CouesWhitetail

I will second what everyone has said so far. Coues certainly do respond to grunts and rattles; we called in a couple bucks in Mexico last year during the peak of the rut. They came in within 5-10 yards of us. Pretty neat. But like Bobbyo said, the density of deer can be very low and so you may only want to use calling when you actually know the bucks are there (i.e., you have just seen them walking away from you or you hear them fighting below you or something like that). Sitting trails and water is effective also. Lots of coues are killed from treestands. Many people put their treestands up over salt they have put out to attract the deer. Amanda

They look like Botfly larvae. They are common in deer. They don't affect the meat for human consuption. here is a link to some info about them: http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-1...26640--,00.html Amanda

Dewey, Wow, must have been a great two weeks for you down there! And yes, I was doing the "waddle" for a couple days after that hike down the south kaibab. I didn't see the fish weir, but I guess there were some fisheries people while we were there doing some work. I didn't get to talk with them, but someone else in our group saw them. Great turkey story! I can't imagine being afraid of those turkeys! hehehe Did you ever get to see Ribbon Falls while you were down there? That's a neat hike. Amanda

Way to go Julie!! Always nice to see another lady hunter! Seems like this year has been a good one for the ladies. I have posted at least hunt stories by successful lady hunters in the hunt story section this year. Amanda

At Phantom Ranch there were two turkeys that spent their time begging for food from the visitors. It was rather amusing since everytime you came out of your cabin they would run up to you and look at you with the expression of "don't you have any grain to give us?" here are some photos: After enjoying our stay at Phantom ranch we hiked out early on Friday and went up the Bright Angel Trail. That is a very beautiful hike out and not all that hard. It's long, about 10 miles but anyone used to hard hiking for Coues deer hunting can do it without much trouble. We met lots of neat people on the trail and even bumped into a family that had hiked down the trail about a mile or two just to have lunch. They shared their wine and cheese and sausage with us. It was great!! We were at an amazing overlook and it made for a perfect setting. Also on the way up we saw several mule deer. This nice buck was just 10 yards or so away. He was following a group of does. It was a great experience and I highly recommend it if you have the time and interest. It's not a real hard hike since it's on a trail, but it's not something to take too lightly. There was an older lady that hiked the day we went in and she had to get a medivac helicopter ride out because she blew out her knee. December seemed to be the perfect time to do this hike. The foliage was beautiful at the ranch and the weather was perfect! Probably in the 50's most of the time and that made it so I only drank a quart of water on the way down and probably less than two quarts on the way up. The views were just stunning and changed all the time. Great hike. Anyone else here done the same hike? How did you like it? Amanda

here are some photos of the lower part of the trail as you get closer to the suspension bridge you have to cross to get to the other side of the colorado river. Staying at Phantom ranch is a great experience and the really nice thing is that you get good food and lodging and don't have to carry all that stuff down with you. Since it was near Christmas, they had decorated the doors of the cabins with a fragrant fir wreath. We stayed down there for two nights and on the day we spent down there we did some hiking up some side trails. One goes up to Ribbon Falls (which my tired legs didn't quite make it to) and it goes through an amazing canyon with a nice creek flowing through it. We saw a really neat bird called a Dipper and that bird can literally walk underwater. It sits near the water and then just hops in and walks under all the rapids and such looking for invertebrates to eat. Very cool bird. Here is a photo:

And some pics of the mules that were frequently seen on the trail hauling gear and people on the trail. The trail down is steep and jarring on the knees but really not very hard. It's just long and relentless and so my legs were really sore the next day. The trail down is full of steps, many of which are much larger than a regular step. here are some more views of the trail: Phantom ranch is up the side drainage that has the yellow cottonwood trees in it. We had a close encounter with some young bighorn sheep on the way down too. I had stopped to look at some birds when I caught motion out of the corner of my eye. I looked up and saw a bighorn sheep probably less than 50 yards uphill from me. It was surprised and ran across the slope and over a large rock. When it did that another sheep popped up on that far side of the rock and scared the first sheep again and then it ran straight down and crossed the trail near us and went onto a rock outcropping. Here is a digiscoped photo of the young ram. and here is a view of where he was after we were quite aways below him.

