Archery Coues Deer

Early September marks the beginning of the archery deer season. If you can handle the heat, this can be a good time to harvest a velvet antlered Coues Deer. Archers use several different methods of hunting.

The traditional spot and stalk is still the most popular, but many bowhunters will also use a tree stand overlooking an active trail, water hole, or mineral lick. Ground blinds in the same areas are also effective if you watch the wind direction. 

Any legal bow and arrow combination will kill a Coues deer. The real archery fanatics favor the faster bows because long shots are the norm for these little deer. Also, with the faster bows, the nervous little deer will be less likely to "jump string". It is still advisable to only shoot at a relaxed deer. Even the fastest bow is no match for the hair triggers attached to the Coues deer legs!

Deer will be found most often in canyon bottoms where it is cooler and there is more moisture and vegetation Also, saddles are good areas to ambush a whitetail as they travel from one canyon to the next.

In Arizona, the deer rut starts heating up in mid December, which is also the start of the late season. 

This is the season that most hunters want to hunt, and therefore the tags are getting hard to draw. 

During the rut, the bucks will range far and wide searching for does. During your scouting, it is important to find several good concentrations of does. 

As the rut nears, keep going back to these areas and look for the bucks. Sooner or later they will show up.

Unlike Mule Deer, which will some times gather several does and try to fend off intruding bucks. The Coues bucks will find a single doe that they sense is getting close to estrus, and follow her like a bird dog.

They will battle other bucks that try to cut in on the action. Rattling horns can be effective in calling in a buck. They don't often come charging in like an eastern whitetail might. They will circle downwind before committing themselves. 

You be well advised to hunt all day long when the rut is in full swing. If you are lucky, your hunt will fall over a period of the "New" moon and temperatures will be cold and the sky clear, although a good snowfall will generally keep deer very active.

 

                                    Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.