Short version - My Son and I shot 2 coues bucks in Arizona on a backpack hunt last December. Longer version - See below.
I had an idea in my head about the kind of hunt I was looking for. It was different than most of our hunts in a few ways. I wanted to hunt coues deer, which I had never hunted. I wanted to hire a guide, which I had never done before. I wanted to do it backpack style, which Kaleb had never done before. As I strolled through the western hunting expo in Salt Lake City Utah, I talked with numerous different outfitters regarding a hunt like this. Towards the end of the day, I turned the corner and saw a booth with multiple coues deer skulls laying around their table. I talked with some of the guys from G3 outfitters for almost an hour about a backpack style hunt with my son. They were 100% on board with my idea and said they would be in touch when the application periods for the Arizona big game draws opened.
Over the next couple of months, I talked multiple times with the owner Spencer. He got us dialed in on our target unit and season dates. With the points that Kaleb and I had, we were going to be drawing a late season December tag in Southwest Arizona. With over 40” of rain in the unit over the last calendar year, Spencer felt like it would be a solid unit. It had the terrain to offer us the style of hunt we wanted and felt like there was a potential to kill some solid bucks. A 7 day backpack hunt into some wilderness where we would not be seeing another sole was now a reality. Once the draw results came out and we secured our tags we finalized our contract with G3 outfitters and were introduced to our guide Carson. I talked to Carson shortly after the draw results and knew immediately that he was a coues deer fanatic and we were in for an adventure.
After making the 7 hour drive and staying in a hotel overnight, we met up with Carson at a gas station on the morning of December 9th. We followed him as he led us into our unit and within 2 hours, we were getting our packs ready to make about an 1,800’ vertical climb up to our base camp. We set up our tents at around 7,800’ of elevation and immediately went to glassing for the evening hours. As the sun broke on Day 2, we got a fire going and again set up behind the glass to try and find some of these elusive deer. As the morning went on, we started to notice a change in the weather from a storm front moving in, (which we were aware of) but noticed it looking quite a bit more serious than we originally had thought. With spotty cell service we were fortunately able to get a weather update and learned that this storm was packing a bigger punch than what was originally called for. We made the decision to pack up camp and trek back down the mountain to where the trucks were. We re-set up camp and were going to wait here until the storm had passed. This turned out to be a great decision.
As nightfall approached, the snow began to fall, and I quickly realized that our 3 season tents may not have been the right gear selection for this storm. After knocking off the collecting snow and re-setting our tent stakes multiple times before bed, Kaleb and I crawled into our separate tents with our fingers crossed that they would stay upright through the night. (As it turns out, crossing your fingers doesn’t do much against mother nature). I slept on and off through the night, knocking off the snow as best I could from the inside and eventually rolled out of bed at 5:30 am to survey the scene. It turned out that my tent had taken the snow in stride and had fared well. I immediately checked on Kaleb a few yards away and noticed that his tent had almost completely collapsed on top of him over night. I unzipped his door and found him unbothered and still entombed in his sleeping bag snoozing away. I guess teenagers really do need their sleep regardless of the conditions at hand.
The storm that came through had dumped 24”-30” of fresh snow at 7,500’ and above and dropped about 8”-10” at our base camp elevation at around 5,500’. The next 5 days were going to be clear and cold, however our pre-determined (higher elevation) pack in locations were now unreachable. As Kaleb stayed in his slumber, Carson and I made some coffee and talked about our situation. All the scouting that he had done prior to our hunt was at the 7,500’ mark and above. He had multiple solid bucks located in two separate spots. We were going to spend 3 days at the first location. (which we had already abandoned), and 4 days at another spot that was even higher up on the mountain. Having grown up near this unit, Carson quickly assessed that packing up into these higher elevations, with the current snow level and steepness of the terrain was not the smartest decision with 65-70 lbs. on our backs. We decided to pack up camp again and move completely across the unit.
