Coues Deer Identification

[Savage99]

Could anyone point me to some resources on identifying Coues Deer? I’ve been searching and I feel like I need a side by side with whitetails as to what the differences are.


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[OneSkinnyHunter]

I grabbed this from the AZGFD Regs page 34

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/azgfd-portal-wordpress-pantheon/wp-content/uploads/archive/2019-20-Arizona-Hunting-Reguations_WEB_190514.pdf

 

[Savage99]

Thanks Skinny, I think I was looking at a previous year regs , so now I’m on the current year.

I’m good with WT vs Mulies, it’s just Coues vs WT where I’m shaky. I’m going to just comb through photos of each for the time being.


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[FLAK]

I think they're just a sub spp. of Whitetail.

 

[Blackcow]

You only need to know the difference between a mule deer and a coues whitetail. A coues whitetail is in fact......a whitetail. There is no place you will be hunting where you will need to identify a coues from an eastern, even in Mexico, and most certainly not in Arizona or New Mexico.

 

[Savage99]

You only need to know the difference between a mule deer and a coues whitetail. A coues whitetail is in fact......a whitetail. There is no place you will be hunting where you will need to identify a coues from an eastern, even in Mexico, and most certainly not in Arizona or New Mexico.

Man, this is exactly the answer I needed, but didn’t know to ask. Thank you Blackcow.


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[Blackcow]

You bet! It's actually a pretty common question.

 

[huntstrong2850]

Think about your average Whitetail anywhere in the east and shrink that Whitetail to about 80-95 maybe 105-110lbs and that’s a coues lol... your yearling doe’s back east are often still bigger than a big coues buck. So if going hunting them this season or planning too draw then buy the absolute best glass you can afford. If you can afford it buy the Swaro 15’s when glassing coues


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[rekrapnave]

It's a desert WT. If you're hunting Coues, and it looks like a WT, rather than Mulie, it's a Coues.

 

[Tempe.243]

What Blackcow said. There are places out here in AZ where you can run into Coues and Mule deer in the same area. The Coues are the ones you CAN'T see...

 

[canyonhunter47]

There's no overlap in habitat between eastern and Coues WT's to my knowledge, but eastern WT's are larger and have a more reddish-orange coat while Coues are smaller than eastern WT's (and MD's) and they're more grey like a MD

 

[Eric4]

You'll know it's a coues, when you hear the snort, and it's already halfway over the ridge, white tail in the air.

 

[Desert Dan]

The guys already answered it above but I'll add that once you see a coues deer close up you won't believe how small they are - petite really - compared to the whitetails you've probably hunted. Then you won't believe how much abuse you'll put yourself through trying to tag one once you get a taste for it. Heat exhaustion, cactus spines, rolled ankles... At the end of the day you might swear you'll never hunt them again and by the time you get home you're already planning your next hunt haha. Not that that's ever happened to me...