TAM

I went to the meeting on Friday and I plan on attending the meeting today. I am optomistic that we will have some good news regarding AZG&F's request for a stay. I think just the fact that the Judge asked for a confrence call today is a good sign. If he was going to say no I think he would have already done so. I am hopeful that he asked for a confrence call because he is actually considering granting the stay. It was also discussed that G&F would post the draw results for antelope, sheep, turkey, and buffalo tomorrow, July 20th, since they were not effected by the judges ruling. Keep your fingers crossed!

I think most people that are familiar with this area will agree that there are not many coues right off the Hewit Station Road. I've seen a few but not many. The Hewit Station Road (FR 357) does lead to some good coues country though. You can take either FR 172 north, or you can take FR 8 which will branch off to FR 650 or FR 229. All three of these of these roads will take you into pretty good coues country.

I have no doubt that in the next several years the bear and whitetail in the area of the willow fire will florush. What I'm a little more curious about is what will things be like for this years hunts starting in August? I can't wait to go check things out as soon as they re-open the roads!

Maybe Amanda could give us an idea as to what generally happens to the wild life as a result of a fire like the Willow. From the Maps showing the burn areas it appears that almost the entire Matazell Wilderness Area has now burned. I know that with fires like this one that some areas burn worse than others and that often times animals will move right back into burned areas within days. Amanda, what is your opinion on this???

As long as we're actually asking for prayers from Ernesto, perhaps he could pray for a severe case of the hershey squirts to come to the person that stole my trail camera a few months ago. Preferably while the theif is sitting up in his treestand just as a nice coues buck is coming in to drink!

Kevin, I'm not sure if the moon has any effect on there watering habits, but throughout the past Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring and now Summer again only about 1 in 10 pictures that I get are of deer at night. Perhaps coues do a lot of feeding in darkness, but from my experience with trail cameras they don't like to come to water at night regardless of season or moon phase. I have noticed that water tanks that are surrounded by thick brush seem to get less action than tanks in an open area with thick cover nearby. I think coues like to have good visibility of there surroundings when they come to water.

Has anyone tried checking there credit card yet?

I just went and checked one of my trail cameras this past weekend and one picture dated 6/24 had a coues buck with 3 inch eye guards and main beams that appear to go out to about the width of his ears and are starting to fork. I would guess the total length of each main beam to be about 8-9 inches. He is the best buck I've got pictures of so far this year.

I can't say anything for unit 32, but in unit 24b I've got a few pictures of bucks that have about 4-5 inches of new growth and appear to be ready to fork. I don't have any idea if that is big or small for this time of year. Anyone else seen any new growth?

KGAINES, I have been using trail cameras for about a year now and love them. I think they are the next best thing to being out in the woods yourself. You should have a lot of fun and hopefully get some pictures while you are at it. Here is my best advise. First think of your trail camera like you were investing in the stock market and don't invest in anything you can't afford to loose. It's sad but true. I personally like to buy cheap $75 - $100 cameras off Ebay. I have found that most of them work about the same and I don't want to hang a $300 camera in the tree for someone else to take. Plus, I would rather have three cameras for $100 each and be able to scout three seperate areas than have one expensive $300 camera. My friend and I, who also owns several cameras, both had one stolen from a water tank this past spring and there just isn't anything I can do about it except not put one out on that tank again. If you use them for long enough, sooner or later you will get one stolen or vandalized even if you lock them to the tree. Now when you do set them out try to place them in remote areas or where they will be difficult to see. On some tanks I get plenty of pictures of people and my guess is that most of them just don't notice the camera. For the most part I think most people are honest and just a little curious to see what the funny thing is that's hanging on the tree. My friend and I actually have a little different problem with one of our water tanks. Every time we go to get the film the camera has been turned to the opposite side of the tree. After looking at the pictures it's pretty obvious that a bear is either playing with the camera or just rubbing himself on the tree and moving the camera. Those are the kind of problems I like to have! I have had my picture taken on someone else's camera one time that I know of and I just left the camera alone (what goes around comes around). I don't think leaving any kind of note is necessary if I haven't messed with the camera.

az4life, You are right about the areas the AZ G&F mentions being pretty crowded, but only during the rifle hunt in December. I spend quite a bit of time in those same areas during the archery hunt in Aug/Sept and January and there is very little competition, especially during the summer. I shot a 3x4 mulie off water up there last August in a spot that has both coues and mulies and there was nobody else around. There are spots up there with pretty high whitetail concentrations and there are even a few good bucks around, but it's a much better hunt with a bow over water in the summer or salt in January.

