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Hi! I'm new to the forum and wanted to brag a little about my daughter's first hunt. Got herself a cute little Coues deer.

Well after 5:00 PM today, I got dinged, so, don't know if it was a "next in line because someone's card was declined" or what but I don't care. A Stinky little pig is in trouble... I can't believe how excited I am over a pig. lol

Killing a nice coues has always been something that has eluded me. I’ve killed a bunch of them over the years but never one that i would consider nice, or big. I have been fortunate enough to take some real good elk, mulies, antelope, bear, etc. but coues have always kicked my butt. Having killed 3 between 95-98” my goal is always to take a 100” buck. This year was no different. I’ve been chasing one particular buck for 3 years now but i have never seen him hard-horned. My goal was simple this year, kill that buck. I have hunted him endlessly through archery and rifle season with no luck. I spend a LOT of time scouting and running cameras so i know most of the deer that are in the area i hunt. As soon as the bucks shed their velvet this year, i lost track of all the “shooter” bucks i have been watching. I can’t for the life of me figure out where they go. Well, the opening morning of my rifle hunt rolled around and Jason, my brother and myself found ourself at our glassing point. Jason had a tag with me and my brother was there to help out. We started seeing deer right away but nothing special. After covering all the country in our immediate vicinity, my eyes started to wander to the country I’m sure we all look at with the thought of “why am i glassing so far away?” I mentioned to my brother that i could see a couple deer waaaaayyy out there and he told me pretty much what i was thinking to myself. Why the he!! was i looking over there. I figured i was looking at a couple does anyways, so i got back to glassing the more approachable country around us. A few minutes later my brother told me he spotted some more deer waaaay out there where i was looking and one looked like a decent buck. Not getting too excited, i pulled out the big eye and looked him over. He was a decent buck, but not what i was after. We kind of forgot about him and got back to business. A little while later someone was looking over him again and he seemed a lot bigger than we thought. Another look through the big eye confirmed there were two bucks. We could tell they were both at least decent with one being larger than the other. We watched the bucks bed and made a plan. Jason and i would make a very long and what should have been “low percentage” stalk to see how the bucks looked from much closer. The stalk worked out great. We found ourselves 450ish yards from the bedded bucks. After a quick look, i decided to try to shoot the bigger buck. A few minutes later he stood up and walked through a narrow shooting lane. I fired and the shot found it’s mark. Buck down. After the celebration ended we noticed the other buck was still standing there and Jason decided he was big enough. A few minutes and one shot later we had two bucks dead within feet of eachother. I never got a great look at the buck i shot i just knew had a good frame and could tell he had a bit of funk on his rack. When we got to the bucks, i was pleasantly surprised. He was not the buck i was after but he is one i could not pass. Jason’s buck was also a little better than we thought. Nothing like an opening morning double-down on a couple good bucks.

Was able to fill my tag opening morning. Woke up to unusually high winds, was not real happy, but it allowed me to close the distance from 450 yds to 288 yds. Also helped a friend fill his tag on Saturday. Filled 2 of 3 tags, tons of people/hunters. Had a nice layer of dust on everything due to Border Patrol was out in full force and the razors, side x’s and everyday idiots haulin a$$.

I just got hit for a pig tag 30 mins ago. Guess I took someone’s tag that was declined.

I recently acquired a Mossberg 500 20ga that belonged to a friend of the family. My daughter doesn't like the way it fits, we are all set for shotguns, and there is no sentimental value. Its a 28" VR barrel chambered for 2-3/4 and 3" shells. It has pitting on the barrel, a little bit inside the bore, and the butt is scratched from use and poor care before I received it. Action works great and it was used for a kid's high school trap team before he had an accident. I'm working on funding a rifle build for my son and need the cash, so this one is the one to go from the safe. $200. Located in Flagstaff, but trips to the valley happen occasionally. Buyer must fill out Firearms bill of sale and present DL or CCW. To those of you who chimed in on whether or not to keep my grandpa's 1100, thanks. Its staying.

I have for sale, a Tikka T3x in 7mm-08, topped with a Zeiss Conquest 3-9x50, nestled in a set of talley rings, and added comb riser. Comes with 30 rounds of 150 grain hornady precision hunter ammo. 50 rounds fired. Only selling to limit the amount of different calibers I have. PM with questions, located in Glendale. Bipod not included. $900

I’d call a few taxidermist and see what they’d offer.

I was able to go hunt in unit 29 over the weekend and got lucky. Saw lots of bucks, the one I was after gave me the slip in some thick brush but was able to kill this guy before I had to leave. Had a great time.

Those are great tires. Have them on 2 vehicles. The load range E version can be a little stiff, but I think they are as tough off road as the BFG Tri-gard radials. If you keep them rotated and balanced they should be 55k tires. forepaw

Congrats! He's a nice Bull.

Is the area where his antlers come out of the skull really pronounced, or is it just the angle of the pic

heck ya man Great buck! Thats why you dont shoot them mulies that come into your stand during archery season.

