2011 Spot and Stalk Archery Coues Whitetail

Well all I have to say is its been a fun year spot and stalking because I was not seeing them from the blind or even using water so I thought, "hey I have not got one on a spot and stalk before why not try it". Now I have tried LOTS of times and always get busted at about 100 yards. Every evening after work I have been heading out NOT glassing up bucks but just STILL hunting. I would work my way up the mountain so I could be above any of the deer I would see and take a few steps and look, take a few steps and look. I have seen anywhere from 5 to 15 deer every evening and on the weekends doing this and getting VERY close to a fawn (3 feet), no lie it was so AWESOME to see the little guy that close. Well we did the same as every night and this time my dad was by my side. Now I wanted a big buck and have passed this buck I shot a few times now. There were a couple of great bucks in the herd but yesterday evening the nice ones were not present. I had been sneaking down the hill when I seen movement and noticed a doe and her fawn. Thinking it was the same 2 I had been seeing on the hill I did not think the others were there. As I sat and watched I seen 4 more does 1 spike walk out and then the monster 3x2 that I shot (lol). I waited in anticipation that I would see the others and waited and waited no big bucks. So why not just try and get as close as I could, I told myself. When I got to 70 yards I had a good shooting lane that the buck would walk through. I started to get even closer and saw a doe looking right at me so I stopped. Then it happened she started blowing and stomping and then to my right the same thing I thought well here they go they are out of here in a second. After what seemed to be 20 minutes (actually 5) they continued munching down on every blade of grass and what I call buck brush on the hill. Now I am in some of that buck brush and all that is sticking out in sight is my head, so I continue down the hill after my tasty backstraps. When I got to 50 yards from the doe I seen the buck step out so I drew only to have him go back behind the trees. Now I am thinking to myself if I do get him to present the shot do I take it? Is he big enough? Heck ya you can't eat the antlers and the best reason to shoot him YOU HAVE NEVER GOT A SPOT AND STALK ARCHERY COUES!!!!! That sealed the deal he did a 180 turn and walk fast through the opening and all I could think is he is not going to stop.....but he did right at the tree line. All I could see was his body so I ranged him at exactly 50.8 yards drew my Bowtech destroyer 350 back and put the 50 yard pin right behind his shoulder, once I was sure it was perfect I let the victory vforce tipped with a Slick Trick magnum 4 blade knocked with a tracer knock go and seen it dissapear into his side then stick in the dirt behind him. He jumped in a 180 turn and ran away. By this time I knew I just shot my first ever, after work, spot and stalk archery Coues Whitetail deer. I asked myself, "Did I just do that? Was it a good shot?" I walked on down to my arrow to find it completely passed through my tasty backstraps and I knew then from the blood on the ground he was not going to be far. When my dad finally made it down to me I showed him the blood and thanked him for being there with me for my first spot and stalk buck. We gave the buck sometime to expire by walking back up the mountain to grab the jeep. When we got back up to my tracer knock that I left as a marker we started on the blood trail with our lights on. Where the mountain goes around was 30 yards and when we got around the mountain I could see eyes in my light at 30 yards. So we watched the eyes for any movement and noticed they were on the ground and knew he did expire just after I had arrowed him. As we approched the deer that little guy was not big at all but the feeling of being able to have harvested a Coues Whitetail with my rifle at short range, at long range, my first 100" mark through a blind with a bow and now my FIRST SPOT AND STALK ARCHERY was a feeling of great accomplishment. Like I said he may not be big but I have done it all I have gone beyond where many do not go I had done it. That feeling will be my last feeling of accomplishing all the ways of hunting. I can now say I HAVE DONE IT ALL. Thank you all especially my dad for getting me into the sport and addiction of hunting, my wife Misty and kids for putting up with me being gone and supporting me, my mom for supporting me in the sport when I was growing up, to my friends Bruce, Ronnie, Doug, Rick (my taxidermist), and everyone else that has told me and pushed me for my success in the field over the years. I have learned alot and taught alot through trial and error and to those tasty backstraps God has given me.....THANK YOU without God and his creations we would not have these beautiful creatures. If you look closley at the left antler it does have 3 points...LOL

Big Sweet is back and he is bad

Wow is all I have to say.  This buck is one of those bucks that you very rarley get to see.  We are estimating him to be 140+ in score.  Now if we get a chance at him with the bow he will be a new world record.  How cool would that be.  This is a once in a lifetime buck.  Now lets see if 2011 will bring us good luck and maybe just maybe we will have a harvested pic of this bad boy.  Please leave a comment and let me know what you think he will score.  I believe you will agree to 140+.  Happy hunting to all this year and good luck.  Enjoy your season with family and friends this year and take a young one fishing and hunting.

