MT_Sourdough

I was up there this afternoon to check some cams and take the pulse of the area (how many hunters are up there). I left my bow at home. DUMB! Had a nice muley buck teasing me. In 8, if you want to separate yourself from other hunters, dropping into a canyon is a good way to do that. Otherwise, there are roads on darn near every ridge and down every draw. In 8, bucks like this are usually common place, but this year they are a little bit harder to find. This guy. though, has spent the last three weeks running a herd right next to the road and is watching cars drive by all day long.

Anytime I try to pattern deer activity with moon activity, bad weather comes along and changes everything. barometric pressure is probably more reliable in guessing what they are doing during the course of a day. That's just my experience, but I am no expert. I also think it's true that whitetail have changing behavior and habits by local and subspecies. I now know 3 types of whitetail well enough to know that they are quite different in deed. Most of Montana has the midwest subspecies or whatever it's called. They hang in the river bottoms for the most part. Easy to hunt, but harder to find on public land because river valleys are usually private property. In the far west part of Montana, they have another kind of whitetail that hangs in the hills in the timber. They are easy to hunt and easier to find on public land cause they can be found in the hills, Then there are these Coues here in AZ that are way different than the other two. In fact, if I were advising a hunter from Montana who was hunting Coues for the first time, I'd tell them to hunt them more like Montana Muleys.

Most reloaders know this already. I feel it still imperative to state that, before you try achieving factory load velocities, I'd recommend you chrony those factory loads. That way you'll discover real world velocity for that load in the rifle you are shooting. Disparities between claimed velocities versus real world results can be quite extreme,

I am seeing so many coyotes in 8 right now. The unit is crawling with them. I was mentioning the die off of antelope and low recruitment since June. That drought was more severe than people realize. Then add all them coyotes and times are tough for the ungulates in 8.

Aw'heck, I can remember chilling out in camp one morning when a doe came in to my camp. I stayed still and quiet and she eventually made her way over to me. Next thing I know she has her nose pressed against my face. I put my hand up and started petting her on the neck, partially because I was afraid she might decide to see what I taste like. They sure feel strong. After a short while, she meandered out of camp and I was stunned by what just happened. I do not know what that has to do with the price of tea in China, but you never know what may happen when you are out there with a quiet camp.

I have been in the process of replacing all of my trail cams with the Stealth G42NG cams. When I am done, I will have between 1/2 dozen to a dozen cams that I won't be using anymore. Most work fine, but there might be 1 or 2 that are defective. Some have security boxes. I am not ready as of yet, but soon I will be ready to give them to somebody. My thoughts are along the lines of somebody who has a young'n or young'ns who would like to have fun and lurnin with some cams. I really just want to hand them all off to somebody at one time rather than separating them. Anyways I suspect that by next week, I will have them ready to give away. I am in Chino Valley, but I'd drive as far as Cortez JCT or Camp Verde/Cottonwood if that helps. If interested, send me a PM.

Sorry, I gave them away already. i wish I could be a Camera Santa Clause, because I think they are great tools for getting children interested in the outdoors and they make great teaching aids. If it were me with my kids, I'd have them read what is on the ground and then compare what they see on the ground and what is on the camera. Let children get educated by real world outdoor experience as opposed to having their heads filled with alternative facts of citified nature experts. For example, If you are running cameras where I am, you are seeing a huge swell in coyote numbers. If people saw how many coyotes are out there and recognize how many baby deer and the like that coyotes kill, the, experts wouldn't cry foul when hunters do what they can to manage coyote numbers.

Gone. Somebody has kids that's gonna take them, Hope they have lots of fun with them.

Congrats. I saw a lot of elk, most were in the back of somebody's truck. I went to all the right places, Just always at the wrong time. I think I am the only person that didn't tag out in 8 this year. When I hiked, it seems like I was just pushing the elk out to the roads where road hunters were sleighing them. Lots of elk getting shot all around me. Most were road hunters. My blind on a water hole was a fail. After a few days, I realized that the back of the blind was lifting a couple of inches above the ground. The air flow was going that direction which nullified the effectiveness of my Ozonics. Because, the area is in a bowl, the inevitable result is I stunk up the joint. Elk stayed away until the last day, but I wasn't around when they finally came back. Ever notice that hunters sitting on the edge of rim rock while bent over a spotting scope look a lot like gargoyles?

