Bowhunting A Trophy Coues Deer Buck

This is the six pointer the author passed at 21 yards waiting for the big eight to come a little closer. He scored 77 points and made the P&Y minimums making this client very glad he decided to let him walk the prior week!

The obvious question is, “How do I improve the odds of being one of the relatively few bow hunters that succeeds and harvests a Coues Deer Buck that makes P&Y minimums (or better!)?” There are so many potential answers to that question that it’s hard to figure out where to start, but careful planning has to be high on the list.

In my last column I discussed the importance of finding a place to hunt that actually holds trophy class deer, and touched on the importance of setting goals and taking the first buck that meets your goals and provides an opportunity. Those things are part of the planning process, but you can fine tune things from there to improve your odds even more. Perhaps the best thing would be to give some examples:

This non-typical buck would score over 120 making him an exceptional Coues deer in anyone’s book.

One of my personal goals has been to harvest a P&Y record book Coues deer Buck with the bow. On my first hunt I tried but didn’t get the job done. It wasn’t that I hadn’t done the proper planning, heck I was with a great guide, in a real good area, and hunting during the late season rut.

My outfitter had near 100% success with bow hunters for six years running, hunted out of ground blinds, and his area holds a pile of deer. Not only should it have worked, it actually did work, almost!

Actually, I did end up with a perfect shot opportunity 21 yards from a buck that would make P&Y minimum for Coues Deer … but I just chose to not take the shot!

Sounds dumb, doesn’t it? Well “the rest of the story” is that this buck was a decent six point that was traveling with an awesome eight point which was standing just out of range behind some brush the entire time the six point was “teasing me” with a perfect shot opportunity.

I decided to just wait the big guy out, and if it meant eating “tag soup” at the end of the trip, so be it.

This decent eight point is representative of a solid P&Y Coues deer Buck, but much smaller than the eight pointer that caused me to pass the “book” six pointer that fall.”

I had a great hunt, and more importantly, I learned a lot from the experience. The net result was a lot of planning to improve my odds for an upcoming season.

Good hunting,

Roy Goodwin