Our plan was to focus on water holes and spot and stalk whenever the opportunity would arise. The ranch we were on has been in the Molina family for many generations. It made me think back to when the Yaquis Indians were hunting the land and how this family got along with them and the Apache Indians when they first settled there. The ranch is located in a beautiful setting in the hills around Sonora, Mexico. The fences and porch columns were lined with deer antlers from previous year’s sheds. The accommodations were the best I’ve ever stayed in anywhere in Mexico. The food was excellent and the staff catered to your every need.

This would be my third Coues deer hunt on my quest for the North American super slam. I found that the Coues deer is by far the toughest animal to harvest with a bow out of all the North American animals I’ve taken.

Our first day of the hunt found us glassing from the high ridges into the brush-filled areas below. The odd thing with the Coues deer is that they didn’t seem to start moving until late in the morning after the sun came up. I can see how Coues deer hunting can be so addicting—sitting out on a ridge glassing for miles and picking out deer after deer after deer.

Mike, Nick and I were all glassing together. Nick is a resident of Phoenix, AZ who has been guiding with Mike for several years. What a character! Right off the bat, we all started having lots of fun telling jokes. The camaraderie was great! Mike is a laid back, very focused type of individual who likes to have a few laughs to take the pressure off. As we were glassing on the ridge, suddenly Nick said, “there’s a buck!” As I was trying to find where he was looking, I came across another buck that was lower than the one that he was looking at. I was so stunned by the size of the antlers that I couldn’t talk for a second. It looked like one of our white tails back home. It had an enormous rack of 5 points per side. An incredible B&C Coues deer. Finally I got the words out, “look at the buck below!” By then Mike had focused on the buck that I was already on. He too was very impressed with the size of this animal. He told me that the buck would go 120 or better.

The bucks were moving down a ridgeline very slowly and feeding along the way. The plan was that we would drop down into the valley below, keep the wind in our favor, and come up from below the bucks on the opposite hill line across from them.

Nick was going to stay in position where we were to give us hand signals so that we would know where the buck was at all times. The buck had separated from the other deer and was now lying down in a brushy area. What an incredible feeling knowing that you were stalking a Coues deer of a lifetime! Everything has to be perfect on this type of stalk right down to making the perfect shot which brought me back to the first evening with Mike and the other guides at the practice bunker.

Mike was wondering what my comfortable shooting range was and I told him 40 yards and under. He wanted to see how accurate my high poundage bow with the two-blade cut on contact heads would be. As we were all standing there I purposely shot the first arrow into the side of the bale about 12 inches from the pop can. You have to understand what kind of characters I was dealing with here. Even before I shot my first arrow, you could see that Mike Miller was just waiting to instigate some trouble.

On impact, I turned around and looked at the three guys. Two of them had their eyes rolled back in their heads looking straight up in the air and Mike was already holding onto his knees gasping for air! Trying to keep from laughing, I told them, “I don’t know what happened, I practice every day”. Mike Miller said to me, “maybe the bow got bumped on the plane flight”.

I told them I would try a second shot and that they should please watch the arrow trajectory as it came out of the bow but I knew on my first shot that it hit the exact spot I was aiming for. As I released the arrow at 40 yards, it hit dead center of the pop can and I turned around and Mike’s head was nodding, yes, that’s much better. I couldn’t take it any more, so I burst out laughing. That’s when I asked them to follow me back to 60 yards and again the arrow hit true. Mike couldn’t believe how well tuned this bow was and how accurate it was without a peep sight. As we were talking, I said, “Let’s go back just a little farther.” At 80 yards the arrow again hit true. The wind was now blowing slightly from the left to the right so I had to make sure that when I released the arrow that the wind had died down.

As we walked back to the target to retrieve the arrows, all three of the guys were talking about how well the bow shot. Even Mike Miller was a little stumped as to what to say. After retrieving the arrows, I took the pop can and put it on edge so the only thing you could see what the bottom of the can. That’s when Mike Miller started in on me. He said, “You think you’re going to hit that at 80 yards?” I said, “Yep, I’ll give her a try—I feel confident today.”

All the way back to the 80 yard point, I was being heckled by the doubting Thomas. You couldn’t imagine how quiet it got when I walked past the 80-yard mark, checked my range finder and found the 100-yard spot. Checking that the wind was not going to push my arrow, I drew back, rested the top of my 100-yard pin on the bottom of the can and then released the arrow with good follow through. You could count one thousand one, one thousand two, and the arrow made the familiar “tink” sound and penetrated through the bottom of the can. The next comment from Mike was “Well, there will be no problem getting a Coues deer this week!” When all the laughter settled down, I explained to them that I practice at 100 yards consistently to make me a better short range shot and my hope was to be at 40 yards and under on a Coues deer.

Using the hand signals that Nick had given us, after about an hour I found that we were on the hill just opposite the ridge where the great buck was lying down on. Using our optics and staying low in the grass, we were trying to pick out where the buck was. We couldn’t pick up an antler point or an ear or any part of the Coues deer but we had to be within 50 yards of the deer. That’s when Mike slid down the hill while getting hand signals from Nick to locate the deer. Nick signaled Mike and told him that the deer had gone over the ridge and was about 100 yards from us. We started moving toward the area and just then the enormous buck stood up right in front of us and with no hesitation, started running. Mike and I stood there in total disbelief. As I turned around and put my optics back on Nick, he threw his hat on the ground and kicked it! Then he signaled us to come back toward him.

