standman

Thanks everyone. Sure is nice to turn back the clock every once in a while. Brian

Flippin' Sweet!!!!!!!

Ribeyes are #1 on my list. Then I will say Cornish Gam Hens in a 12" dutchoven. I can cook three hens in one oven. Drench all three hens in butter then season pretty heavy with favorite cajun spice. Place a small wire rack in bottom of dutch oven that raises it off the bottom about 1". Put 10 brickets under and 20 on top and cook for about 75 to 90 minutes. If the top of the hens start getting brown too soon just place a piece of tinfoil on top of the hens to keep from burning. Then take a 10" dutchoven and make cheesy au gratin potatoes. Layer sliced potatoes,salt, pepper, onions until you have as many you need. Put melted butter over each layer as you build it up. Once you have as many as you want, mix a can of chedder cheese soup with 1/3 cup of milk and pour over the top then sprinkle with Italian bread crumbs. Place on top of 12" duchoven and cover lid with about 15 brickets. Cook that for about an hour. Once done, spread grated cheese on top, let melt then serve. This year we have a sun oven we are going to try out. Been using it at home and it works great. Going to set it up and let some ribs simmer and cook all day then come back to camp and have dinner ready. Tried this at home and it works great. Brian

DOH!!!!

I agree. Way Cool. HEY You stole one of MY pictures (my beloved Penguins) Man can't put anything on the net and feel its safe You must be the Camera thief also if you would sink that low It cool Mike But I reserve the right to use it again since I stole it fair and square off another site Hehehehehe!!!!!

I agree. Way Cool.

Congradulations on the accomplishment!!!!! One great sheep!!!

I agree, don't see him growing much more. Nice bull.

Woohoo, That is my dad who won, and he never wins anything. Thanks Doug and Camerland. Brian

Best advice I heard in a while. Couple years ago drew a 3c archery bull tag. Hunted everday of the season but one (funeral), called in 32 bulls under 30 yards and never fired a shot the whole season. Best archery hunt I have ever been on. I had people think I was an idiot for passing some of the bulls I did, but none of them fit the picture of the bull I wanted in my mind. Never regretted it. Would do it again in a heartbeat. Good luck and enjoy and have the time of your life.

Great Pics everyone!! Here are some of ours from last year (nothing new been posted before). 2008 2008 2009 2009

Ever since the first time I saw my first transplanted Goulds turkey in the Chiricauha Mountains, I always hoped that some day I would be able to hunt one of these beautiful birds. This past November when spring draw results release, I found out I had drawn one of the five tags for the second hunt in Unit 29. My dream had come true and I was on cloud nine. Knowing the unit real well, and have seen lots of turkeys over the years I figured I had an idea of where to start looking for turkeys. My brother and I traveled 5.5 hours the day before the season started to get to our camping spot. After setting up, we had a few hours before dark to try and located some gobblers and hopefully roost a few birds. The country was extremely dry and we knew that the turkeys had to be around water. We started working some of the creeks checking for sign and there was no problem of finding where the goulds were. Anywhere there was water there was turkeys. I was walking into one spring late in the afternoon and I walked right up on a strutting tom not twenty-five yards away from me. I just eased out of the area without spooking him. About a half hour before dark we got another tom to gobble. Then right at dark we drove up on another tom heading to roost. We sat there till dark till he roosted and we knew exactly how we were going to work him the next morning. We were up at 4 am the next morning and then headed to out to set up on the tom we roosted the night before. We waited in the dark, wanting to him to start gobbling on his own. He finally started and we headed up the draw to get in position to start calling. We set up and started calling to him, and he would just hammer back at every call we made. Sometimes even double and triple gobbling. There was also another gobbler gobbling further up and to the east of us. Finally the tom gobbling six times in a row and flew out of his roost. Problem was he flew off in the opposite direction and to the bottom of the opposite canyon. His gobbles kept getting farther and farther away unil we couldn'thear him any more. To our supprise thoug the other gobbler who was quite far away to begin with was now getting closer and closer until I could finally see him up the draw. He was with a hen and in full strut. coming right for us. He never stopped and continued straight at me until he was 20 yards away. He finally stretched his neck out and I let him have it with a load of #5's from my twelve gauge. He was down and I had my first ever Gould's turkey. My hunt was over at 5:40 a.m. on opening morning. What an experience. One of the greatest experiences of my hunting career.. The tom had an 8 1/4" beard and spurs just over 1". I hope I will one day get another chance to hunt the Goulds turkey again. Thanks for reading and looking and I hope you enjoy the pictures. Brian

Thanks, this is only the second year of permits in 29. Last year there was only 2 permits. A good friend of mine had one of the two last year. So to answer your question, only two years. Had 5BPs. I hadn't put in for any of the other goulds tags over the years because I have never been in those units. Brian

On 5/1/09 while turkey hunting, saw a mid 90's buck with both horns still on.

