RFactor

This is my son's first Coues and still his biggest. He is 10 years old in this picture, he is now 20. That was a Great day for both of us.

Opening day up north was beautiful. Birds gobbling from first light. We got into a big group of birds, a little too close and spooked them. We did get to see three long-beards strutting side by side by side. After they scattered I told my buddy that we should sit, make a few calls and eat lunch and see what returns. A nice gobbler tried to sneak back in ten minutes later and met his demise. That was all we saw the rest of Friday. Saturday the gobbling birds gave us the slip and the snow storm moved in, we decided to go into town for a warm lunch and try the next morning. Sunday was very nice, we got into the big group birds again and had one so close that when I made a call he nearly blew my cap off. He was probably 20 yards above us on the flat. My buddy tried to sneak up for a shot and they moved out very quickly, busted by the hens. We left them and went about a 1/4 mile and had a couple more birds gobble. I told my buddy to move around a rock out crop and be ready to shoot that he was coming and should be close. He did but was not expecting him to be that close and he missed the shot. OH Well! I have been hunting in Arizona most of my life since the mid-70's and have never seen a bear in the wild until Sunday morning. What an Awesome animal, it was right below me maybe 60 yards when I went to a look over a cliff. There should be a lot of successful hunters over the next couple weeks, the birds are putting on a show. Good luck!

Not a bad lunch at the Bear Wallow Cafe. It was good to see you guys.

Hey Guys, Congrats on the bird.

We got three tags 2 Archery cow and 1 Rifle cow for my son. We are very excited to be able to get back in the woods to listen and chase these awesome animals. Should be a fun time. Good Luck to everyone!

I was thinking of making a recording of the trash can being rolled out to the street. They seem to find it right away. You could also try empty pizza boxes, it seems to be a favorite of the herd in my neighborhood.

We had some luck opening morning and then again this week jump shooting a tank. We need some good storms up north to drive more ducks this way.

I boil the head covering the base of the antlers tightly with foil. After that I use a small brass brush to clean up any left over gunk and then set it in a shallow tub with 40% peroxide. I then use a 1 inch paint brush and brush the peroxide over the skull careful not to get it on the antlers. I spray the skull and antlers with a clear matt finish after they dry. I cut out my own AZ plaques finish them and mount the skull. Last year I started adding the back end of the spent rifle cartridge to the plaque. Be careful with the peroxide, the first two I tried, I bleached the bottom of the antlers. I tried an antler stain, I did not like the way it turned out.

The first picture was opening day on Picacho when it had water and half of Phoenix there. The others were shot this past week on a small tank south of Tucson, the picture was taken later after I checked a few more tanks without any luck.

OK! I thought I added pictures...I will try again.

We saw plenty of deer a couple years ago in the mountains around Bear Grass tank and Lobo tank. Rough and long ride. We did not see a bunch of people either, but we get out and hike in a ways. Good luck.

We got two unit 27 early Turkey tags and Three Javelina tags. 2 archery and my teenage son got a rifle tag. Should be a fun spring!

A buddy of mine and myself were drawn for 6A cow archery 2nd choice. I had a Bull tag in that unit last Sept. and could not get close to the bulls, but could have killed cows with a rock. I know what will happen this year, a giant bull is going to almost step on me and the cows will be nowhere in sight. I'm sure we will have a great time anyway. Good luck to everyone and start practicing now.

Woke up 4:30 Sunday morning to pouring rain and talk myself out of going after a big buck I had seen on Friday. I went back to sleep and got up at 8:00 am to bright blue skies and cussing myself for not going to my spot earlier. I told the wife I was going out anyway but probably would not see one to shoot. I arrived at the spot I wanted to hunt with the snow and cold wondering what the heck am I doing. I put on my pack and headed out right away, I noticed two sets of large tracks and was hoping it was the big one I saw earlier in the week with his messed up buddy. I followed the tracks no more than ten minutes and walked right up on the two bucks less than fifty yards away. The big one bolted straight away leaving me no clean shot through the trees. The other one zigged when should have zagged and ran quartering away, I shot, hitting him high in the back, and then ran up and put him down for good. I guess snow can be a good thing sometimes. It has been a good deer season this year, my 13 yr old shot his first Coues deer in October (posted in Youth hunter section) and now I connected on my first non-typical Coues. Good Luck to all and Thank Heaven for hand warmers.

