CouesWhitetail

Thank you for this thread. I really do appreciate the many talented members we have that share their expertise. In addition to the excellent ones you mentioned, here are some others I think share their expertise and add significant depth to the forum. 308Nut with his very useful, technical and practical gun and ballistics info. Lazzeroni also did this for awhile but has backed off. JLB has provided us with some great info about calculating shot distance when there is a steep angle involved. He also donated some great items to give away to help forum members in this situation. Deernut (AGFD deer specialist Jim Heffelfinger) shares his depth of knowledge about our beloved deer. In the same vein, Bwakeling (AGFD big game branch chief Brian Wakeling) gets involved in some of the topics about deer management in AZ and provides great information for our members. WildHeritageTaxidermy and swwildlife provide some excellent answers to taxidermy questions. Also cvw789 provides info on cleaning skulls. JavaCowboy provides amazing programming experience that allows me to hold contests more often. Coosefan, Wards Outfitters, Lance and Tines (of TLO), and ExtremeCoues (aka Jeremy Ulmer -- with the help of Coues'n'Sheep) are some of the sponsors here that provide us with LOTS of pics of great animals to drool over. And they often share their amazing expertise to help all hunters improve. Kiliminjaro (aka Scottyboy) dazzles us with hunting adventures on other continents and has helped other members make an African dream hunt a reality. Lucky2hunt and DCS have also shared their amazing exploits with a bow in Africa. Grong and Antlerdog share their unmatched passion for antlers with us! Wildlife Callers and Dogman provide outstanding info on hunting lions. Echo Co, Headhunter, Apache7mm and rabidApache provide us with some great trophies from the San Carlos and White Mtn Reservations. Several people host CW.com gatherings at their homes or at Marshall Lake....Antlerdog (allows people to drool over his awesome antler collection at his house), TJhunt2 (hosted the CW Christmas party), Lance (Marshall Lake gathering hosted for years now). These gatherings help add to the sense of community in this forum. Many other forum members go to great lengths to share their hunting/outdoor adventures through photo essays and stories...a few that do it regularly and with some great photos include: Pixman, Standman, azcouesfanatic, Scott Adams, AZP&Y, Ron G (with the help of amazing photos by jay woods), Gr8 White Jr and Girlygirl Hunter, and I could go on and on...it's just too long a list. Lots of members go out of their way to help others be successful....azpackhorse, willhunt4coues, bonecollector, scott adams, tjhunt2, ernestoC, matthewp45, and so many more. I really love the way this forum provides a community where hunters help other hunters be successful. The more I start listing, the more I realize there are too many people to thank and so I will cut it off here for now. We have so many members that help support this site in many ways such as serving as moderators, helping with contests, being supportive of other peoples hunting stories, and also those who sport a sticker or make a donation to help support the site. The list is huge. Anyway, I really do appreciate the amazing contributions and talents within the members of this forum. THANK YOU!

LOL!!!!!

I think they changed it so no guide is required for the coues hunts, but it's always best to double check with the dept. If you have the money, I would hire a tribal guide to help you since it sounds like you are not familiar with the unit. The guides can help save you a bunch of time and some are really good at coues hunting. Dewey Wesley Jr, Monster (Wilfred) Dude, Randy Hopkins, Homer Stevens, Julius Hostetler are a few that I would contact.

Ain't that the truth. Dry, I'm in the "He probably didn't realize and posting his info on the web was a little harsh" camp also. Sorry your hunt got ruined. +1 I wish everyone would stay out of my public lands too!! But DryHeat does raise a good point about spending a little more time thinking about all the other open seasons at the time and how your actions might affect other hunters. This time of year is very difficult to avoid other hunters. I am still waiting for the day when someone blasts me on here for walking my dogs on public land and "ruining" their hunt. I always try to keep in mind all the open seasons and find a place without hunters, but it's practically impossible with all the seasons going on now. Certainly first come/first serve at a tank is the standard and I am not sure why the "intruders" would park at a tank and then leave (essentially making the tank unavailable to others for hunting). But of course we don't know the story from their point of view.....unless they post up in this thread.

Yeah! I love to see you expanding your talents into the night sky....very nice!

Congratulations on all the family success!! don't forget to enter them in the coues Buck contest! http://www.coueswhitetail.com/Coues_Buck_Contest_2011/coues_buck_contest_2011-12.htm

nice variety of animals!

quail are great to eat!! The quail species in AZ are pretty distinctive, but spend some time looking at photos of them to be sure you know what you are shooting. The gambel's quail are the most common and generally found in desert areas. Scaled quail are most often found in flat grasslands. The Mearn's quail are found in oak/grasslands and sometimes up in the pine country. Each quail behaves differently when approached too. The gambels flush fairly easily. The scaled quail like to run on the ground to get away. The Mearn's quail hold tight and explode from under your feet.

Congratulations on your buck! I am so glad to hear you are ok after that quad rolled over you. wow, scary stuff! Don't forget to enter your buck in the Coues Buck contest! They don't have to be monsters to win something! We have a smallest buck category and also will give a prize to some randomly picked people who enter the contest. http://www.coueswhitetail.com/Coues_Buck_Contest_2011/coues_buck_contest_2011-12.htm

Cool!! Congrats on the pig and I love the hunt diary...keep it coming!

