bullwidgeon

My personal pair has not had that yet, but I have seen two of them do that off of different pairs. 1 pair of 15x's a client of my uncles had and a pair of 10x's a different client had. I leave my eyecups in the fully twisted down position 90% of the time. The two pairs I saw break, the owners had them up all of the time if that's any indication as to cause of the problem. Bret M.

Long story short. I went to NM Monday night. It was cold, I thought I was going to freeze to death. Tuesday morning, I saw lots of deer but only 2 mature coues bucks and 1 mature muley buck. Tuesday afternoon I saw a steady influx of hunters coming in and making camps everywhere(more than 10 big camps and a little camp or two as well). None of them managed to do much scouting other than cruising around while drinking bud lights . Tuesday night my buddy Roger showed up in my camp. We went over video and decided we should hunt the two I had seen and hope that none of the many orange clad, bud light drowning, muley hunters would stumble into "coues canyon" and bust them out. Wednesday morning we found the bucks shortly after sun up, each on different sides of the drainage. Mine was closer, I killed him at 8 A.M. with two attempts from my .300 Weatherby at 315 yards or so. He died on the dam of a little dirt tank. We watched Rogers deer scoot a little farther down the drainage after my shot and marked his spot. I went to pack mine out, Roger crossed the drainage and hiked way up above the spot his deer went into. At 5 PM his buck finally stepped out of the catclaw he had been hiding in all day and 3 shots later from Rogers .300 Win mag his deer was down as well. We were happy but tired in a satisfied kinda way. We listened to the war zone from camp yesterday and watched little orange dots crawl all over the hills around us chasing deer left and right. I saw more hunters with no binos than I have ever seen before, some folks never learn. NM still rules, maybe one day I will get lucky and draw out over there in the distant future My 2 pointer. Rogers 3 pointer. Our deer in camp with a little chewed up 2 pointer shed I found about 50 yards from where my buck died. Next up, my December AZ tag in 27/28, I will try to be a little more selective on that hunt and hold out for a 3 pointer . Good luck to everyone who is hunting in NM next week. Bret M.

My uncle glassed up a freakhorn 4x6 elk rack with really light colored antlers on my elk hunt this September. We thought for sure it was a pickup head for quite a long time (we couldnt make out the body in the junipers and it was leaning sideways at a goofy angle in the tree like it was at rest there). After about 30 minutes of us looking for other elk before we decided to hike over there and gather it up, the rack changed position. Then awhile later the bull got up and took a leak and we got to see the rest of the body. I am sure that bull was all crashed out and dead to the world and tired after getting his hiney kicked all night by some herd bull, I reckon I would be tired too after a long night of fighting and chasing the ladies around. I couldn't make out any drool spots on him though. That is pretty unique about that muley... Bret M.

Corkin, I have not seen any huntable numbers of hogs in unit 23. Just a few freak sightings while driving the road between the state border line and Glenwood at night. You may want to check around the town of Mule Creek, thats where I have seen the most cross the road and that was not too many. There are huntable numbers of coues in alot places in 23 but not nearly the numbers you are used to seeing in the 36 units in AZ. It takes alot of patience or stupidity and trial and error to find them. If you draw for next year let me know and I can point you to some good places to scout, but it seems the population and numbers of good bucks changes drastically yearly over there... Bret M.

I am not sure what you call them, but much like Howard Stern and Barnum and Bailey, I am a sucker for freaks and think I might have smoked him if I saw him alive and on the hoof. Neat find! Bret M.

That aint Larks mule, that is Lark in the flesh. He aint never been accused of being good looking for a reason bwaaaahahahahahahahahah !!!! He is looking for long horned spikes in unit 1 right now, he will probably be back to retaliate next week sometime. Bret M.

Awesome!!! Bret M.

Roger called me a few days ago and indicated the same thing about numbers of folks back there. I guess he moved farther South on Monday after seeing nothing good way back up in there. Congrats to you guys for getting into them anyways, I am sure Seth's shooting will straighten out a little more next go around. 35A was poor. We only hunted till 2:00 pm, I saw quite a few coues deer does and one little buck, some antelopes and a muley buck. Just so you know, there are still deer in the Mustangs just not a bunch of them. We probably would have seen alot more in the Huachuca's or Canelo's. I guess my dad went back down today to try again in one of those other spots. Good luck if you guys go next weekend. Bret M.

Mike, You mean to tell me those paintings of giant coues deer you do are not of real bucks? I feel robbed and cheated and to think I was going to put in for unit 23 next year because of those paintings! Seriously good luck guys. I have seen a few (very few) coues deer in unit 23 while bear hunting. That was a few years back I am sure the bears and lions ate them all by now though. Bret M.

That is a killer ratio of lined out hunters compared to what I have witnessed for 2 years in NM now. NOBODY in New Mexico has heard of a tripod or could even begin to understand what to do with one other than take pictures after you kill a deer . Also, bright orange jackets and white stetsons are issued every morning in every camp . And finally according to game law 11507 from the New Mexico code of wildlife rules "no one should carry any water or packs ever at all unless you killed a deer and are going back to get it." You know what though, they did walk up and kill a few bucks, so what they are doing does seem to work for them. They are hunting and getting alot of great excercise but it just does not seem that efficient to me. I guess to each their own and generally old dogs don't want to hear anything about new tricks. As funny as that sounds I have seen much the same on early hunts in the past in the units around here but every year I see more and more guys with backpacks and some sort of binos at least so things must be changing around here, albeit slowly. Bret M.