My son got his first Coues deer this past Saturday morning. We got out to our spot as the sun was coming up and set up the ground blind. I have been watching this deer for the past couple years on trail cameras and knew he came by this area early in the morning. My son was reading while we were waiting for this big buck to show up. I whispered to my son and told him to get ready, I had my tripod set up with a shooting rest and placed it in front of him. He took his time and made a perfect 100 yard shot through the chest with his Savage .243 100 grain psp. The deer hunched up and went about 20 yards and fell over. We were out of the blind so fast I don't remember unzipping it. I was so proud of my son, I dang near squeezed him to death. I think he was shocked how big this buck was. My brother-in-law and I did a quick measurement and came up with 96 inches! It did not take any arm twisting at all, when I told my wife we were getting this buck mounted for him. My son has taken two shots at big game and is a perfect two for two, cow elk last year and now this big guy.

We were very fortunate this year. We drew four unit 33 late WT Nov tags. My son, Myself, My Bro-in-law and nephew. This is my 11 year old son's first Deer tag to go along with his first Cow Elk 6A Jr. hunt in Oct. He and his 14 yr. cousin will be on the same hunts. We can't wait to try and fill the freezers. Good Luck to all!!

Hi, This my first post. Not sure if I'm doing this correctly. I've been reading your posts for a couple of years and really enjoy all the pictures and the stories. I told myself back in August, if I shot a Coues buck with my new Drenlin I would sign up and try to post and participate. Well it happened on the opening morning, the first two hours or so of daylight. I had been watching a couple of bucks for almost a year and a half with trail cams. I even called two in during the rut last year and January, but never had a good shot. I have almost two thousand photos of deer, turkeys, foxes, squirrels, bear and even a mountain lion all from the same stand. On opening morning I climbed my tree stand and began the wait. It did not take long for the first animals to appear. There were at least a dozen of small squirrels running around below me. A short while later a Turkey started walking towards my stand and left immediately upon seeing me in the tree. It was less than a hour when I looked to my left and spotted three nice Coues bucks coming up the trail straight to me. I turned to get my bow and they were right below me, A small 3 X 3, a very nice 3 X 4, and a large fork I have seen on camera from the beginning. I drew back on the 3 X 4 and he caught me and jump out and behind the only brush I had not cleared. The other two had no clue what was going on, but started to walk back down the trail. I put my sight on the larger fork (about a ten yard shot). He jumped and ran up hill towards some thick brush, the other two ran out of sight. While waiting 45 minutes I noticed two bucks running about eighty yards below me. I got down and my arrow was stuck in the ground with blood all over it, but there was no blood to be seen on the wet ground and there was thunder very close. I went to last spot I saw him and could not find any blood, back and forth for about twenty minutes. I then remembered I saw the other deer below me and went that direction. The first thing I noticed on the wet ground were tracks that looked like a deer had been stumbling then I spotted a small drop of what looked like blood. I took out a paper towel and touched it and sure enough I was on the right tracks. I walked about twenty yards to a large burned down pine tree, took out my binos and started searching the bottoms. When I brought my binos down and looked about five yards in front of me, there he was piled up in the green ferns. It was a great feeling to finally take a Coues buck with a bow. I was so lucky to find him when I did, because a hail storm came up and lasted about 45 minutes. I was so cold and wet and it was August 24th in southern Arizona. If the picture works the white stuff in the back ground is some of the hail that had not melted yet. I have another beautiful buck on another camera and can not wait until January 2008. Good luck to all who have tags left! RFactor