CouesWhitetail

I have had three amazingly close encounters with rattlesnakes where only the coldness of the rattlesnake kept me from getting bitten (in other words they weren't warmed up enough to be hyper alert). That of course doesn't include all the "standard" rattlesnake encounters where you are walking around and see one nearby. One memorable encounter was when I picked up a snake that I saw while hiking out to a deer hunting spot in the predawn. There was a small snake in the trail and I didn't recognize it. I looked for a rattle and didn't see one, so I figured I was safe. It seemed to be dead anyway, but I picked it up by pinching it behind the head and started looking at it closely to try and ID it. That's when I noticed the tiny nub of a rattle at the end of its tail! And then it started wiggling in my hand and I started thinking "Holy XXXXX, I am holding a live rattlesnake!!!" What do you do now? Well, I just very careful put it back down on the ground and moved away. Turned out to be a banded rock rattlesnake. Very neat looking and thank God it didn't bite me. The other time was when I was doing box turtle surveys in Sulphur Springs Valley and I set my backpack down to get my notebook and GPS out to mark the location. I took the GPS out, turned it on, and set it on the ground nearby to let it "locate" itself. When I went to go pick it up, I realized there was a large mojave rattlesnake coiled up right next to it!! YIKES again! Thank God he wasn't in a bad mood. It was early morning and he wasn't warmed up. Amanda

Actually I didn't have my camera with me and I was really bumming about it because it was a neat looking snake. I only tend to see diamondbacks around here, so I am guessing that's what it was but I didn't see it's tail since it was coiled up. I thought about taking a pic with my cell phone, but I was in the middle of a phone call and wasn't sure if I could do that while on the phone. Amanda

Hi All, I was at the AZ Deer Association/CouesWhitetail.com booth at the expo this weekend and got to meet several members. EBB helped with setup on Friday and worked the booth on Sunday and helped take it down also. Thanks EBB!!! He also brought a couple of his mexico deer by and we may just use them for a guess the score contest. EBB and Christian battling it out with over 300 inches of Coues antler......Christian is holding my buck from Mexico from a few years ago. Christian is also wearing an AES hat and tshirt.....traitor!!! Actually Christian was working the AES booth next to me, so I can forgive him for not wearing his CW.com shirts! here is the ADA booth, Bryan Waitman and Domenick are working hard.... I didn't get much chance to actually check out much of the expo, but it's a giant event. They use buses to shuttle everyone around. Not too far from our booth was the gatlin gun. This one is in a black suburban and every hour they would have a demonstration of its shooting abilities. Wow, that thing will slaughter many hundreds of people in a minute. I think it was shooting something like 700-1000 rounds a minute! The sound it made was really surprising...it didn't sound like a gun, it sounded more like a fog horn. here are some pics of it. Anyway, it was great talking with many of you and thanks for taking the time to stop by and say hello! It's always great to put faces to names in the forum. Oh and on the way home Sat night, I spotted this sticker on a vehicle. The guys probably thought I was a stalker manuevering through traffic and taking their pics, but I think they figured out who it was since they waved a bunch!! Amanda

Sorry I missed you! of course you can still get your tshirt online here http://www.coueswhitetail.com/bookstore/tshirts.htm Amanda

Neat! I beat your son enjoyed that outing! Amanda

When you do decide to buy, visit Cameraland website ( http://www.cameralandny.com ) or call them. Doug has given some great prices to CouesWhitetail.com forum members and delivers great products. Cameraland has been a loyal sponsor of this site for several years now. Amanda

After the vendor BBQ on Saturday on the expo, I got to see a CouesWhitetail.com sticker! Andy, was that you and your buddies? Thanks for waving and doing the window trick!

Uh.....he said it was 9 inches in the original post......not awake yet Gino??

