CouesWhitetail

Great sighting! Amanda

Awesome! Hope you get a coues too! Amanda

Great report, that's pretty funny! Love hearing about guys taking their kids hunting! Hope your 9 yr old enjoys the hunt with you! Amanda

Great pics and what a cool rock to find! Nice photo of the pigs too and glad to hear they are reproducing well this year. Hope you find that 100 incher soon! Amanda

Wow, that thing is amazing! Great mass! I love it when they carry the mass way up into the tines. Amanda

Awesome!! Thanks for letting us share all the excitment and congrats to your dad on his wonderful buck! Great photos and thanks for the habitat shot with the arrows showing where they were. Cool... Want me to post the pics in the main photogallery? If so, tell me your dad's name so I can put that in. You can PM me if you want. Amanda

Yes, it's definitely a jaw-dropping kind of beauty up there. I just kept saying "Wow" everytime I looked somewhere. It was amazing and made me want to move there. Water and wildlife everywhere! I would love to get to Homer sometime and the Kenai and the artic circle. Everything in Alaska is so much larger than life it seems. Amanda

nice cinnamon color! Amanda

Congratulations! Nice deer and nice photos! Amanda

It looks like there is no screening for the front door? Is that right? If so, then you can't have ventilation through the front door and prevent mosquitoes and other bugs from coming in at night? Amanda

Love that golden morning light. I am betting you will really like having a digital camera! Amanda

Enjoy your hunt and take pictures to bring back for us!! Hope you find ways to lighten your pack! Amanda

Some great ideas here.... I love hunting alone for many of the same reasons as desertbull mentioned, but I also enjoy some company at times. When I have killed bucks by myself, I try and wait to shoot it in an area where I am less likely to loose sight of him after the shot. Of course you can't always wait until it's all just right, but if you have the option, choose your shot to happen when you have the best odds of seeing where he goes afterward. One time I had watched a doe and a buck for many hours during a very windy and cold day. I was on the exposed side of a slope facing them. They were out of the wind and staying bedded most of the day. So I waited, shivering on the slope. When I finally got my shot, the buck was a few steps away from thick brush. After I shot him, I wasn't sure where he went. But the doe stayed there and was looking toward him. I eventually could see a bit of a leg sticking out of the brush. But it just of easily could have happened that I wouldn't have been able to see him laying there. So in that case, I would have waited an hour or more with my gun at the ready at all times in case he came out of the brush. That is what I had to do on my Mexico hunt this past year. I shot the buck, he disappeared into the brush and we couldn't see him fall. But he never came out. I waited over an hour to make sure he wouldn't make a run for it. In that case I had the guide as a spotter, but it made no difference because we couldn't see him in the thick brush anyway. Marking the spot where he was when you shot and your shooting location is great advice. I like the idea of pointing the optics (binos or scope) at the location so you can essentially take a back bearing to see if you are on the right track. Remember, most archers hunt alone and end up following all the same practices as we are talking about, it's just on a smaller scale due to the shorter shot distances. Amanda

Chris, Glad you have found a forum that meets your needs. AZOD is a great place with some excellent folks. I suggest you put your posting energy there since you are always so unhappy here. Vaya Con Dios! Amanda

It is a great video and I love the music! And the little skit you did was pretty funny! Thanks for sending it! Amanda

Nice pic Marlon, hope you are enjoying it since you have to be up there in it! VegasJeep, your 28 inch sticker is on order. And also, who has a white jeep in Tucson? My friend saw a jeep with a CouesWhitetail.com sticker Oracle and Ina ( or maybe orange grove) early this past week. Amanda

Thanks for posting the pics and story. Great to see the smile on his face!! Amanda

I was hoping you would see that didn't take you long as I only changed it recently..... he has such a great smile and I thought it a good photo to put up since ADA youth camp time is coming up. Amanda

Great! Glad you guys are out there spreading the CouesWhitetail.com name. I think we are all waiting for az4life to post a pic of a blizzard out there in WY. Hope you are enjoying it so far. Amanda

I don't have a problem with a coues myspace group. I do have a problem with use of Bob Campbell's photo (unless you have permission directly from him to use it). If you want another photo you can use, let me know. Amanda

Thanks for the info on the tent. Have you had that tent out in a windstorm yet? Looks like it might not take wind well. Amanda

Just a reminder, this is only a few days away! Go down and help out, it's a great event! Amanda

Yes Coues7, a north-facing slope is actually facing north, so that you are generally facing south to glass it. North-facing slopes are generally cooler and have thicker vegetation than south-facing slopes. One thing I like to point out is that you don't have to get hung up on which direction (north-facing, southeast, whatever). You just need to think of what the deer want at the time you are looking. Is it early morning and cool such that they would be comfortable feeding out in the sun? or is it blazing hot out and you suspect they would be bedding and/or feeding in the shade. And although certainly here in AZ and NM aspect of the slopes dictates alot of the vegetation on them, you don't have to follow the compass so literally. If it's early morning and relatively cool out (like below 50 degrees) then glass the open areas, if it's hot out then glass the shade. There are many areas, such as flats and ridges that run north-south, that don't have north-facing slopes. But the same rules apply for open areas versus shade. And in December I have seen exactly what missedagain is describing with regard to sometimes on very cold mornings the deer are staying bedded until well after sun-up, apparently waiting for things to warm-up before they start feeding. And as bmf pointed out, wind is an extremely important factor affecting deer activity. I believe it's because a deer can't hear as well when it's windy. It's tons easier to sneak up on whitetail when the wind is covering the sound of your approach, so I think the WT get edgy and nervous when it's windy and prefer to either bed or get out of the wind. Glassing slopes that are out of the wind is a great way to find deer on a windy day. The only problem is that generally if you are glassing the non-windy side of a ridge, then you are on the exposed windy side of another ridge. It can be extremely difficult to glass in strong winds. Amanda

Terry, So there is one camp covering both units? Or are there going to be two seperate camps? Amanda

I see Joe Cerreta won for a trout photo. He is the one with the best Coues photos here in the live photogallery.... here is the link http://www.coueswhitetail.com/cerreta_pics/cerreta.htm I bet it will be a great calendar. I wanted to submit some pics, but my camera isn't high enough resolution.... RedRabbit did you ever submit anything? Amanda