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.

Mike,

Howdy, great post and pictures.
Beautiful country out there, nice buck, reckon what he weighs?

You're cartridge 6.5-06 screams coues deer.

What binos are those?

That is one crazy tree.

Thanks, they are little deer, only about 30 inches at the shoulder, so maybe 80-90 pounds on the hoof for that one I'd guess.

The binos are 12x50s. Leica on the left Swarovski on the right.

I like looking at country I am not used to and enjoyed your write up. Congrats on the buck.

Coues are on my bucket list. I have taken mulies, whitetails, Columbian blacktails and Sitka blacktails but never a Coues. Need to rectify that.

Sweet. Thanks for sharing!

Congratulations, thank you for sharing your adventure.

Nice work! Enjoyed the write up and pictures. That’s going to be my stomping grounds for part of the year. Looking forward to chasing those coues deer.

Thanks for the write up/pictures...sounds like a fun outing.

Thanks for posting and congratulations.

Thanks guys.

Calvin, you will love the southern AZ outdoors. Where will you be living?

Snowbird. NW Phoenix. Will def be flying back to ak for hunts and to fish all summer

Mac, They were on mine too, I resolved that,

Here on the 'fire, Firstcoueswas80 guided me, Camp in a trailer (not really "camping") meet some great people, and the shooting does not HAVE to be that far,


PM me if I can be of assistance, and I have no skin in the game.

That's a great plan...
My wife's from Alaska and you can't top its summers.

Nice write up! Thanks for sharing …

Very well done!! Thanks for sharing!

Heck yeah Mike - thanks for posting.

I look forward to this time of the year when stories and pics of the hunt are posted. Thank you for sharing. Like that grin on the pics. You must be retired!

Thanks, retired in July!

Congratulations on the retirement!

Only Place I know of that had goulds turkey when I was their was Ft Huachuca. Nice to see they are expanding their range.

Outstanding! Do you shoot at Phoenix Rod and Gun also?

Thanks!

Yes, I just shot at PRGC Monday morning.
I believe we traded a couple of emails in the past. I was match director for their hunting rifle shoots for a while.

Excellent.

baseline road area..

maintained my sanity by shooting at 7 am on the members only range, then hightailing it to work at the pointe at south mountain. did it for years... load in the evening, shoot at dawn, then work all day and home by dinner with family.


never saw a fishing rod at the range...

lots of quail and rabbits and doves on the range...

once had a song bird fly right in front of my barrel and it blew up on impact... had the surprise of its life, and a cloud of feathers..

nice coeus hunt... tripod mounts and the gray ghosts are made for each other.

I hunted coues deer in southern AZ ten times and enjoyed every hunt. Your pics bring back a lot of good memories. I love that country.

Awesome hunt. tell us more about the 6-5-06. action, barrel?

Thanks guys, one of my favorite spots.

Regarding the 6.5-06, it is based on a Pre-64 action re-barreled by a friend of mine and chambered with my Manson reamer in a #2 Rock 5R barrel at 23", 1 - 8" twist. I bedded it in a McMillan Hunters Edge purchased from Rick Bin several years ago when he had the Christmas sales. I also installed a Jewell trigger and its currently wearing a Leupold Mark 4 10X in S&K rings. There should be some pictures of it in my older backpacking Coues and elk hunt write ups.

As I mentioned above, lots of good memories.


We never camped too close to the springs. They were the bait.

thanks for the write-up and congrats; they are on my to do list as well