mattys281

Congrats! A lot of good meat there. The first one is always the hardest, it's all down hill from here.

With numerous really nice coues bucks & a couple good muleys showing up on my trailcams over & over again, I went into the woods planning on holding out for a nice one, or going home empty handed, so as not to sacrifice my first rifle tag in November. However...... after four days of sitting in a treestand & seeing only does & a ton of turkeys, when this guy came in & stood broadside at thirty, I just couldn't help myself. It was probably the nastiest blood trail & packout that I've done so far. After I hit him, he ran over the rim of the ridge top we were on & plunged a more than a hundred yards down hill. The hill was so steep I couldn't even set him up for a decent picture, every time I tried to move him he'd slide further down, so I had to wedge him over a log, snap a couple real quick & then tie him to a tree so I could feild dress him. I cut him in half & took him out a piece at a time, about a mile each way to the jeep. IN all, it took 3 trips to get him & my gear out. I shot him at 7:50 in the morning & didn't get him to the meat shop in Springerville until after 2:00. Made for one heckuva long day, but it sure felt like a great accomplishment when it was done. My first velvet buck & my first anything from a treestand:

That's a great buck, congrats!

That's a great looking buck! Congrats.

Yeah, you know what that hill off to the south looks like. Not nice. I think he got at least an extra 50 yards for free by just tumbling down. It was a good challenge & I can't wait to see what a high country muley tastes like. I'm guessing he's not going to tast like mesquite. Maybe next year I'll have few extra days to wait out one of the biggens like this guy:

What the heck? You mean Obama hasn't talked the border into being secure yet??? Blasphemy!

I love glassing up lions. Only spotted a couple of them, but it's always exciting!

Nothing you can do but keep shooting. You'll connect.

I've killed them both ways. It's like everything else, it's only impossible until you do it the first time. After that, it's a lot easier. My preference for coues deer is to sit ambushes, but that's a technique that I settled on because my area is very loud. Rocky, dry grass, thick brush, hard to be quiet, no matter how good you are, so for a mediocre stalker like me it's best to sit still & let them come to me. In other areas that are more favorable for stalking it can be a very effective technique. I think the terrain & your knowledge of the area should determine what method you use.

I glassed up a badger a couple years ago. I was on the last night of a fournight backpacking hunt, a couple miles out from my jeep. I spent the night tossing from side to side, imagining that the noise I was hearing was that little devil in fur rummaging through my pack & considering how best to get into my tent... Guess I've heard too many horry stories about how mean they are.

Congrats! Nothing beats the first one.

I don't think that this jackass represents the majority opinion in the black community. They're just another small group of loud mouthed idiots that are lashing out from a desire to get attention & only masking it as anger. Really, they just want headlines. Just like the 'New Black Panthers'... what a joke!

Let's see... black communities w/ cheap SKS's, AK's & throw away handguns vs. a whole lot of white redknecks w/ long range deer rifles & high powered scopes.... I just don't see this ending the way he hopes it will.

That's the way to bowhunt, nice job! Do you guys spot & stalk those bucks, sit ambushes or a mix of the two?

if you look at the suddenly very generous bag limits on mountain lions in a lot of units, you'll see what's eating the deer. Unit 37b you can hunt cats 24/7.... yes. and at three bar the have 100 fawns per 100 does inside the fence. 7 fawns per 100 does outside. the wolves are not coming over and getting them. i would not want to be one of the over population ones that are put outside the fence. I don't see anyone claiming that the wolves are the sole reason there's a decline in the deer herd. I think the general point of view was that there was already a problem & dumping the wolves into the mix made it worse while really offering no benefit to anyone. It's a fact that they eat deer & elk, & it's also a fact that they cost the tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars to manage while offering abosolutely zero return on the investment. Not even a dime in eco-tourism can be generated, as the Blue Range & surrounding area is so thick & they are so few that they might as well be invisible. All cost + no gain = another perfectly logical move shoved on the tax payers by radical environmentalists & the overly emotional dim wits they sway with their propaganda.

if you look at the suddenly very generous bag limits on mountain lions in a lot of units, you'll see what's eating the deer. Unit 37b you can hunt cats 24/7....

Great buck in your avatar. Wasn't that take in that spot you promised to show me?????

Love that attitude. I met a guy out in some of my prefered stomping grounds a couple seasons ago who's turned into a good buddy. He's the only other person I've met out there who's brave/dumb enough to hike as far into that nasty crap as I do, so now we try to work it together rather than to bump into each other.

27 is where I'm heading too. Been seeing some niiiiiice bulls. Your dad should have a great hunt!

Actually, I read the proposal on the project years ago & they estimated the impact of the wolves in the White Mountains would be to reduce the elk population by up to 600 head & the deer population by up to 6000. With Az's deer herd running around 160k, that's almost a 4% reduction in our deer herd so that some enviro nuts can hopefully hear a wolf howl once in a while. I've been hunting & backpacking in the white mountains for about 7 years now & have only seen them once. Doesn't seem like a good trade to me.

+1 on Sitka gear. I don't yet own any, but I have heard and seen great things about it. Of the higher end/higher priced clothing, it is probably the only I would consider buying. If I were you, I'd look at Kuiu.com. Far, FAR superior product. The sitkas are comfy, but if you're in cat claw country, they will get shredded quick, fast, and in a hurry! I wear my kuiu attack pants everywhere i wore the sitkas and i dont have any rips or pulls. Plus, they are the most comfortable pants I own(besides my terrycloth pj bottoms ). Kuiu's are lighter and stronger than sitka (no elastic/ lycra) and I really like the camo pattern (and cheaper by an average of $20). I'm in the process of replacing all of my hunting gear with Kuiu, even my hunt pack/frame. Take a look before you decide, youll be happy you did! I'll have to check those out. My Sitka mountain pants have taken a beating. They definitely bare the scars of many trips in the desert, but are still in one peace after 6 years of hunting with them. However, there's always a better product some where....

I'm not going to make it out until the 2nd weekend. You guys try to save some for me! Good luck all.

The golden rule of hunting water: if it's easy for you to reach, it's easy for everyone else to reach too. I'd find yourself a spot that you have a little more sweat equity into.

I've found some really great folks online that gave me some good tips, so I don't mind passing along what I know, omitting anything I want to keep for myself, of course.

In my opinion, boots & clothes are the most important part of a hunting system, more so than your bow & even optics. If you don't stay warm & dry, you won't stay in the field, & most people don't kill much back at camp sitting by the fire trying to wam up. That having been said, you can find great socks & base layers by shopping for mountaineering & backpacking gear online. I've always had a problem w/ cold feet, so last winter I picked up 2 pairs of -40 wool socks on Amazon for less than $20 (included shipping). there is a ton of stuff, both new & used, available on Ebay & Amazon for bargain prices compared to Cabelas or Bass Pro. Go to the big stores if you like to touch, feel & try on the products until you determine what you like, than go home & look for it online before you spend the money at the store. You can get a discount price, avoid paying 10% sales tax & also often get free shipping. As for camos, I'm a fan of Sitka gear. It's expensive, buy I've had my same set of sitka camo for more than 5 years. Good gear can last a very long time.