CouesWhitetail

Lark, It's even worse than that....most all our tools we found on the side of the road. You can find tons of stuff that way....hammers, ratchet sets, screw drivers, etc. You would be surprised how many vice grips we have found, although some are a little bent and don't work so great....

good idea...i hadn't thought of camo painting it!

LOL!! How do you know that!! You got me pegged....

I am glad to see the fires being allowed to burn...we just can't burn enough acres through prescribed fire alone to get caught up in any meaningful way. The most cost effective way to get some larger acreages burned is to allow natural fires to do their thing. Those burns create better deer and elk habitat in the short and long term.

Hmmmmmmm? I DIDN'T see you there that day the Wallow fire started. Were you on the 25 road with the 3 Engines watching as the copper column was laying over with 50 mph gusts? Right now im thinking of everyone that was there and that was 9 Men and women including myself and I know every one of them. One of them was the idiot official that decided that is was too dangerous to go into a canyon with no escape routes and safety zones. Im not going to burn myself up for a tree. I dunno where you got your info but you might want to check your facts. Before you go pointing fingers, brush up on your 10 fire fighting standard orders and your 18 watchout situations. Also read the report that was given out by the Forest Supervisor, the timeline provided was given to him by my fellow crew members that were interviewed by law enforcement. Just tired of hearing what happened from everyone else that wasn't there! Timeline +1 I am getting tired of it too....Thanks for sharing the real scoop.... People need to click on the Timeline link in his post and see what the actual response was.

Hope you have a great day and your family does something nice for you

Wow, I would love to do this, but I have my archery elk tag! Sounds like a great deal. And for those that don't know Matt, he is an excellent guide and a very enjoyable person to be around. If you have been looking for a great antelope...this is a great deal!

I am excited too!!! I can't get up there until about the day before the season, but I am stoked!! Many thanks to John Olvey and TJ for loaning me their trailers for my hunt. Can't believe I will be camping in such luxury. Planning lots of great meals. Already smoked and slow cooked some wild hog for BBQ sandwiches and fajitas. Bringing some salmon and scallops and shrimp too since I will have a freezer and fridge in the RV! Nice! Unfortunately my bow sight is still broken right now, so that's making me a little tense...waiting on a part for it.

Ok, if you send the other one back, I will send out a 2XL. My address was on the envelope, so just send that one back. call or email if you need anything else....928-200-0544

Outstanding!!! That is so cool!! Great shot and nice buck! I have yet to get a spot and stalk buck with my bow, can't wait for that feeling of success like you had! Congratulations!

Brian, Did you try loading them today off your computer? It should work now that they changed the memory settings. Amanda

Awesome! Congratulations on a great hunt!

Ok, tech support changed a setting...so try and post whatever pics wouldn't post before. I know I was able to post a photo Gino wasn't able to, so try those files again please and let me know how it goes.

test

cool!!

Congratulations on your first deer! What an accomplishment! Glad you and your dad shared such a great adventure!

Well, I put in a request to tech support to ask for their help and haven't heard back yet. I don't have any idea why one computer would let you upload pics and not another. Perhaps it's something in the antivirus or firewall settings? I talked to Steven about his problem and he was also having trouble sending and receiving email, so we thought maybe it was related and perhaps due to an auto upgrade to an antivirus program on his computer.

It's not my picture, I just got permission to use it on the website. That is one of my favorite pictures! Bob Campbell took the pic and graciously let me use it.

