TAM

The pic's of the three lions was taken two summers ago in july. The lion at the bottom left is a female and the two others are 1 1/2 year old kittens. If you can't tell from the pic's they are coming into a small spring. We were getting pic's of lions coming in a lot that summer, then last summer I don't think we got a single lion pic on that tank, but got several bears. The quality of the pic's is typical of the cheap $100 35mm trail cameras we use, but I think the actual prints look better than the scanned images do on the website. We've got literally hundreds of photos over the last couple of years from our trail cameras. We have had 5-6 of them out working for us almost continuously for two years. I just got a digital camera and set it out last week that has a video feature that I'm hopeful will turn out some good results. I just got 5 or 6 pic's of a couple of good bears this past weekend that I may post soon. I can't believe how many pic's of bears we have been getting! Now that I have access to a scanner I will be submitting a few of the more interesting photos to Amanda each week so stay tuned!

Azhuntnut, I think we're all quite aware that there are no animals in 5BN, but there is a very healthy population of Sasquach. I've only had the occasion of finding someone else's trail camera one time a few years ago before they were real popular. I left it there after it took a couple of pictures of me. A few weeks later I was flipping through a photo album of hunting pic's at Don's Sporting Goods in Scottsdale and noticed several pic's of the water hole I had visited weeks before. It turned out the camera belonged to one of the owners of the shop and we had a pretty good talk about the area and what kind of animals he'd been getting on his camera. He even remembered the pic's his camera had taken of me several weeks before. On the flip side of that I've had one of my cameras stolen last spring and my buddy has had a couple stolen as well, and nothing gets me hotter than people that steal stuff! Chances are most people that steal trail cameras are other hunters, and that's PRETTY SAD! Kudos to the guy that took the high road!

Funnels are usually formed by either the natural landscape/topography, and/or the natural vegetation. As previously mentioned saddles and thick strips of trees or brush that act as travel ways for deer. Coues deer, especially mature bucks, are masters of using natural funnels. These are areas where deer can move about even during daylight with minimal exposure. They also use them to escape danger. It's been discussed on here numerous times about how coues deer have a tendancy to water at mid day, and many times they are using natural funnels to lead them to the water without moving into the open. During the rut often times these funnels serve as rub and scrape lines. Sometimes they are only a thin strip of vegetation only 12-15 feet wide that follows a cut or draw up a hillside but provides a deer enough cover to move about without being in the open. If you find an active funnel put up a trail camera and you'll be amazed at the amount of deer and other critters that move through them.

For me there are lots of variables like rifle vs. archery, rut vs. summer, how well I know the area, what kind of bucks I've seen in the area, how long I have to hunt. I take all those things into consideration but the bottom line is that I want a nice rack for the wall. Usually that means around 90 inches with a bow and 100 inches with a rifle.

I was expecting the same thing Redman. What's up with that??? Residents are going to get HOSED!!!!!

CHD, In your quote from Josh you posted above, Josh complimented you no less than 4 times. He said you take good pictures, great buck, and beautiful country! Those types of comments are considered by most to be friendly and positive. He also offered some friendly advise from one hunter to another on taking pictures. His advise was good and also offered in a friendly manor. Don't jump the guy for trying to be nice! I'd suggest you take a piece of your own advise and I quote..........."Some members have to toughen up and grow a thicker skin."

Treestandman just got some pictures from a trail camera back on Saturday and one of the bucks had dropped a single antler. Looked to be pretty fresh because his pedistal was still brigt red. There was one other pic with a deer that had a pretty good size body with no antlers and tarsal glands on his back legs (his ears were in the way so you could not see the pedistal's) so I'm pretty sure he had dropped as well. All the other bucks were still packing.

I was hunting with Treestandman over the weekend and must confess that I gave him a truck load of crap about using his bow! I even brought my extra 12 guage up to camp with me so he could use it cuz I knew there was no way he was going to put an arrow in one of them sneaky critters. He tagged out in 20 minutes Saturday morning and had turkeys gobbling all over the place while my other buddy and I hiked the entire mountian without hearing or seeing a single turkey! I guess even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and again! Congrats Mike.

