CouesWhitetail

Welcome aboard! Hope you enjoy the site as much as we do! If you need any help posting or whatever, just let me know.

nice video...can't believe that's a cell phone thru binos!

Good ideas...never head of bacon ends and peices...sounds like something I want to add to my burgers.

Thanks for the info Brian!

15 year old Colton Elmer shot this on a depradation hunt in AZ and gave us permission to post it. WOW! Great bull, congratulations Colton! They scored it at 402! Not bad for an over-the-counter tag!!

HOLY SMOKES! that is awesome! Congratulations and thanks so much for sharing the story and all those pics, it really takes us along with you!! And you know of course I love the CWT tshirt pics with that giant buck!! AWESOME BUCK AND HUNT!! WOW!

Thanks to sjvcon and Nosajpo for donating back a portion of sales they made in the classifieds here. All donations are greatly appreciated!

I know many of you here have been dismayed by the last 5 years or so that the AGFD commission has been moving toward issuing more tags and reducing hunt success. The AZ Deer Association hired some ex-AGFD employees to help us analyze the hunt guidelines that were recommended by the AGFD Dept. The hunt guidelines are specific policies that govern how the dept decides how many tags to issue. At a recent meeting of the AGFD commission to discuss those hunt guidelines, the commission voted against the Dept's recommendation and for the AZ Deer Association's recommendation to set the buck:doe ratios to be 20-30 bucks per 100 does rather than the 10-20 per 100 does that was currently in the hunt guidelines. The AZ Deer Association president John Koleszar has written up a statement about the meeting and is also asking for your input on the issue. You can read that statement by clicking on the link below. you can post your comments about this in this thread, or contact John directly by email. http://www.azdeer.org/presidents_%20message_Hunt_Guidelines_2011.pdf

Congratulations!!

Excellent buck! Congratulations! Guess passing on the smaller ones worked out great for you!

Ouch!! That's a bummer!! Well, I know someone who can get you a new sticker whenever you get your new window!!

Outstanding!! Congratulations to both of you.

I am happy to announce that Jim Hartsock of Southwest Wildlife Taxidermy has joined on as a sponsor of CouesWhitetail.com. I know several of our members have spoken highly of his work. I spoke with several of his customers and they all gave rave reviews such as "He is phenomenal...There is no way I could be happier with his work". One of his customers has used Jim for over 15 years and has had him do 47 shoulder mounts/lifesize mounts/custom mounts. Jim started doing taxidermy 36 years ago at the age of 14 and never stopped. He has been mounting Coues deer since moving to Arizona 25 years ago and says he loves to recreate the differences that exist in the different subspecies of whitetail. Jim has 2 full time employees and they are qualified in all phases of taxidermy. They bring the total years of experience of Southwest Wildlife to about 75 years. They mount about 100 coues deer a year. Custom work is not a problem. Jim said, "We mount all species of animals, birds and fish. About 70% of our work is African and International. We love to do major alterations. Almost all of our mounts are altered in some way. Some for position and some for size. Every animal is different and each difference needs to be addressed." They have quick turnaround time averaging 8-12 months. When I asked him "What makes your taxidermy business different than the others? Why should someone hire you rather than one of your competitors?" here is what he said, "When selecting a taxidermist I suggest that the hunter go look at the work, not just one piece but a number of them. Look to see if the animal looks alive and ready to step off the wall. We recreate animals that look like they will step off the walls. We pride ourselves in anatomical correctness, We listen to the customer to provide him with what he wants. We are here today and will be here tomorrow. We are the only shop in the valley licensed by the state and federal government, and approved by the USDA. No one else can say that." Jim regularly attends taxidermy conferences and competitions. He has competed for over 20 years and has won numerous 1st, 2nd, 3rd ribbons in both the open division and Masters. He has also won many Best of Categories, Peoples Choice, Taxidermist Choice, in mammals, birds, fish. He received the Arizona Best All Around 4 times, 3 in a row. (98,99,2000 and again in 2004). He won the Award of Excellence given by the National Taxidermy Assn. in life-size mammals. At that time only 75 taxidermist in the world had received that honor. He has competed and won awards at various state competitions, Regional’s, and Nationals. Of all the awards he has won in both the open division and Masters the ones he is most proud of are the Peoples Choice Awards he has received because that means that typical customers are liking his work. Jim has a showroom with over 100 completed mounts that are constantly changing. So plan a trip and check out his work in person. If you can't make it to the showroom, you can check out his work on his website. http://www.swwildlife.com/ Southwest Wildlife Taxidermy 16443 N. 91st Street Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 480-661-0372 jim@swwildlife.com check out his work in these pics:

Please go post this in the contest thread.... http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=27065 the pics have to be posted in the contest thread in order to be entered in the contest. thx!

