CouesWhitetail

I got an email from Lark this morning. He is recovering from his surgery to repair some hernias. The one hour surgery turned into a four hour deal, so he is still recovering. Doc says he should be ok for horseback riding in about 1 month. I mentioned to him you guys were asking about him and here is a quote from the end of his email: "tell the fellers i'm makin' a decent recovery and will ready to knife fight and injun rassle soon." Amanda

Here are the sheds:

Got your tickets ready for you Allen. I will bring them with me. I imagine you will be there early to help set up. If not, I will be there anyway and you can just look around for me. Marshall, you coming to the banquet? Amanda

You guys are hysterical! I didn't even think of it, but you are right, someone to watch over my vehicle is a good idea Becker, give Kirk a call, he can score your buck for you and since he lives in the Tucson area it might be easier to work out a meeting. You might even get to see some monster bucks that he has gotten his clients over the years. Regardless of who scores it Becker, email me the pics and the final score so I can post them for you. Amanda

Becker, I can score it for you if you want. I am an official measurer and I get down to Tucson pretty often. Email me and we can set up a time to meet up. Amanda

Hi All, Got back from my HAM javelina hunt in 24A yesterday evening. I skipped the opening weekend due to all the rain. Went out Monday and got my pig on Monday afternoon. First time I got one with a handgun. I was using my neighbor's Thompson Contender with a .223 barrel on it. Really, it's more like a mini-rifle than a handgun, especially since he put a harris bipod on it for me. I ended up shooting the javelina at about 100 yards. I was sneaking in on them and made a noise that spooked them, so they started moving out. Had to rush the shot and I am pretty lucky I even hit the pig. It hit her hard and she rolled down a steep slope to the bottom of a drainage. It was great being out after all that rain! The ground was wet everywhere we went and so green! Camped next to a beautiful, rushing creek with sycamores along it. Nice to fall asleep to the sound of rushing water. Here's a pic of my pig: My buddy got one on Wed morning with a muzzleloader at 30 yards after following the herd for miles over many rough ridges. Not sure why they were moving so far so fast. Didn't seem spooked, just had to get somewhere I guess. Here's some pics of some WT I saw on my hunt. Was a doe with her twin fawns from last summer: Hope everyone else is having success on their javelina hunts! Amanda

What a mess!! I spoke with a AGFD guy (who was at the unit 36 cleanup) who works in the land owner access program and he said no one realized the road was private. The county had been maintaining it forever as if it was a public road. Turns out much of it is private. And like the article says, no one could afford to pay all the landowners for access. Amanda

Muskrat, We still have some openings on the board, so if you are interested let me know. Maybe you should come to a board meeting and see how it goes. Or if you want, go to the website and find the contact info for the president of the ADA (Mark Bool) and get in touch with him. The ADA is always looking for dedicated people to step up and help improve deer habitat and management in AZ. If anyone wants more info, go to www.azdeer.org or make a post here and I will answer questions. Amanda

Cramer, The banquet doors open at 4 pm and dinner is at 5:30 pm. You can email me privately to arrange payment and receipt of the tickets. amanda@coueswhitetail.com Amanda

Still have some tickets for the CouesWhitetail.com table at the ADA banquet. Any takers? Come on and help out Arizona's Deer!! Amanda

Well, I hope everyone will be celebrating Easter this Sunday. I was out helping with the lake clean-up at San Carlos last week and saw this sign on a fence on the way home. I thought it was appropriate for the season! Amanda

I hope everything goes as well as possible Lark. Let us know how it goes. Hey maybe you should save some money and ask young Casey to do the surgery for you. You know he needs practice gutting things and he likes to be covered in blood. I am sure he would be real tender with you too . Amanda

The tribe is having a clean-up day at San Carlos lake tomorrow. If anyone has the time, come on out and help clean-up! They are expecting about 100 people and are using boats to pick up trash that has accumulated from high water by the dam and also to ferry people to different areas on land where trash has accumulated. There is a free BBQ lunch afterward. No permits required, so come on down to Soda Canyon Boat ramp around 9 am if you can. Amanda Here is the press release from the tribe: "CLEAN UP DAY" San Carlos Recreation & Wildlife Department will be participating in a clean up day at the San Carlos Reservoir. These past storms have brought a lot of water to the San Carlos Reservoir along with a lot of trash. Most of this trash and debris is channeled in from the Gila River, San Carlos River and other small tributaries that run into San Carlos Reservoir. This affects the overall appearance of the reservoir, tourism, water quality, and wildlife. The San Carlos Recreation & Wildlife Department will be joining forces with San Carlos Irrigation Project, Bureau of Reclamation, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, San Carlos Environmental Protection Agency and along with anyone else who is interested in volunteering for the day. Boats will be used by these agencies and volunteer will ride in the boats and pick up trash with dip net. We will meet on Thursday, March 24, 2005 at 9:00 am at the Soda Canyon Boat Dock, which is just south of the San Carlos Lake Store on the San Carlos Apache Reservation. We will distribute gloves, trash bags and dip nets to volunteers and a free barbeque lunch will be provided for those that volunteer. If you have a boat and would like to be a driver and can take volunteers around the shore line please join us. If there are not enough boats for the day we will also walk along the shoreline and collect trash. Everyone is welcome! Please join us in this conservation effort. If you have questions or need additional information please call Stefanie White at The San Carlos Recreation & Wildlife Department (928) 475-4758.

