GRONG

I've always had mine over salt licks or trails and never worried about it. Well I set mine up on a pretty remote drinker a couple weeks back in a roadless area that I thought was safe. I put a padlock on it and a safety cable just to make sure cause I had a wierd feeling about it. My buddy went and got it the other day and said that it was still in the tree but facing towards the ground and that there was human tracks there. Got the film developed today, only 9 pics, and I got the culprit. This dude is wearing full camo and carrying a rifle and the date on the picture is before the bear hunt even started so I don't know what he's up to. Anyway, the picture after his self portrait is of his arm and of the ground as he was pushing it down. I don't know if he tried to steal it or not but just messing with it ticked me off. It hung up there for over a week face down so who knows what I missed in that time. The first pic was of a huge 6x6 bull and I even got a picture of a dude on a 4 wheeler in the distance also. Remember I said earlier that it's a roadless area so what these guys are up to I don't know. I'm just thankful that I had the padlock and safety cable on there just in case. I guess it's the chance we take using these things. If someone's willing to break the law by driving off road on a quad then who knows what they'll do ethically. Josh

Bummer man, I thought about you all weekend while I was over in 27 hunting bears. Josh

I set mine at the lowest setting possible for trails and licks. Unfortunately I just had a black beef bull stand there and lick the salt and it took all 24 pics of his dumb butt. That's what I get. I'm thinking about 1 minute increments though. Just found a killer salt lick in 27 that doesn't appear to have ever had a stand over it. Too bad it's a 6hr drive to put a camera on it. Maybe I'll get to hunt it this wknd. If I don't I'll just put my camera on it for the 4-5 days I'm there. Josh

Wow, now that's some math I never thought of and won't try to boggle my mind with trying to figure out the center of that equation either. I just hike and "try" to focus as close and low to the ground as I can when I'm doing my shed hunting. I've walked into several eyelevel limbs this way too. Just keep on walking, enjoy the woods and don't sweat the technical stuff. I tried for the first several years of my shed hunting to figure out "why they do what they do" kind of stuff and it stressed me out. I really couldn't find out anything that consistant from year to year other than a few things basically relative to all deer. I wish they'd shed their antlers in the same area all the time and rut in the same places but sometimes they just don't. Unless they do and I just can't find them of course. I wish I could have some of that novice luck with me sometimes. Maybe this is my year for a biggin'!!!!!! Josh

Pines Josh

Joe is the man! I sure hope he gets reelected this year. Josh

Right on 25-06, hard to mistake that hog. When I first watched that buck on video I about messed my shorts. Just the amount of mass on that deer is unreal. Thanks for posting that pic Griz as it's nice to see something that makes me get buck fever and I'm not even looking down my arrow. Josh

111, I definitly wouldn't say I'm good with only 2 Coues bucks under my belt in the past 10 years but thank you. I just know how my first buck looked when I took him on opening day compared to my second one that I killed Sept 6th. There's a huge difference of growth in just those 2 weeks and I don't care for mostly grown antlers, I want as much as I can on there in order for me to fling my arrows. I wouldn't shoot at a carp deer unless it was 160"+ with my bow, I just love them Coues. Give me a holler when you're ready to get rid of a few. Josh

Did you all see the monster buck in velvet in the new pics section of live deer? Click on the link to it on the main page. That deer is an absolute hog in my book and I can only hope a crack at a deer like that with my bow. YIKES!!!!! He's gotta be over 105" I think. What do you guys say? Josh

My best guess is that Coues antlers are about done come the second week of September. They tend to start rubbing in late Sept early Oct. Of course there are exceptions to this but I feel that it's give or take a week or so in that time frame. I try to wait to hunt them untill the last bit of archery deer season so they can grow all they can by then. There are bulls out there that are already rubbing right now so that's gets me jazzed. I saw a really nice bull on Monday morning that was still in full velvet but a friend of mine saw a few up in 10 that were in tatters and a couple fully rubbed. I can't wait to see that first fresh rub of the season......especially a Coues rub! Josh