I have trouble cramming my gear in my 2200, so I don't know that my method is useful at all, but here is how I use it: I have my spotting scope in the sort of cylindrical zipper pocket on the one of the "wings" and put my tripod in the open pocket in the other wing. Then I have my food kept in the small zippered pocket that is on the inside of the pack and I put all my smaller items that I use more often (like GPS, knives, lens pen) in the zippered outside front pocket. Then I put my jacket and water bottles in the main pocket. I don't use a water bladder, so I don't use the hydration mesh pocket. I put much smaller stuff in those tiny zippered pockets on the outside of the "wings" (things like a buck grunt call or small bottle of saline to keep my contacts from getting too dry in wind). To try and help organize the main pocket I use ziplock or garbage bags to segregate things. I still find the pack too small to handle stuff easily. The wings are annoying to open all the time. If I am not crawling through thick veg I can sometimes get away with just stuffing my jacket between the main pocket and the straps that hold the wings together. That works pretty well and saves room in your main pocket for other stuff but there is some risk to losing your jacket that way. I have taken to working the little plastic clip on the batwing straps into a hoop in the back of my jacket so it's really unlikely to come off. Amanda

You are welcome! It looks great! Amanda

Like Jim said, those look to be fibrous tumors. They are pretty harmless, but very can be digusting looking as in the case of the deer photo you showed. I have seen several of them before while doing deer check stations out on the east coast. But I have never seen a case as bad as that one! And I rarely see those tumors on our little WT. Not sure the reason why they seem less common here in AZ. Perhaps because our deer occur at lower densities than out east or the humidity is lower and the virus doesn't survive as well? Maybe Jim knows the answer to that. Amanda

Hope you have a full recovery Mike. Amanda

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Hi All, Just wanted to let you know that I am now carrying the new DVD that Duwane Adams put out on How to Hunt Monster Mule Deer in the Kaibab. It has a lot of good advice and big bucks on it. Here is the link to the video section of the bookstore : http://www.coueswhitetail.com/bookstore/videos.htm I have watched the video and it's good. I wish it was longer, but it has some good info and you get to tour Ryan Hatch's Muley Crazy showroom and see some monster mulies! Amanda

It's always a good idea to check out what the game wardens post on the AGFD website about their units. here is the link to the post about Unit 29. http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/hunting_units_29.shtml You can also try and call the warden and ask for info. I hunted unit 29 years ago and found it to be very crowded camping and hunting, especially on the west side, so we moved over the east side, I think horseshoe canyon area and had a great time. Amanda

It's about 26 minutes long. I list the runtimes for all the DVDs I sell. You can see that along with the descriptions of their content in the bookstore link I posted above. This Kaibab video is a good one for someone interested in planning a hunt up there. He talks about each season and which areas are best to hunt during those seasons. And they show some excellent mule deer that hunters have taken up there. Real beasts! Amanda

That's really beautiful. I passed it on to a few folks. Amanda

Great info, thanks Jim! Amanda

Good reminder. I filled mine out but have yet to put them in the mail. Will do it today. Amanda

Nice pics! Do you want me to post them in the live coues photogallery? If so, email me and let me know. Amanda

Wow!! Great buck and neat story! How great the two of you could have such an experience together! Congratulations Pops! Amanda

Welcome to CouesWhitetail.com forum Jim! Sounds like you have had some good times with your son in the field! Amanda

Hope you had a good one! Amanda

Jimmy, Not exactly sure what you mean by real video? Have you watched the coues hunting videos that I sell on this site? Or checked out the clips in the video gallery on the main site? here is a link to the video section of the bookstore: http://www.coueswhitetail.com/bookstore/videos.htm and here is a link to the video clip gallery. http://www.coueswhitetail.com/video_clips/video_clips.htm Amanda

Have a great one Rembrant!

Glad you got this working. I don't recall you emailing me except this month about the problem. You say you have had the problem for years? Did you email me about this before this month? FYI - I use internet explorer as do probably most people here on the site, so the browser will work with the forum fine. Not sure what setting you had that make it not work. But it's good you were able to get a solution! Amanda