"Lessons Learned"
After hunting coues deer with my friends throughout the years and after harvesting my dream muley I decided I would go after a dream coues. With the help of my cousin Kevin Michael (AZhunter) and life long friend Bravo (Aaron Davis) the journey began.
In 2010, I decided I would put in all efforts to find a giant coues. Weekly trips were made scouting and developing new areas in hopes to find a Dream Coues Buck. After the first few weeks of scouting we were starting to get trail pictures of nice bucks including one giant we named “Lobster”. We had many hours dedicated in learning everything about “Lobster” and had High hopes of a quick harvest. Lobster was a legend and had been hunted by some of the best hunters and guides in the state. During the 2010 Archery season it was unfortunate to learn Lobster was harvested before we could get a crack at him. We learned a very valuable lesson from this experience.
With no luck in August I continued my dream into the December archery deer season. Many hours in blinds and stands turned up lots of nice bucks including a buck we called “Woody” which I decided to pass and later regretted. Another lesson learned.
So into 2011 I continued my scouting and took it to a whole new level. During the scouting process I would take pictures of myself hiking so I would remeber the hard work I put in once it all came together.
In early august we noticed the scouting was starting to pay off as Dream bucks were starting to show up on many cameras. Before it was just trying to find a dream buck, but now there were many to choose from and it was hard to pick as I liked a few of them.
So I decided to figure out which one would be the easiest and most predictable to pattern. I studied when the bucks came in, moon phase, and amount of rainfall. After lots of attempts to pattern a big buck, we realized it wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be. As soon as we thought we had a buck dialed he would do a 180 and surprise us. The season closed in quick and we decided to start hunting the buck we called “Woody”.
The same buck I passed on previously, he is packing around quite the head gear this year.
Having so many bucks located Kevin and I decided to help a few friends out for the first weekend instead of hunting for ourselves.
Sunday while making sure “Woodys” spot was 100% for Monday, we walked up on another blind. It was set up about 50 yards from us. We were in complete shock to see it. Not only the fact that the blind was so close to ours, the fact of how this hunter set it up. It was literally plopped right in the middle of a feeding area which leads to our spot. So this threw a little curve ball our way. We ended up sitting the blind anyways. We still had a small two point and doe come strolling through, But no “Woody”. After leaving the blind today we ran into another hunter and learned that he was sitting a tree stand about 200 yards north of us. We decided to not return to that spot for the evening. On our way out we decided to check another cam that had low activity previously. We were surprised to see what was on it and coming in on a regular basis. Yet another giant! After reviewing the pics it looked like there would be a good chance he might be showing up that evening so we decided to grab the stands and sit it out for the rest of the day. Well it didn’t turn out as we hoped but we had a great time.
Tuesday morning we decided to go sit another area where Kevin recently set up and ran into some great bucks while scouting. There is a buck in there we named “Oscar” and I was hoping we might have better luck with this guy as it’s a very isolated area. We got to the blind right at day break and started to get situated and preparing ourselves for a long hot day in the blind. About an hour into the sitting we heard a few sticks crack behind us and it sounded like something was dabblin around in the bushes. We kept quiet and quickly realized it was deer as they came walking out 5 yards in front of the blind. First it was three does then shortly after a 85-90” buck showed up. My heart was pumping even though this buck was probably not going to be my dream buck he looked great to me. I started to knock an arrow and Kevin said hold up, I think we can do better. I said but, thats a great buck! Kevin said, yea but that’s not your Dream Buck? And he then showed me a picture of Oscar and reminded me what we were here for. I agreed, but watching the buck walk away was almost heart breaking. The does came back in a few hours later and passed on through.
About 5pm it started to cool down and some cloud cover moved in which helped a lot. I couldn’t stop thinking all day about the buck I let walk but, I quickly forgot about him when Kevin said “Big Buck, Big Buck, Don’t Move!! Kevin said, “He has Kickers” That got me so excited!! I couldn’t see the buck but by Kevins reaction I knew he had to be big. I wanted to just peak but I didn’t want to scare the buck. He put his head down and started to head to the salt. I was then able to get a look at him. I could not believe what I was looking at, definetly a Dream Buck! Watching that giant at 20 yards from me was amazing, but it got me heart racing and I was getting the good ol’ buck fever. As he turned his head, I drew my bow and Kevin said “don’t miss this buck he is Giant” and that didn’t help my buck fever. I was shaking like crazy but the buck would not turn to give me a good shot, I felt like I was holding my bow drawn for 5 minutes. He was slowly turning my way as he got closer, remember telling myself one more step, one more step. He turned broadside gave me the shot I wanted,” I picked out a little spot by his vitals and took a deep breath and then I let one rip.
The arrow connected I thought perfectly and he bolted off down the side of the hill. The shot felt good and looked good. After the shot we both agreed it may have been a little far back. We were trying to stay quite in the blind but the excitement got to us and we were celebrating already. After about 30 minutes I told Kevin lets go get him and he said, we need to wait longer. I was worried because it was getting dark and how were we going to find a blood trail at dark. After another 30 minutes and more noise coming from the area where he went we figured it would be best to give him over night to expire. We were both surprised he went that far cause the shot looked good. Then the worrying started to play in. Thinking to myself, Where did I hit him? Maybe it wasn’t a good shot? But Kevin kept telling me it was good enough, he cant go to far! With all the horror stories I have heard about hunters not waiting long enough and end up pushing their deer and end up never recovering. We both decided to wait it out till the morning and go find him. It was now almost completely dark and it just wouldn’t have been smart to go in after the buck not knowing 100% for sure where he was hit.
Let me tell you, That was the longest night I have ever spent. Went from being excited to worried of the chance we may not recover him. Morning couldn’t come fast enough. We arose to the howls of coyotes. I began to panic a little after a few guys I talked to the night before said , “Hope the predators don’t get to him before you guys do”. We found the blood trail right away but it took us about an hour to go 100 yards or so. Now I was really starting to get worried, But we kept after it and persistence paid off. Kevin whistled and said I found him! When I looked at Kevin He was holding two thumbs up and screaming you got yourself a giant! He ended up going about 500 yards before expiring. The shot was well placed and we were both amazed how far he went before he piled up. When I got to him I couldn’t believe that was mine! We both just sat there and cherished the moment what a great feeling to accomplish something that we have worked so hard for.
A special thanks, to my wife Aleia Michael and my kids for putting up with this sick addiction.
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