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Game Planner Maps ProStaff

Game Planner Maps is excited to announce its ProStaff Program. Our ProStaff work as ambassadors to promote the Game Planner brand. We are always looking for talented, motivated, and reliable candidates to join the ProStaff line-up. If you think you have what it takes, you love hunting, and have a popular blog or social media accounts; please click here to learn more and apply.
The ProStaff Team

Josh Kirchner
Josh Kirchner
Josh Kirchner is the voice behind Dialed in Hunter, a blog that not only documents his own journey, but provides gear reviews, tips/tactics for western hunting, and encourages other hunters to chase and achieve their goals. Josh has contributed numerous articles for goHunt and the EXO Mountain Gear Blog, as well as, landing on the front cover of the November 2015 issue of Bear Hunting Magazine. Josh is a passionate bow hunter who has been hunting with his family since he was a small boy, but for the last three years has been eating, sleeping, and breathing the hunting lifestyle. When he is not chasing elk, deer, bear, and javelina through the diverse Arizona terrain, he is spending time with his wife, two herding dogs, and mischievous cat. Connect with Josh on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

 

 

 

 

Josh Kirchner Bear

 

 

Clint Stout
Clint Stout
Clint Stout, 32, grew up in Brookville, Pennsylvania where he learned to love and respect nature. He pursued wrestling from Elementary school through graduation from the University of Maryland where he was a letter winner three years in a row. He graduated with a degree in Natural Resource Management and began working in the oil and gas industry right at the peak of the Marcellus shale boom as a Landman. In 2013, he was offered a position with Whitetail Properties Real Estate LLC in Eastern Ohio and he seized the opportunity to work in an outdoor industry. Shortly thereafter, he was approached by Sitka Gear, a subsidiary of W. L. Gore associates to become an ambassador for the whitetail line of gear. Clint enjoys hunting across North America and prefers to do unguided hunts in new areas. Archery hunting is his main focus but he does enjoy spot and stalk rifle hunting as well. Clint spends summers helping with Due North Quest as the domestic director providing young men with guidance in the outdoors. Connect with Clint on Facebook and Instagram.

 

 

Clint Stout Whitetail

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Mule Deer Success for a New Hunter

Its been said before and I have to agree.  The most rewarding hunts are those in which you help new hunters.  My buddy Jason has been duck hunting with me for the past 5 years. This year he drew a mule deer tag in central Arizona unit.  After fueling up my Tacoma and getting sandwiches in Prescott we still had three hours of traveling on rough back country roads to get to a remote area that I had been to only once before.  I knew from studying maps and a little scouting that this country had everything deer needed and we would have a few bucks to choose from.  We arrived late the day before the season and set up camp on the only flat spot we could find that wasn’t covered with rocks.  We got to bed early and hit our first glassing point of the day only 500 yards from camp.

Photo 1

As soon as the sun came up we started glassing deer from our vantage point.  Most of them were a couple canyons over so we decided to stay put to see what turned up.  About a half hour later we located a nice 150″ buck that would make a great first deer.  We watched the buck for about an hour until he bedded and then re-bedded.  I used my Game Planner Digital Map to estimate the distance to the buck and reasoned we would be within range if we could stalk 800 yards across two canyons which would put us on a ridge ~300 yards from the bedded buck.  Once we were out of sight of the buck we were able to make our way over fairly easily. Before long we slowly eased into some cover on a distant ridge to locate the bedded buck.

We couldn’t seem to find him in the scrub oak so we just made ourselves comfortable under a juniper and resolved to wait him out.  After a couple hours of constant observation I was surprised to see my Swarovski’s suddenly full of deer!  A heard of doe’s was hastily making their way down the canyon, they seemed to be retreating from something and I suspect another hunter bumped them our way.

I told Jason to get ready, the buck could get up after hearing the does.  As Jason was putting his Weatherby on his tripod I picked up a set of antlers in my glass.  There was a buck skylined on the ridge directly across from us and he appeared to be traveling with two does.  His does came directly toward us following the same route the previous herd had just taken.  I was hopeful the buck would follow because it would bring him past us at less than 100 yards.  As usual the buck had other ideas.  He turned west and began traveling parallel to us on the top of the ridge.  He was moving through the scrub oak but only had 50 more yards before he would be in the open.  Jason was on him but the buck would not stop for a shot.  As he followed the ridge he began quartering away from us and the distance was growing.  Once he was in the open I realized it was now or never so I stopped him with a grunt.  I ranged him at 309 yards and told Jason to put it on the top of his back and about 5″ behind the shoulder to compensate for the nearly 15 mph crosswind and quartering angle of the deer.

