John O

I have come across many of these over the years, but this is the first one with a remnant ladder still in it. Pretty cool!

Seriously??? If I had a nickel for every time someone on this site misspelled a word I would have a dump truck full. Eye theenc eyven iff al thu membirs on coosewheyetale.coom coodnyt spel, et wood stil bee a grate websyte. Lark? Is that you? When did you change your handle to John O? If this ain't Lark, you better stop stealing his style. He's a mean ol' cuss. I'll take that as a compliment. Actually I have never met or seen Lark. Offered him some javelina sausage several times, and he keeps turning me down. (I think if we keep talking about him he will emerge from his domicile and grace us with some of his profound insights)

ttt with updated prices.

Seriously??? If I had a nickel for every time someone on this site misspelled a word I would have a dump truck full. Eye theenc eyven iff al thu membirs on coosewheyetale.coom coodnyt spel, et wood stil bee a grate websyte.

Good luck on your elk hunt Amanda! I'm sure you will drop a big one.

Nice job! Way to stick with it.

Yaaaawwwwnnn.... Sleepy... More tomorrow..... he he he... Alright, enough fun. Time warp back 3 years- I get a wild hair and decide to purchase a low end PSE bow, knowing there is no way humanly possible to get close enough to one of these gray ghosts to shoot one, but still interested in trying something new. I learn all I can and practice almost every day, and begin to love everything about archery, knowing shooting a coues would only happen in my dreams. I go out scouting for my son's youth rifle hunt, and at the last minute decide to pick up an archery tag and bring my bow (4 months old) along. Three hours into my first day ever hunting with a bow, I have a spot and stalk coues whitetail on the ground. Crazy!! I figure I got this thing down, what the heck is the big deal. Two years later, at least 35 days of archery hunting in weather so hot the riser on my bow burnt my hand, to so cold I was in the early stages of hypothermia, and still no second coues with a bow. I had a few shots and many close calls, and learned over time that I needed to hunt hard and smart, and not just hard. Every day I came home empty handed I appreciated my first archery coues that much more. In the mean time, I had some great experiences with my boys, both harvesting deer during youth hunts, and in one case on a tag I signed over. Time warp to July 2011- Imagine my excitement when I draw a coveted 2011 December rifle tag. Visions and dreams of a whopper filled my mind, and a unit that I am confident I can get it done in. My boys both drew youth rifle tags, so it looked like Aug/Sept archery was going to be on the shelf this year for me. My oldest son started high school this year, and I realized quickly that with academic, sports, and church commitments, he likely will only be able to hunt one day. So I decided to go out after the gray ghost again with the old stick and string, with intentions of signing my tag over to him if I was successful. The monsoon has been a late soaker in Southern Arizona this year, and it seemed there was water everywhere, so sitting water seemed a waste of time. I spent two full dawn to dusk days chasing them, with one close call, and with temperatures peaking at 104 it was tough. One of my favorite quotes is "If you aren't questioning your sanity, you are not hunting hard enough". I was questioning my sanity. A buddy of mine joined me for a third day (high 106), which started out very slow. Mid-day we decided to explore some new country and we found something interesting. Every part of the unit was soaking wet, and green as can be except for a little half mile square area. Why the storms chose to ignore this area, I don't know, but for some reason it was dry as a bone. As we were driving, I caught a glimpse of a tank hidden in the brush, and went over to check it out. It had two little puddles of water in it, and was being hit hard. We built a makeshift ground blind, and sat on it for 4 hours, with 4 does coming in (good sign!!). I went back myself one day the next week and sat on it from 9-3:30 with 5 does coming in. I wanted to stay later, but had to make a meeting for my son at the high school. I had a feeling that the bucks were coming in later, but was essentially out of days to hunt. So I pushed a little harder at work, and got my hours in early enough to leave yesterday at 2. By 3:30 I was set up on my newly found jewel in the soaked desert, for the first time in 3 years feeling no pressure and with absolutely no expectations. This would be my last 3 hours of archery hunting this year, and I would have been fine driving home empty handed. I decided to move to a spot that put me a little further from the water (40-50 yards), so I would have a better chance of drawing back without them catching the movement. I shoot an X-Force with 80 lb limbs (a small upgrade from my first bow), so I had the speed and flatness to be very confident at that range. I ranged every spot the deer could potentially be at, and had a mental picture of each distance superimposed on the two puddles I was watching. At 4:30, three bucks came in. The smallest spike I have ever seen in my life, and two 2X2s, one a little wider than the other. The smaller of the two walked right over to the closest puddle (43 yards), and started to drink, having no idea I was there. I drew back and put my 40 yard pin on the sweet spot and let it fly. The 100 grain inverter went through him like he wasn't even standing there, and sounded like it hit piece of plywood. He bolted up the bank about 30 yards, did the dance of death, and was down within 10 seconds. It was truly a great day! I had him dressed out and to the Butcher by dark, and headed home with visions of the whopper my son will drop in December. Thanks for letting me have some fun with this. He is not one for the record books, but in my opinion (even more so now) any coues with a bow is a trophy.