Thanks. It will. Those guys are sitting tree stands and it isn't tree stand weather. The location is primo. If I sit it, I will kill.

As of yesterday afternoon, no snow on and below rim but tons of rain. Because of condensation, it was raining in my blind on opening morning. Made for a cold miserable opening day. I decided to haul my portable heater to my blind yesterday morning. Left my truck, headed for my blind at 5 am. At 5:30, I get to destination just to see headlamps turn on. I looked, but not wanting to believe what I was seeing, I was trying to think of some other explanation to what my eyes were telling me. Alas, I had to resign myself to the reality that some hunters beat me to the location. It's just 530! All I could do is turn right around and walk back out to my truck. All my gear was in my blind and I didn't have a good plan b. So far this season hasn't met my expectations. On Friday, I stepped out of my blind a little early to start my walk back to my truck. After walking about 15 yards from my blind, I look up to see a bull doing a 180 and bolting the other direction. If I would have waited another 5 minutes, I probably would have had him come in. Oh well.

That's cool. Well done.

I had to construct roof support on my blind so snow, when it comes, doesn't cause the roof to collapse.

Do I use my heater in my blind? That's my biggest quandary.

The Depot in Paulden has several impressive Coues mounts.

This aint triple S, The last S in triple S is for SHUT UP! As a former LEO myself, I can tell you this is how so many give themselves up. People are so friggin smart that they can't wait to show other people how clever they are. Funny thing, how hard it is to keep your mouth shut

Yea, I am seeing some down low, but not in big numbers. See plenty just outside of Ash Fork, though. Right now, I'm heading up there to brush-in my blind and set up camp. I'm so stoked.

Thanks. I think, of the 6 hunters who showed up for first week, all 6 tagged out in the first week. It is a good time to have a bison tag for sure. When the park gets the herd down under 200 animals, this hunt won't have such a high success rate. If the state's plans for the future are recognized, there will be another, totally separate herd, that will be available for hunters to pursue in Arizona.

I admit that I totally suck at glassing. Not natural to me. My eyes start to hurt fairly quickly and I spend a lot of time switching to my naked eye balls to scan the land. I like sitting in a blind. I hurry up and get in place. Gotta rush to get settled in before the sun comes up. Then I fall asleep and wake up about two or three hours after the sun has arisen. I look around and don't see anything and in short order, I fall back to sleep. Wake back up, again, around 11 am feeling well rested. I am good at that type of hunting.

That's what I am thinking as well. Congrats

Mine's a 444 Marlin. Younger lighter sibling to the 45/70 1/20 twist ballard 22" barrel. Bullets made from recycled wheel weights. .09 - lead .03 - gas check .01 - lube .15 - powder .07 - primer .10 - cost of case w/ 8 x reloaded that's around 45 cents a round or $9 per 20 with hundreds of pounds of lead, I can shoot these for the rest of my life. Retinas intact Correct me if I am wrong, but the 400gr Partitions for your 416 are about $150 a box. Is that right? How far do you stretch out with a 416 RUM? I have never shot anything that generates that kind of energy. That is quite a handsome rifle and congrats on your cow.

My 400 grain bullet is only going 1900fps. My bullets are WAAAAAAAAAAAY cheaper.

The only pic I got. Time was of the essence. I'll have a cool Euro mount done by Authentic and a buffalo rug. That is the entrance wound on this side. See the horn that's broomed off. Not so easy to see, but she is laying in a nest of cats claw. I have a few new scratches.