After making the move, we spent the next few days exploring the lower country and doing a ton of glassing. Every morning and evening we would hike up onto a knoll or vantage point where we could get a great view onto some big pieces of country. We were seeing quite a few deer every day and had located some younger age class bucks in numerous locations. Carson had really wanted to focus on harvesting a more mature buck, so we had passed on trying to make a move on any of these younger ones. We finished out the evening of day 4 with high hopes for the next day and enjoyed a great night’s sleep on some dry ground.
At first light on day 5 a mature buck materialized seemingly out of nowhere and within 5 minutes vanished again. Standing at only 32” tall at the shoulder, coues deer or commonly referred to as “Grey Ghosts” can literally melt away into the landscape. After a bit of time, we were able to pick up the tips of his horns as the sunlight made its way across the valley. He had bedded down exactly where we had last seen him but was perfectly camouflaged and hidden in the brush. The decision had been made that Kaleb would try and shoot this buck, but with the layout of the terrain we were not going to be able to close the distance from where we were currently perched, which was over 700 yards away. We had both had done quite a bit of long range practice beforehand as we were told that we needed to be proficient out to 800 yards on this hunt. At this point I felt confident in Kaleb as well as the 26 Nosler doing their jobs. We got him set up comfortably in a prone shooting position and got the scope dialed appropriately. The only problem now was that with their diminutive size, we were going to have to wait until he stood up to give Kaleb a shot. Well……, wait is exactly what we did. For the next 4 hours and 45 minutes Kaleb laid behind the gun waiting for his opportunity.
When his time to make it happen arrived, Kaleb was ready. The buck stood up to stretch and within seconds Kaleb made a perfect shot right behind the shoulder at 710 yards. The buck jumped and shuddered from the impact and took off up the hill in a death run. We watched him expire on the adjacent hillside through our optics and began to collect our packs to make our way over to him. After reaching him, we took a bunch of pictures and quartered him up for the pack out down the mountain. That night, under the stars, sitting on our glassing chairs outside our tents, we each ate our biscuits and gravy meal that we had been saving as a celebratory dinner. We washed it down with the two Dr. Peppers we had been carrying around all week, and I have to say it was one of the finest meals I have ever eaten.
The next morning, we climbed back up onto the same knoll where Kaleb had shot from the previous day. We spent the first couple of hours picking up several doe’s and a few smaller bucks on the hills in front of us but turned up no shooters. As we were contemplating a move, Carson picked up a buck across the desert valley floor in the complete opposite direction where we had been looking. This buck was trailing some doe’s and moving fast across the low foothills. Carson said I got a shooter, but we need to get to the bottom of this hill right now. Without even setting eyes on this buck, Kaleb and I packed up our gear and followed Carsons cloud of dust down the mountain.
We jumped into Carsons truck and took off back down the dirt road to get back down to the desert floor. We exited the truck in a flash and took off down another two track road on foot to try and get the buck back in sight. We were half jogging, half speed walking the ¾ of a mile towards a spot where we hoped would bring the buck back into view. Luckily, we did relocate him. He was 575 yards away and about to crest over the top of a small ridge that would take him out of our view. The next 30 seconds or so was a bit hectic. I was able to get a seated rest with my rifle on a tripod, get a range confirmed (610 yards), check my dope card, get my scope dialed and send 1 round as he stopped momentarily in front of a cactus that was about 15 yards from the top of the ridge. As soon as the report from the rifle had dissipated, I immediately heard Kaleb say, “Great shot Dad, he’s down”.
As Kaleb and I both sat there after the shot and watched the buck take his last breaths, I couldn’t help but think how amazing it was to have shared such a great experience with my son. It felt like every box had been checked on what I had hoped would come from this adventure. Booking a guide was a great decision. I not only made a new friend in Carson but was able to gain a tremendous amount of coues deer knowledge from him throughout the week. The backpack style of hunt proved to be exactly what I had hoped for. It makes you really prepare for a hunt both physically and mentally before you even step foot into your hunting unit. This experience opened Kaleb’s eyes to a new style of hunting that quite honestly is more rewarding than most. The next adventure always awaits, but it is damn satisfying when the one you just went on makes you want to do it all over again.
