jgabler

Living here in Vernon is a privilege to see all of the monster elk that you could find on your hunt. There are plenty of big bulls in the surrounding area. Try to find the high spots and glass the juniper flats and drainages. You will find them.

Thanks for the pics and info. This will be my first bull elk taken by anything. I plan on using the whole hunt and will wait for a 320 bull the first week, 300 bull the next half week, and anything larger than a raghorn the last few days.

Congratulations on your draw. I too have been trying to get drawn for that hunt for quite a while now with 11 bonus points. I did draw my second choice which was 5B South for archery bull. I have to be glad that I got drawn, but I would really love to have the 23 tag. I have seen several bulls in there well over the 350 -360 range. A lot af palmated antlers as well. Get ahold of the Southwest Outdoors guys or the local taxidermist "Wood Halloway". I am sure they might be able to help you out.

The first picture is my first coues buck ever which was taken with a bow. Scored at 85" taken in 2003. the second picture is from Dec. 06. My second archery coues and scores at 62". Both taken about 200 yards apart.

Ya yeah!! I got drawn for archery bull in 5B South. After 11 years of nothing, I got something. The adrenaline is flowing already. No antelope, but that is alright.

I can tell you that most of the time when people find horns that have been burned over from the main fire, the sheds usually become real brittle and will just fall apart when you pick them up or bump them just a little. Most of the time the fire guys will either pile them and leave them or just leave them period, unless the antler is in pretty good shape. In that case we usually carry them out.

My morning started off with a 2 1/2 hour drive from home to where I was going to be hunting. I woke up a little late and was feeling bad because I knew that I wasn't going to get to my spot before light. I am glad that this happened now. Anyway, I got to the area where I was going to start hiking from and a vehicle was already there, so I turned around and drove down the road about a mile, pulled over, grabbed my bow and other gear and belled off the hill. I was in real thick pine and oak cover, so I would walk about 30 or 40 yards and stop for about 10 minutes and look around waiting after giving out a few doe bleats. After about 2 hours of this and not seeing anything or hearing anything, I slowly walked over this little hump and could not believe what I was watching. A little 60 inch buck was right on the tail of a doe and mounted her. I got shaky real quick and noticed a yearling fawn was in the area with them. When the buck was done, he immediately went to an oak tree and started thrashing it, made a scrape, urinated in it, went to another tree and rubbed it. By this time I had my arrow on and was looking for a way to get a little closer since I was about 70 yards away. All of a sudden the doe blew her warning call through her nose as well as her fawn and my heart sank. They both started stomping around so I used my doe bleat, and they just calmed down ans slowly started walking up the hill. I couldn't believe that it worked. So I got a large tree between me and the buck and edged a little closer. I got to 50 yards when I could not move any further. So I waited to see what he would do. This probably took only fifteen seconds, but seemed like a few minutes. He got to 55 yards and provided me with a nice broadsided uphill shot, so I took my chances since I practice this often. My arrow flew true to flight and marked the buck. I got so nervous and shaky all of a sudden and had to sit down. After a few minutes I went to check the rubs and scrape to give the buck time to die.

One of my good friends shot a very nice Muley in 24B with his bow a couple of weekends ago. Well, the buck went onto the Phelps Dodge mine property and he was told to leave and that he could no longer trail the deer. He called me and asked what he could do. I then called the G & F and they said that he could go in with them to try and retrieve the buck. Since then it had snowed and rained in the area, covering all the blood and washing it away. He got to go in to the mine property to look for the deer 3 days after he had shot the buck and found nothing but tracks going every which way for 6 hours so he had given up any hope of finding the deer. The next day his brother told him that one of his friends found a buck that was dead on the mine property, put his archery tag on it and kept the deer. This would have been a day and a half after my friend shot his buck in the same area. His brother took a picture of the deer, which had the head cut off right behind the ears. My friend said that he was 99% sure that this was his buck due to the size and the stickers coming off of the sides. Anyway, this guy would not even think of giving the deer back to my friend and this guy doesn't even archery hunt. This buck would score in the low 200's as a non-typical with 7 or 8 points on one side and 6 or 7 points on the other. I can not believe that someone would even think of keeping someone elses deer like that. You know that this person only wanted the antlers since he just cut the head off without caping it. You know the deer would still be good 1 day after it had been shot with a few inches of snow falling on him keeping him cool. I'll let you all know what happens later and try to get the picture so I can post it. But what do you all think of this? It'll be a bit before I get back on the computer, but I will check back.

Thanks to all of you for your compliments. It was my most exciting archery stalk so far, now to find my 100 incher.

Congrats on a well earned and very respectable buck. Especially crawling through the desert to get him. Just amazing.

Hey everybody. My friend did get ahold of the G & F and they told him that they would try to contact this guy and find out what the heck is going on. She is supposed to get back to him later this week when she finds out. She also said that it is very hard to prove someone else shot the deer when cases like this happen and unfortunately, the person who puts the tag on the deer is the legal holder until proven otherwise. It is a terrible shame that someone thinks that this is alright to do. May they never get drawn for another hunt again.

I had my first baby as well. She was born on the seventh of this month. A little early, but she is a healthy baby and is a growing machine. I couldn't ask for anything more. Congratulations to you. Maybe in ten years she'll get her first coues.

I couldn't resize the pictures anymore on my computer for some reason, but here are others. This all happened on the 23rd of December and I only had a couple of days to hunt. Worked out great.

More pics. I will try to post some larger ones.

I hit the add button too soon. Here is some more pictures of the rubs, scrapes, blood trail, and deer. He only went 50 yards and passed on. A 2 hour pack out straight up hill and I was off to home. He scores right at 62". Not real big, but a trophy in my books.

That is an awesome deer with a bow. I went out on the 23rd and got a 55 yard shot at a 60 inch 3x3. The arrow flew true to flight and found its mark. 50 yards later he fell over and never moved again. I'll show some pic's and tell the full story when I get my camera and another chance at the computer. But the pre-rut is definately on.

Congrats to her. That is better than any buck that I have ever had a good chance at yet.

Looks like a pretty good fin to me.

I found a few rubs while scouting earlier in Oct. and Nov. Put some salt in the area to see what would happen and found about ten more new rubs since then and about 5 or 6 scrapes now too. Didn't take pictures yet though. I did find the other side to a shed that I found last year though. About an 80-85" buck. It is pretty nice.

Congrats to your wife.

Busted a couple of yotes in the snow of the White Mountains with a .243. One was at about 80 yards and the other about 280 yards. ure is fun to watch them fold up and chew at the strike. I have a friend who goes out with an AR-10 and 15 to shoot them. Works pretty well.

Rhino, Congratulations on your hunts this year. Seems like you have gotten your brother and dad hooked in to coues hunting as well now. Pretty awesome deer. What unit did you hunt last year?

Here are the sheds that I have found this year in units, 23, 27, and 24A. One of my friends found the elk set. Here is another picture of some.

I agree. I think that all game animals should be able to run wherever and whenever. That is what hunting is all about anyway isn't it. Trying to become smarter than the animal you are chasing in the "wild". I don't think that a high fenced enclosure is actually the wild or nature itself. Just IMO, you may as well go hunt on a deer farm or something of the sort if you are going to go hunt somewhere like that.

Have you really ever seen the lively face of a young kid light up when they get to see all of the things in nature that accompany hunting?...the way they want to experience it more and more....the way they learn how everything works together in nature to help keep populations of species moderated so disease and starvation do not occur as badly, this includes hunters in it.....or going out into the field and letting someone who is disabled in some way, possibly blind, successfully take an animal in nature. It is all just amazing.