I agree with you Rembrant, I'm way careful and suspicious of cyber sharing. I can't help but feel agitated a little at all the guesswork that goes into finding out exactly where this deer is. Don't get me wrong, I'd like to know also but you've gotta give some respect to the people who found the deer. They found it and we didn't so we should leave them alone and wish them the best. I do realize that a lot of the guesswork was all in good fun though. I get a little rubbed wrong because when I killed my last Coues buck with my bow back in '99 I had one guy that was relentless at trying to figure out where I killed him. He'd stare at the pictures and try his hardest to figure it all out. For one, the deer was already dead and two, if the guy put that much effort in finding his own spot he might have had a chance to harvest his own already with his own hard work. I don't mean to make any of you mad by this post so please don't take offense to any of it. Josh PS: WHAT A FREAKIN GORGEOUS BUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, I'm a total idiot. I haven't looked at the site in a few and didn't even notice the whole topic on this deer on another link. Disregard! Josh

Mark, There are tons of Coues and tons of places to hunt some good bucks off of the control road in 22. I guided a couple elk hunters in there in Dec two years ago and there were rubs and scrapes all over! I've never hunted it yet but one of these days I will. Those deer love that area under the rim! Thick stuff but get out in the rolling hills and longer ridges and you'll find sign I guarantee it. I've never hunted 23 but I'm sure it's awesome too. Drive from the Pine/Strawberry side in. Pick anywhere from 260 all the way over to 260 again. I know 2 guys that have picked up monster bucks in there. One was about 50 yards off the road and was over 115", the other was up under the rim and grossed a tad over 120" and netted 114". That stuff is seldom hunted successfully and is a sleeper, I think anyway. Anyone beg to differ as I've never hunted it in January? Josh Epperson

I use the Leupold 12-40X60mm spotting scope. I've used this bad boy for several years now and love it!!! It's up over $800 now but I have never regretted buying it. You can never underestimate the awesomeness of good 15X binos though. I take both with me everytime I get out of the truck, unless I'm using the south side of a bush for something else of course. I have used the WalMart $30-40 tripods for years now and love them. Like Doug said though, sometimes they don't spread out enough but for me I'd rather spend the $$$$ on the Wally World tripods, I get about 2-4yrs use out of them and that's good enough for me. If you've got lots o dough then spend the big bucks and get anything you can from Amanda's site. Josh Epperson

My best is 25 yards, but didn't get him. That was down in 36C in January about 8yrs ago. Josh

Guess I'll have to miss that one since it's right in the middle of archery season. Seems like a bad time to have it to me. Josh

P&Y only allows a velvet entry to show up in the record book only one time. I know it's very strange and I wish they would change it. The BIA record book accepts them, the only thing they do is put a * by the score so people know it's a velvet buck. My best Coues with a bow I had freeze dried because my first was injected with formaldehyde and I didn't like it. Freeze dried antlers are supposed to keep bugs off but I can personally tell you guys that on my best buck the bugs love the left antler for some reason. I've lost a fair amount of hair off of it. I've sprayed it but I have to keep an eye on it just in case those little SOBs come back. I was tweekin hard when I noticed it the first time! Josh

Mark, welcome to the site. Hope you like Ctwd, I grew up there, now I live in Camp Verde. On Thursday morning I saw 4 Coues bucks. 3 of them had growth up the their G2's and one of them is going to be a super buck. He had fantastic eyeguards great height on his G2's already and was splitting on his G3 and beam. Got me in the archery hunting mode real quick! I can't wait for season. I'd say he's destined to be 95"+ quite easily, a trophy in my book. Good luck and keep us posted on how you do. Josh Epperson

Now is your chance to hunt it with a bow. I've killed two Coues up there with my bow in Aug and have always wanted to give it a crack in Dec. That is awesome! Josh

