit is good, but steep and you have to work hard for a nice buck unless you get lucky, which happens. Seems like most people hit Pinery Canyon and on the Portal side of the road. I hunted it in the early December hunt last year and camped out all but 2 days (9 days) and finally my brother and I shot meat bucks after seeing nothing but small bucks. Without scouting it the best strategy is to find hard steep spots and climb a couple miles away from roads where there's water on the map. Water is everywhere now but the summer was dry. With the rut you may get lucky. I lived in SE Arizona and hunted this area 46 years. Never shot a booner, but shot some good bucks there. I wish I had hunted for trophies when I was younger. You might be surprised at the deer in the thick stuff. With the few tags and the rut some of those hard hunted areas will likely start getting the older smarter survivor bucks starting to chase the does.

@augmizer, The Portal side is a great area. Find brushy Canyon like I mentioned before and you'll be good. You'll see plenty of deer if you get out into the hills and sit behind those 15s, be diligent behind the glass and slowly scan the hills. Once you scan a area, scan it again and again. This time of year they love to be in the sun early as it comes up. I hunted the rut last year with a friend and saw good bucks every day during the last week. I'll be out in 36a tomorrow helping someone. Good luck!
 
Most people in AZ say cooz. Of course the actual pronunciation per the French Biologist's name is cows. But nobody likes saying cows.


Except for those that believe that the biologists name was pronounced Couse...like house.

Cooz it is then.
 
Congrats on the Coues hunting trip. I have a unit 29 late season tag and due to having to travel so far won't be going until after Christmas. I had a turkey tag this spring and got my turkey first morning so didn't get to see much of the area but was excited about seeing Coues deer for the first time so I put in and drew a tag. I was wondering if anyone has hunted that unit and had any information they could share on the best areas to check out for the late season.

I was out this past weekend. Still kind of slow and the hammer bucks are not rutting yet where I was. That being said, tonight and tomorrow night we have a "hard freeze" in effect so it should start up real quick. I saw some younger bucks dogging some does but nothing crazy. I was in Wilcox and Safford today on business and the Chiricahua mountains are snow capped and MT Graham outside of Safford is snow capped. This week it should start as temps will be chilly at night and daytime highs only in the 40-50s. Good luck.
 
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