Calebwalter

Thanks for the advice. There is a couple places where I have heard coyotes make noise all night. I’ll go check them out. In the spring time, what call are people having luck with? When do the yotes stop to drop puppies?

Where are you located?

$20 firm located in Gilbert Long story short my neck is a mess and camping on the ground usually leaves me with tension migraines. My online research said this backpacking pillow was the best, but I think I need a pillow more like my home pillow. Paid $40 for this at a local outdoor store, I used it twice, washed the cover, and now it’s for sale to offset the cost of trying another pillow. https://www.nemoequipment.com/product/fillo/ https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/reviews/camping-and-hiking/camping-pillow/nemo-fillo

I bought a used Vortex Ranger 1800 on this forum. I love it. Smaller than most of the Sig’s, easy to use and read, and surprisingly I’ve ranged grassy hillsides at 1400y.

Is it new? If yes I’ll take it

I want to start by saying thanks to the people who chimed in to my first post about being frustrated, mainly Bill for all his help and all his advice. I spent most of the summer and early fall scouting 24a with no luck. I couldn’t even find a doe. Every trip out to the Unit I learned something new but still couldn’t find a deer. Bill invited me to shadow his hunt in 24a and teach me about coues deer and I’m extremely grateful for that. I was discouraged to say the least. I figured even if I hadn’t spotted any deer I would still go hunt my hardest. Once I realized the north part of 24a was open, we started our hunt off haystack road. We hiked in about 2 miles and camped in some of the shittiest spots imaginable. Literally shitty. The cows were hogging all the flat spots, so we pushed them out and slept in their crap piles. Friday afternoon I finally laid my eyes on a group of magical does at 1000yards. Watched them for 2 days hoping a buck was in the area. No luck, so we decided to change our spots. After 2 nights of next to zero sleep, plenty of rain, and a ton of wind, we changed spots and did some “road hunting”. Driving and glassing, driving and glassing. No deer, just a bunch of hunters. Everyone I talked to was seeing doe’s, but no bucks. I took another look at the map, decided to go to the place I didn’t want to go.. way out, and way up. I found a cliff looking into a canyon, walked up to the edge and saw a doe at 70 yards. I knew it was a good spot. Spent a couple hours looking through my friends spotting scope while he sat in the truck browsing tinder.. or Christian mingle.com .. or whatever he’s into and found some does. At the point where I was asking myself “what in the heck am I doing out here?” I pan over and see a buck feeding on some bushes! I couldn’t believe my eyes... he had horns! Miraculously at the same time my buddy walks over and I’m shaking like a leaf. I ranged him at 711yards and decided no way was I taking that shot in the wind. Decided to cut the distance by 200 yards and see what the buck does. I hike down and glass the spot... he’s gone... My buddy on the spotter calls me and says “hey the buck has moved about 150 yards closer to you... wait.... there’s another buck.. he’s a TANK!” The two bucks move down to a water tank. I ranged him at 384yards. Dial my scope, zoom all the way to 16X... yup.. made that mistake.... and shaking like a leaf with buck fever I pressed the trigger... Got the rifle steadied... and he’s gone... My buddy calls me and said “dude you missed by a mile..... BUT YOU SHOT AT THE WRONG BUCK!!!!! The buck you want to shoot is 5 yards closer to you in the trail!” The buck starts walking, stops to smell the wind, and I poressed the trigger. Hit him about 6-8inches back from where I was aiming, and destroyed his spine... at that point I realized somehow I must have bumped .2mils of windage in the turret.... I watched him hoping he would bleed out for about 10 minutes before I decided to hike back to the cliff and come up with a plan. Maybe 25-30 minutes passed and he still had his head up. I was gutted. I still feel terrible that I didn’t one shot kill him... we moved spots on the cliff and I decided to shoot him again from 515 yards. Put one right through his lungs and he flopped over dead. We emptied our bags except the essentials and hiked down. My first year as a Hunter has been a roller coaster. But I finally laid my hands on an animal that I HUNTED.. an animal that I shot.. we took some pictures that I will cherish for ever, cut him up, and we packed him out in the dark.