After talking to Nick, we found that his hand signals and Mike’s brain were working on two different wavelengths. It was an extremely hilarious moment listening to those two explain how screwed up they both were. I knew that there would be plenty more opportunities to harvest a Coues deer because of the way these ranches have been managed. Besides, who would want to harvest an animal during the first few hours of the first day? But in reality, I would have taken him in a heartbeat!

Because of the severe weather with snow and rain just a few days before my hunt, there was water everywhere so hunting the water holes would not work for a while. Day after day, we saw numerous bucks. We had several stalking opportunities but no shot opportunities. I couldn’t believe the number of trophy Coues deer we were seeing. On the fifth day of the hunt, I made my mind up that I was staying until they kicked me out of there or I had taken a Coues deer.

Because of the outfitter and the camaraderie of his guys, this was shaping up to be one of the more memorable hunts I’ve ever been on. These guys are truly hunters and they are out to do everything they can to give you the shot opportunity.

In the mornings we would split up three different ways and then check back with each other by midmorning to compare notes. Several times while glassing from a ridge top, Mike or Nick would come flying down the road waving and yelling, “Come on, let’s go!”

This hunt is a very physically demanding hunt. These hills are extremely high and the terrain is rough. So once you’ve planned a stalk on an animal, it may be a great distance between your viewing point and where the deer is.

By the eighth day of the hunt, most of the water had dried up in the area other than the water tanks used for cattle. One of the tanks that we had looked at was completely torn up with deer tracks and just like our mid western white tails, there were scrapes and rubs everywhere. This was the first I had seen this much activity in one area. The plan for the following day was to spot and stalk until 10:00 AM and then sneak into the area by the water tank where we had placed a tree stand. I was extremely excited because of the amount of activity that was going on. I wanted as many opportunities as I could get during my hunt to keep after my Coues deer quest.

Later that morning I found myself in the stand with Mike Whelan right behind me with the video camera, tucked into the brushy tree. I felt very confident that I was concealed. The Mothwing Camo that I was wearing blended in perfectly. It wasn’t long and we started seeing activity all through the hillsides. Deer were running everywhere! This went on the whole morning we were there. Several does had come in and out of the tank during the time we were there. I’ve never seen even an African animal as skittish as these Coues deer. I knew that I had to wait until they were drinking for a while before I would take the shot.

About two o’clock that afternoon, up on a ridge, I saw a nice buck grazing along the side of the hill. I took my grunt tube and grunted, but not very loud. The buck picked up the sound immediately. Their hearing is incredible! The buck, which was several 100 yards away, had turned, and was now walking in our direction. Then for whatever reason, he stopped and started grazing again. He turned his hind end towards us and started working his way slowly back up the hill. When I grunted at him, he would lift his head and look but he didn’t seem interested any more. I grabbed my rattling antlers and started clashing them together. The buck put a dead stare in our direction. With a couple more soft grunts, that’s all it took. The buck went to the nearest bush and started tearing it up. I’ve never seen a white tail get so furious and tear the brush up like that. I continued to clash the antlers together while he was tearing the brush up. Then stiff leggedly, he made a bee line right to us. That’s when I looked at Mike and said, “This is really going to happen.” I grabbed my bow and got set up for the shot. The buck had disappeared behind the large berm around the tank. For what seemed like hours, I didn’t know where he was. Suddenly I caught movement from the right corner of the tank. He had put the wind in his favor and was coming across the tank from the opposite direction. When he got near the water, he stopped and looked around. To my amazement, he put his head down and started drinking. He was exactly 42 yards from us. After he had been drinking for a short period of time, I felt comfortable drawing my bow. There I was at full draw on one of the wariest animals I’ve ever pursued.

Bringing my pin up the back of his front leg, I double-checked to make sure I was centered on his chest. As I released, I told myself, “Follow through”. Even though I took my time with the shot and made sure the animal was completely relaxed, the deer started to flinch as the arrow was getting to him, but luckily for me, his chest cavity stayed in place as his body started to rotate. The arrow hit true. As the buck ran off, I couldn’t believe what just happened. I looked at Mike in total amazement. As he shook my hand, he still had the camera running. He said that he had captured the whole event on film. That was even more incredible because of how tough it is to get that close to these Coues deer.

We left the animal lay down and came back with two ranchers and their horses. It didn’t take long to find where the animal had expired up on the hill. Boy, was I happy! We loaded the deer onto one of the horses and then I asked if I could ride out on that horse with the deer and they were happy to accommodate me. All I can tell you is that is was one of the biggest thrills I’ve had in my hunting career and to top it off, to be able to hunt with real hunters, with a lot of laughs and a lot of camaraderie. What a great record-book animal!

To contact Mike Whelan for a great hunt and a lot of fun, call him at 928-282-4721. To order his great hunting videos, visit www.northstarvideopro.com