Way to go!!!Just awesome!!! Congrats!!!

Congrats on a beautiful goulds gobbler!!!!

Thanks everyone. Sure was an awesome trip. I really, really, really hope to be able to do it again, except next time it will be with the ole stick and string. And thanks again for reading.

Flippin' Sweet!! Congrats to both of you.

I figured it was the hen that led him over or we just happened to be set up just in the right spot where they always came down to head to the creek.

My brother, Sam and I arrived in camp Thursday evening around 5 p.m. and after setting up we had time to go roost some birds. After going to a couple different spots, we were able to roost gobblers in three different spots. We discussed our options and picked which birds we would work in the morning. Opening morning arrived bright and early at 4 a.m. Sam was up and ready to go as we wanted to get to our spot and in position early. On our way to our spot the thermometer read 13 degrees, and I forgot my coat at home. We get set up with the decoys out in front, my brother and Sam up in front of me, and the gobblers gobbling just up the ridge above us. We called to the toms for about 15 minutes when they fly out of the roost, right over our heads and down to the middle of the main road right next to the truck. Sam was kind of freaking out and wondering what was going on as they flew right over our heads. We called to these birds for another 30 minutes but they would move as they stayed down in the road about 100 yards below us just strutting away. We moved two times trying different positions to get the birds in but they wouldn’t budge. Finally we got busted moving on them the third time as they saw us. The rest of the morning went about the same way as we worked quit a few birds but all were henned up and just didn’t want to come in. Sam’s spirits were high as we were in turkeys all morning long just couldn’t close the deal. The wind came up and we decide to look over some other areas. We found lots of turkeys every where we went but the wind was just too high for calling to be too effective. The rest of the day went about like this so we decided to go back and roost gobblers in our original spot. We couldn’t get any to answer us but we knew they had to be there. The next morning we got up to a balmy 17 degrees and Sam said that today was going to be the day. We got to the same spot as the morning before and we got them to sound off except this time they were below us roosted right above the river. The country was real open and we were afraid to get too close because we thought they might see us. We set up not in the best of positions but we were going to give it a go. After about 15 minutes of calling they came out of the trees and landed about 200 yards below us. There were three toms and quite a few hens. We could see them strutting down below us for about 10 minutes when the three toms broke away from the hens and started coming right for us. My brother said Sam got real nervous then as his knees started shaking. They came right at us with out hesitating strutting the whole time. They kept getting closer and closer but the problem was they were coming right at me and that was way to the right of Sam and he wasn’t going to be able to swing his gun to the right. When the first tom got to within 35 yards he finally saw the decoys and he made a hard right and headed right to them. He went behind a hump and Sam slowly raised his gun into position. The gobbler popped up at 12 yards right in front of Sam and he let the 12 gauge bark. Sam made a great shot and got his second spring turkey. Sam said that was the neatest thing he ever seen watching the toms come from around 200 yards all the way to the decoys. He was a big gobbler with 1” spurs but only had a 3” beard. But that didn’t matter. It was a great weekend. Sam had an amazing time as he had never been into so many turkeys. He can’t wait till next year. One more thing, we never saw another hunter in the area we were hunting which made the experience that much better. Congratulations Sam!!!! Brian

Jason-Congrats to your boy!!! Well done!!!

I also like the idea of the OTC youth tags. I would also like to see mandatory reporting not just for these tags but for all tags. I had some friends that took their kids to 3C and they did say that opening day between Heber and Show Low was a zoo. But after opening day the pressure decreased dramatically with only a few hunter seen after that. All I know is that where we were hunting, we had it all too ourselves. Brian

Just wondering if anyone knows the proper way to skin a turkey for a full mount? If I am lucky enough to get my gobbler on my gould's hunt I want to do a full mount of him. My hunt is 6 hours from home and I want to take care of him as good as possible before I get him to the taxidermist. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Brian

I believe it depends on how soon it gets to the taxidermist. But probably it's one or the other.

Talked to my taxidermist and he wants him whole. He said skinning isn't easy and he would like to do it himself. He said to keep him cool and dry in a large ice chest. Important to just keep him dry and not break any of the feathers especially the tail. Thanks for the replies. Going to start working on a liner for the ice chest that will keep him dry and cold. Thanks for the replies.