CouesWhitetail

Wow!! I didn't know about it, but I just looked out that way and there is a giant amount of smoke out that way......ugh!!!! Could have been dry lightning, there have been lots of clouds building. Hopefully the rain storms they are predicting will help put it out.

Greg Joels asked me to post this for him: Our hunt started out in an area I grew up hunting muleys in. Now there isn't a muley to be found but the coues are still there. Thought being sentimental would bring us luck but it only brought lots of immigrants, border patrol, and wind. We saw plenty of bucks but nothing to get real excited about. It was good to get back in there and remember all the good times we had in those hills. Larry was probably tired of hearing a story at every bend in the road. We finally gave up on that area and pulled out the map. We decided on a new spot a few hours away and packed up camp. we went for a small hike that evening and larry was pretty jazzed up about the place. Being an accomplished whitetail hunter he tells me "this is a place you will see a monster." Following morning we took off hiking and it didn't take long for us to realize we made a good move. we had split up to glass and after an hour he comes up kinda (really) excited and said he had a shooter. He had been playing cat and mouse with the buck for an hour and lost him. We never saw that buck again but found another good buck in the 90's I just couldn't pull a shot off on. The wind was horrible and was blowing me off the mountain. I was so irritated and tired on day eight of the hunt I almost packed up and left. Larry convinced me to suck it up and stay one more day. Glad I did. Day 9: veterans day. we take off and push deeper into the area we had seen the bucks. We set up the glass on a killer looking canyon and started to work. I picked up some deer right away around a big dead cedar tree. A few does fed around the tree and I saw a buck thru the tree. It was hard to get the details on him I just knew he was big! I told larry that I had a hundred incher and he shifted his glass over and told me to get on the rifle. I set up in the prone and ranged the tree. 580. It always seems difficult to get comfy when the moment of truth arrives. Well I layed there for an hour and no buck. How did this guy give us the slip? I stood up behind the 15's and started panning around. Then I saw a "small" buck and got back behind the ultra and racked a 210 berger. A second later larry says" there he is." I just saw lots of horn, shifted the rifle, and definitely didn't squeeze the trigger! He ran about fifty yards and piled up. I ask larry if he was a good one and he said " well i have seen a few of those boogers and that's boone and crockett." After a high five that turned into a hug larry set off to find my dream buck. I continued to glass and after five minutes called him on the radio to tell him I had found two decent bucks on the same hillside that mine laid on. He ended up shooting a 97" buck an hour after mine was shot. When he got to his he called me and asked "how big did yours look compared to this?" I told him that he dwarfed it. He came back and said" wow, this isn't a bad buck." We met some first time deer hunters back at our starting spot one of whom was a disabled vet. We told them where some bucks were and set their binos up on a tripod. I ended up getting a picture message of tom and his first buck. How cool. He had shot it that morning I shot mine. What a day. Thank you to all our veterans and active military. Left side was 57. Right side was 49. 122 total. Had a drop tine going on right side was damaged in velvet id guess. Greg's buck: Larry's buck:

more info: You are cordially invited to the 36th Annual Arizona Chapter Safari Club International Auction and Banquet DATE: Saturday, July 9, 2011 TIME: 4:00 p.m. LOCATION: Loews Ventana Canyon Resort Please join us for a fabulous dinner and an exciting evening of events at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. Arizona's best live auction of African safaris, North American hunting adventures and fishing trips around the world. Two Silent Auctions featuring jewelry, hunts, hunting gear, fine books and other great items. Incredible bucket raffle featuring jewelry, premier firearms, fishing equipment, accessories, artwork and much more. Taxidermy displays as well as outfitters with displays. Fabulous three-course gourmet filet mignon dinner. Card and coin raffles for fine jewelry and firearms. There is limited seating, so reserve early. If you purchase tickets by June 30, you may purchase $100 worth of raffle tickets for only $60. For more information contact azsci@yahoo.com

Did you just happen to catch that squirrel and bobcat in front of your camera or did you somehow anchor that squirrel in place there to attract the bobcat? It looks like the squirrel can't get away....

I encourage you guys to attend this banquet. I will be there. How many others want to attend? Maybe we can get a CW.com table going?

My friend gave me some big zucchini and so I am going to make stuffed zucchini tonight...thx for the idea!

Happy Birthday!!

Thanks for the feedback.....I haven't attended the meetings....I agree its a bogus question...

The black hummer was probably Eric Santana. Not sure about the others. 5 stickers in two days has to be a record (unless you count stickers seen at banquets or habitat projects or CW.com get togethers). But for general driving around, seeing 5 is awesome! nice job!

I want to come over for dinner at your place!! What a great garden you have. Thanks for sharing the recipe with us. Looks and sounds awesome.

I really doubt the USFS will close all the burned areas during hunting season. That would be a bit crazy, even for the USFS. According to the AGFD presentation, the fire severity of the Wallow Fire has been relatively low in lots of unit 1 and 27. The USFS doesn't even close areas to hunting during their prescribed burns.

I hope AGFD makes those fire severity maps available. It was interesting that they said about 89% of unit 1 had relatively low fire severity. I couldn't read the tables, or really read the maps they showed, but in comparison to Rodeo-Chediski, the Wallow fire burned a lot less severly, which is a good thing for wildlife. I can't wait to actually see the maps of fire severity. I don't think they will be taken any action on this today, but they are worried about access to the forest service land. If the USFS closes a large portion of the forest then it will be a real problem for hunters. But based on the fire severity info Brian Wakeling presented, I doubt the USFS would really close that much land to hunting.

