ScottAdams

That's good to know since I may need a new filter.

Hey guys sorry it took me so long to respond. It seems here lately I'm either hunting or working and working 12 hour shifts at that. Thanks for all the atta boys and congrats. Austin is just eatin it up. Chris & Bret, I really think he went for the carp deer because they are easier, anyway now that he's gotten that out of his system he can concentrate on God's deer. By the way we had some of that little mule deer for supper last night and it sure don't taste like them Coues deer. I will tell you guys to try and get your children interested in hunting. My boys have just taken off with it. I am fortunate that where I live they can hop on the ATV's from the house and in 10 minutes be hunting quail, Coues deer, mule deer or dropping a line the river for big Flatheads and Channel Cats. Almost every evening this week after school they loaded up and went quail hunting. Anyway it certainly keeps them busy and out of trouble and I'm afraid it won't be long before they'll be teaching me some new hunting tricks. We still have my NM and my wife and other son's Nov. AZ Coues hunts. Thanks again.

Austin has finally finished off his hunts and man was it a flurry of activity! He went 3 for 3 on the tags he drew and we had a great time doing it! His first hunt was a youth hunt in New Mexico for Bull elk in unit 34. He took this bull opening day. His second hunt was an Arizona unit 1 archery bull hunt. He made a beautiful double lung shot on this bull on our 3rd full day of hunting. Lastly, he had an Arizona unit 27 junior hunt for any antlered deer. Since Austuin had never killed a mule deer, and since my wife, my oldest son and Amanda will be chasing Coues deer in this unit next month, we decided to try for a nice muley. Unfortunately we not able to find a nice 30 incher, but did take this buck yesterday amid the rain and hail. Austin was shooting from a kneeling position and dumped him from 244 yards out with his trusty 300wsm. Congratulations Ausie on your fantastic hunting accomplishments this year!!! Now he tells me that he still has a bear tag and if we can find some time...

I went out scouting on Friday. Mostly just making sure I could still get into areas I want to hunt after all the rains this year. I wasn't early enough to see much. Here's some photos from my scouting trip. Some good Coues country. This will be my first time to hunt Coues deer with a muzzleloader so it should be interesting. Good luck to all of you. Hopefully I'll have some good photos to share with you in a week or so.

Bret, I haven't looked at purifiers and filters in a long time. I have a PUR that I've had for over 10 years and the thing works great. Never got sick even though I've filtered out water that was mostly cow pucky. There may be and probably are some better filters on the market now than my little PUR Hiker. I'll probably use it on my NM hunt this coming weekend and will definitely use on the 27/28 Coues hunt in November. Good Luck killin' that there weaner buck.

Wow, now that is cool!! Looks like he may have recently shed his velvet from the redish look to his horns.

Well we have 1 bull down and one to go. My 16 year-old tagged out Saturday evening on this decent 6x6. It was his first bull and man was he excited, hec we were all excited. We had about 5 bulls that were bugling and staying just ahead of us. We chased them over a couple of ridges and canyons before we finally caught up with this bull. He had 2 cows with him so I guess maybe you could call him a herd bull . Austin dropped him at 335 yards across the canyon with his 300 WSM. We're off to unit 1 this morning for his AZ archery hunt. Fill you in when we get back. Scott

Coues7, I'm using the Leica Digilux 2. You are correct, he drew 2 bull elk tags and 1 deer tag. What luck uh?