I seem to have more luck down South in the mornings. On the early hunt I saw close to forty deer one morning. I moved a mile that afternoon to get a different angle on the same area and saw 5 deer and glassed till dark. I know the other 35 deer were right there somewhere they just didn't come out for some reason. Maybe the wind was bad or they were full and didn't want to feed or something. When I get them completely figured out I guess I will quit hunting them but until then I will continue the struggle. Bret M.

I would rather shoot a sheep than a beeffalo. So would a bunch of out of staters for that price. I hate to say it but sheep should be raised. I don't really mind the rest but I imagine if I put in for Kaibab tags I would be upset though. As long as December coues tags are still considered second rate then I am fine . Bret M.

Nope, but I been there one or two times. Bret M.

I am going to chase the hogs around in the boulder piles up in the Catalinas again with a pistola. Maybe find some sheds, look at some deer and think about shooting one of the musky little toothy suckers. No turkey lurkey tag for me but I might go to NM depending on how spunky I feel. Bret M.

Yep, Still around. I am trying to get out of packing a big one out of unit 35A. Those 60 pound, 2x3 56 inch fantails pack so much easier than them great big Texas looking deer some people kill down there. I am not sure if my dad called Bill or not. I told him to. Anyways, check your PM's on where I think there is a 90 inch buck in 36C. Bret M.

Yeah, I think going to draw will fix alot of road hunters. That place will be awesome for gorilla sized coues bucks in a few years if they can cut down on the ladmos like me and my buddies whacking 4 and 5 year old deer. I have a shed off a deer that would score 109 typical if everything matched with a 13 inch spread, that I drug out of there last year, he must have been an old one, and I looked and looked for one that size this year but didn't see one. Maybe they will show up for the archery rut hunt. Again good luck, I would go to the highest saddle you can find north of the green gate that is just West of that big dirt tank that was almost a mile east of our camp and sit there during your hunt. A toad will appear I assure you if you give that enough time. Bret M.

Awesome bull, crappy truck . J/K, that really is a good bull though. What are those mainbeams 51-54 inchers or longer? Congrats!!! Bret M.

Imagestation will not allow direct links for non-members anymore. I am a member so I can look at the picture if I refresh it. Anyways, you might want to try Photobucket or one of the other sights if you want everyone to see it or just email it to Amanda. Both those bucks are awesome and I am sure she would enjoy them on the sight. We probably will not be hiking for more than 4 miles in one direction and again if we only see weener bucks then that will not break my heart or my back so no worries on the locations, thanks anyways though . Bret M.

No lion sign or lionkills. Lots of bear sign though, way more than last year. Last year I found a nice 140-150 inch 4x4 muley with an arrow in him rather far back of where it should have been and dead and bleached out under a juniper tree. So much for the carp archer that stuck that one. That is awesome your boy is so fired up about hunting. We need more kids to get fired up about it. It was worse this year as far as numbers and road hunting. 2 times as many quads for sure this year that people were actively idling up and down the roads with loaded rifles on and ready to go. Anyways, that place will probably be deserted come January though, and you should do rather well. Bret M.

Backpacking upwards? You guys are nuts, haven't you seen the size of some of those cliffs in the Baboquivari's ? Didn't you see the picture of that gigante 34B buck on the front page ? Think the same type deal . Good luck guys and post some pics, even if you do kill one waaaaaaaay up there next to to the observatory and Pinon pines on Kitt Peak . Bret M.

My dad has a 35A tag next week. I am totally not stoked for the hunt as I have never been there or even wanted to go down there and know nothing about the country or the unit, but what the AZGFD websight says about it. With all the other hunts going on in the family neither of us has scouted at all. I have a feeling I am going to try to goad him into cracking the first 85 incher we see. It is nice to know a few toads have come out of there. Thanks for the picture, I might show it to him and tell him to hold out for one of them, that will mean less packing for me . Bret M.

Thanks again guys, There are lots of roadhunters, unless you bail off into a hellhole and there are plenty of them around. FFD, good luck on the archery hunt, there are plenty of killer rut saddles around there that I would love to archery hunt, the rubs and scrapes we found on the ridge where I killed my buck this year were incredible. If I knew how to shoot a bow I would be all over that January archery deal over there. Did you guys bring a kid maybe 10-15 years old or so by our camp to look at the nice buck Ruston killed last year, we had hanging in a tree out in front? If so, you know how bad it was last year, well it was significantly worse this year as far as numbers of guys go. But again, we were lucky that very few got off the road more than a half mile. Again, good luck in January. Bret M.

I have a Burris Fullfield II 4.5-14x42 with the ballistic plex reticle. It took quite a bit of shooting at long range to get all dialed in with their system and my caliber (.300 Wby mag) but now that I have done so, I feel pretty confident shooting waaaay out there. I got mine for a little bit less than $350 if I recall. Good luck with whatever you decide. Bret M.

I saw some deer last Saturday and Sunday and some bucks but no whoppers. The folks I was hunting with decided to not even attempt going after the little and medium sized deer, so much for trophy hunting. When I went through the checkpoint I saw some folks checking one of the mythical and legendary 4 point carps from one of those units. It looked like a good one to me, I hope it was not the last poor mature desert muley to roam the hills down there. Bret M.

27 can be good and so can 22,23,28,31 and 32. I am sure other units are good or can be good too but those I know can be good if conditions are right. Awesome job on the pictures Scott. Bret M.