Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Backpack Coues hunt 2022

It has been some time since I have seen a backpack hunt write up posted in this sub-forum so hope to get the ball rolling again by sharing last week's hunt story. My brother and I have hunted this particular unit for about 8 years now and have taken bucks up to the 100" range. It has had some challenges lately with some lions moving in and a big burn starting 3 years ago. Still a beautiful place to hunt though.

We initially planned on a full 7 day hunt, but started a day late in order to let a weather front pass. The hike in starts in the Mesquites and ends at the Oak, Pinyon and Ponderosa Pine elevation. After a couple hours the stream is flowing and looking good:




A little further in is my favorite tree ever, which I have posted here before. Fortunately the fire I mentioned burned below and around it without much damage:

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After another hour and a half of brush busting and boulder hopping we arrive at a small Oak/Pinyon grove where we set up camp:



A couple of does were spotted that evening and we eagerly anticipated the morning hunt. At first light the next morning a couple of branch antlered bucks were spotted, the closest being at about 470 yards. As the sun rose over the canyon edge a breeze picked up and we elected to just watch them as they topped the ridge above the open slope to bed on the opposite north slope.





No worries though, we are the only hunters in the area and are confident they will be back based on previous hunts. The rest of the day was uneventful, and we awaited the next sunrise.

From our same glassing point the two bucks were spotted at first light about 100 yards from the previous days spot. They were sparring and shoving each other for several minutes as we sized them up. They were a medium 3x3 and a smaller 3x2. Unfortunately, even before direct sunlight touched the slope they separated and again started to head up and over the ridge. The 3x3 walked up and over without stopping, but the 3x2 lingered a little to long and I was able to drop him with a 130 grain ELDM from my 6.5-06. Now the work started. After a steep climb it was time for a picture:



For reference our glassing point was the open spot at the point on the ridge above my right shoulder in the photo.

Unfortunately we did not locate any other bucks in the following days, but did see a lot of Goulds turkeys who seemed un-phased by humans this far in:



We both felt it was a successful hunt even with the unfilled tag, and hope a couple more years will have it back to its former honey hole status.