I had an idea in my head about the kind of hunt I was looking for. It was different than most of our hunts in a few ways. I wanted to hunt coues deer, which I had never hunted. I wanted to hire a guide, which I had never done before. I wanted to do it backpack style, which Kaleb had never done before. As I strolled through the western hunting expo in Salt Lake City Utah, I talked with numerous different outfitters regarding a hunt like this. Towards the end of the day, I turned the corner and saw a booth with multiple coues deer skulls laying around their table. I talked with some of the guys from G3 outfitters for almost an hour about a backpack style hunt with my son. They were 100% on board with my idea and said they would be in touch when the application periods for the Arizona big game draws opened.
Over the next couple of months, I talked multiple times with the owner Spencer. He got us dialed in on our target unit and season dates. With the points that Kaleb and I had, we were going to be drawing a late season December tag in Southwest Arizona. With over 40” of rain in the unit over the last calendar year, Spencer felt like it would be a solid unit. It had the terrain to offer us the style of hunt we wanted and felt like there was a potential to kill some solid bucks. A 7 day backpack hunt into some wilderness where we would not be seeing another sole was now a reality. Once the draw results came out and we secured our tags we finalized our contract with G3 outfitters and were introduced to our guide Carson. I talked to Carson shortly after the draw results and knew immediately that he was a coues deer fanatic and we were in for an adventure.
After making the 7 hour drive and staying in a hotel overnight, we met up with Carson at a gas station on the morning of December 9th. We followed him as he led us into our unit and within 2 hours, we were getting our packs ready to make about an 1,800’ vertical climb up to our base camp. We set up our tents at around 7,800’ of elevation and immediately went to glassing for the evening hours. As the sun broke on Day 2, we got a fire going and again set up behind the glass to try and find some of these elusive deer. As the morning went on, we started to notice a change in the weather from a storm front moving in, (which we were aware of) but noticed it looking quite a bit more serious than we originally had thought. With spotty cell service we were fortunately able to get a weather update and learned that this storm was packing a bigger punch than what was originally called for. We made the decision to pack up camp and trek back down the mountain to where the trucks were. We re-set up camp and were going to wait here until the storm had passed. This turned out to be a great decision.
As nightfall approached, the snow began to fall, and I quickly realized that our 3 season tents may not have been the right gear selection for this storm. After knocking off the collecting snow and re-setting our tent stakes multiple times before bed, Kaleb and I crawled into our separate tents with our fingers crossed that they would stay upright through the night. (As it turns out, crossing your fingers doesn’t do much against mother nature). I slept on and off through the night, knocking off the snow as best I could from the inside and eventually rolled out of bed at 5:30 am to survey the scene. It turned out that my tent had taken the snow in stride and had fared well. I immediately checked on Kaleb a few yards away and noticed that his tent had almost completely collapsed on top of him over night. I unzipped his door and found him unbothered and still entombed in his sleeping bag snoozing away. I guess teenagers really do need their sleep regardless of the conditions at hand.
The storm that came through had dumped 24”-30” of fresh snow at 7,500’ and above and dropped about 8”-10” at our base camp elevation at around 5,500’. The next 5 days were going to be clear and cold, however our pre-determined (higher elevation) pack in locations were now unreachable. As Kaleb stayed in his slumber, Carson and I made some coffee and talked about our situation. All the scouting that he had done prior to our hunt was at the 7,500’ mark and above. He had multiple solid bucks located in two separate spots. We were going to spend 3 days at the first location. (which we had already abandoned), and 4 days at another spot that was even higher up on the mountain. Having grown up near this unit, Carson quickly assessed that packing up into these higher elevations, with the current snow level and steepness of the terrain was not the smartest decision with 65-70 lbs. on our backs. We decided to pack up camp again and move completely across the unit.