Sorry it's taken me so long to post the unit 1 AZ bull photos. Thanks for all the posts and compliments. Bret that was me you saw up by Mexican Hay lake. Of course we're back from the AZ elk hunt. Austin had yet another successful hunt. This was an archery hunt in unit 1 in AZ. We were hunting at about 9,000 ft. And had some beautiful weather. Our mornings were were a cool 29 degrees warming up into the 60's during the day. We were camped at a big meadow and had bulls bugling all night long around camp. Austin passed on several bulls before deciding he just had to take this one. On our 3rd full day of the hunt we found ourselves sitting on the edge of a meadow, just inside the treeline, waiting for sundown. At around 5:00 PM the bulls started bugling in the distance and working toward the meadow and us. Just before 6:00 PM the bull stepped out into the meadow to our left. Austin had only seconds to decide whether or not to take this bull. He quickly decided he wanted him and when we finally got the bull to stop he was 78 yards out. Austin has been practicing out to 70 yards and beyond and had a 70 yard pin on his bow. He held over the bull and release an arrow. The arrow whizzed harmlessly over the bulls back but didn't really spook the bull. However the bull did move farther out into the meadow. Austin drew back his bow yet again and I ranged the bull at 86 yards. Austin held about a foot and a half over the bull's back with his 70 yard pin and released. I watched in awe as the arrow flew nearly silently in a slight arc across the meadow and heard the thud as the arrow stuck home. The arrow passed completely through the bull taking out both lungs. The bull ran in a huge circle around the meadow and then entered the treeline on our left where we heard him crash. Austin was relatively calm until he heard the bull crash inside the trees. He then began shaking and had just about the biggest grin I've ever seen on him. What an unbelievable hunt!! We saw so many bulls I didn't count them all. In 3 days we probably saw 75 bulls. We saw very few small bulls with most of the elk being 6x6's. Austin had some very close calls including one 6x6 at 19 yards! He actually drew on that bull, just for practice, never intending to shoot him. It's just unbelievable! My cousin Duwane likens it to hunting Yellowstone except it's legal! I can't express how exciting and almost magical it is to hunt these big bulls in the rut up in the high country. It is something that every hunter should experience at least once. By the way, we were only 60 miles, as the crow flies, from the house. Scott We are now in the middle of Austin's unit 27 junior deer hunt. We are hoping to hit it hard later this week. We did go out on Saturday but only saw small bucks. Talk to all of you later.

- What should I look for when shopping for a used 4-wheeler? In my humble opinion, a Honda. A fourwheel drive model. I prefer the 4 wheel independent suspension. for the smoother ride. -- How much should I expect to pay? I would guess at least 4 to 5 thousand depending on the model you are looking for. -- How do I tell if one has tons of miles on it or has been abused? As was stated earlier most of the newer models have odometers. I would also look under it at the skid plates to see how much of a beating they have taken also look at the wheels. How scratched up are they? Are the rims bent around the edges? Is the ATV garaged or kept covered? The AZ sun wreaks havoc on the plastic and seats on these machines. -- Are repairs prohibitly expensive? I've always done my own repairs and factory parts in my opion are somewhat expensive, but not prohibitively so. If you get one relatively new. You will probably buy nothing but tires for it. My old 96 honda has needed some repairs recently and I've paid something like $30 dollars for a tie rod end. -- How reliable are they? I am too old to have one break down 8-10 miles from my truck. They are very reliable. I've never been stranded in the 10 years I've used them. I have come close though, mostly tire related, (flats). I always carry a plug kit and air pump just in case. -- Will one of Harbor Freight's small trailers with 12-inch wheels be adequate to carry it? I've seen people hauling atv's on them but I would be a little uncomfortable hauling mine on them. I prefer something a little more substantial. -- Is there anything I need to know about driving these things on two-track trails across steep terrain? Use common sense and slowly learn you and your atv's limitations. Use your body to offset weight on steep terrain. I had a friend that took an ATV riding class when he bought his ATV. Although he had been riding one for quite some time before that, he said it was a great class and he did learn a few things. Bill, Amanda was correct on the atv of mine that she rode on, it is a Honda Rincon. They are very comfortable and reliable atvs. It seems the older I get the smoother the ride I look for. The new Rincons are 700 cc with fuel injection. I have 3 atv's and they are all Hondas, the oldest being a 96 model. Honda's are probably about as reliable as you can get in an ATV and I would say you are probably safest on them if you don't want to break down 2 days hike from the truck, although as was stated earlier most of the new ones are very reliable. We use them alot here around Morenci, running up and down the rivers and over all this nasty volcanic terrain around here. They take a lot of what most would call unadulterated abuse. Plus I have 2 teenage sons that really put them to the test. There are a lot of Polaris atv's out there but I'm not a big fan of them, although I have only rode a few and have never owned one. Here at the Phelps Dodge mine we use Honda atvs on the dumps and they really get put through the ringer. Most of them seem to be the Ranchers. The last ATV I bought I actually drove to Dallas, TX to buy. It was a 2002 Honda Rubicon 500 with 750 miles on it. I paid $2,500 for it. It was such a great deal that I gladly spent the time and gas money to drive down and pick it up. I have a friend looking for a used ATV and he hasn't had a lot of luck finding good used Hondas. People tend to get them and keep them. Let me know if you would like any more info. Good luck on your search.

