White Flags in the Tall Grass: Part II

 Bang Plop (by Joe Dibble)

Glassing: the Essential Practice of Couesin'

On the second morning I was particularly excited because we were headed to Jon's proverbial "honey hole". This was officially my second day of coues deer hunting. We had seen plenty of deer yesterday and still had three tags to fill!

Jon, Remi, Mike and I walked in early while Hans held down the fort back at camp. It was abnormally cold for our area again (20 degrees), and the wind now gusting in our face made glassing the distant hills more difficult. This didn’t seem to bother Remi, however, who spotted three bucks fighting on a low hillside over a thousand yards away. The trio entertained him with some great sparring (and a few cheap shots) while the rest of us found them and we determined our intent. One of the the deer was a shooter and they were in a huntable spot.

“You’re up” Remi proclaimed looking in my direction, so Mike and I packed up our gear and headed down for a “closer look”. We soon found ourselves basically right on top of the deer (bow-hunters these guys) set up prone under a scrub oak trying to get the video camera to work before taking the shot. Yet again, the many years of higher education between us kicked in like instinct and enabled us to find the ‘on’ button - shortly after the biggest buck decided to cease standing broadside in the wide open and disappear into a grove of mesquite trees. Comedy! 

Joe's fantastic 2010 Coues buck

As a consolation Mike got some great footage of the small non-typical buck before we sneaked around to get a better angle on the mesquite grove. We re-positioned ourselves further to the west, inside of 125 yards, but could still not see our target. Luckily, as we turned to leave, Mike glanced back just as our buck stood up and stepped out. The buck walked down the hill far enough for us to confirm that it was in fact the bigger deer, then re-bedded (this time with his body exposed) only 110 yards away.

The shot was pretty simple ... shoot off my Stix, in a gusty cross-wind, through a pizza slice-sized gap between a cluster of waving ocotillo branches. Just like at the range baby! This seemed to make Mike - the voice of reason on this mission - increasingly uncomfortable. He was doing his best to convince me to get even closer when grandpa’s 30-06 recoiled into my shoulder. The buck laid over, kicked a few times and went still. 

I must admit I needed to come to terms with the “portion distortion” created from hunting bigger mule deer. But, it did not take long at all to realize what all the fuss was about, and fall in love with hunting the tiny coues species. They are the sports car of the deer kind...sleek, beautiful and very challenging to harvest. I am so proud of my trophy, the first big game animal I have brought home in many many years. Tenderloins and potatoes on the menu again with a side of two more tags to fill tomorrow. Can’t wait! 

The intent of this photo was to show the camaraderie amongst the hunters, but it looks more like a scene from the Sound of Music - the hunting edition.