Tip the Odds in Your Favor While Hunting Coues

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When the heavy-antlered buck I’d been dreaming of appeared, it was as if he’d materialized from thin air and thick shadows. My guide and I had been glassing that mountainside for long hours, picking apart the hidden draws and cool shadowed thickets. The buck had been right there the entire time, but until the deer moved into a tiny splash of sunlight between two mesquite trees, we couldn’t see it. There’s a reason Coues bucks are called gray ghosts.

Coues whitetail deer (Odocoileus virginianus couesi to those of scientific bent) are a small, cagey subspecies that dwell in the arid mountains of Arizona, Mexico and parts of New Mexico. They don’t act like typical whitetails, and tactics to successfully hunt them are vastly different than the methods used on their eastern cousins.

Guide Joe Williams (of Tall Tine Outfitters) and I had been scouring the ridges and basins for three days in search of a buck like this, employing his local knowledge of the deer population and patterns, and putting in the hard yards covering likely habitat on the 20,000-acre ranch in Old Mexico. When the big buck showed, he was within range. Now, it was up to me.

Crab-crawling to a tiny rock outcropping, I planted the feet of my bipod, dialed my Leupold VX-5HD to 369 yards, and aimed the Mossberg Patriot Predator at the buck’s vitals. Chambered in 6.5 PRC, it’s a reliable sub-MOA rifle. Drawing a deep breath to steady the tremors, I pressed the trigger.

Tactic #1: Glassing

By far the most important—and effective—tools in the Coues deer hunter’s kit are optics. A powerful tripod-mounted binocular enables all-day glassing, and has found more big Coues bucks than any other tool or tactic.

Savvy Coues deer hunters carry a compact 8x or 10x binocular around their neck for glassing into close cover, but their primary optic is usually the best 15x binocular their money can buy. Heat, glare from the harsh desert sun, and long hours of glassing are hard on optical nerves, and sub-par glass will cripple a hunt. I typically use Zeiss or Swarovski 15s, and although they’re expensive, I’ve never regretted the investment.

Get comfortable on a pad or packable stool, and glass saddles in ridges, travel routes across basins and rocky slopes, and as the day warms, deep shadows beneath trees. Pick apart the brush, searching for pieces of a deer. The flash of an antler, the straight line of a back or a leg, or the unique shape of ears.

Coues deer are lively little animals, likely to frolic and sprint about on frosty mornings. Too, they chase aggressively during the rut. Keep your eyes peeled for sudden spurts of movement that can reveal the presence of a buck.

Once a buck is found, it’s often necessary to swap the high-octane binocular for a spotting scope. Coues deer antlers can carry a lot of mass, but are compact and hard to see nonetheless. Judging whether a buck is mature and worth a stalk frequently requires a close look through a spotting scope. This is particularly true when the deer is a mile or more away—common in the vast desert mountains of the southwest.

Tactic #2: Understanding habitat & behavior

Coues deer habitat is very different from typical whitetail habitat. With some exceptions, so is their behavior. These tiny desert whitetails seem to like remote, steep ridges with hanging valleys, and will feed alone or in twos and threes through thickets and brambles. They’re primarily browsers, but will graze as well depending on what’s seasonally available and provides the most nutrition.

In unpressured areas, evenings and mornings will find Coues deer feeding in mountainside meadows. Glass meadows at dusk and dawn, keeping watch on potential travel routes between the meadows and nearby bedding cover for wise old bucks.

“Metabolic water” sourced from feed is often the primary source of hydration. Coues deer will drink from waterholes and desert tanks if convenient, but studies show that they can go days and even weeks without drinking if necessary.

Deer that inhabit heavily hunted public land in Arizona can become nocturnal, making them extremely challenging to hunt. Focus on glassing thick, protective cover and don’t neglect the mid-day hours when an old buck may get up and stretch, nip a few bites, and move to a deeper shadow.

The breeding season generally occurs in January. Like their common whitetail cousins, Coues bucks become fixated on reproducing and rut hard, making them much easier to find during daylight hours. Rut-crazed bucks chasing hot does frequently cover so much country that it can be challenging to pin one down long enough to make a successful stalk to within shooting distance.

Tactic #3: Aggressive stalking

Unlike traditional whitetail hunting, where a hunter will often back out when conditions aren’t just right in order to avoid potentially bumping a big buck, aggressive stalking is often necessary to close the deal on a Coues deer.

Good hunters using their optics effectively will often find a buck a mile or more away. If possible, put the buck to bed, then close the distance, working through the heat of mid-day to get inside shooting distance. Sometimes it’s necessary to go way out and around a buck’s location to get the wind right, or to find a good vantage position in order to locate and shoot the buck when he gets up in the evening.

Once inside 500 yards or so, summon your inner ninja and move as quietly as possible. Play the wind and avoid skylining yourself. Utilize cover to mask your approach. Pre-rut, take your time and be as stealthy as possible to avoid bumping the deer out of the area. During the rut, however, you may need to move fast to get an opportunity before the buck dashes away to check the next canyon for hot does.

Tactic #4: Accurate shooting

Once you’ve located a buck, determined you want to take him, and stalked as close as possible, you’ll need to shoot well. “As close as possible” is often still pretty far in desert mountain country. Plus, Coues deer vitals are small, and there’s often a lot of wind. It’s crucial to have a good rifle, properly set up, and to be proficient with it.

When choosing a rifle, look for reliability, accuracy and a good trigger. Expensive rifles are great, but your shootin’ iron doesn’t have to break the bank. I’ve recently been using a Mossberg Patriot Predator chambered in 6.5 PRC. It regularly shoots sub-MOA groups, and the LBA trigger is light and crisp—a big factor when attempting challenging shots from hastily assumed field positions.

You don’t need a powerhouse cartridge for Coues deer, but an aerodynamic bullet that bucks the wind well is a huge asset. My current favorite Coues cartridge is the 6.5 PRC; it’s easy to shoot accurately thanks to low recoil, and has lots of reach courtesy of high muzzle velocity and high-BC bullets.

When picking a bullet, opt for something that expands dramatically rather than a controlled-expansion design. These deer are small-bodied and light-boned, and it’s beneficial to wallop them hard. There’s no need for super-deep penetration. I’ve been using Hornady ELD Match bullets. Even though they’re target bullets, the composite tip and thin jackets ensure fast expansion and huge mushrooms, and the ELD Match provides best-in-class ballistic coefficients that minimize wind deflection and maximize on-impact velocity and energy.

Top your rifle with a premium lightweight hunting scope. My go-to favorites are Leupold’s VX-3HD and VX-5HD lines with zero-locking dial-up turrets. Sight in your rifle at 200 yards, and work it out to at least 450 yards.

How did the story in the beginning of this article end? When my shot echoed across the canyon the old Coues buck leaped spasmodically and went into overdrive—classic signs of a heart shot—dashing headlong through the brush before vanishing into a shallow draw. We found him there beneath a giant old desert tree, his blood quenching the thirsty sand. Two vaqueros appeared with a pack horse—a significant blessing against the looming heat and steep miles.

I walked out light, carrying only my Mossberg, my boot tracks ironing the ridges from the desert pony tracks I followed.

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