At the shot the bucks front legs gave out and he careened downhill.  The recoil from shooting in the seated position briefly knocked Jason off the target. I was just about to suggest he shoot again when I noticed a fatal torrent of blood exiting both sides of the buck.  Jason asked “did I miss?”  I just replied “no, you got him”.  I had no more uttered those words and the buck was down.  I watched everything through my Swarovski 12X50 ELs, the clarity of these binoculars always impresses me.  Once the buck was down he never kicked again, the 180gr Nosler Partition from Jason’s .30-06 did its job.  It was not the buck we originally glassed up, but Jason was adamant about shooting the first buck that gave him a shot.  He definitely made good on that statement!

After the shot Jason was flooded with adrenaline, and I admit, I was pretty excited too.  He had made a great 300 yard shot on his first buck and he did it in a stiff cross wind.  We savored the moment, exchanged some hi-fives and handshakes, and I congratulated him again and again on the buck and the nice shot!  Before long we were packing up our optics and making our way toward his buck.  We ascended the slope to where the buck was hit and picked up the blood trail.  I gave Jason a brief lesson in blood trailing and in less than 100 yards he had his hands on antlers.  We celebrated with more hi-fives and back slapping before pictures and field dressing.

Before the real work started I gave Jason two options: he could watch and help me quarter his deer, or he could do it himself and I would coach him on the process.  He opted to do it himself and he did a great job.  We used the gutless method and within an hour we had the deer in our packs and headed back to camp.  This was one of the most fun, and rewarding hunts I have ever taken part in. I was impressed with Jason’s resolve and how cool he stayed with things happening so fast.  This hunt brought back a lot of memories of my first buck from 24 years ago and how excited I was then, I’m happy Jason got to experience that and I feel fortunate to be apart if it.  I know he’s hooked for life!

 

 

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Southern Arizona Coues on a Leftover Tag

Drawing a leftover tag is somewhat of a bittersweet experience.  On one hand you didn’t get the tag you really wanted, but on the other hand you still get to hunt.  You may not be hunting an area you are familiar with, but in trade, you get to explore and familiarize yourself with a new unit.  One of the many virtues leftover tags provide is the opportunity to become a better hunter by forcing you to step out of your comfort zone.  Leftover tags provide the opportunity to hone your scouting methods, and provide an opportunity for future success in areas regarded as less than desirable by those unwilling to put forth the effort to learn new areas.

In the past few years the popularity of leftover tags has begun to soar.  More hunters are playing the points game; applying for tags on the Kaibab, Arizona Strip, or the ever popular December Coues season. All the while relying on leftovers for their opportunity to chase deer while building points for high demand hunts.  I’ll admit, I am guilty of falling prey to the lure of hunting big rutting bucks and the opportunity to hunt them during the general season. Having successfully drawn leftover tags in my preferred unit the last several years I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of my tag this summer and looking forward to another back pack hunt in Southern Arizona.  When the Arizona Game and Fish envelope finally arrived I was a little surprised to find that I had not drawn my preferred unit, but instead, was holding a tag for my fourth choice and a unit I had never set foot in.  Never the less, I had the tag and I was going to make the most of it.

Almost immediately I began looking at maps.  I scoured every inch of the unit with the Arizona Game Planner Map Viewer and Google Earth.  My hunting partner Tom and I made a scouting trip in early October and found plenty of water, great habitat, spectacular scenery, but very few deer.  In a weekend of glassing, our scouting failed to turn up a single set of antlers.  After the scouting trip Tom contacted the units Wildlife Manager, asked about deer densities, hunter densities, and of course any recommendations he could make on hunting areas.  The WM was a wealth of knowledge and among his recommendations was the same area we had been scouting.  He had flown it the previous winter and clearly stated “that is where I would hunt if I had that tag”.  That statement was a solid endorsement of our game plan, so we returned to the area with confidence on the day before the hunt opened.

Coues Terrain

We spent the evening before the hunt glassing the area in which we’d be hunting the following morning.  Temperatures seemed high and deer activity was quite low.  We did manage to turn-up 2 small bucks and a handful of does, so we felt optimistic about coming back the following morning.  As always, 4:00 am came too early and a veil of frost had covered our campsite.  Fighting back the cold we hurried to dress, eat, and load up the side by side with our gear and make the 30 minute drive to the area we would spend opening morning.  We had a short hike to our vantage point and quickly ascended the 800ft. of elevation.  I always look forward the first moments of the daylight when the sun first peers over the horizon and reveals what darkness has kept hidden.  The anticipation of whats waiting to be revealed by the first rays of light always brings an elevated sense of awareness.  The desert smells more fragrant, deer seem to pop off the hill, and if your lucky you hear the sound of hooves on rocks as deer feed their way to their days bed.  Unfortunately for us, sunrise revealed more hunters than deer and the area seemed to be a favorite of a few of the local road hunters.  We did manage to glass 4 doe so it was not a total bust.  The rest of the day was pretty much the same, didn’t see many deer, so we made the decision to hunt the other side of the area the following morning.

