CouesWhitetail

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

If anyone wants to see what kind of trash we pick up, check out what we got last year....I took lots of photos and posted them on the ADA site. 2004 Trash pickup article Amanda

Yes, new members can be on the board. We meet in Phx. on th 3rd Wed of each month in the evening. Meetings tend to run a few hours. Your time committment beyond that depends on what you are interested in helping with. There are several habitat projects each year, there is the annual fundraising banquet which takes tons of time to organize, there are youth hunt camps, there are political meetings to attend, you can even help with deer surveys with AGFD, etc. If you can't commit to being a board member, you can volunteer for whatever project interests you (like the youth camps, etc). Allen brought up an excellent topic. And I hope we get some new active members of the ADA. Go to azdeer.org for info on projects and membership. Amanda

I will be there on Friday and camp out. And Sat to pick trash. I hope to wrap up by early afternoon on Sat. Amanda

I ended up hitting her in the spine near the base of the skull and it went out the other side of the skull. Not exactly where I was aiming, but it killed her instantly. I didn't take the time to adjust for the fact that the gun was set to shoot 3 inches high at 100 yards. And hitting to the left must have just been caused by me rushing the shot. Anyway, I didn't hit any of her organs (except her brain) and so her internal organs were in pristine condition. Her lungs and heart and lower organs were all perfect. The liver had some whitish blotches on it that I thought were odd, but it wasn't until we were back at camp that I noticed the black sand. It did have hard bits in it like little rocks. Interesting info on your cow elk liver with black sand in it. did you end up eating it? or was it too strange to keep? Amanda

Her body condition was pretty good. She didn't have a lot of fat, but neither did the young boar that my friend got. She looked really healthy otherwise. Her stomach was very full when I got her, so she was eating fine. So other than that liver, everything seemed normal. Amanda

David, Although javelina primarily have their young during the summer months, they can breed year round. So it's not really unusual to have found that baby ready to be born. The herd that I got my javelina out of had a tiny one with them. Luckily I didn't get it's mother. Amanda

Glad you appreciate the pics couesarcher! Hey, I forgot to mention that the liver on my pig was full of something like black sand. Any of you pig hunters ever seen anything like that? It was very strange....never seen a liver like that. It was almost like the contents of a crop of a quail or turkey. Full of stones that were small and dark. Amanda

When I had my Jeep broken into down in Tucson last year, and all my hunting gear stolen, I claimed it on my home owner's insurance and they paid it promptly and without raising rates. So you might just call your home owner's insurance and ask how they handle that stuff. I use a good, but inexpensive insurance company since I got sick of Allstate's prices and bs. Good luck catching the kid! Quimby --- that is a heck of a sheep hunting story! Shooting from a cast that's some serious dedication! Amanda

Sounds like he may have had you patterned. If you do that warm-up everyday, he must have known that in order to be there at the right 2 minutes. What a bummer.... Amanda

My javelina wasn't really very large, but she was very old. It is probably the oldest javelina I have ever taken. Using the Aging criteria book put out by AZGFD I estimate her age at over 7 years. Her teeth are very discolored, heavily worn, and many of them are missing. She was missing three molars on each side of her lower jaw. And many of her front incisors were gone. her canines were heavily worn too and her molars practically flat. In comparison, my friend's javelina was a young boar, probably 2-3 years old. I took some photos of the teeth to show those of you who might be interested. Being a biologist, I find this stuff pretty interesting. Sorry if the photos are a bit gross, I haven't finished cleaning the skulls. But thought I would post anyway before this thread gets buried. Here is the side view of her upper jaw. See how discolored her molars are and how short the canines are: Here is a pic with the older javelina in front and the younger in back. Look at the difference in shape and wear on the back molars. The cusps are hardly worn on the younger javelina: Here is a side by side view from the top. You can see the molars and incisors she is missing. Here is a side by side view of the upper jaws. The older pig is on the bottom of the photo. She wasn't missing the molars on her upper jaw like she did on the lower. Again you can see the wear on the cusps of the molars and other teeth:

So are we voting for that deer with a bow photo or the other one with your dad and the muzzleloader that your story mentions? Amanda

Sorry to hear about it Brian. I will keep an eye out. I hope you catch them!!!!!! Amanda

Yea, I couldn't believe how widespread all the green-up was. It was just everywhere you went...high on the ridges, all the way to the bottom of the draws. And most of the draws were still running water from the storm. Should look awesome come wildflower season. And of course it's great for the deer and javelina crops. Doug, my new Jeep is great. Got me in and out safely (through several washed out areas of the road and flowing creeks) and it's so much more comfortable than my old one. The TC is nice because I know it can reach out there if I need it to, like on this herd. I haven't used a regular handgun on a hunt before, so I don't have much to compare it too. Guess it would be nice to pack a smaller gun, but I love the accuracy of the TC with a scope on it. I am thinking of trying to take a whitetail with it. That would be pretty neat. I am kinda depressed today since I am back in the office and on the computer. I would rather be out camping/hunting with it being so nice out right now! Amanda

Thanks for bringing this up again. I will plan on getting one table. And hopefully we will get enough people for two tables. The date is April 16, let me know how many of you are interested. Amanda

As a little bit of a celebration of CouesWhitetail.com's first two years of existence, I made a short video. It's a collection of photos from this website set to music. I think you will enjoy it. It has most of my favorite photos, but only comes from the rifle and archery sections plus some live deer pics. It doesn't include the many monster bucks in other sections (like the Ellsworth/Epperson section). You will need a high speed internet connection to view this. You can try with a dial-up, but I think it won't look good. But if you have cable or dsl, give it a try and let me know what you think! It's 7 minutes long. I was originally planning on doing something longer and with more details (like hunter name and score) but I decided it would take too long and that this was pretty nice without all that anyway. Go to the main page and look for the link in the what's new table. For some reason, it wouldn't let me link it here. Amanda

Shhhhhhhh...... Stop talking up 24A!!! There are no deer here!! If there were, they would all be small. All we have is lots of lions. Actually, I think there are bunches of 24A deer in the photogallery. Too bad you lost that mule deer. I hope you come back out and look for him. You might find the carcass or skull. Amanda

Here you go, it's on shed page 9:

That's great! Where did you find that? Amanda

You can find out more about the ADA banquet and print out an order form for tickets on the ADA website Anyone interested in having a CouesWhitetail.com table at the banquet like we did last year? I was planning on getting a table, but would like to see how much interest there would be. Amanda

Let's not start some kind of trend of posting pics of women on this forum. What you guys consider attractive or unattractive is really not a reasonable topic for discussion on Coueswhitetail.com. Amanda

Great job! Sounds like you had a good hunt. I had some fun watching some javelina today on the way home from Tucson. I spotted them while driving down the highway and pulled over and hiked into them. I didn't have a camera or even binoculars, but it was fun watching them feeding and interacting. Got within 20 yards. Eventually one saw me moving and they left. Can't wait for my HAM season! Amanda

Rattling can work, but since deer densities tend to be low, it's hard to be effective by just going somewhere and rattling. Best to try and find some bucks and then set up to rattle them in closer. Not many people have had a lot of luck with scents, but I don't know any reason why it wouldn't work. It might work best if you had a stand on a trail and put some out. That way the buck would stop and investigate the scent while you pulled off the shot. Here is a link to some info on hunting strategies:coues hunting strategies Amanda

All the info can be found in the biology section of the main website. here is a link to the page: Life Stages for Coues deer The rut is on now and so is the bow season, so buy an over the counter archery deer tag and get out there! Amanda