CouesWhitetail

That cow elk knows who is king. hehehe, COUES is KING!! Amanda

Sorry about that! The hosting company did a big upgrade and moved the site and it messed up the link between the main site and the forum. Things seem ok now though. Thanks for hanging in there guys!! Amanda

Man, anyone else have trouble breathing after seeing that first buck? Dang, nice one. I like the deer in the background in the photo with the cow elk. Amanda

I will hopefully be going on a couple hunts in Mexico this year. Ernesto and I will be going to check a ranch in Aug. Can't wait!! Amanda

I like the grey ghost pic!! Amanda

Awesome! Thanks for sharing the pic and stories. Amanda

Equating a do-it-yourself Coues hunt in Dec with a guided Texas hunt is a bit of a stretch. I absolutely agree that for me a quality hunt is a challenging hunt. The way I challenge myself if I have a Dec tag is to hunt most of the entire season for a certain buck or certain size buck. I pass on lots of bucks when doing that. To me that is challenging. Being in the right place at the right time for a particular buck is a lot more work (for me anyway) than just shooting any coues deer. And it often means coming home empty handed. Backpack hunting is what I LOVE and I really enjoy being out in Dec rather than Oct. However, this Oct I will be out sweating my butt off backpacking in somewhere to try for a monster coues. If spear hunting isn't legal, perhaps you would love spot and stalk coues with traditional archery equipment. That's a challenge! I have yet to get one with a bow. Amanda

When the AZ Deer Association surveyed about 6500 hunters about deer hunting in AZ, one of the questions asked them to rate their deer hunting experience during the Oct, Nov and Dec WT seasons. The graph below shows the results. The majority of Dec. hunters (81%) rated their Dec hunt experience as good or excellent. The majority of Oct hunters (62%) rated their Oct hunt experience as fair or poor. So the later seasons gave more hunt satisfaction and I believe it's due to the cooler weather, lower hunter density, longer season and that the deer are more active during the day.

I very much prefer the lower hunter density and cooler weather in the Dec hunts. I can't stand hunting in the heat. Plus the bucks are more active during the day so it's just more fun and it's a longer season, so you have more options for taking time off and getting to hunt. Although it seems the Dec hunts are a little early to hit peak of the rut, they generally are doing some rutting and hunting during the rut is much more exciting. Kinda like hunting elk in Sept vs Nov/December. It's a very different experience. Amanda

For those that can't make it, but would still like to help this organization, you can buy a dinner ticket for one of the kids so they can attend for free. If you would like to do that, call Eddy to arrange payment. 480-529-8340 Amanda

Thanks TJ. As long as I know for sure who will come, then you can pay at the door. They have to give a head count soon, so if you just show up without reservations it could be an issue. I will reserve a seat for you TJ. If your wife decides she wants to go, let me know. Thanks! Amanda

Wow, can't wait to see the finished product. He is an awesome buck!! Amanda

Nice group of deer! Amanda

I think it's the pinky finger sticking out that is the cause of the problem......

You can always find a good starting point by checking out the AGFD hunt unit reports. Of course keep in mind everyone else hunting that unit sees the same reports. http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/hunting_units.shtml

You guys crack me up!!!!! Amanda

Awesome! Thanks for the update. Can't wait to come to your house after you get back to see all your trophies in person!! Amanda

I agree with Gary. I think it has something to do with how Mulies don't tend to have eyeguards and perhaps in the west most people were mulie hunters and then just applied that count to a WT. I went to college out on the east coast and so when I first came here the western count threw me for a loop. When I did deer check stations on the rez, we still listed all points, including eyeguards on the datasheets. The thing that really cracks me up about the western system is that you don't count the eyeguard which is a scorable point, but for that to be a 3 point, you have to count the end of mainbeam which is NOT a scoreable point. That's goofy. Maybe we should just rework the western system so that it's the end of the main beam that isn't being counted. Then it can still be a 3x3 (if you count the eyeguards) and you not ignoring scoreable points. I have hard time ignoring the eyeguards on my mexico buck below!! They are a big part of why I shot him!

Those are Covert 2 trail cam pics. I believe he won the Covert 2 in the Guess the Number of Coral Beans contest that we had. Nice!!! Amanda

It surprises me that they can chew it all up without leaving claw or tooth marks. That exposed part of the tree was soft and would take marks easily, yet I couldn't find anything that looked like claw or tooth marks. Do you normally not see marks in the trees you find? Amanda

Bill, Maybe my horrible mushroom story is enough to scare them away Bill, PM me your phone number up there, I wanted to give you a call and maybe meet for lunch, we ended up not having time, but I also didn't have your number. Amanda

Thanks for sharing the pics Bill! That is a bummer about the glare on the first pic. I always enjoy your posts because they have "extra" info in them (e.g., what highways weren't built yet, what prices were, what things were influencing or not influencing habitat like the Salton Sea). Thanks for all the extra info you share with us. Amanda

I did find some porcupine evidence not too far from this tree, but this seemed too big and in those I could see porcupine sized tooth marks. I thought about bears girdling, but it really doesn't have tooth marks in it. I sort of ruled those options out, but I could be wrong. Maybe I will email Stan and see if he can tell me what he thinks. Amanda

The forum shows your total posts, not the individual number of each post. So all your posts now say 668 since that is your current total. Next time you post they will show 669. Amanda

Thanks for posting this. I hope anyone with info will call AGFD to help them solve these crimes. Amanda