My new Destroyer 350 from BOWTECH

HOLY CRAP I have not been on for awhile and I have to tell you about my new bow.  I wanted to just buy a used bow because the new Destroyer 350 I did not have enough for.....BUT after saving up some money I decided to go ahead and keep saving to get my 2011 Bowtech Destoryer 350.  Oh my is all I can say.  This bow has it all SPEED, QUIETNESS, FEEL, STABILITY, and another GREAT DESIGN from Bowtech.  wow this bow puts my old Allegance to shame...LOL.  Here are some pics enjoy:

I had to add that last one in there.  I hope to be able to finally harvest a nice Black Bear this year and a big ol Coues with this bow.  Time to put the smack down.

Clay
"Coues Life"

Fall 2011-2012 Hunting Regulations ARE OUT

Hey boys and girls the 2011-2012 Arizona hunting regulations are out by the internet.  Click on the link below and lets get after them Coues and Muleys.  Good luck to you ALL in your upcoming hunts this year.  It should be a good one.

http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/hunting_rules.shtml

Clay
"Coues Life"

Dads Javelina Hunt

We had a blast on my dads hunt.  I will let the video tell the story.

My 2011 HAM Javelina Hunt

Well the hunt started for me on Saturday and ended on sunday morning. We glassed up 40 deer on saturday (figures since season is over) 7 of them were GREAT bucks. On Sunday morning we glassed up about 13 deer in about an hour and decided to leave the area. When we ALMOST got to the road Rick (doublebuck) yells PIGS. They were right in front of us right next to the road. We jumped out and ran over to where we could see one but did not have a shot. There were 2 more that took off to his right. The first one did not stop but he was small anyways the second one stopped I ranged him at 35 yards and drew back and nailed him at a quartering away shot I hit him perfect but to me it looked high. They ran out onto the road we were on so we ran up the road to see were they went. One of them was still standing and the other one (the one I shot) came up from behind and bedded down. I drew back again but had to shoot through a limb that was hanging over. When I released the arrow grabbed the limb but only threw it off a little but still it was a high gut shot. there was blood everywhere so I do not know why I shot again but felt I needed too. We watched him bed up and I looked at Rick and asked "did you get it on film?" he said ya but I think I missed the first shot. LOL but he got the second one. WAHOO. So we ran over to my dad and he had took a shot but missed. We got him all packed up and headed home. So it was only a 2 hour hunt that day. I love these little guys. I have to say Thanks to Rick for comming up and going out with me. We sure do have some fun. Here are some pics and when I get the video from Rick I will post it up.

Click on the video below to watch it.  It was the second shot at the pig.



My 2010 Javelina Rug

I won the coueswhitetail.com contest for 2009 for the biggest archery Coues buck so I won a FREE mount from Wild Heritage Taxidermy in Young, AZ.  In March of 2010 I dropped off my Javelina to them and they told me if I wanted an open mouth it would be 100.00 more.  What it is suppose to be for free and who the heck would get a Javelina mounted without the mouth open?  I think that is why they said that so they could get a little money out of the deal.  What could I say but ya okay that sounds good a whole mount for 100.00.  Well in December they finally called and said the rug was done and he would have to just paint the mouth and it would be finished so I confirmed with him it would be 100.00 right?  Nope now he says its 150.00.  Why I asked he said thats what the price has always been.  I then told him your wife told me 100.00 so he said he would talk to her and he would call me back when the mount was finished.  On 1-29-2011 his wife called me and told me the mount was FINISHED and I could pick it up the next day which was sunday.  Cool I will be there so it is 100.00 right?  NOPE she says its 150.00.  I told her that is not what she told me and my dad she told us 100.00.  She said that is what it has always been.  I told her I would meet her in the middle and give them 125.00 since I had to drive all the way up there and also since it had taken almost a year to get back.  I told her we would be there between 9:00 and 11:00 because my dad and I were going to hunt on our drive up there.  We did not see anything so we got there at 8:30.  She comes up to us and says you guys are early we are not FINISHED with the mount yet.  WHAT?  you said yesterday it was all done.  By now I am getting a little pissed and hoped the mount would cheer me up.  When he was finally finished with it 2 1/2 hours later it still did not look right.  The lips were way too pink but they said thats what it suppose to look like.  I just took the pig and ran.  Where the heck is the tail?  Now the tail is not long at all about 3 inches but still it should be there right?  NOPE no tail.  You will see in the first picture is the original pig look at the lips THAT is what they are suppose to look like not the 2nd pic which is the mount.  Needless to say I am not impressed with the jerry rig job that was done.

The original lips and tounge.

Here is the picture of the lips on the mount.

Here are just some other pictures of the mount.  He did do some great work on the corners of the eyes and the back of the rug was also exceptional work from the ruggery people.

Here is the pic of the whole rug which looks great except there is no tail.  LOL

Feel free to comment on his work.  I will always remember this pig because she was my biggest that I have ever shot. 

My dad and I have the same hunt this year too that starts tomorrow 2-4-2011 HAM hunt and hope to be able to harvest another one of these fun to hunt little creatures.  If I do that will make like 7 years in a row that we have got drawn and that I have killed.  Lucky number 7 lets see what we can do this year.  I will have some friends going with us so hopefully they can capture it on video and if so I will be back to show you all the video.  Thanks for visiting the BLOG.

Clay
"Coues Life"