Speedy

Just bought one for myself for X-mas! This was the first time using it. Midwest whitetail buck backstrap, 8 hours at 130F, quick pan sear.

Yep, he ducked and it bounced off his back. Took me about 20 minutes to find the arrow.

Just booked my flight so I'll be there again trying for my first Coues (and maybe a Javi) mid-January. If you guys think it's hard with a compound bow, try using a recurve. The rut helps because I need them to be on the move, I can only sit still and hope one wanders into range.....and then doesn't see or hear me!

Thanks. I saw it was available in digital format but real books are better. His website has been saying another printing is in the works since last year. So how soon is soon? Cbarber13, you willing to borrow me a copy? I'm looking to learn more about these little buggers. Might not help my luck much but could get me through another long wait 'till next year.

I setup the GoPro 5 with narrow field of view which looks more realistic. The actual shot distance was around 20 yards. Close, but not close enough?

Here's the video of the miss that I'll be crying over for a long time. It's from a GoPro mounted on my recurve bow so you can't see the arrow in flight due vibration but at the end you can see where I found it! He didn't stop on his own as I thought so it appears he heard or saw me draw which is a sure indication he was going to jump but I was too busy picking a spot to notice. You can tell by how fast he took off that he was moving well before my 180 fps arrow got there. After this I saw him again 2 days later taking a wide berth around the same blind. That ended up being the last deer I saw on this trip! In total I might have seen a dozen deer the entire 7 days but I never got bored. Back home I would have given up after 3 days! Never went after javi either as coues was the priority. Darn these Coues deer are so frustrating, but at the same time fascinating enough to sit for days just to see one. I had fun just being there and despite the lack of deer I'm still determined as ever to get one of these little buggers with my recurve. I want to thank everyone for all the help and encouragement especially oneshot who's the only other person I know crazy enough to chase these hypersensitive deer with a traditional bow. https://youtu.be/ldMR3wU6D5U

Errrrr...how the heck do you kill one of these little buggers! Finally see a buck and he stops on his own at 20 yds so aimed true but he ducked anyway and the arrow bounced off his back. After a frustrating search for the arrow looked up and it was 10 feet up a tree! He was just barely a 3x3 so not huge but he would have been a trophy for me. Also had a spike come by the same trail but I'm sticking to my goal of 3pt on one side. I think I have it on video so will post when I get home. This makes it 3 shots at coues and no blood. Starting to think I'll never kill one.

Its an ice fishing contest in forest lake to win a truck I believe. Update from the desert. Hunting is very slow in the Santa Rita's. I've only seen 3 does and no javi since Saturday. Doesn't seem to be much sign either so not sure what's up. At least it's warm. Was -17 when I left and 81 when I got to Tucson. dang near a 100 degree temp swing! I'm still acclimating to the heat, low humidity and constant sunshine.

Yeah, you and most everyone else up here!

Time to revive this tread, I'm headed out west on Saturday to give it another try! Hopefully the weather will cooperate this time. Might be my last shot for awhile to cross a coues deer off the bucket list so wish me luck. I have a Javi tag again too. Funny, growing up in the Midwest as a kid all I did was read books about the desert and the critters and plants that call it home. To this day it still fascinates me more than any other place.

Heck those calls don't always work so well on eastern deer! It's all the mood of the deer and the situation. You'll never pull a buck off a hot doe, or one with his nose to the ground trailing one. A grunt may call in a buck one day, but most of the time they ignore it. If they responded to every grunt they hear they would be running in circles all day. Grunt at a buck with a doe nearby and she may run taking the buck with her. And I have never called in a buck with a can call, the only deer to respond have been does and everyone was on high alert!

