CouesWhitetail

Hey All, Just another warning to get your rattlesnake awareness up to speed. I almost had a very bad day yesterday! I was out walking the dogs and looking for a spot to put a new trail cam out. I was hoping to find a coyote den or badger burrow or something like that. I was walking downhill and spotted a badger burrow, so I got close and tried to peer inside to see if it was an active burrow or old. There was some short grass at the front of the burrow and I needed to move it to get a view of inside the burrow. It wasn't until AFTER I reached down and moved a little grass, peered all around and moved my hand back that I noticed a small coiled up rattler just in front of the burrow. YIKES!! My hand had been within a 1/4 inch (yes, I said a quarter inch!) of his head!! Luckily he wasn't warmed up and was feeling mellow. He didn't react at all to my hand. Just stayed there coiled up. Then of course my old dog wanted to go sniff around and see what I was looking at so I had to move her away. It wasn't until after we were leaving that the rattler moved into the burrow and rattled as he moved. WHEW!! I was lucky!! Two things put me in that position.....one is that I am infinitely curious about things and was peering around the burrow without thinking about the fact that it was a perfect place for a snake. Since it's still early in the snake season, I haven't yet gotten my snake alertness up to speed. And secondly I was talking on the cell phone while peering and reaching around in there, so not fully thinking about what I was doing. My husband suggests this was just another example of the evils of cell phones!! hehehe Anyway, just wanted to remind everyone to be cautious and aware of your surroundings out there!! Amanda

That was awesome Lance, thanks so much for taking the time to write it up and post such great photos to go with it. Wow, what an adventure!! Amanda

Awesome!! Great looking gobbler and I am glad that once again that CouesWhitetail.com tshirt served you faithfully!! Amanda

If I remember right, I think it was 50 questions. Maybe someone else can chime in also. Amanda

Outstanding!! Amanda

Wow, this is quite the adventure! I am enjoying the story! Amanda

Thanks for all the replies guys! It was a great hunt. Here are a few more pics of some interesting finds. Bonnie found this very cool peice of pottery. It was a hollow cylinder, capped on one end. Not sure what it would have been a part of, but if anyone knows anything about pottery, let me know what you think. And one afternoon on Kathy's hunt we heard an owl calling, so I sidetracked us on a beeline to go find him before he stopped calling. I imitated his call and he got angry and came over. Cute little northern pygmy owl. Here are some digiscoped pics:

Thanks for sharing such a fine day with us Jim! Great find! Amanda

Outstanding!!! Way to go! Nice job Matt! Amanda

Good luck Clay!! I am sure you will do fine!! Amanda

Okay this is bothering me I can not find it anywhere in the regs and I have even tried to google it. Where is it before my head exploads? HELP PLEASE. There is a separate page or two of regulations regarding guides and reporting requirements. Call AGFD and ask them to send it to you. They are not in the main hunting regulations book that goes out to the public. That's what I was refering to in my previous post. Amanda

Nice pics! Didn't you get a turkey also? I thought I saw a pic of your turkey in another post somewhere. I figured this would be more of the story to go with it, but I don't see yours. Amanda

Great finds!! Amanda

Nice video! Nice that you got to watch the strutting for awhile. What did you shoot that bird with, man he dropped hard! Amanda

We had several other women this year that wanted to go but couldn't for various reasons. I actually thought this group size worked well, especially with people coming in on different days. If we had all four from day one, it would have been hard for me to help everyone. I have already emailed the story to several of the BOW ladies that are interested in hunting. They already have said they want in next year! Amanda

Yes, it's a spotted skunk. One of four species of skunk found in AZ. I think they are very cool looking! Amanda

Good question, I assume it's not, but I don't know for sure. Perhaps someone here that works for a federal agency can give an opinion on this. Amanda

Nice pix! Thanks for posting. Amanda

Email should work better for reaching him. WJimjack@aol.com

Very nice videos!! Looks like you got a lot going on there! If you point the camera down a little, and avoid the bright sky in the background, you might have nicer contrast in the videos. The camera has a little trouble with getting the right setting if there are dark places and bright places in the scene. Just something I have noticed using the cams over the last few months. Amanda

Lance tells me you are not allowed to pick up heads even if they have no skin on them. I GPSd the head figuring I would give it to Lance as a thank you for sharing his spot, but he told me you can't pick them up. Ugh... Amanda

Wow, that is a small world. I never got to talk with the hunter(s) that was in there with us, but one of the ladies did. Must have been him I guess. Wish I had a chance to talk with him. It seemed like the morning after we met him, that he left us alone to hunt our spot even though he knew the birds were there. I don't know where he hunted that morning, but we all thought it was very thoughtful of him to let us work the birds that morning. Tell him thanks for us. He said he was camped in the area, but I never saw his camp. I am assuming he got a bird after we left. I bet he was glad to see us all leave! Have him email me. I would like to know how many times we were calling back and forth to him that last morning! We kept thinking we were moving away and leaving him with other birds, but then it would sound like he was going after the same birds we were. Amanda

here is a pic of the one Doug was talking about. These just came out. They have extra pockets for gear like rangefinders, GPS, your license, flashlight, etc. There is a large one for 15x56s and smaller one for 10x40s. The straps are not elastic, so they do not bounce. They keep the weight off your neck and can be tightened down very snugly. They are kind of expensive, but the price of went up a bunch from the original when the guy switched to having them made in America. To order these bino packs or for more info, click on the link below: http://www.coueswhitetail.com/bookstore/binocular_pouch.htm Amanda

Why don't you call me and we can discuss it further......PM sent.... Amanda

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of this site let me know. Sponsors get the right to sell their commercial products in the forum. The classified ads on here are only for personal sales. You may also make a post in the "family strengths" thread to let people know what you sell. Thanks for your understanding. Amanda