The sun was just peeking over the horizon. Already, myself, buddy Joseph Von Benedikt, and my guide Richard Paun had glassed up a dozen Coues deer, and four of them were medium-size bucks that didn’t interest us. We were hunting in northern Sonora, Mexico, with Tall Tine Outfitters, a very experienced group headed by Ted Jaycox, a veteran of south-of-the-border outfitting.
Not seeing what we wanted, the three of us – Joe and Jeff Johnson had tagged out two days prior — Linda Powell and I were still searching. Moving to an adjacent ridge overlooking some big country, we’d picked up a good buck across the canyon. Taking a quick laser rangefinder reading – 375 yards – I went prone, rested my rifle – a Mossberg Patriot LR Hunter in 6.5 PRC, loaded with factory Hornady ammunition featuring the 147-grain ELD Match bullet and topped with a Trijicon AccuPoint 3-18×50 riflescope with ballistic turret – over my daypack. I turned the turret to 375 yards, found the buck, dialed up the optic to 16X, and asked Richard, “Yes or no?” “Shoot him, Bob,” he said, “he’s a nice one.” With Joe filming on his iPhone, I squeezed one off – and hammered him.
He wasn’t the biggest Coues deer buck I’ve ever taken, but his symmetrical 8-point antlers green-scored in the upper 90s, Boone & Crockett, with a live weight of perhaps 100 pounds. That’s a really good buck when you consider that the minimum score for entry into the B&C all-time record book is 110. Had I been hunting in Arizona or New Mexico, where I have hunted Coues deer extensively since the 1980s and taken something like a dozen bucks over the years, this buck would have been considered outstanding. Never would we have passed on the dozen or so bucks I’d glassed up the previous three days.
On this hunt, both Joseph and Jeff took bucks larger than 100 inches – the baseline for being considered exceptional – while Linda and I took similar deer. We went four for four in four days, and between us looked over probably 100 different deer. I personally looked over 13 different bucks in 3½ days. Had I been hunting in Arizona, where I lived 15 years and hunted Coues deer annually, glassing up 13 different bucks over 2½ years of age in an entire season would have been a banner year.
That’s the difference between hunting Coues in Arizona and New Mexico vs. the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua, where they live. I tell people Old Mexico is just like the states were 75 years ago – little to no hunting pressure, and strong Coues deer populations with excellent age classes. That’s a big reason I keep traveling south of the border to hunt what has become my all-time favorite whitetail subspecies.
Coues Deer: What Are They, Anyway?
Coues deer (Odocoileus virginianus couesi) were named after Dr. Elliott Coues (properly pronounced “cows,” but many say, “cooz”), an army quartermaster stationed at Ft. Whipple, Arizona Territory, in 1865-66. In his free time Coues spent much time studying the region’s flora and fauna, and the little desert whitetail is his legacy. The animals are a slate-gray, almost dainty-looking deer with a limited home. Arizona’s Mogollon Rim forms their northern range boundary, while the Colorado River forms the western boundary. The boundaries stretch eastward across Arizona into the southwestern region of New Mexico. To the south they range well into Mexico, with both Sonora and Chihuahua holding good numbers, and the deer reaching as far south as the state of Sinaloa.
They like mountain and foothill country, usually between 3,000 and 8,000 feet, preferring arid and semi-arid scrub oak and mesquite terrain filled with grassy bowls, jumbled rocks, and a plethora of thorny plants and cactus. No hard population estimates exist, but most experts seem to agree there are maybe 50,000 Coues deer in the world. The average buck will stand about 30-32 inches high at the shoulder, with bucks weighing in at about 100 pounds and mature does about 75 pounds. An extremely large buck might weigh 140 pounds. They have the same antler configuration as our more familiar whitetails, with an 8-point rack common.