LOL!! I hadn't thought of that. Is there anything a good C-clamp can't do??

Yes, we are having the elk contest again. You don't have to pre-register but you do have to be a forum member before your elk hunt starts. To enter your elk in the contest, you have to email the photos and link to the hunt story that was posted in the forum to Tim Maddock (aka TAM). We are looking for donations for prizes for this contest, so if anyone wants to help with that, email me and let me know. amanda@coueswhitetail.com Elk Contest info page: http://www.coueswhitetail.com/Elk_Contest_2011/Elk_contest_2011.htm

Don't know of any in particular....sportsmans maybe? Google might know

Yup, several ways is correct. Here's one way: ___________________________Per_HV_% Early 24A 2010 WT 10/22-10/28 450 137 31 Middle 24A 2010 WT 11/26-12/02 475 126 29 Late 24A 2010 WT 12/10-12/31 40 21 53 Two early hunts: 925 total permits 263 bucks killed average success about 29%. Thus cutting about 75 permits from one or both hunts would keep about 22 bucks out of the freezers. Late hunt: Cutting just these 40 permits would accomplish the same thing while allowing 35 more hunters to hunt. But in the grand scheme, those 21 bucks that are not killed are pretty irrelevant to the actual health and welfare of the deer in 24A. And those 21 bucks will do little but cause a short-term slight uptick in the buck:doe ratio. So...unless the ADA proposes MAJOR cuts in permit numbers, the whole buck:doe ratio exercise is nothing more than lip service to the real problem: we need MORE DEER, period -- not bigger bucks to placate the "trophy" crowd. And for that to happen, we need more does having more fawns. But until the weather patterns change and/or predation on does and fawns is addressed, the deer herd numbers will remain stagnant or perhaps even continue to shrink. Now, before I get into real trouble, I'll crawl back into my hole. So...unless the ADA proposes MAJOR cuts in permit numbers, the whole buck:doe ratio exercise is nothing more than lip service to the real problem: we need MORE DEER, period I agree with you there.....as one commissioner put it, "we are fiddling while Rome burns" and I couldn't agree more. Whether we have 20:100 or 10:100, the populations of mule deer in particular are not doing well. There are many that argue that is partly due to low buck:doe ratios. Fewer bucks mean a higher likelihood that all does won't be bred the first time around. So then you end up with fawning spread out over a wider timeframe, which theoretically can increase predation because you are not having a large pulse of fawns born near the same time. So instead of predators having a short timeframe to eat fawns, they have a longer time frame to hunt them. I think the lack of clear concesus within the dept about what is causing the decline or lack of growth in deer populations causes a paralysis so that we do very little to solve the problem. Obviously we can't control all the factors that influence deer populations (ie rainfall), but we can increase predator control, we can improve habitat and we can control the number of hunting permits issued.

Hunters Headquarters is our newest sponsor and they just opened up a retail store in Flagstaff on June 6. So far the reviews I have been getting about selection and service are great. They have 2000 sq ft of retail space and an indoor archery shooting lane. They do not just offer great archery gear and support, but they also have just about everything you could want in the outdoors. Camping, fishing, hiking, rifles, bows, backpacks and so much more. I think this store will be of great service to our members up in the Flagstaff area. Please stop by and introduce yourself to Brent Morrison (store owner). Tell him you heard about the store on CouesWhitetail.com and see what kind of items he can provide that you need. http://www.huntershq.com/ Hunter's Headquarters 4999 Suite D E. Empire Ave. Flagstaff, AZ 86004 (928) 527-4000 Thanks to Brent for helping to support this site and for providing a great store for hunters up in Flag!

This is a small step and will probably only result in a few changes, as many of the units already exceed 20:100. For those that don't, permits will be decreased in all the hunts in the unit proportionately. Those that already exceed 20:100 will be allowed to stay that way rather than triggering a reduction in bucks. But...but... it's not the number of permits that are the problem, per se .. it's the number of bucks that are being killed. So the logical option is to reduce the hunts/permits that have the highest success rates even further. BTW, I do agree with one sentence in the last paragraph of the letter, though. Obviously it can be looked at in several ways. The vast majority of bucks are killed in the early seasons, not the late season, so really it could be argued that if you want to reduce the amount of bucks killed you should target the season where the most bucks are killed. In my home unit of 24a, about 10x more bucks are killed in Oct and Nov than are killed in Dec (it's like 250 to 25).

Great lookin bull! Love the dark antlers!

This is a small step and will probably only result in a few changes, as many of the units already exceed 20:100. For those that don't, permits will be decreased in all the hunts in the unit proportionately. Those that already exceed 20:100 will be allowed to stay that way rather than triggering a reduction in bucks.

Thank you all! It means a lot to me when the people I respect value this site so much.

let us know what you find.

+1!!