Thanks man

I honestly think the wind helped me in that situation. I was talking to Bill and he suggested looking at The non windy side of the hill. He said they deer will crest to the non windy side and keep walking down hill until they are out of the wind. That’s exactly where I found my buck.

Wishing you luck man!

I wish it was that simple lol I have keratoconus and I’m loosing my vision in my right eye. So I’ve had to learn to shoot with the wrong hand haha

Well I guess I’m a Certified amateur YouTube butcher now. I’m not sure what my coues weighed, if anyone has an idea please chime in, but I netted 21.4lbs of meat.

Thanks man! with how the pre season scouting went, I told myself that I would be happy with a fork buck. With that mindset, this buck is like a dream come true for me.

Thank you!

Fixed the picture

I’ve been browsing this forum for some time now, but have been hesitant to post because of reactions towards new guys asking for help. Figured it’s time to ask though. I’ll apologize in advance for the long post. Until last October I had never hunted in my life. A nice gentleman at Sportsmans Warehouse convinced me to go squirrel hunting in 6A, and I was bit by the hunting bug. I attempted to go do some predator hunting in 24A in the spring without any luck. I applied for the draw in unit 24A for white tail because it’s really the only area I’ve been in. I was drawn for the 11-6/11-12 hunt and I’ve been out “scouting” 5-6 times. I’d like to mention I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IM DOING! Obviously the northern part of 24A is still closed so I haven’t scouted that area, but I’ve scouted/glasses the Dripping Springs Mts, I’ve scouted Pinto Creek Road, I’ve scouted north of Timber Camp, and I’ve scoured the area between US60N and the reservation that’s still open. My hunt is in 20 days and I’m getting discouraged. I HAVE NOT SEEN A SINGLE DEER. What I am hoping for is that some experienced guys can give me some advice. Pretend as if I already have the gear (12x50’s, tripod, can shoot comfortably to 500y), but I have no idea where to start. I’ll try to post more detailed questions in the comments. Thank you for any advice given.

I’m a very lucky man. When I told her I wanted to step into big game hunting, and I wanted to buy a particular rifle, she fooled me and said we couldn’t afford it at the fine, then went out and bought it for me for Father’s Day! i appreciate the offer! Sadly there is never enough time in a day anymore. Next week I’m going to go shawdow a nice gentleman in 24A, and the following weekend is Halloween. I told my wife I would be home that weekend because the following weekend is my hunt and my plan is to be in the field up to 4 days. If you guys are hunting after that I will try to take you up on that offer!

Except that I haven’t asked for any spots. Just advice.

It’s techniques like this that I haven’t learned. That’s a good way to look at things. Thank you.

I was recommended the Jay Scott podcast and that’s where I first learned about Duwane Adams. I mentioned it to my wife, and unknown to me she reached out to him and signed me up for a glassing class. He said he wasn’t doing any more classes this year and signed me up for February.

Haha I think I’ll pass on sucking on deer poop 😉 Who is Amanda?

I’m not an experience hiked and I’m out of shape. I’m hoping determination will out weigh the other two factors 😂 I hiked some pretty nasty stuff yesterday and didn’t fall or have a heartache so I think I should be ok. as for quartering a deer, I’ve never hunted in my life. So I’ve done as much research as possible, and if I’m lucky enough to find a deer, let alone shoot it, I guess we will see how the processing part goes.

If I’m finding poop and bedding areas near water that’s probably a good sign right? Is there a good way to determine how old their poop is? To get an idea how recently they were there? I know javelina will eat the prickly pear cactus pads, but while our hiking yesterday, I was following a game trail from some deer beds, found lots of poop, and then I saw a prickly pear that looked like it had bites taken out of it. Do Coues deer eat cactus? Or mainly just grass?

One place was about 5500, another place is about 4900-5000, but the majority of my time scouting south of the pinals is about 3200-4600

Originally that’s where I wanted to go. But haystack butte rd is closed. I also went up to Seneca Rd To try to get to regal canyon or Phillips canyon up by the salt river and the reservation has that road closed with a big sign that reads “road closed due to Covid”.