I went out Monday and Wednesday this week, just looking around to see what was out this year. It's my first time out this season. There were weeds of every description out there. Careless weeds waist high, vines growing on prickly pear...what a great monsoon season we've had. Here are some photos. Young bear doing his best to get at the mesquite beans. An absolutely huge blondish sow with 2 black cubs. I was only able to get one of the cubs in the photo. Where the sow and cubs were.

Hey Bret, I'm glad you liked the photo of Zacheus the midget bear. Some day he may grow up to be a brute that will take your breath away and give you a severe case of Big Bruin Fever!! Muleskinner, if you don't have a manual focus on your camera you may have a hard time getting the camera to focus through a set of binoculars. I usually manually focus my camera but sometimes the autofocus will work. I'm not real happy with my digiscoping setup and I would love to have one of the setups that Doug from Camera Land is selling, but mine will have to do until I can afford something better. Unless Doug makes me an offer I can't refuse. hint hint. You can go to this site and read my review on the 30X80 Docters. 30x80 Docter Review I wrote it a few years back but it still holds true.

Thanks for all the compliments folks. I enjoy posting the photos and hope to get some better ones soon. Like Amanda said, the controlled burn won't effect our hunts. There are Coues deer in that area they a burning but I don't hunt it because it's generally thicker than I prefer. This burn my take that problem. It's really hard not to look out at the 2 mile range and beyond when using those 30's. It brings things in so close that you sometimes don't realize how far out it is until you sit back and look. It's usually then that you realize it's gonna take the better part of a day just getting over there, if you can even get there in a day! This is the setup I'm using.

Hey Josh, yes I did and I had forgotten all about it. Let me dig through my emails and I'll get back to you. Kevin thanks for the offer. We'll be camped outside of Sacramento and hunting from there. I would appreciate any info your buddies come up with. Thank you. Maybe we'll stop by Las Cruces on our way out and show you the bull.

Good Luck Kevin! Wack a good un.

Very nice Vinni!!

Doug, I have a few areas where I've found Mearns. I've never hunted them but like anyone that's ever spent any time in Mearns country I've ruined more than a few pair of underwear when them rascals exploded from under my feet! I'm ready to go.

Ah Rica! What a fine dog!!! Truly man's best friend. Would love to hunt with her sometime. Beautiful pics Doug.

Duwane is very good and knows his stuff. He is one of the pioneers of glassing with high-powered binoculars on a tripod. He'll talk hunting for hours on end and never seems to tire of it.

Bret, you're always welcome to camp with me...in spite of your nasty habits.

Brent, good to hear from you. We are all doing well, of course we're getting geared up for the hunts. I'm going to run out vacation time before I run out of hunts this year. Dennis, we did hit the Motherlode this year. My 16 year old son with 2 bull tags in his pocket, rut hunts no less, is struttin' around like he owns the world! He's a big kid so it will be more like hunting with an adult than a kid. Fortunately I went to school with his principal and should be able to swing some unexcused absences. He has hunts from Sept 22 - Oct 15 uninterupted! What a problem to have.

I'll be in unit 1 Allen. May even camp with Duwayne. My son drew a tag.

My household did pretty well. I drew NM unit 23 Muzzleloader October Coues tag. Wife drew AZ unit 27/28 November Coues tag. Oldest son drew AZ unit 27/28 November Coues tag. Youngest son drew AZ unit 27 October any antlered Deer youth tag. NM Unit 34 September rifle youth Bull Elk tag AZ unit 1 archery Sept/Oct Bull Elk tag.

I live in Morenci.

Wow, I'll echo that on the taxidermy work. Beautiful job! Man, it's almost time to go get another one. Scott