Oh man I was always about the Christian Hosoi decks and Indy trucks! Hosoi was the king of style!!!! I still ride a newer "old school" deck that Alva makes. Once I got a 2WD Mazda truck though at 17 you couldn't find me around town, I turned into a shed hunting fool. I seriously hunted sheds at least 3 days a week sometimes more. Cost me some girlfriends, buy hey, sheds last longer than a girl anyway. I'm still wearing Independant hats and shirts and vans shoes. When I go to the skate parks all the kids just sit and watch ol' Old School tear it up, even at 31. Stanley, I feel your pain about your long lost deck. Hopefully it went to someone who knew what it was and not some 5 yr old that let it delaminate out in the front yard then to have it run over. Desert Bull, In the past I've seen some sign around PM but that'd be sort of hard to hunt bears there. If you killed one up there too, then you'd have to drag his, and your, sorry butt out of there in 95+ degree weather. I've never hiked around Turret Pk ever so I can't help you there. Good luck if you go. If you'll notice in the sell out of all sell out books "How to hunt Coues deer" the author specifially points out the Turret Pk and Granite Pk area of 21 as a good place to hunt. Since they put that in there I've never considered hunting those areas. I like to be ALONE when I hunt. 21 is full of places to hunt Coues, from the very southern end by Cave Ck all the way to I-17 and Hwy 260. You just have to pick a place and go. There's parts of that southern end that I've touched a little that looked unreal for Coues but never had enough time to really check them out. Coues Addict, a mullet is the worst hair do of all time. Usually worn by the most out of touch white trash and tweekers, otherwise known as a Methican. It's when they got a little bit of bangs grown out and a whole lot of hair going down their back. Think of Billy Ray Cyrus, classic example. Thanks guys for all the compliments on the site! Josh Epperson

You can get there from Arnold Mesa, the quadders have made a road off the mesa down into hells hole about a 1/2 mile into the wilderness to a tank.......IDIOTS!!!! You can get there from Brown Spgs Ranch down below by taking the trail up, or get there off of Tule Mesa which is pretty severe hiking as well. That is some NASTY country but that usually means there's a biggin in there somewhere. Lots of extremely steep hiking if you're gonna hunt that country, very thick brush too. You can see a lot if you've got big binos but the problem is if you see something you want to go after you better have a helicopter to get there cause in between you and wherever you want to go is usually inaccessable. You'll see if you go take a look at it. Word of advice, don't ever try to take up truck up the old Arnold Mesa road, you just might lose your truck and your life. Josh

Man I was just reading some of the buster stuff on the other thread. I don't even want to get involved in that. The mullet lives.................... Josh

I completely feel the mullet was never cool, maybe in certain company, ie; Billy Ray Cyrus concert or any monster truck show or country music concert. I have seen some trophy sized mullets still being worn today. That is just down right sad. I can't help but laugh when I see them. I tried to grow one of those duck tail things back in the mid 80's but my mom made me chop it thank goodness. She must have known the regret and heartache I would have gone thru later in life had I kept it. Thank you Mom. Keith, we'd love to see some pics of those good ol days. Josh PS Maybe we can get Amanda to start a "Fear the Mullet" thread in her list of discussions on the main forum.

Stan! I didn't know and had no clue you were a skater. I'm still skating even now. The falls sure hurt more than they did 10 years ago though, harder to recover too. We should've been BSing about that up in 10 a few weeks ago. Too funny. Maybe you don't have quicktime on your laptop. The files are large so I hope you've got DSL or cable at the house to watch them. Josh

Glad you guys liked the site, we've worked hard making it different from all other outfitter sites out there. One thing we're missing is archery elk photos. We get clients but for some reason none of them ever get one. My guy last year missed 3 shots, the year before our client kicked every rock in the unit at least twice and couldn't hear to boot. I do guarantee a lot of fun and the chance to see some fantastic bulls, weather or not they slip an arrow in them is tough to guarantee. Bret, I told another of our guides to shoot if he had the chance as he was right above the bear. That bear was running like a clydesdale across that slope, too funny. I think he might only have 9 toes after that shot about took his foot off. Anyone who brags about their shooting before the hunt is guaranteed to miss. You can never carry too much ammo. Jade, in my defense I've never had a mullet and never will. My hair was pulled back in a pony tail and was all one length. That was my skater days back in the early 90's. I might be a redneck but I'm not whitetrash. Fear the mullet! Thanks Amanda for the link on the homepage, that's awesome! Josh