I will be leaving this god forsaken frozen tundra (it's -2F right now at 2:00 in the afternoon) in 12 days to hunt south of Tucson for Coues and Javelina for a week, then my wife comes out for a week vacation in Phoenix (Cave Creek). Since I'll be flying that puts a twist in transporting game. I'd like to find a good taxidermist out there who would be willing to ship head mounts (or a skull, not sure what to do with a Javi). I'll also need to find a meat processor or someplace to store frozen meat until I leave (could be almost 2 weeks of time). In the event I fill both tags I likely won't have room for all the meat so is there a place to donate deer meat? I plan to bring back the Javi since it sounds like a challenge to cook . Depending on where and when I'll need these services in Tucson, Phoenix or both. Thanks.

By the way it sounds I'd have a hard time giving javi away! Never tried it so it will be an experience. I process my own game so I'm already extra careful with butchering. Besides I have a freezer full of deer. Got this one the last day of our early bow season on 11/16/17 -

Looking at air photos I can find a few water holes so I'm looking for a map that shows all of them. Are these all considered AZGF tanks or are there more than just those? Problem is most hunting maps are 100K scale so they are not much good as a topo map but one should be able to find water sources, but they only mention the AZGF tanks like this one: http://huntmap.com/shop/viewcategory.php?groupid=3 Do the onXmaps chips for a Garmin GPS show all water features? Not cheap but they seem to have everything.

Smoked prime rib is awesome, but if you want to make it in the oven this is the best procedure. Note - searing is done at the end, not the beginning. Really there is no such thing as sealing in the juicies, it's a myth. Actually the opposite happens. Dry aging if you have time make a difference too. I just use salt, pepper, garlic powder and rosemary for the rub. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/dry-aged-standing-rib-roast-with-sage-jus-recipe-1939502 Also this is the best $71 (on sale) you will ever spend. It's accurate and fast which most (all) cheapo thermometers are not. Nothing like overcooking at $50 roast to find that out. Absolutely essential for wild game. http://www.thermoworks.com/Classic-Thermapen?gclid=CjwKCAiA1O3RBRBHEiwAq5fD_CbsonphWU21YS88SuZMmiFQjYWm9OMEr5A0WeYGQ7R2Tc9VvnM75BoC9jEQAvD_BwE

http://www.eldonsausage.com/ Everything you need including books and how to advice is at Eldons. Good guy and great customer service. I've made pretty much everything from wild game but I found making summer sausage is more of an art. It's not that you can't make good sausage using kits, but if you have a favorite butcher get to know him well.

The rut is timed to result in fawn drop during the best time of the year for their survival. That's why whitetails in WI rut in November and in AZ January. Same species, different areas.

My wife is interested in a warm(er) weather vacation to the SW from the frigid Midwest. We did this a few years ago that allowed me to stay behind and deer hunt so this is an ideal situation for me. We flew into Phoenix last time so we pretty much covered everything around Tuscon that is outdoors/nature related so where else to go for like 5-6 days? Thinking of Sedona or SW New Mexico, or maybe head to Cali? What do you guys recommend that has outdoor activities like day hikes, gardens, nature exhibits or anyplace to spend time outdoors in mid-January w/o a winter coat? She doesn't want to camp so it would have to be near some accommodations like a cabin. I always wanted to check out the Chiricahuas but not sure that's more than a day or so?

Ducks are pretty easy to locate in AZ compared to the Midwest .

That sounds BRUTAL. Did you drop down to hunt lower elevation or call it quits all together? I was looking at the Kuiu Teton Insulated jacket. I'm glad to hear that your like it and it must be warm. That's a good endorsement. My only concern with it was the lack of packability/compression compared to a down-filled jacket. Also I see your a cheesehead. GPG! I'm a born and raised Wisconsinite myself. It would have been my last day so I left early, but be aware it can happen! I don't have a KUIU down but all the down I've owned in the past seem more compressible under outer clothing than synthetic thus not be as warm. The Teton jacket is also quiet and not entirely windproof which means it breaths very well. It packs small too, in fact I take it with me when I'm backpack elk hunting as my main insulating layer. Go Pack go!