First off, you are right. There was 10 tags issued for the late hunt and all are cow tags. Russ wasn't up there at the beginning of the hunt because he was helping a client fill a sheep tag and other lousy excuses. (just joking) On the opening day, there were 6 of us hunters and we tried to coordinate as if Russ was there. One of the hunters had a friend who has filled a tag on this hunt in the past and he was helpful in getting us organized for opening day. On opening day, I was designated an area in a pinch point. If buffalo were moving through the area, this area could be hot, but as it turned out, buffalo were not in that area. Nor were there any sightings in any of the areas that the other hunters sat that day, day 1. Others did some scouting on the first day and locations of fresh bison activity was discovered. One hunter tagged out on Saturday morning, day 2, based on information she found scouting the previous day. On the second day, I was recommended to go and sit an area that had a nice dirt tank and a pretty meadow. That is what I asked for. I wanted to make the time sitting the blind very enjoyable with just that type of setting. The problem is, I have never been in the Bab before this hunt and I did not have my GPS with me. I drove past my suggested area. By the time I realized my mistake for sure, I was quite a ways past that location. I decided to educate myself a bit and drive along an area with known recent bison activity. With a little scouting, I found a trick tank that had plenty of fresh bison sign. Russ already had a blind on the tank/ salt lick. I sat that blind for a 3 or 4 hours without anything coming in, but I knew this was the place for me. I decided to set my own blind up next to Russ's. With my own blind set, I can leave some stuff in my blind without having to carry all my stuff to and from the blind each day. One rule of Russ's blinds is that you do not leave anything behind when you leave that set each day. On day 3, I misjudged and parked about 3 miles from my blind sight as opposed to only 3/4 to 1 mile away. Took my old fat butt too long to get to the blind. I sat that blind all day and didn't see anything all day, BUT............BUT I heard bison moving around me. Their hooves sound like horses hooves as the buffalo moved along the gravel road. My blind location gave me a very limited view around me. All I can do is sit and wait. I remember Russ saying the worse thing you can do, is come bounding out of a blind and booger up the buffalo. He says to sit it out and wait for them to come to you. At the end of that day, I walked out while it was still light, because I had a long walk ahead of me. At a puddle, just about 200 yards from the blind, there were signs of mass chaos. The buffalo made big wallows in ash laden silty areas along both sides of the road. Right at the edge of the puddle were signs of some fighting, including some splatters of blood on the ground. Then I saw a horn that apparently was broken off in the fight. All this happened right outside my blind just 200 yards away while I sat in the blind. On day 4, I knew where to park my truck and I was totally set. I sat that blind all day, but it was much quieter than the day before. About an hour before dark, I could hear some noise coming from my left, the park side. Then a couple of bison came running in, fallowed by more and more bison. Soon, there were some 40 or 50 bison jammed together around the salt and trick tank. I was watching the bison trying to pick out a cow that was clear from the rest. I watched and waited for about 10 minutes. One big cow started moving away from the herd. I got a glimpse of utters, so there was no doubt it was a cow. She was big with a horn on one side broomed off about 2/3 gone, so I knew she was old. She didn't have a cow tagging along and her hide on her hump had some gray. She might have even been the lead cow. As she moved to my left, she was in line with the low sun such that I really couldn't make out her front legs. I aimed slightly back, as to avoid her elbow and squeezed off a shot from my 444 Marlin. She ran about 25 yards back towards the park and fell over in a cloud of dust. The herd lingered for a while as I waited in the blind. I did not want to booger them up any more so I waited about 10 minutes before I went to the cow. There was a huge bull that came in about 5 minutes after the first bison came in. This bull literally towered over all the other bison like Shaquile O'Neil. As impressive as he was I was looking for a clear shot at a cow so I didn't watch the bull for long. Two other hunters filled their tags on the same day. As it turned out, I ended up having to break her down by myself. That job beat me up, but I got her done. I was able to drive up to her so that made it easier. THE END

I generally do not think of unit 8 as a great unit for glassing, but I am an old fat guy who doesn't want to drop an elk in a bottom of a deep canyon. If you are willing to haul an elk out of a canyon, then the canyon rims have lots of viewing points. If you choose to scope from rims into canyons I would recommend you think of moving along rims to cover a big area and getaway from other hunters. Get away from easy access points to which most hunters congregate. As an old fat guy, I am developing a fondness for blinds. If it is dry during the hunt, a blind on a water hole is a good option. I will be up there as I have the same tag. I will be sitting my fat butt in a "Goldie Locks" blind chair. One more thing. The elk have finally, since the end of the drought, found their way back to the lower flats in the south side of the unit, so the elk are scattered around every bit of the unit again.