by Daniel E. Schmidt, D&DH Editor

Earlier this week, my friend Ken Gross of Missouri sent an e-mail to share the good news of his first successful bow-hunt for Coues whitetails. Ken is a diehard archer, and he is one of the toughest hunters I’ve ever shared a camp with. Despite having only one leg, he still manages to bury himself deep in whitetail cover — and sit all day if necessary — in his efforts to get up close with mature bucks.

In January, he and his friend Brian Eason of Country Ventures traveled to southeast Arizona in search of the elusive Coues whitetail. “We went on our own, NOT a guided hunt,” Ken reported. “Brian has really done his homework and I was fortunate to benefit from his knowledge. Coues deer are known as the ‘gray ghost’ and known be be the hardest north American deer to hunt with a bow. We scouted for the first two day for scrapes, rubs, and traffic areas and the hunted them from ground blinds.”

Arizona offers a Coues archery-only season in January. Tags are sold over the counter, and are valid for one Coues or mule deer buck.

Both Ken and Brian scored on what are both considered to be trophy Coues bucks. The Coues is a smaller cousin of the borealis whitetails most of us are used to hunting. In fact, a Coues buck that net scores 65 inches is considered a Pope-and-Young trophy.