Last year I got chased out early due to 70 mph winds and 12" of snow in mid January at 6,000 feet so be prepared. Arctic shield overboots work good when it gets cold if you plan to do any sitting. I have a Kuiu Teton insulated jacket that I love too. Like they said it can warm up fast so the good news is it's not cold for all that long.

Thanks for the suggestions. The plan is spend 5-6 days on vacation with my wife, then send her home and go deer/javi hunting the 3rd week of January. I've hunted the Santa Ritas before so I may look to go back there unless I can find a better place more suited to the recurve bow I shoot. Not every area allows one to get within 25 yards of those wary little buggers (basically means ambush blinds).

Thanks. My wife is coming out at first then I'll be hunting the following week by myself so I don't need to be in the same area the entire time. Although a scouting trip is not out of the question (thus the idea to hike the Chiricahaus).

It was fun but there's next season to look forward too so its never over. Season ended here in WI too and my freezer is empty so bummed about have to buy meat at the store more than anything. I hope I can make it back out there someday and chase those grey ghosts.

Well I tried again, but who thought the weather in WI would be better than AZ? It rained the first 4 days so I was glad I brought my raingear! But the deer didn’t seem to move much when it rains like they do at home. Maybe it's all the lions chasing them since it’s so dang quiet. The day I flew in (1/14) stopped for 2 Sonoran dogs (which were as good as I remember) then made it to my camp with some daylight left. That eve I went looking for the tree I put a stand in 2 years ago and saw a lone javi working a hill side. Tried to get in front and he disappeared but the wind was swirling. The skies opened up walking back to camp and then it kept on raining. Next day put on the rain gear and went to a ground blind and as I was setting up I turned around and 15 yards behind me was a decent 3x3 (6 pt) coues. He had no idea I was there but heard me walk in and thought I was a doe so the rut was on. I carelessly nocked an arrow so it clicked ever so slightly and he took off. The next day (raining again) went to town the watch the Packer game at 1 pm and what looks to be a mule deer (or hybrid) walked by the blind while I was in the bar. dang curse of the trail cam, sometimes I think it’s better not to know. On Tuesday the sun finally came out at 2:30 and while I was reading a book out of the corner of my eye saw the outline of deer walk thru a gap in the brush at 15 yards. I also saw a shadow moving so I knew there was another one following. The lead doe stopped behind a downed tree 20 yds away and as I put the book down it made an ever so slight sound and she bolted, and then I saw the buck trailing was bigger than the 3x3. She came from a direction I never expected and was also downwind too so maybe that's what happened. Because it was wet these deer made no noise walking so it was very hard to stay on high alert sitting for hours. After these encounters I put out my doe decoy and had a doe and later a spike come in and circle it so that might have worked as I think I could have pulled off a shot. But dang these deer are jumpy. I did have another doe up on the hillside see my decoy from 60 yards away and she snorted at it for 30 minutes. And next time I read a book it's not going to be in my hand! I got chased out 1.5 days early by a severe winter storm warning of 14” of snow and 80 MPH winds so I changed my flight home. I really needed a few more days, with the rain (and the game) I really only had 3 decent hunting days out of 7. The last day (1/19) I went for a drive to see more country and man it’s so vast I could spend a month out there looking for hunting locations. Never saw another javi which is what I was hoping for but I was road hunting at the time. Still fun and I have the coues bug even worse now. I had 2 opportunities and proved I can get close but just failed to follow protocol. Getting the draw on one with a trad bow is going to be another matter entirely. I’m going to have to be very patient and wait for the right moment. I think my decoy may help when it doesn’t scare anything away which it did 33% of the time. I’m still learning which makes it even more fun. Plus I’m not as picky as back home so there’s a good chance any average 3x3 or better buck is a shooter. Thanks to all those who gave me tips and encouragement and maybe I’ll get another chance to do this again. You guys have a cool thing going out there so let’s hope the rest of the world doesn’t figure it out too soon!