Mexico Coues Deer Hunt Report

Sonora, Mexico Rifle Coues Deer Hunt

I am grading this Coues deer hunting trip in Sonora, Mexico independent of success because success in hunting is never guaranteed. If it was, then for me its not hunting. When I book a trip I’m looking for some adventure, a good time, and a chance at a quality but not necessarily trophy animal. I’m not sure what OI mission statement is, but I would imagine its aligning clients with a good expectation of what to expect on any given trip. With that said I’ll grade this as A = outstanding, B = good, C = Average, D = Below Expectations, F = Unacceptable

So to grade this trip…

Food (A) – The best part of this hunt was the food. Our cook Oscar was great and I probably had the best cheeseburger of my life while I was in Sonora. Dinner was authentic Mexican food and wonderful though I had enough refried beans for the next year. Coffee every morning was clutch.

Accomodations (C-) – We were told we would be staying in a ranch house. Unfortunately for 50% of the hunt there was no hot water where we were told there would be. Both toilets in the house also leaked constantly if and unfortunately sometimes into the adjoining rooms creating a messy situation at times.

Guides (B+) – The actual guides on the trip were really good. They were hard, were personable, and we matched our personality well with who we individually hunted with. However, there was one guide who while extremely hard working had (to our knowledge) never actually been on a Coues hunt, and was learning as he went. I would say this is more the outfitters problem. I don’t understand why he wouldn’t have had an orientation trip before going out with an actual client. The two guides that were bilingual were HUGE in crossing the border and helping us navigate the process of bringing firearms into Mexico.

Outfitter (D) – The biggest issue with this hunt was the outfitter. I feel like the hunt was significantly different from the expectations set through an initial conversation with him and the two references I spoke to. I partially blame myself for not having asked for a reference from an unsuccessful hunter. I usually do this to create a better picture before booking.

The biggest issue was communication. I did have to email multiple times and then loop in my Outdoors International consultant on a third email to get a response from my outfitter. Then again in the weeks before the hunt I had to ask a couple times for a packing list. We had no idea where in Mexico we would be and ended up packing a little light for what were significantly colder temps than expected. Unfortunately only one of our guides had been to the ranch and only for one day in the months before our hunt. So no one had any idea of what the ranch looked like, what terrain was like, or where the likeliest spots to find game would be.

Quality of Hunting – I don’t know how to grade this. In speaking with references we had the expectation that the hunt would be maybe a 2.5 to 5 in physicality (1 being a flat walk to treestand hunt. 5 being a mountain hunt for sheep/goat). The day I shot my buck we clocked 10 miles which is totally fine with me. However, we booked this hunt with my friends 69 year old father who needed the hunt to match expectations (hiking 1-2 miles a day) as he can’t hike that kind of terrain and mileage due to back issues. For me that is the biggest disappointment of this trip as he only saw one buck briefly at 1,000+ yards. References stated seeing multiple quality bucks before deciding on what one to pursue. None of them mentioned significant hiking. We shot the only buck that I would consider “quality” that we saw during the trip. Was this due to a dry year? Or due to going in blind to a new ranch? Or is this the reality of a Coues hunt in Sonora? I don’t know because I was relying on expectations set by the outfitter and references as I had never been Coues hunting before.

To give you a one liner: I’m happy I went on this trip and I’d love to go on another Coues hunt, but I would not book with this outfitter again because of poor communication and unclear expectations of controllable elements (knowing where you’re going, accomodations).