Here you go:

That is awesome Brian!!! Way to go! How cool! I still wish I could catch the thieves who stole my stuff. I think you showed remarkable restraint! I am so happy for you. That must have been a great feeling. Any word on if they were the orginal criminals or if they just got the truck from the theives? Did one of them look like the punk kid you thought had done it? Amanda

Those of you who have been around the forum awhile might remember that my old jeep was broken into about 7-8 months ago while I was having lunch at a nice restaurant in Tucson. I had almost all my hunting stuff in the car. And they got the stereo which my husband had just given me for xmas. Anyway, I lost about $3000 worth of gear. I was able to get it replaced with my homeowner's insurance. They were really good about it. But last weekend, I got broken into again. This time at an ice rink in Tucson on Sunday morning!! I just never would have thought that was a high risk place. I am down there a lot and haven't had a problem at the rink before. This time they got my cell phone, a suitcase full of clothes and misc items, and about 25 CD's. And unfortunately, in an odd twist of fate, I had a set of car keys and house keys in my console, which they grabbed. (I know it was stupid, and I have never done that before, but I had already started my jeep with the other set and then realized I need a key on the other key chain so I went in the house and instead of grabbing the key off it, I just threw the whole thing in the car). So this past week I spent getting my Jeep rekeyed and my house rekeyed. He also got my checkbook so it had my address on it. And although he is unlikely to drive up here to come to my house, I figured better safe then sorry. I HATE THIEVES!!! and the worst part is the value of the items to them is so small compared to what they actually cost me. ARGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Amanda

Bowsniper, You can read more about antler development and all the other life stages of coues deer in the biology section of my website. Here is the link: Coues Deer Life Stages TAM and 25-06 gave some good advice. They still have antlers, but will lose them around April/May and they start regrowing them almost as soon as they shed them. Amanda

Here is an update on that meeting, please note the location has changed: To All: Please be advised the Rancher / Sportsmen meeting on March 22nd, has been moved to the: NATIONAL BANK of ARIZONA, CORPORATE CENTER, 6001 N. 24TH STREET, PHOENIX. This is just north of the Biltmore Resort and a couple of blocks south of Glendale Ave., on the east side of 24th Street. We will be meeting in the Conference Center. Same time, the meeting will start at 9 am and run until 2 or 3 pm. This move will give us plenty of room and be more comfortable for all. Thank you, and please pass the word to other attendees. We still need an RSVP from anyone planning to attend. If you have already received confirmation, you do not need to confirm again. Pete Cimellaro

David, I think what you saw was a coaitmundi not a ringtail cat. The ringtail is much smaller and wouldn't be out during the day. The coati is much larger and brown and diurnal. here is a link to a photo and some info on them, you can do a google search to find more photos and info if you want. coati info If you only saw one, it was probably a male. The females and young usually are found in large groups. Amanda

Thanks for the calculations. Interesting to look at. If anyone wants to see some monster Northern whitetail, Bass Pro has a display at the outdoor expo that is being held March 11-13 at westworld in Scottsdale. I was there yesterday and saw some pretty amazing bucks. Amanda

Thanks for letting us know Bowsniper. I sure hope everything goes ok. Take your recovery slow Mike, if you push it too hard, you might undue whatever the surgeon is fixing. Maybe when you are doing rehab you can imagine drawing back on a big buck! Might give you some extra motivation! Good luck. Amanda

Figured some of you might be real interested in attending this: Sportsmen's Warehouse and Arizona Outdoorsman are proud to announce the Outdoor Challenge. A series of events that celebrate the traditions and heritage of our outdoor community. These events are designed to provide family entertainment and a great value for your dollar. Please join us as we celebrate our outdoor heritage at these great events Here is the link to the page with more info: Sportsmen's challenge It's coming up quick! Amanda

Here are the pics from RabidApache : Nice find!! Amanda

Thanks for all the sympathy wishes. I appreciate it. Wow, with all the crime you all have suffered down there, it's really a sad situation. I personally like a lot of things about Tucson, but this is ridiculous. It is such a huge waste of time and resources. They get pennies on the dollar compared to the actually cost. Arizona Guide, I sure hope the checks don't start rolling in. Thanks for letting me know about your experience with that. I am not looking forward to it. I am pretty sure I didn't have anything in my checkbook with my SSN on it, but it's making it hard to sleep at night sometimes thinking about it. Amanda

Here is some info on a meeting to discuss this issue. Some of you might want to contact Pete and see if you can attend. Meeting Notice: March 22, in Phoenix, Arizona Game & Fish Wildlife building at the State Fairgrounds. This Meeting is being organized by sportsmen and ranchers and will also be attended by members of the Arizona Game & Fish Commission, Department and Navajo Nation. Issues to be discussed will be related to conflict(s) between livestock, wildlife, sportsmen, game and fish, private landowners and grazing permitees. Identifying problems and all possible options to help mitigate these conflicts will be discussed. Ideas that help solve these conflicts is what this meeting is about. This is an opportunity to bring out the issues for a full discussion and no single position or idea will be promoted. We hope to take the best of the possible solutions and focus on them for further discussions. Statewide representation is critically important. Views from all stakeholders will be considered by the group. Hopefully the best and most viable ideas will be put forward to other interested parties and eventually consensus may be reached. I want to emphasize one thing, this is not a meeting designed by the organizers to promote "Land Owner Tags". While some organizers and attendees will be for such a program, just as many will be opposed. We are doing this for one reason: To put All of the issues on the table, discuss possible solutions and hopefully find consensus on something that works for wildlife, ranchers, game & fish and sportsmen. If we don't find some solutions we run the risk of others finding them for us. The others I speak of are politicians and the voting public. I don't believe any of us want to see someone else decide these issues. Because space is limited an RSVP is necessary. We encourage organizations to send only one representative to speak for the group. If your a sportsman and want to attend please contact Pete Cimellaro at pcimellaro@cox.net Your reservation will be confirmed by email. If your a rancher and want to attend please contact Benny Aja at surhit@msn.com Your reservation will be confirmed by email. Pete Cimellaro