After making the move, we spent the next few days exploring the lower country and doing a ton of glassing. Every morning and evening we would hike up onto a knoll or vantage point where we could get a great view onto some big pieces of country. We were seeing quite a few deer every day and had located some younger age class bucks in numerous locations. Carson had really wanted to focus on harvesting a more mature buck, so we had passed on trying to make a move on any of these younger ones. We finished out the evening of day 4 with high hopes for the next day and enjoyed a great night’s sleep on some dry ground.
At first light on day 5 a mature buck materialized seemingly out of nowhere and within 5 minutes vanished again. Standing at only 32” tall at the shoulder, coues deer or commonly referred to as “Grey Ghosts” can literally melt away into the landscape. After a bit of time, we were able to pick up the tips of his horns as the sunlight made its way across the valley. He had bedded down exactly where we had last seen him but was perfectly camouflaged and hidden in the brush. The decision had been made that Kaleb would try and shoot this buck, but with the layout of the terrain we were not going to be able to close the distance from where we were currently perched, which was over 700 yards away. We had both had done quite a bit of long range practice beforehand as we were told that we needed to be proficient out to 800 yards on this hunt. At this point I felt confident in Kaleb as well as the 26 Nosler doing their jobs. We got him set up comfortably in a prone shooting position and got the scope dialed appropriately. The only problem now was that with their diminutive size, we were going to have to wait until he stood up to give Kaleb a shot. Well……, wait is exactly what we did. For the next 4 hours and 45 minutes Kaleb laid behind the gun waiting for his opportunity.
When his time to make it happen arrived, Kaleb was ready. The buck stood up to stretch and within seconds Kaleb made a perfect shot right behind the shoulder at 710 yards. The buck jumped and shuddered from the impact and took off up the hill in a death run. We watched him expire on the adjacent hillside through our optics and began to collect our packs to make our way over to him. After reaching him, we took a bunch of pictures and quartered him up for the pack out down the mountain. That night, under the stars, sitting on our glassing chairs outside our tents, we each ate our biscuits and gravy meal that we had been saving as a celebratory dinner. We washed it down with the two Dr. Peppers we had been carrying around all week, and I have to say it was one of the finest meals I have ever eaten.
The next morning, we climbed back up onto the same knoll where Kaleb had shot from the previous day. We spent the first couple of hours picking up several doe’s and a few smaller bucks on the hills in front of us but turned up no shooters. As we were contemplating a move, Carson picked up a buck across the desert valley floor in the complete opposite direction where we had been looking. This buck was trailing some doe’s and moving fast across the low foothills. Carson said I got a shooter, but we need to get to the bottom of this hill right now. Without even setting eyes on this buck, Kaleb and I packed up our gear and followed Carsons cloud of dust down the mountain.
We jumped into Carsons truck and took off back down the dirt road to get back down to the desert floor. We exited the truck in a flash and took off down another two track road on foot to try and get the buck back in sight. We were half jogging, half speed walking the ¾ of a mile towards a spot where we hoped would bring the buck back into view. Luckily, we did relocate him. He was 575 yards away and about to crest over the top of a small ridge that would take him out of our view. The next 30 seconds or so was a bit hectic. I was able to get a seated rest with my rifle on a tripod, get a range confirmed (610 yards), check my dope card, get my scope dialed and send 1 round as he stopped momentarily in front of a cactus that was about 15 yards from the top of the ridge. As soon as the report from the rifle had dissipated, I immediately heard Kaleb say, “Great shot Dad, he’s down”.
As Kaleb and I both sat there after the shot and watched the buck take his last breaths, I couldn’t help but think how amazing it was to have shared such a great experience with my son. It felt like every box had been checked on what I had hoped would come from this adventure. Booking a guide was a great decision. I not only made a new friend in Carson but was able to gain a tremendous amount of coues deer knowledge from him throughout the week. The backpack style of hunt proved to be exactly what I had hoped for. It makes you really prepare for a hunt both physically and mentally before you even step foot into your hunting unit. This experience opened Kaleb’s eyes to a new style of hunting that quite honestly is more rewarding than most. The next adventure always awaits, but it is damn satisfying when the one you just went on makes you want to do it all over again.