How To Hunt Them
Coues deer are not called the “Grey Ghost” for nothing. By their very nature, Coues deer are afraid of their own shadow. A slight change of wind, a minor movement, the softest unnatural sound will send them out of your life in an instant. They are extremely hard to glass up, and once you find them, it is amazing how they can seemingly vanish right before your eyes. For rifle hunters, spot and stalk is the method employed most of the time. Here you simply access a good area, find a vantage point, get comfortable, and start glassing. If nothing appears to your liking, you move to another location and repeat. When you find the buck you want, you move in close enough for a shot. It is important to give yourself enough time when on a glassing station, though, as these little deer can appear out of nowhere after looking the same place over for an hour or more.
Pretty basic stuff, if you’re an experienced Western hunter. Once located, getting into rifle range can be challenging, but not overly so, as long as the deer have not been spotted across a deep, wide canyon or in the middle of thick brush or small mountain oaks, which is common.
One of the advantages of hunting Old Mexico vs. the states is that, south of the border, you can hunt with a rifle during the prime rutting period – the month of January. Stateside, you can bowhunt Coues deer in Arizona in January – and bowhunting success on these little escape artists is so low as to almost immeasurable, unless you have a blind set up over water – but rifle seasons end the last day of December, before any serious rut activity occurs. On all my January Mexican hunts over the years I have never failed to see multiple shooter bucks chasing does. It’s a big deal.
Guns, Loads & Gear
Coues deer hunting is, with the exception of sitting over a water source, a classic case of western spot & stalk hunting. The use of tripod-mounted 12X-20X binoculars was developed in large measure by Arizona Coues deer hunters in the 1980s. On outfitted hunts guides almost always have tripod-mounted binos and a spotting scope, and clients can be helpful glassing with a minimum of a 10X glass. The country is rocky and rough, so well-broken in hiking boots are important. December and January temps in the mountains can be cold, so layer up and be ready for temperatures ranging from the teens to 60 degrees or so.
While shots at times can be under 100 yards, the average I’ve seen in my near 40 years of Coues deer hunting is about 250 yards, with longer shots a distinct possibility. On this hunt our shots were at distances of 80, 125, 350, and 375 yards. Flat-shooting cartridges from .243 up through the various .300 magnums all work great. Riflescopes should have a top-end power of at least 10X, with 14X-16X even better. If you don’t have a ballistic turret on your scope, create a drop chart so you know the rifle’s ballistics at distance – and practice shooting prone, as well as sitting down using shooting sticks. A laser rangefinder is important, too. I also bring along a collapsable hiking stick, which helps me stay upright traversing the steep, rocky terrain.
On this hunt I used a Mossberg Patriot LR (Long Range) Hunter chambered in 6.5 PRC loaded with Hornady ammunition featuring the 147-grain ELD Match bullet and topped with a Trijicon AccuPoint 3-18×50 riflescope with ballistic turret. The rifle is one of the most accurate out-of-the-box rifles I have ever shot; one would be hard-pressed to find a better value on today’s market, and it’s LBA trigger is sweet as sugar. I’ve long been a fan of Trijicon’s AccuPoint scopes, and Hornady ELD-X and ELD Match bullets in their factory ammo are consistently accurate in every rifle I’ve tried them in. It’s a superb open-country hunting rig.
Outfitted Or DIY?
Arizona and New Mexico both have plenty of public-land opportunities for DIY hunting, the caveat being that you have to be willing to put in the time to research a good area, have the equipment to access said area (a rugged 4×4 truck with rock-proof tires or an ATV). In Arizona, drawing a tag during the best season – late December – takes years.
There is no shortage of outfitters offering Coues deer hunting on both sides of the border. Additionally, make sure you only book with an outfitter who has a solid track record of Coues deer success.
Why I Love It So
“If someone should conduct a beauty contest among the game animals of the Southwest, I have no doubt the Arizona whitetail would win hands down. A big buck mule deer, with its massive antlers and blocky build, is a magnificent sight. Likewise, a great desert ram or lordly bull elk. But the Arizona whitetail is an exquisitely lovely thing.” So said legendary Outdoor Life hunting writer Jack O’Connor, talking about one of his all-time favorite big-game animals.
In my hunting world, the biggest is not necessarily the best. A prime example is the way that hunting Coues deer has been a bit of a burr under my saddle since my first hunt for them nearly four decades ago. Try it yourself sometime, and see.