I love it!! Thanks for starting a mystery DB! Hope to see the pic of you and your quarry soon

Very well written story! I loved it, thanks for taking the time to write it up and share your success with us! Don't forget to enter your buck into the Coues Buck Contest! http://www.coueswhitetail.com/Coues_Buck_Contest_2011/coues_buck_contest_2011-12.htm

Congrats!! Happy New Year to you and your family!

Bill's post just reminded me that these tacos make great left overs to eat out in the field while hunting. The refrigerated tacos were wrapped up in aluminum foil and tossed in our packs. We ate those tacos on our deer hunt for left overs and they are awesome when you are hungry while glassing! In fact we rarely made it past 10 am before we broke into the tacos!

Thanks Shelvin and Happy New Year to everyone! Hopefully it will be a productive and happy one for our many members!

Awesome!! that's just so cool! I would love to see it in person sometime! You have it up at the shop now for people to check out?

How come you guys that are seeing all these lions are killing any?? Just too far to go after? Or don't want to waste time on a lion while you are deer hunting? I know one guy in this thread said he wounded one, but sounds like no one else is even hunting them?

Taco Party at Scott's house!!

The original photo is a color transparency/slide. I scanned it into my computer and did some quick PhotoShop work to make the background monochrome. It is not my best effort as I was rushed at the time; however, I think it makes the photo look more interesting. My dad just laughs at all the camo clothing my son and I have accumulated over the years. He always wore some type of denim trousers with a plaid shirt - he still has taken more big game than my son and me. He tells me all he ever did was keep himself downwind as much as possible and the quarry really didn't care what he was wearing. His hunting buddy on the right was an USAF fighter pilot (flew F-104's) and shot his speed goat with .38 special S&W pistol. Dad said he would rarely hunt with a rifle and preferred the challenge of getting into pistol range. Both he and my dad shot on the USAF Rifle/Pistol team. They were very good shots with either weapon. Very cool. I just got the new Photoshop elements and it has some neat new features in that I want to mess with.

Ok, with more and more hunters trying their hand at long range shooting, I thought there would be some of you that have stories about missing a shot at a deer or elk because you didn't take into account the effect the steep angle had on your shot distance. If you don't already know, a steep angle (either up or down) will make it so that the distance your range finder might measure to your deer is not the same distance as your actual horizontal distance you should use for the shot. You can see a diagram of this effect and read more about it on the CouesWhitetail.com Shot Placement page here: http://www.coueswhitetail.com/shot_placement/shot_placement.htm Anyway, forum member Jim Boyd created a product that helps you measure the angle of the shot and then you use a table to calculate the true distance of the shot. Jim has graciously donated several of these items to CouesWhitetail.com and I thought it would be fun to give them away to people who share a story about missing a shot due to the angle issue. so the first 20 people posting a story about a hunt you have been on that was affected by a steep angle shot will receive one of these units made by Jim. It can be your hunt or a friend's hunt that you were on, but share your story about what happened and what you learned from the experience. This will be a great way to teach some folks about how significant it can be to know the angle of the shot. Thank you Jim for donating your product. Jim had a business making these, but he closed the business and has donated the extra inventory he had to CouesWhitetail.com. This is a great product for those of us who don't want to spend the extra money on an angle compensating range finder. just throw this in your pack and use it in conjunction with a regular range finder anytime you have steep angle for a shot.

Casey, we always make a lot because it's easy to eat a ton of these tastey tacos!! My husband said he never liked tacos before I started making them this way! It's making me want to go make some just looking at these pics! Amanda

do you want to do the whole thing? In other words do you want to fry the tortillas or do you want to buy pre-made shells and fill them? For tacos that I make from game meat, I usually use ground meat, but cubed meat would work if it's soft enough. Is it already cooked? If not, I would crock pot the cubed meat in a little beef bouillon (maybe add some green chilis to it)overnight until really tender and then use that for taco meat. I learned how to make homemade tacos from my buddy Scott and love them! I use garlic and cumin to season my taco meat, but Scott uses just garlic salt, so it's up to you what you season it with. You can buy taco seasoning at the store and just use that as well. I use the soft corn tortillas, put raw seasoned meat on one half and then put the tortilla in hot oil in a deep frying pan to crisp it up. Shortly after putting the flat tortilla with the meat in the hot oil, you want to use metal utensils to fold it in half like a regular taco shell. Once it's done to your liking, take the tacos out of the oil and let them drain on paper towels. Fill tacos with whatever you want. I use shredded cheese, chopped tomatoes, cilantro, lettuce and chopped onions. Taco sauce is nice too. Some pics: You can see a tortilla with the meat spread on it in the right hand side of pic. You can season the meat on the taco or pre-season the whole batch.

Cool photo! I like how you edited the colors. Was it originally a color photo that you turned the background to black and white or vice versa?

Congratulations and Welcome!! Great first post

Where do you like to go to have chorizo, brats, polish kielbasa or spicy Italian sausage made? I have my first javelina hunt in Feb and have been wondering about a good place to have sausage made. here are a couple that I recommend. Miller's Southwestern Processing. They make some great sausage and are a sponsor of CW.com! They are in queen creek and you can stop by and sample what they have to offer. http://southwesternprocessing.com/ Browning's Custom Meat offers 10% off for CouesWhitetail.com members, call Jeremy at Browning's Custom Meat Processing - 928-978-3512