Hey Venadote, don't forget to get your Arizona tags too! Now that you are a member of the Tribe not only do you get to hunt the Rez as a resident, you also get to hunt on Arizona State land as a resident. That's two deer with one tank of gas!

........And did you know they took the word "Gullible" out of the dictionary!

Josh has some very valid points worth further investigation. But since all I have to go on is a single picture of the old record and the new record, in my opinion the new record looks much more believable than the old record. Maybe it's me or maybe it's the picture but after I stared at it for awhile I don't see 196 inches of bone. I'm not saying they scored it wrong, I guess I'd just like to see it in someone's hands or next to another rack for compairson. It's hard to get a feel for it's size with that plain white background.

I spend a lot of time in 24b each year and know of quite a few springs and water tanks which I place trail cameras on. There are not many coues around queen valley, mostly carp. To get to the higer concentrations of coues concentrate your efforts closer to the superstition wilderness. You may want to read what the AZ game and fish has to say about the unit on there website. You are right about the lions, there are a bunch of them. There are a couple of water tanks I put my cameras on that I get pictures of lions every time I put the cameras out. Last summer one tank had lions coming in every 3-4 days. Good luck!!!

I've heard of several people that have shot nice bucks off the strip that would spend half the night driving the roads spotlighting. When they find a good buck they would mark the spot where the buck was and come back in the morning and track the buck and shoot it. This was done by hunters with tags during the hunt. Often these guys will track these big bucks for miles before ever getting a shot. I think I'd rather take my chances sitting on my butt looking through my bino's. But it sure is a thrill to watch a big buck or bull with a spotlight. As mentioned previously, you better leave the guns back at camp.

Hey everyone. I just wanted to give some feed back on a new model of trail cam I just got and used for the first time. For the past year I've been using a Deer Cam DC-100 which was a little expensive but worked great. I wanted to add a couple more trail cameras to my scouting efforts so I looked at several other less expensive models. I ended up purchasing the Moultrie "Game Watcher" (also known as the "Muley Cam"). I purchased the camera new in the box off ebay for under a $100 which was almost half as cheap as the DC-100. I was a little worried that the less expensive camera would not perform as well. The results came in on Saturday when I picked up the first roll of film and was happy to see that all 24 exposures had deer pictures. The flash on the camera is not super strong but it certainly got the job done. The camera was out for the last three weeks and held up fine through this last round of rain and snow. I'm not trying to sell anyone a specific brand of trail camera. Just thought I'd let everyone know that I've found a couple different brands that have worked well for me. My friend uses a "Stealth Cam" which has worked well for him and costs around $75. I think that these trail cameras are a great way to scout. In fact, my trail camera is out scouting a salt lick for me as I sit here at work! I've got pictures of deer, bear, lots of lions, javelina, and my friend recently got a ringtail cat. Anyone else using trail cameras to help scout???

Spot lighting is a legitimate scouting technique and perfectly legal. It's also a lot of fun. I once took a group of city slicker Boy Scouts spot lighting in late June up in unit 7 and we were able to see over 40 deer and probable 70 or 80 elk. The boys had a great time and were able to see a part of nature that they don't normaly get to see. Some of the deer were only 10 or 20 feet from the side of the truck.

I think the answer to your question really depends on the person. Different strokes for different floks! I prefer to glass and spot and stalk on the rifle hunts and sit water or salt during the archery hunts. I will also say that in my opinion all wild animals are unpredictable to a point but if you do your scouting then you can predict their behavior to some degree. The archery hunt takes place during some very hot weather and even big coues deer need to drink. If you get a good salt hole going during the rut the bucks will follow the does right in. If you can find a good scrape/rub line a buck is sure to pass by sooner or later. If you spend enough time watching coues deer you will learn their habits and that at certain times there behavior can be predicted. Good Luck!