Cool! Shoot me a PM with details. I look forward to hearing all about it.

Way to go!!! Many old men have never harvested a coues with a bow, and you did it at age 11. How cool is that! I'm sure this is just the beginning of many more for you. Enjoy the tasty cuts.

If they are in there, I would expect only on the eastern most side of the range. Even that would surprise me. Seen plenty of pigs. Usually full of cholla cactus.

Sooooo many areas in 33 with higher whitetail concentrations, I don't know why you would consider Pima. PM me if you don't know the unit and want a good start.

FYI- LOTS of rain in Southern Arizona right now. Might be good for tomorrow, might not. We'll see.....

Would be very surprised to see a whitetail in that area. Have seen a few mulies, but just not the eleveation or landscape for whitetails.

+1 I shoot 330 with a 29 inch draw length, and use 7595 pro-hunters. Even these are slightly under-spined for the speed I am shooting. Not just an accuracy issue, you are flirting with putting a snapped arrow through your hand or wrist if you don't think about stiffer arrows. BTW- I went to great lengths to get my bow tuned (both paper and walk back), and can shoot the following broadheads out to 80 yards right with my field points- Montec, Hellrazor, Striker, Inverter, and Triverter. The only ones that were WAY off were the Muzzys. Good luck!!

November Jr. 36A for the boys, and December 36A for me. Whooohoooo!!!!!!

Yep, I know. Just didn't want to scare too many people away. Too late now. That's why we wash them really really well after stripping out the "Vein". Couple photos of the day:

I went up to the lake with a youth group last summer and we caught 125 of them. Here is what we did and it worked great: Boil them in a pot for about 5-7 minutes. Take them out one at a time and peel the tails, making sure to strip out the vein that runs down the tail (This is really important. They will taste like mud if you don't). Wash the tail really well and put into a pan. Once you have them all in a pan. Fry in butter, fresh squeezed lemon juice, and creole seasoning. We have then done two different things with them. One is to add them to noodles and alfredo sauce, and the other is to make soft tacos with them. If you do it right they are awesome!!! If you do it wrong they will taste like crap. Good luck!

PM Sent.

I'm very sorry to hear your story. What great memories.

I think you are in a hopeless situation. You should sell them to me for $75, that way you feel like you came out ahead.

I have a Remington 870 Wingmaster 20 gauge (full choke) I am interested in selling. It is well used, but has a lot of good years still in it. I am looking to get $210 for it. See photos for condition. Sorry, no trades please. Feel free to PM me with questions.

Sold. Thanks Gene, and good luck with your mearns hunting.

Please see PM. Gene PM Sent.

Best practice to get ready for fall archery, in my opinion. Lots of fun too!!!

I hunted for my first 4 years with a pair of $70 Celestron 15X70's, because I couldn't afford anything more. Often when I went out with new friends with high-end optics they gave me a hard time, until we got on the hill and I found as many or more animals than them. I would say that once you have something with decent clarity, it comes down to about 90% skill and hard work, and 10 % quality of optics. So since then I have headed more towards becoming a "binocular snob", because like Jim said, the high end optics will allow you to pick out those little features especially during the middle of the day when they are bedded. So now I am going to use Leica 8X42 Trinovid BA's for early morning and freehand glassing, and either my 15X70 Celestron's or a pair of Pentax 20X60's for mid-day zooming into shadows at long distances. I also carry a 18-36X60 spotting scope. I designed a pretty cool custom mount, which I use to swap out the different pairs. I have attached a few photos.