I have been receiving regular updates from the San Carlos Forestry Dept and they had a ton of people fighting that fire on the reservation. The tribes have a well developed fire program and many excellent fire fighting crews that are used nation-wide. About 10,000 acres burned on San Carlos up in the northeast section of the reservation (malay gap/black river) and over 12,000 acres on the White Mtn Apache Reservation. They have some very thick forest in the areas that burned as well as some that has been thinned. While I agree the San Carlos does an excellent job managing their forests, I think the main spread of the fires has a lot more to do with the way the winds normally blow West to East. That pushed the fire toward Alpine and NM rather than into the reservations and gave the firefighters a bit of a helping hand. From having worked on the San Carlos reservation I know they do the usual NEPA process for their forestry projects, pretty much just like off the reservation. All their forestry projects receive review and input from biologists, the public, range management personnel, soil scientists, water specialists, tribal EPA personnel and federal reviews if necessary by USFWS and BIA. The Tribe manages their forest while still maintaining habitat for endangered species such as the Mexican Spotted Owl. They follow environmental laws and still do a lot of pre-commercial thinning followed by prescribed burns. It's that thinning and burning that is crucial to allowing the forests to go back to a more natural fire pattern. However, much of the reservation is too steep, they don't do thinning/logging on slopes >40% and actually the loggers generally can't cut effectively on slopes >30%. One thing that has helped recently is that they have retooled the mill to accept smaller trees because there is now a market for them...there has been a real problem nationwide with finding a market for small trees, which makes it really hard to have any type of economical thinning project.

Wow, that was a GREAT video!! Nice music and editing and field footage....Excellent job! Thanks for sharing the hunt with us! And Congratulations on another great buffalo hunt. I think Lance told me they got 5 or 6 buffalo this year...that's some serious work! And last year I think they got four. Wow! Timberland Outfitters really seems to be great at hunting those buffalo! TLO is an official sponsor of CouesWhitetail.com and I highly recommend them for buffalo or any other game. These guys are tough and good at finding game. Check out their website: http://www.tlohunting.com/

Yeah, we will definitely have at least one table,,,,we usually have several....let's have some fun and support a great group!!

Wow! I guess I should have looked them chiggers up years ago. Thanks Amanda for the reserch online. I can't believe how much smarter I keep get'en by posting and reading here on cwt. Nail polish has always worked better for me than calomine lotion. TJ Whatever works for you!

hehehe, funny man...

I don't remember if I posted this already, but I really wanted to say thank you to TJ and Peg for going above and beyond to help us make this outing more fun. They donated several items which they purchased specifically to give away at this event. We ended up raffling off most of those and donating the money to Josh/Jen. And TJ and Peg came up with the idea of the rope lights for a campfire, since we couldn't have a real fire. That worked great and was a real hit with everyone. In addition TJ scouted out and located our camping spot (which was different from previous years) and created signs to help everyone find it. And Peg made some outstanding fresh salsa that everyone enjoyed, as well as several sides for dinner. And they provided the power, the blender, the cups and tequila for pomegranate margaritas! So many thanks to TJ and Peg for all they do to help at events like this. You make it a real treat and I really appreciate what you do

I don't actually have the protein plus in stock, but I do have Lean Life and here is a photo of the lable on the bottle with the composition facts.

Just an fyi - it's a common misconception that chiggers actually burrow into the skin and cause the itching by living in the skin. They don't, they just bite on the outside and cause intense itching. Calamine lotion, a corticosteroid cream, or an antihistamine to reduce itching is best treatment. You can do your own research online, but here is one article about them. http://www.medicinenet.com/chiggers_bites/article.htm

more pics.... Julie found a large peice of elk hide during the night and was parading around with it in the morning when we woke up. She loved her prize and defended it from the other dogs....it was pretty entertaining! some food pics...we should have taken some of the awesome burgers and wings and such. some outstanding sweet corn! smoked buffalo that didn't last long! excellent side dishes. Young Dallas was so proud of the shot that put his arrow right through the bottle. He was gonna take that bottle home and put it on the wall in his room. Sunshine had a blast and let everyone pet her. She even acted as a therapy dog, when Rachel hurt herself...sunshine went over to comfort her. some archery and people pics.

LOL!! Ya, I have insurance, but I don't think it covers chiggers and acts of stupidity like kicking stumps!! Sorry u guys are suffering!!

Great news Bill, thanks for the update!! Congrats to those fire fiighters on a job well done!! Ps. I got the package u sent me, but I haven't had a chance to open it yet.

I got topos for my gps from huntinggpsmaps.com also. Love thos maps on my gps. They show land ownership and road and trail numbers. So I use that on my gps and national topo to print out maps.

My husband and I had a great time and would like to thank everyone who came to the event. It was a lot of fun and as usual, Lance and Carrie provided OUTSTANDING food for us all!! Awesome elk cheesburgers, chicken wings on the grill, smoked buffalo meat, biscuits and gravy and much more. Paul and I really enjoyed chatting with everyone and it was fun watching all the kids have so much fun up there! I haven't had a chance to download photos, but I have lots of good ones to share. We also raised another $320 for Josh and Jen with a raffle that TJ coordinated. Thanks everyone! We probably had 30 people or so attend and I hope to see even more of you there next year! You can't beat the hospitality and the beautiful scenery.