I apologize in advance, this may be long winded. First hunting trip report, and I am not known for being short on words either.
After being asked by my brother-in-law Christmas 2018 if I would take him on his first hunt, we started talking and planning where and what we would hunt. He lives in the Phoenix area and had seen an episode of Meateater where Rinella goes Coues deer hunting. He asked if that would be too difficult for a first hunt and I responded with a probably, but let's go try anyways! And that is how the trip began! We eventually added my dad who wanted to go, and my father-in-law to our trip plans for a group of 4.
After we decided on species and state, I started the research. Gohunt and OnX became even more my best friend than they ever had been. I pored over map after map trying to find the place to go. I messaged and bugged everyone on any forum who had ever mentioned coues deer. I wanted an area with designated Wilderness with the hopes to get away from crowds. I finally located a unit that I liked, and confirmed on Gohunt that we would be able to draw.
***SIDE NOTE*** If anyone is going through the process of beginning planning for an AZ Coues hunt, please feel free to reach out to me, I am more than happy to offer any possible advice and help I can. I am no expert, but I learned a ton this trip. ***
Once we put in for the draw I googled everything I could about the unit and the specific area we were going to draw. I spoke to a few really helpful people on here and other forums, who confirmed my trip plan as being a good start and offering other tips and advice. Pro Tip- People are much much more willing to give information over the internet if they feel like you have done all them research already and are just asking for confirmation.
As I started gathering different gear pieces and things I would need for the trip, I obviously had my mind on optics. I knew my 10's were likely not going to cut it down there. I looked at maybe selling some gear to fund a purchase, but felt like it made more sense to save up to get really good ones. If I have learned anything from Rokslide it is buy once cry once. I decided I would probably rent some binos from one of a few companies around. After looking at pricing, I thought I would reach out here on Rokslide and see if anyone might rent me some. @robby denning was the first person to reply to my post and offered to loan me a set of Vortex 18x56 Kaibabs. For nothing. He has never met me in person and trusted sending me a high dollar piece of equipment to borrow on my hunt. I truly cannot thank him enough. Without those things, we would not have had the hunt that we did! I am going to do a writeup on the Kaibabs in the optics section, so check there for a full review in the next few days. I spent the week before the hunt testing them from my back porch. I live right along the northern section of the Wasatch Front Extended unit, and have some pretty good country to glass from a mile to over five miles away. Picked up many more hunters than deer, but was able to spot two does at almost two miles away feeding on an open ridge. I could not believe how good this glass was. My son did not want to feel left out, so I set him up with his own pair of “nockaners”, and he cries if he can’t be out on the porch glassing with dad.
Once I had all my optics and gear in order, it was time to head down to Arizona.
I used my occasionally smart brain to plan the hunting trip with a season that started directly after Thanksgiving, thus linking the hunting trip with a trip to spend the holiday with my wife's family. So we loaded up all of mine and my dad's gear in our Land Cruiser and headed down to Phoenix. The plan was to spend Thanksgiving with her family, then pick up my dad the following Monday and head to our hunting area. The trip was fairly uneventful, we were able to leave early enough to beat the heavy storm that hit Utah through the holiday. We spent Black Friday loading up my brother-in-law with all the basic gear he might need, and prepped everything else to be ready to roll Monday.
After being asked by my brother-in-law Christmas 2018 if I would take him on his first hunt, we started talking and planning where and what we would hunt. He lives in the Phoenix area and had seen an episode of Meateater where Rinella goes Coues deer hunting. He asked if that would be too difficult for a first hunt and I responded with a probably, but let's go try anyways! And that is how the trip began! We eventually added my dad who wanted to go, and my father-in-law to our trip plans for a group of 4.
After we decided on species and state, I started the research. Gohunt and OnX became even more my best friend than they ever had been. I pored over map after map trying to find the place to go. I messaged and bugged everyone on any forum who had ever mentioned coues deer. I wanted an area with designated Wilderness with the hopes to get away from crowds. I finally located a unit that I liked, and confirmed on Gohunt that we would be able to draw.
***SIDE NOTE*** If anyone is going through the process of beginning planning for an AZ Coues hunt, please feel free to reach out to me, I am more than happy to offer any possible advice and help I can. I am no expert, but I learned a ton this trip. ***
Once we put in for the draw I googled everything I could about the unit and the specific area we were going to draw. I spoke to a few really helpful people on here and other forums, who confirmed my trip plan as being a good start and offering other tips and advice. Pro Tip- People are much much more willing to give information over the internet if they feel like you have done all them research already and are just asking for confirmation.
As I started gathering different gear pieces and things I would need for the trip, I obviously had my mind on optics. I knew my 10's were likely not going to cut it down there. I looked at maybe selling some gear to fund a purchase, but felt like it made more sense to save up to get really good ones. If I have learned anything from Rokslide it is buy once cry once. I decided I would probably rent some binos from one of a few companies around. After looking at pricing, I thought I would reach out here on Rokslide and see if anyone might rent me some. @robby denning was the first person to reply to my post and offered to loan me a set of Vortex 18x56 Kaibabs. For nothing. He has never met me in person and trusted sending me a high dollar piece of equipment to borrow on my hunt. I truly cannot thank him enough. Without those things, we would not have had the hunt that we did! I am going to do a writeup on the Kaibabs in the optics section, so check there for a full review in the next few days. I spent the week before the hunt testing them from my back porch. I live right along the northern section of the Wasatch Front Extended unit, and have some pretty good country to glass from a mile to over five miles away. Picked up many more hunters than deer, but was able to spot two does at almost two miles away feeding on an open ridge. I could not believe how good this glass was. My son did not want to feel left out, so I set him up with his own pair of “nockaners”, and he cries if he can’t be out on the porch glassing with dad.
Once I had all my optics and gear in order, it was time to head down to Arizona.
I used my occasionally smart brain to plan the hunting trip with a season that started directly after Thanksgiving, thus linking the hunting trip with a trip to spend the holiday with my wife's family. So we loaded up all of mine and my dad's gear in our Land Cruiser and headed down to Phoenix. The plan was to spend Thanksgiving with her family, then pick up my dad the following Monday and head to our hunting area. The trip was fairly uneventful, we were able to leave early enough to beat the heavy storm that hit Utah through the holiday. We spent Black Friday loading up my brother-in-law with all the basic gear he might need, and prepped everything else to be ready to roll Monday.