Congrats to you both! Love that knarly rack!

A couple outstanding bucks. Congrats to you guys!

Heck yeah!! Congrats man! Need to find that specific buck of yours!

Love the character of that rack., I'd say you met your goal even if it's not the specific buck you were after. Good job

Do you think 5000 troops are going to disrupt your hunt more that 14000 illegal immigrants trotting through?

Great shot placement!

Final build specs: Lone Peak Fuzion Ti SA DBM 24" Proof Research Sendero 1:7.5" Axisworks Muscle Mag 3 port brake Manners PRS2 in "Tac Swamp" bedded Axisworks DBM w. AI mags Trigger Tech Diamond @ 6oz (yeah, 6oz!!!) Cerakote in Elite Sand Seekins alloy 30mm. 87" medium rings Tangent Theta TT315M 3-15×50 w. Gen 2XR MIL Finished weight of scoped rifle with 5 rd magazine is 9lbs 14oz Starting load work up: Lapua SR brass Fed GM205M 41.0-44.0 H4350 (42.0 @ 3056fps & 44.0 @ 3200 are both ridiculously accurate, everything was actually sub .5" except the cold/clean/new group) 105 Berger Hybrid 2.858" COAL 2.246" CBTO (touching the lands) Range day this morning First 3 shots out of the rifle. Cold/clean/new shot, then 2 more almost touching. Adjusted zero, then....It shoots as good as it looks. Shots 7/8/9 from the rifle. 105 Hybrid @ 3056fps The local inspector had to get a better look at the rifle... I got the 105 Hybrids up to 3200fps with no signs of pressure. Everything was under .5". Had the above group @ .240", and the group @ 3200fps were at .307". All with bullets seated just touching the lands for testing purposes.

I believe Edge is correct. That's a female mating call I believe. I've heard it a quite a few times and yes, once you know that sound, you'll notice it more often and it will have you looking over your shoulder.

Good idea, make it 50.00 dollars for nonresidents.

Just YouTube it!

As luck would have it I had the opportunity to do some bear hunting with the cousins last weekend. Combined my wife's cousin JW and I have killed over 20 bears in AZ between state land and the rez. Let me just say if it wasn't for the passion in are hearts I would sitting right under my ac unit at the house this time of year. It doesn't much matter where you go for bears in AZ, this time of year chances are it will be over 100 degree's sometime during the day of your bear hunt. And it was all that plus some you know it's hot when you are in the saguaro's and prickly pears for a bear hunt in August. Remember saguaro's do not grow over 3800' elevation. Between JW and I we have 8 kids in which 5 teenager's 2 preteen's and the newest hunter to the family a 1.5 year old. He has 4 and I have 4. As we get older are focus is certainly towards the kids getting out to hunt and us guiding them to success in all aspect in life. We started with looking up high 4500' plus and we located one bear opening day but are shooter was in school till 3 and wasn't arriving till that evening. Saturday was hot with no bears located. But we had the oldest teenager down in lower country and he spotted 2 bears. So I decided to move down to help him on Saturday evening. I found a nice black bear right at dark (as usual) with no chance to close the gap before time would run out. So we opted to go home and come back Sunday evening to get it done. So that was 3 we saw in the same area. We were able to close the gap Sunday evening to be in the heart of them and like clock work one bear showed up for the party. JW and his oldest were able to close the gap and get into shooting position I was watching from 1000 yards away on another ridge. I could see the bear and them in my bino's . Then boom and the bear just stood there then boom, boom, boom. The bear had enough and he booged up and move off to a deep canyon. the kid was heartbroken that he missed. So with about 15 min's of safe light left I started looking around and located what was to me a jumbo chocolate in the pears he was at 1124 yards and there was no way to close the gap in time but he was to be numero uno on the hit list. We called the bear line and unit was to close Weds. Between work for us and school for him we knew we were running out of time. I was able to get out Monday evening by myself and had a beautiful solid black one at 207 yards the only thing this bear was missing was about 150 pounds to match up the chocolate one I had saw. So I passed on him which is pretty hard to do. In my heart I really wanted the kid to get one first and I didn't want to booger it up in their. Finally the last evening of the hunt Weds we all were able to get in position for another evening And as luck would have it the same bear he missed came back out and the boy took it as a personal mission to seal the deal on that bear. He glassed it up him self then stalked it and was able to harvest that bear that evening at 150 yards with us old guy's watching . It was like passing the torch off or kung fu master when you snatch the pebbles from my hand it will be time for you to leave. Some of you older reader's will get this. 17 years old and pretty much did it on his own . He originally found the bears ,his dad and I where just their for back up. Now if you have ever taken a bear in the evening with no roads in sight you know how the REST OF THE STORY GO'S needless to say we arrived home around 1:30 am. And again I was happy too be part of it. And for the 350# chocolate I saw well my chocolate addiction will carry on. Thanks for the read, Pete