Saturday morning came and we hiked into the area on the other side of the range we were hunting.  Almost immediately we started seeing deer.  We glassed until about 10:30am and had found more than a dozen doe but no bucks.  Still, it was the most deer we had found in any spot and we knew if the doe’s were there the bucks were not far away.  We went back to camp to eat and rest with a plan to return that evening.

After our mid-day break Tom and I returned to our promising new area.  We quietly hiked in and setup so we could maximize the area we could glass without relocating.  Time passed and we had tallied a few does when Tom glassed up two bucks on a distant mountain side, both of which were worth definitely worth pursuing.   I used the Avenza PDFMaps app on my smart phone along with a Game Planner Digital Map to measure the distance we had to cover.  The bucks happened to be ~1200 yards away bedded in the shade of an oak tree.  With only an hour of shooting light left both bucks got up and moved to the back side of the mountain.  After a brief discussion about the stalk, the discovery of a bad wind, and a quick analysis of the terrain we decided to hike out to the road and use the side by side to save some time getting closer.  We parked about 500 yards from where we would eventually set up and quietly made our way onto a ridge adjacent to the mountain the bucks were on. We had about a half hour till shooting time so we diligently glassed the mountain side for the bucks.

Glassing Coues Country

Just before the closing bell the first buck appeared briefly but did not offer a shot.  Moments later the other buck came into an opening at 348 yards.  I was already set up prone using my Kuiu Ultra 1800 for a rest and was ready to take the shot as soon as he paused.  I fell into my zone, steadied my breathing, and focused on a small area on the flank of the deer.  The shot felt good, and with the tell tale sound of a solid hit the bullet knocked the buck off his feet.  Amazingly, the deer got back up!  Even though he appeared to be hit solidly,  I placed another shot through his shoulders for insurance, and he was down for good.  Tom and I continued to glass for the other buck till it was to dark to see, but he had seemingly vanished.

We left my buck over night and went up the mountain side the following morning to get him.  We were both surprised to find a nice 2X3 buck waiting for us.  Initially we thought he was a decent 2pt, I am not a fan of marginalizing animals because of the size of their antlers, but I love it when one turns out better than you expected! After photos and handshakes it took us about 40 minutes to quarter him up and get the meat into our packs for the trip off the mountain. I felt good about my success given this was a unit neither of us had hunted before and we drew as a 4th choice in the leftover draw. We hunted the other buck for two days before Tom and I had to return to work.  The other buck never did turn-up.  We didn’t see as many deer as we were accustom to, but we knew going into the hunt that this was a low density area. All in all, we glassed 4 bucks and 32 does in 4 days of hunting.

Upon returning home I spent the day processing the meat and doing a euro mount.   This was my first attempt at a euro mount and I’m real happy with the way it turned out.

Coues Meat


Earlier this summer I purchased a Lee Challenger Reloading kit. This was the first hunt using in which I used my handloads. I was shooting a Winchester M70 Classic Laminate in .270wsm, topped with a Leupold VX-III 4.5X14 40mm scope. I loaded 140gr Accubonds over 72.5gr of Accurate MagPro and Winchester large magnum primers with Winchester brass. This load consistently shot sub-moa out to 300 yards in my rifle. It took me most of the summer to develop the load and I fired 120+ rounds during the process.  I felt really good about my shooting going into the hunt and was happy with the way the loads performed.

In my opinion, Coues deer are one of the most admirable species of western quarry.  Some of the terrain they inhabit can easily be mistaken for that of wild sheep.  They have the uncanny ability to vanish in little to no cover.  They are perfectly camouflaged for their environment, which makes glassing Coues a challenge and finding a good one all the more satisfying.  And, when you finally find a buck you’d be happy to tag, your likely looking at a 1,000 yard stalk through cactus and cat claw infested country followed by a long shot at a small target.  Coues deer will undoubtedly test every ability a western hunter possesses.  I’m always impressed with how tough, elusive, and handsome these little deer are!  They make a tremendous trophy for any hunter willing to devote themselves to the challenge of hunting Coues Whitetails.