Arizona Coues buck on the ground.
Pics and story when I get better cell service.
I’m currently in a wilderness area in Arizona
Well.
I’m back in Tucson.
So the unit we were hunting has always produced very nice bucks for us in the past.
This hunt takes about 7 bonus points to draw.
Anyways my son drew this year, his last time he drew he killed a 98 6/8” buck at 70 yards.
He was quite a bit younger.
Here’s his buck from that year
So in this unit we know pretty well, we have a spot that always produces nice bucks.
The cool part is we are usually the only ones who make the big hike back into the wilderness area where the big bucks are.
Other guys go home empty handed because they don’t put in the effort.
(This unit is not a very popular unit for hunters….that’s ok by us)
So the other day while at our hotspot we saw several bucks which my son passed up.
I spotted a huge buck about 3/4 mile away and my son and I went after him when we got to the spot we found somehow he disappeared so went to camp empty handed that night but wow what a walk back in the dark in those remote areas.
The next day we saw again several smaller bucks until just before dark my father in law spotted a shooter buck just in the edge of a huge wood lot of ponderosa pines with a massive Boulder mixed in with them.
I ranged the buck at 480 yds, with a 13 degree shot uphill…..(that’s steep) with a correction of 430 yds because of the angle I told my son to dial the scope to 4 moa, (my rifle is sighted in at 200yds)
Didn’t seem to be any wind so we didn’t correct for wind (that might have been a mistake) anyways I’m watching through my big glass and the buck give a perfect broadside shot quartering away pretty decently.
At the shot I saw and heard the bullet impact a bit far back < that’s a nice way of saying gut shot 😠.
The buck kinda hunched up and slowly walked off.
We made the decision to let him lay over night and not push him.
(Which was a great decision)
The next morning bright and early we got to the spot where the buck was hit and found very little blood….I mean very little.
The blood sometimes we wouldn’t find for 30-40’ away from each other, I even followed where he kicked up some earth and pine needles.
Pin drops here and there and between the three of us we managed to track him to where we found him 14 1/2 hrs after the shot.
Fortunately the nights are around 30 degrees.
So here is Matthew’s 2023 Arizona Coues whitetail buck.
I haven’t measured him yet but I assure you this is a pretty good buck.
For some reason right now post image is not responding.
I will post more pics when it does.
Anyways the rifle.
You may remember I had his 6.5 Creedmoor shooting real well….we 2 days before the hunt Matthew and I were shooting is confirming zero and shooting for distance when it went berserk.
We had to pull his scope thinking that was the problem.
Nope new scope same thing, I checked and rechecked everything on that rifle and couldn’t figure it out (that’s a project for another day)
So on to his .243 Remington 700 youth rifle.
This rifle has taken other Coues bucks at 400 yds and even took a big bodied bull elk at 137 yds.
It wouldn’t shoot his pet loads either.
Don’t know why.
Totally baffled.
Another project to figure out.
Good grief.
So with that we took my trusted semi custom.243 Ackley
It shoots 105 grain Amaxs at almost 3300 fps
And usually can hold a 3” group at 500 yds.
More pics later.