Well back in April when I was beginning fieldwork for the owl surveys in the Chiricahuas and Pinalenos, I was concerned about how I would know if my workers were safe at the end of the day (or night in the case of owl work!). Some of the territories would be remote backpack trips and many times would be done solo by my worker, so I wanted a way to keep track of him and get him help in any emergency situation. The Chiricahuas have pretty poor cell service so most of the time down there we could not keep in touch by cell. So I was looking into satellite phones (pretty expensive) and also personal locator beacons and this SPOT unit. Well, after looking awhile I decided to try the SPOT unit and called Eric at sponsor Santana Outdoors and he said he carries those and could get them for me. So I got two different units (one was the regular SPOT and one was the newer SPOT Connect that works with your smartphone). My worker didn't have a smartphone so he got the regular unit and I used the spot connect. (Thanks Santana Outdoors for working to get those to us quickly!! Eric even made sure I got all the paperwork needed to get the rebate SPOT was offering). The Spot units are very small, fit in the palm of your hand. They have several ways of communicating...You can set it up so msgs go to groups of people or just one person. You can also set it up so you can send a message to a cell phone or to their email (or both). The nice thing about the SPOT units is that they send the GPS location with the message, so if you want your husband or wife to know where you are and that you are ok, you just send an "I'm OK" msg and the coordinates are automatically sent. So then when the recipient gets the message, they can just click on the link and it plots the location in GOOGLE MAPS. Cool!! This seemed very accurate whenever I check it out. After the Horseshoe 2 fire was over, yet the forest was still closed, the USFS was very concerned about our safety during our surveys and wanted us to check in twice a day. But cell phones didn't work and we didn't really get good coverage with the USFS radio (not to mention they are very heavy to backpack around with), so we used the SPOT units and that worked great. All the higher ups in the USFS district would get emails with links to our location and a message saying we were ok. With my SPOT Connect unit I could even customize the message to say something like "Surveys complete, headed home" or whatever custom message you want (within certain character limits). So with the SPOT Connect unit, it's sort of like turning your smart phone into a satellite phone (although you can only send texts). Now the best reason to have a SPOT unit is that if you ever get into a medical emergency or need assistance ASAP, then you can hit the SOS button and it will send a msg and coordinates to the GEOS International Emergency Response Coordination Center (IERCC). This is the international search and rescue group that knows exactly how to get you the help you need whereever you are in the world. (I am thinking this will be great if I am hunting Coues down in Mexico!) And you can buy some inexpenisve insurance so that you are covered up to about $50,000 of emergecy rescue services, so you won't have some giant bill even after a much needed rescue. Anyway, I really recommend this unit as a great, lightweight way to always have a way to arrange for emergency medical help and to have a way to tell your friends/family that you are ok. I will be keeping this unit in my pack during my hunts this year as it gives me peace of mind that if I break my leg in the middle of no where, I can get help and they will know exactly where I am. Check out the SPOT unit on Santana Outdoors website. Eric not only sells these units, but he has used them for a few years now and he was very helpful when I needed to get some. So give him a call and ask him about the units and see if this isn't the best solution for you. http://www.santanaoutdoors.com/servlet/StoreFront?affiliate_no=1

I have a bull elk hunt coming up in a couple weeks and last night when I went to shoot my bow I noticed the elevation was off and so I looked at my sight and realized it was loose. Well, I tried and tried to tighten it and make it work, but it wouldn't. So today I contacted Will Shill (store manager Gila Outdoor) and he said he was coming to Globe for an errand and would swing by my house to look at my bow. Well he determined the threading was stripped and he called PSE to get the part I needed for the Top Gun Sight. Then I showed him some other stuff (quiver) that was loose on my bow and he volunteered to take it back to his shop and fix it up and bring it back tomorrow morning. Wow, can't get better service than having a great bow tech stop by your house and offer to fix the bow and bring it back! Thanks so much Will. Previously, I had brought that bow to his shop while on my way to do owl survey on Mt Graham. At that time he fixed a simple problem with the cams and re-nocked my arrows when he noticed they were not gripping the string well. Time is of the essence with this hunt coming up soon and I really appreciate Gila Outdoor going the extra mile for me. Thank you for your sponsorship and for the great customer service. http://www.gilaoutdoor.com/

That's a cool offer! So anyone with a Unit 1 tag might want to keep this in mind in case you get into a bind up there!

Kinda looks like Steven Ward? Photo is a little blurry. I think he was down there last week...

It's a good question motoxno53....If it's a long backpack trip, you are probably right to worry about your cell phone battery. You might consider getting one of those small flexible lightweight solar panels that is made for charging phones in the back country. Then you have the best of both worlds and no worries about the battery. The Spot Connect can still be used for SOS without a cell phone, so if your cell phone dies, you will still be able to signal for emergency help. But you will lose the nice option of custom messages if your cell phone battery dies. So if you are wanting to send the "I'm OK" or custom messages often on your backpack trip, you might be better with the SPOT2. On my backpack hunts, I turn the phone off unless I am using it so that it's not working to find cell service and therefore not burning up the battery. If you were to just use your phone for sending a message once or twice a day and then shut it off, then you might not have to worry about the battery dying. I think once you start sending the msg, you can shut your phone off, so it doesn't have to stay on the whole time the SPOT unit does for sending a msg. So I guess for simplicity, I would say the SPOT2, but you also could try other options to make your cell phone battery last longer (like leaving it off unless using it, bring an extra fully charged battery or get a small portable solar charger). But the real question is....without your smart phone on a backpack hunt, how would you check CouesWhitetail.com everyday???

thanks Cliff!! it means a lot to me that someone like you values this site so much!! I appreciate your friendship and your service to this country! I also think it is awesome how we get realtime info about fires and other stuff going on in the state. we have a great group of interesting people around here!!

Thanks to everyone for sharing your experience with this unit. You definitely want to test it out and do all the online setup stuff (to setup who gets your messages and to activate any optional services) in advance to any trip. It does take a little time to get it all setup, but I didn't find it very difficult. It's always good to test out technical stuff like this unit at home or on a short trip somewhere before relying on it for a longer trip. I know I feel an added measure of security now that I carry this thing with me.