Terry, The location of wher you put out salt is important in that you want to find an area that has good numbers of coues deer. Idealy you want an area that is not going to be over run with other human activity, so getting off the established roads and trails is a good idea. I like to look for deer trails and old scrapes or rubs. I like to find areas that have permanant water in the vacinity (within a mile or so). I also like to find areas which I know contain good genetics and have the ability of producing 100 inch bucks. I like to put salt out in transition areas. What I mean are areas that are in between bedding and feeding areas. Bedding areas can be to thick to hunt effectivly and can be dificult to get in and out of without spooking the deer, and feeding areas can be to open and deer may not spend a lot of time during daylight out in the open. But the transition areas or the fringe type habitat in between the bedding and feeding areas are where the deer (especially bucks) feel comfortable moving around during hunting hours. You also want to make sure that where ever you put your salt that there is a good tree within shooting distance that you can hang your treestand in. My experience with hunting over salt is that mostly does will come in year round. Once the rut starts then the bucks start following the does into the salt. I prefer to save hunting over salt for the late archery season during the rut. My experience with putting out salt is in units north of the Phoenix area, so I have no idea how things would work in southern Az. One other piece of advise is to go out and buy a trail camera. They are pretty affordable now. I have purchased and used several models that cost less than 100 dollars. Set up a camera on your salt and let it take pictures of the deer that come in. You will be able to see how many deer are using your salt and how often they come in and if there are any bucks. Good luck!

Stanley, The best way I know of to get rid of your shooters flinch is to let someone else load your rifle when you are practicing. In other words turn away when your buddy loads the rifle. Your buddy may or may not put a round in the chamber. When you pull the trigger you don't know if the rifle will go off or not. This way you can really practice on squeezing the trigger. If you find you are really jumping when there is no round in the chamber then keeping working at it. Also take your time between shots and maybe shoot fewer rounds. I've found that when I'm tired and my shoulder is getting a little tender it's better to stop than to continue shooting with bad form.

I think it would be very wise to be prepared for, and expect shots at coues deer in the 300 - 400 yard range. If they are less than that then good for you. Coues live in some rough and steep country and it is very common to not be able to get less than 300 - 400 yards (sometimes more). I think that many people prefer to shoot the large caliber magnums for there "flat shooting" abilities not necessarily for there "knock down" power. It does not take a big magnum rifle to kill a coues, it just takes a well placed bullet. For some that means shooting a big flat shooting magnums so you can gain extra yardage in your comfortable shooting range. All of the calibers you spoke of are fine for coues including the .30-06. Of the calibers you mentioned I like the .25-06. My personal coues gun is a .270 weatherby mag. I know it's a magnum but kicks about the same as a 7mm and it shoots a 130 grain bullet at over 3,500 fps at the muzzle! I feel comfortable shooting this gun at deer size critters out to 600 yards. Deer rifles are just like the Ford vs. Chevy debate that has gone on for years and years. We all have our opinions. By the way if your just trying to justify a new rifle, anything is a good excuse for that .

For those of you that build your own trail cameras you may want to take a look at this website. www.pixcontroller.com They sell a circuit board that can be wired to a camera or camcorder that has a PIR intergrated into the board already. It cuts out a lot of of the electronic jargon and wireing that not so smart guys like myself can't handle. It may cost a little more than doing everything from scratch but it really simplifys the process. I'm going to take a run at building a video trail cam with a camcorder and there video control board.

Yea, I know the area you are talking about. I believe it's called mormon grove. There are a couple roads that go back into the mountains and basicly dead end at some hiking trail heads. You are right it is pretty good bear country especially at the bottom of some of the deep canyons that hold some year round springs. Believe it or not, but there are also a few head of elk in there as well. I think the area on the other side of the highway you are refereing to is Mt. Ord. there is a main road that takes you to the very top where the towers are. There are also a couple side roads. Plenty of bear over there as well.

Aren't the Matazels mostly wilderness? I'm curious where you can ride for hours on a quad. I know of a few roads that access trail heads and such but was unaware there were quad trails as well?