micropterus79

Thank you CouesPursuit. Sent a PM with some other details but I went ahead and made the edits you suggested!

Should be able to just enter what you have just like a normal excel spreadsheet...I hope. I went ahead and entered the data for our house this afternoon to hopefully give folks an idea of what/how to enter the data. Also, another member PM'd me and we thought about just starting a new thread called something like "Current Weather Conditions" where people can just post any inclement weather or conditions they see relevant to outdoors activities in their areas. This would provide a more immediate resource whereas the spreadsheet would be used to look at longer term patterns. As this other member mentioned, and I think it is worth repeating, temperature and precipitation are not the only weather phenomena that affect hunting and travel so if you all think of any more fields that should be added, let me know (things such as lighting, ice, etc...).

Okay guys n' gals. Sorry i didn't get back on more quickly. I have devised a Google Doc spreadsheet (follow link on last line). For those interested, please visit the Google Doc link and let me know what you think. We can easily add/remove fields; or if you feel like this is not the correct approach entirely, let me know (I would just ask that you give me an idea for a better alternative). If this is to be used and be useful, it is incredibly important that folks are entering data in a standardized fashion. First, USE ONLY DECIMALS (no fractions; 1 3/8" of precip = 1.375, etc...) and do not include any text/letters/symbols within the quantitative data fields (1.67 NOT 1.67"). For the date, use 8 digit code that indicates year, month, and day in a single numerical line (YYYYMODD). For example, August 5th, 2015 would be 20150805. Time should be entered as a 24 hour clock (military). Please use only standardized postal abbreviations for State (AZ not Arizona, etc..) and spell out the full name of the county if you wish to enter it. The units to be used are included in the field (column) headings; decimal inches for all precip values, feet for elevation, and decimal degrees for latitude and longitude, Fahrenheit for all temps. Please double check the field headings to ensure you are entering data in the correct units. The comments field is for anything you wish to add that might be relevant; whether you saw game that day, what type of game, ANYTHING else that you think might be a contribution or be important when the data are analyzed. It is also important that any cells you wish to leave blank, use a . (period) for "no data." Where observations are numerical zeroes, use a zero. Point is, we want to be able to distinguish "no data" from a true zero. Placing a period in empty cells will also diminish the likelihood of folks entering data in the wrong cell (if all cells are filled up as we go, then the next person that gets on to enter data won't have to think very hard about where to start). If all goes well and people like this, we could have quite a nice data set in a year or so and thank you in advance for any feedback and participation!! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11O4y4wRdTAKIv-ql3SKx9521_KN6d-ctjnPNRYMLd3Y/edit?usp=sharing

You compile and maintain the database and I'd be willing to turn it into a precipitation Google Earth layers and/or other maps. Conceptually, it's quite easy IMO. Hundreds of ways to do it I'm sure, without researching, a couple come to mind. 1 - Use a open source document management system (so it's free - http://www.opendocman.com/) where the source data (spreadsheet) can be "checked out" by one individual, they add to it, and "check in" their modifications. One consideration, everyone would need the same software such as MS Word to access it. 2 - Google has been coming out with new features in Google Docs. https://www.google.com/forms/about/ You could make a form that writes to a google spreadsheet and go from there. There are also customization forms Adobe makes that can do the same thing. This would be quite the commitment for all involved but there is no doubt it could work and be beneficial to CWT members. Okay. 10-4. I'll check these options out and get back to you guys ASAP. I agree, it won't be hard, it will just take ground work but once we get it rolling, it should be easy to maintain. Making a layer of the data on google earth is a freaking awesome idea!! I will be checking in with a progress report by next Friday.

Sharing this data among each other is a great idea...but if you're looking for the most comprehensive data for a region then the National Climate Data Center from NOAA is the best place (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/) Granted, you will have to work a little to figure out how to get what you want but you can get daily, monthly, annual averages or individual points to do your own graphs/analyses. I have used this data for research on several occasions. If we want to start sharing data among members, those of you all that have rain gauges, start an Excel spreadsheet and record the date, time, rainfall amounts, etc... and if we get enough data to get something going, I WOULD BE WILLING TO TRY TO COMPILE IT and share it on this forum. If you have data, send it to me as an excel attachment to a PM and I'll see what I can get started. I wonder if there is anyway we could have a spreadsheet that anyone could get on and enter data into so long as the data are standardized....

^^^Thanks Greyghost. Really appreciate the info about their feeding habits, that is a key and makes total sense! Given all this new info, I literally might explode before I can get back out there and check out my spot...those rascals are probably there I just happened to miss/overlook them. Not too surprising given my neophyte status I guess.

^^^So this another component to this that honestly confuses me. It is said (and I have no reason to doubt) that Coues deer in AZ tend to live at HIGHER elevations than mule deer; okay, but having been born and raised in western colorado, we always thought of whitetails as "flat land" deer because in Colorado, for the most part, whitetails are only found on the eastern half of the state (I was completely ignorant of Coues deer until I moved here last year). Now I come to AZ and find out that the "little deer" live up in the woods and the giant mule deer live in places like around Yuma yet in Colorado, the biggest bucks I saw were always in the high country during early hunts (Aug-Sept). To be clear, never killed one, just always saw bigger mule deer at high elevation. Furthermore, Becker states that it takes a lot of snow to move a Coues deer; I have heard the same thing of elk and mule deer that live at higher latitudes (not altitudes). I guess what I'm getting from here is that Coues deer, although smaller and, in general, inhabit drier and warmer areas than elk or mule deer, will behave much the same way within their home ranges and if we get weather like we did at the first of the year, it might push them around a little BUT all the tracks and apparent downslope movement I observed might well have been more due to the rut and finding easier food sources than the snow its self. In other words, if the Coues deer tracks I saw were heading out, it was probably not due to the little snow we got unless it was somehow making it harder to feed. Additionally, my hunt was during a full moon which very well could have sent them into a more nocturnal mode and there ain't much that can be done with that. I know I'm probably overthinking all this and I appreciate all the info. Man, I thought I was fired up before my hunt and now that I've had a little taste and been skunked, I am in full blown gotta get back out there mode!

Ben and oz, thanks! This is great info...I am thinking of hitting up some lower portions of 21 for just a day hunt or a quick overnighter this weekend just to see whats up. I'll let y'all know what I find.

Great finds! That deadhead (6th one down) is REALLY cool!

Plus 1 for BDU pants. Relatively cheap and they stand up to catsclaw as well as anything without sacrificing too much mobility/comfort. The only reason I personally don't use carhartts in the bush anymore is they tend to be heavy and take forever to dry out. BDU's dry pretty quick.

Hey guys and gals. A newbie to this forum as well as Coues deer hunting. Really like the info I'm finding on here and want to jump in and hopefully share and learn. Did my first archery hunt this year in unit 21 (AZ) and was real excited to find some of these crazy little deer but, being new to archery and Coues, well it was a real learning curve and no deer on the ground. Like others on this thread, I am curios to see what the seasoned pros have to say about Coues deer movements. As probably all Arizona hunters are aware, it snowed the first of the year and while I was out, I saw a TON of tracks in the little drainages I hunted but they all seem to be heading up the ridge and down to lower elevations (this is how it appeared to me but I could very well be wrong). When we think of Coues deer changing elevation, are we talking thousands or hundreds of feet? Or would they simply move a ridge over to find a sunnier hillside? I'm with Bitter24, just trying to find out as much info as I can to try to better predict where or where they won't be given current weather conditions. Thanks y'all! What a cool forum for someone in my situation!

Awesome guys! Big congrats!