Lark, what you're saying makes good sense in a perfect world, but I think that G&F's concern is that if they say it's ok to shoot any elk in Yuma than people will go and shoot elk off the rim and say they shot it in Yuma. How many guys do you know that won't buy a mt. lion tag because after they shoot one they can just go into town and buy the tag. I'm not saying it's right but it happens more than we know.

I've got an archery spring tag for unit 22 and have been out hunting once and done a lot of scouting. Haven't seen any yet, but I've seen lots of sign.

I know a guy that shot a 111" velvet buck about 3 years ago in unit 31 with his bow. Not sure about the other one though.

I have deer hunted NM unit 23 for 3 of the last 4 years and this paticular unit is in some desperate need of attention. Too many hunters and lions, and the drought have taken there toll on the deer herds. The unit has incredible potiential for coues and even carp but just needs some time and good management to allow it to recover. I think the new regulations are great for unit 23 and are a step in the right direction for a recovery. By issueing separate tags for coues and carp it will allow the NM G&F to more effectivly manage the two deer species. Coues deer are a very limited resource in NM, but with proper management they will thrive and produce great antlers.

They won't drop last years antlers until about late April, May and sometimes there are still a few holding on into June. You can still put your camera out right now and see if any good bucks made it through the hunting season.

All of them have pro's and con's but we've used Stealth Cams before and gotten great results. You should have a good time with it.

Everything said so far is right on the money. I set them out mostly over water, salt, or trails. Do whatever you can to secure them to the tree because people will steal them. I have several of the 35mm film type and have used them with great success, they do however get expensive to operate (batteries & film). I will attempt building a digital camera this spring and see if it is more cost & time effective. Go to www.pixcontroller.com if you are interested in building one, they have turnkey kits available at reasonable prices. I also use my cameras all year round and not just right before the hunts. Good Luck!

I know there's been some talk latley about bears and how long they hibernate here in Arizona. I was in unit 22 over the weekend checking on one of my favorite bear hang outs and came across 4-5 piles of fresh bear scat. It was runny and full of grass. It looks like the warm temperatures got a few of them up and moving. I'm pretty sure they'll den back up as soon as another cold front comes through, but it's nice to know they're still in the same area as last fall. I know that someone on here was talking about seeing a couple of bears just last week. Is anyone else seeing any signs of bear activity? I'll probably go back up in a couple of weeks to get my trail cameras up since I've got an archery spring bear tag that opens in March.

I'd like to get some video of that! Bear pokin sounds a lot like cow tippin except if you're not very fast you only get to do it once.

It's kind of a long standing debate on how serious Arizona bears are about hibernating. The way I understand it is that when we get cold spells and snow the boars will sleep for a few days or weeks but when it warms up they will get up and stroll around feeding until another cold spell comes through. I guess it's an on again off again kind of thing. I think the sows that are pregenant or giving birth in their dens will pretty much stay put. It's been warm over the last week or so and there's probably a few bears out stretching their legs.

Treestandman just bought one a few months ago and I helped him get it sighted in. It's a nice gun and shoots very well. I was really impressed with the trigger, it's not nearly as stiff as many other new rifles. I think Scott Adams has one as well, and I'm pretty sure he's happy with it. I thought it came with a 24 inch barrel, but I'm not sure. I shoot the .270 weatherby and it's still a little faster than the WSM, but both are great coues rifles.

I always just use the carbon scent eliminator spray on my Taco Bell burrito's before I eat them if I'm planning on hunting. It really works good too!

