Good Friend Andrew Gillett has had an awesome year as he was able to harvest an awesome black bear and now this sweet coues. We can't wait to put them all in his man cave for him. We have to give him a special thanks as he has come up to the shop and helped us out with the plumbing. Congrats on an awesome year. Here is what he had to say about the hunt.
"When I drew an Oct. coues tag in a unit we hunt regularly I looked forward to a summer of scouting and trail camera pictures. Unfortunately schedules and some other hunts ran interference and I ended up doing a lot less scouting than I had hoped.
Opening day we made the mile trek into a glassing location that seems to always deliver early in the hunt, and this day was no exception. Within a few minutes of getting setup I had a buck in my 15’s. We quickly moved positions to get a better look and discovered a handful of bucks running together. Two of the bucks were definite shooters that we had seen prior to the archery season. The bucks were over 600 yards away so we moved down the slope to cut the distance. Within a few minutes we were setup at 430 yards with both bucks located. The 30 mph wind carried the first shot wide right about 12” and I saw the buck run about 20 yards and stop, but heard my spotter say that the buck was still standing in the same spot, he was looking at the wrong buck! We quickly got on the same page but he couldn’t tell me where I missed because he had not seen the first shot. I must have been focusing really hard on the second shot because the scope jumped up and opened up a ½” cut on my nose. The shot missed right again and my buddies began to tease me that the deer had drawn first blood.
After regrouping we were able to locate the bucks holed up in some rocks a few hundred yards down the canyon. It didn’t take long to get into position again, now at 330 yards. This time I made the first shot count, striking the buck in the neck. A follow up shot anchored the buck. Despite my buddy Mike’s best efforts, we were unable to take the second buck during all of the commotion. When we had glassed the buck up I had decided quickly the buck was a shooter and had not looked much at his head gear after that. I was pleasantly surprised when I walked up to the buck and saw his 6” eyeguards. Thanks again to those who helped on the hunt; Mike, Levi and with scouting; Josh, Blaine, and Marc. There is no way I could have done it without you."
Enjoy the pics.