Outstanding! Guess I will have to bring a CouesWhitetail.com shirt along in a couple weeks in NM! was this on San Carlos? gorgeous bird! Amanda

Also, learn all the regs regarding mandatory check-ins or call-ins. Stuff like if you have to bring a bear kill in to a AGFD office to check it in, and if so, how soon after the kill do you have to do it. When do you have to report an archery deer kill, etc. In addition make sure you get the page of info regarding requirements for reporting your guiding activities to AGFD and other issues specific to holding a guide license. There are some things in there that you won't know by common sense hunting knowledge. Amanda

Nada for me Congratulations to those who got drawn!!! Amanda

Interesting stuff you dug up there Keith. Those stats links are my regular stats provided by the hosting company. But I think those you posted links for are just for the main page, doesn't include the forum since I host them on different sites. Amanda

Wow, that's a big pile!!! Amanda

Here is another compilation of some video from my trail cams. The first spot is a flooded mine addit and this time I put the cam inside the mine on a tripod. I have to wade into waist high water to set it in there, but I like the view it gives me. For daytime video, it's not the best since the cam is facing out to a bright area, but night time is cool. The second spot is just on the ground in a wash that has some water in it. Bears have finally started showing up this month in there. One visited my camera and pushed it down so it was shooting the ground, but they didn't touch the one in the wash. I was trying two cams set up to watch the same area from different angles, but since one cam got moved by the bear, it didn't provide a lot of pics. I think there are two different bears and luckily neither seemed to want to destroy my cameras. Thanks bears! Enjoy: http://www.coueswhitetail.com/video_clips/...rt_addit_1a.wmv Amanda

Can't comment on the ross's outdoors map since I haven't seen it, but I did just buy the National Geographic TOPO! program for the state of NM. And at Sportsman's warehouse they were running a special where if you bought a state program you got a free program with the hunt unit maps for 16 states, including AZ and NM. I haven't installed it yet, but it's supposed to work well with the National Geo Topo program. You might consider that. Amanda

I see ringtails infrequently and mostly at night while driving somewhere. I see them hit on the highway quite often on the road from Globe to Winkelman. You might try calling in some of those areas where the rocky cliffs are near the gila river, north of winkelman. Based on the number of road kill around there, there are a lot of the ringtails there. I haven't talke with Pat Bernard in awhile....hope he is doing well!! I always enjoy talking with him! I think Clay went in this weekend in the creek after the bears. I haven't gotten a call yet, so I am guessing he didn't get a bear with his bow yet. Amanda

Hi Guys, I will be at the AGFD expo all weekend at the AZ Deer Association booth. I will have some space for CouesWhitetail.com stuff (shirts, videos, trail cams, etc). It will be a long weekend and we only have a handful of ADA folks to help. Is anyone here interested in working several hours at the booth on Sat or Sun (march 28-29)? Might need help setting up on Friday also. It's should be fun with the opportunity to meet lots of people from the forum. Amanda

ac-guy, I think we have setup covered on Friday. EBB is going to help this morning with setup. But if you want to come by on Sat or Sunday to help out, feel free. And anyone else who wants to help, just stop by when you are there and see if we have enough people at the time or not. Amanda

I actually didn't believe that number and wondered if it was an error in the software somehow. If it wasn't an error then it was draw related, but I really don't have a good answer for it. As far as the Around the Campfire, we can do that. I have been resisting an all around general conversation forum like that in order to keep discussions focused on hunting and hunting related stuff. But there are many times people post something that doesn't fit well in the other categories, so it could be useful. Amanda

+1

Thanks Doug (and Tony)! Amanda

Thanks to all who tried to keep this thread civil. Here is my suggestion to you all: In the words of Gandhi..."be the change you wish to see in the world" If you don't want to read about religion on this forum, don't read the posts. If you don't want to see "fighting" in the forum, don't get engaged in the fight. If you want to see a productive thread, add a productive post. If you want to see a civil discussion of religion on the forum, be civil in your posts. If you want to see only hunting discussed on this forum, only create and post in hunting related threads. Everyone in this forum can choose to not open this or any other thread and not post to it. Many of you have done just that. A little self control goes a long way. I appreciate all who try and keep CouesWhitetail.com a positive and productive place. I have mentioned this before, but please remember that when you post online that people cannot see your body language and therefore can misinterpret your words. So much of our communication depends on body language and the internet makes that difficult (emoticons help to some degree). It is way too easy to take offense at something written in the forum. It's always helpful to take a step back before posting in anger or when taking offense at something written here. Amanda

I like tall with heavy mass more than wide. Amanda

I like the bobcat best I think. The ringtail is cool as well as the bears of course. I put that cam in the wash hoping to get better video of a lion that has been in there, but no luck. There weren't many deer or javelina that hit that water during the last few weeks. I guess the water has been too available in other parts of the creek so they aren't as concentrated around that spot. Amanda

Clay, The bear trails are already getting pretty obvious. You could probably sit a blind down there and get a bear...I moved one cam and put it on the bear trail up out of the creek. Amanda