When starting a new salt hole or planning a new treestand location scouting the area is very important! Look at topo maps for saddles, bedding, feeding areas and then go take a hike and spend some time in the area. After spending some time in the area choose a location that gets lots of deer traffic and little human traffic. Also consider the proximity to water and feed areas. For coues, I like saddles and ridge lines. When you choose a spot for the salt make sure there is a good tree to hang your stand no more than 30 yards away. When selecting the tree to use make sure to consider where the sun rises and sets so it won't be right in your eyes when you need to shoot. Of course also consider the normal wind directions and which direction the deer will be coming from. When you start a new salt hole the best results I've gotten is using salt pellets (used for water softners, you get them at the grocery store for $3.50 per bag) and then pouring a bag of the powdered deer cocaine over it. Deer will usually find it very fast. In the first year you should replenish the salt every couple of months. In the following years you will only need to replenish the salt a couple of times per year. Also putting out a mineral salt block is a good idea, but keep putting out the salt pellets because they dissolve faster and get absorbed into the ground. Also don't forget to set up a trail camera to get pictures of the deer coming in, and don't be disapointed if you get lots of does and few bucks throughout the year, because during the rut those does are the bait that attracts the big bucks. Also, for me salt seems to work better in the pines than it does in the desert. Good Luck!

Just wanted to make a report on my succussful December hunt in unit 31. After months of scouting and planning Treestandman and myself headed out after work on December 16th. We arrived in camp about 9pm and quickly set up camp and hit the sack. The wind was really blowing and making a lot of noise blowing the tent which made sleep difficult. We were up early ready to hit the trail for our mile long hike to get to our pre determined glassing point. The wind continued to blow pretty hard all morning as we glassed with only a few pigs sighted and a couple of does. As the afternoon rolled around and the wind finally died down, Mike glassed up a decent 3 point that had gotten up to stretch. After a quick evaluation Mike decided that he wanted it so off we went only to find the hillside empty when we got to where the buck was. We never saw him again even though we spent the next several hours trying to relocate him. Day two found us looking at a different ridge in a nearby area. Even though the wind was gone and conditions seemed perfect we saw only a few does in the morning and decided to look at a completly different area for the evening. That afternoon we saw plenty of does but no bucks. It was starting to look like the rut was still a ways off and perhaps our luck would be better when we came back after Christmas. That night Mike left to go back to work so he could come back in a week or so when the rut would be in full swing. For the next three days I would be going solo! Day three and I started seeing quite a few does and even a couple of small bucks right off the bat. After looking at one doe feed out into the open I noticed a bush a few yards off shaking like crazy, I knew it could only mean there was a buck working it over! After a few minutes the buck finally showed himself and proceded to chase the doe for awhile and even chased off another smaller buck. It looked like the rut was finally coming into play. The buck was not quite what I was looking for, but I continued to relocate him every time I looked in that general area over the next three days. On the morning of day five I woke up and decided I would shoot the buck I'd been watching if I saw him. As it turns out no sooner than I sat down and looked through my binoculars I located a doe and then about a minute later here came my buck! I immediatly range found him at 267 yards, fed a round into the chamber of my .270 Weatherby mag, rested the rifle on my shooting sticks, waited for the buck to stop walking, and squeezed the trigger. BANG, he dropped in his tracks! After a short hike and a little work with the knife and saw I had him loaded in my pack and was back at the Jeep. Even though this buck was not as big as the 100 inch goal I had initially set for myself I'm still pretty happy with him. It was a lot of fun and a mental challange on the second half of the hunt being all by myself. I decided he's not quite big enough for a shoulder mount so I'm having a european mount done instead. My wife was thrilled that I wouldn't have to go back for the second half of the hunt and my boys were just happy I shot a buck. I tried to attach photo's but I guess It's not working - Sorry!

Yes, for those of you that noticed I got it right between the eyes from the scope! I also saved the cape and I'm trading it with the taxidermist for the european mount. Scott Adams, did you get my email a few weeks ago? You sent me an email about not talking for about a year or so and just wanted to see how things were going. I did send a response but never heard back from you. Hope all is well. You may want to give me a try at my new email address tmaddock@fordycefloors.com Thanks to Amanda for posting the pic's and for everyone's kind comments!

That won't be a problem as long as you can run to the deer faster than I can!

Treestandman and myself are heading out tonight after work for our hunt as well. Like mentioned above, we've spent a great deal of time and effort working up to this point and now are just crossing our fingers for a little bit of luck to boot. I just hope I can keep Treestandman from shooting the first little weiner buck that runs by! I have 10 days to hunt and will be looking for something to top my best buck to date, which scores 101 inches. I'm sure either Treestandman or myself will be keeping everyone posted. Good luck to everyone!