Kilimanjaro

I picked up a DIY hunt on a great ranch down Mexico way and headed down there on Thurs of last week.. got back last night.. We hunted HARD everyday, all day on the ranch, but I ended up coming home sans buck (this trip!!).. The weather played havoc with us pretty much the entire time!! One day rain, the next, wind, the next, heat, etc.... On Sat, within 30 min of first light, Hector glassed a buck up on a saddle at over a mile and a half away.. All we could tell was that he was carrying his mass well and he looked decent from the distance.. We made a go at it, and we made our way over to where we last had the buck. We came out over the top. and found they had moved another mile or so down the canyon.. We then made our next move and got up to a hilltop to watch them and see if we could cut them off. Once we got to the top of the hill, we quickly found them. There were several bucks and a few does in the group. At first, we couldnt find the buck we had glassed.. After about 5 min. I finally found him. He was getting ready to bed. And when he finally did, we could finally get a good look at hm. And WOW.. We had all the time in the world finally to properly judge him. As we gauked at him thru the binos, we were crunching numbers and we finally settled on a conservative score of between 118 and 120 typical!! He was the biggest coues Ive ever seen thru my binos.. He was a clean 3X3 with SUPER mass the he carried out to the tips of every point and all the way out to the tips of his beams. He was a beast.. The other buck he was running with was a 95" to 100" 3X3 as well.. But he couldn't hold a candle to his compadre!! We watched them bed and then spent a good while watching him stretch out and enjoy the sun, scratch his back with his antlers, thrash a small tree, and chase a doe around for a bit.. All this and we just weren't in the right position for a stalk from where we watched all this unfold!! It was torture!! Long story short, he couldn't resisist a still hot doe leaving without him and she slowly took him out of our view around the backside of an oak and ocotillo choked hillside. We tried to make a "what if" plan, but we never picked him back up.. We stayed in the area till dark 30 that day. Next morning we were right back on the same hill, but wind was restricting deer movement, and we didnt pick him back up. Packed it up and headed home with a super coues buck etched into my brain!!! I just wanted to thank Chef for all his help with the hunt.. Its a DYI hunt and it was great to have a buddy there helping out just for the love of coues deer hunting!! Thanks a milion buddy! Couldnt have done it without ya! BTW, I think I'm going to head back down this weekend and give it one more go on that beast.. He's haunting me!

You guys are right about that for sure!!! He has been on my mind ever since we had first saw him thru the binos... All I'm thinking about is how I'm gonna get a shot on him.. He is well worth the effort to go back and give it another go!! I hope I can punch a hole thru him really soon! Thanks guys. I hope to share the pics of him with you really soon!

Naw... I have skin thicker than a rhino's butt... I just get sick to death of reading your diareah of the mouth that spews from your fingers to your keyboard and onto my laptop screen.. I know alot of others feel the same way, I just have the cajones to tell ya... You're like an old heel hound.. all bark with no bite whatsoever. Just an old geezer with absolutely nothing better to do with your day than to cause waves on this site with nothing productive that pertains to hunting at all. Ive said it countless times and I will continue to do so as long as you continue to post your caca.. Your home nurse just called... she needs to change your Depends..

Lark, you are a...... oh wait, I almost forgot that this is a "family" site and if I said what I wanted to to you, I'd get my knuckles rapped. I guess when you get older than dirt, you have nothing better to do with your time than try to sling your lop sided opinions around for everyone to read.. pretty boring if you ask me, but that's all you've done in the 5 years Ive been on this site. Jamaro, I'm with you on this one 100%. Dont forget to take your Medamusil today, Lark.. Its said to keep the old and senile in working order for the day..

For the love of God, Lark, if you have been paying attention to the case pretty closely, I think you'd surely know by know that the UPBP is a FEDERAL AGENCY.. Hence, the men and women who work for the USBP are called AGENTS and not officers! It makes my skin crawl everytime you post it... over and over and over and over.. get it right. We're not cops..We're the USBP.

The sky really is falling,... a comment that came from Lark that I agree with 100%. I think trapping is WAY more humane than bowhunting in general.

RIP..

looks GREEN wherever you where hunting!!!

AZ coues addict, from an anatomical point of view, your 2 coues mounts are the best on this thread by far. Whoever mounted them knew what he was doing. Correct ear butt and ear postion, skin taxied into the right postion, great work on the eyes, awesome fininsh work, etc.. Great mounts! They look great! Casey, the yellow ears are from a lack of paint. A deer's inner ear, where the skin is bare or shows through the thin ear hair will turn yellow when its tanned. Once the deer is mounted and dries, it becomes more pronounced and noticable. Paint covers that and brings back a lifelike tone to the skin. Also, if the mount was hung in a sunny area of the house, the UV rays can/will cause that as well over time. The two deer in your question look pretty bleached out.. I would suspect that would be the cause there.. probably mounted awhile back and hung in a sunny area in the house for a long time.

You might be right about them sucking for all these years, but why pee on the parade and tell everybody its raining?? PA-LEEZZZ . GO CARDS!

So..... I'd sure like to know how you knew it was Coke. Just curious. Well, it could've been barbie dolls and baby wipes for all I know. They were all young guys with jansport style back packs on and when i talked to the officer in that area he said the route they were on was almost entirely drug trafficking and not immigration. I asked him if he thought it was marijuana they might be running and he just laughed and said, "no, its definitely cocaine." So, the real question is how did he know it was coke? But I took his word for it because it makes for a better story. Don't get your panties in a wad, dude.. If you would take the time and read what I initially wrote, all I said was JUST CURIOUS.

So..... I'd sure like to know how you knew it was Coke. Just curious.

Thank God... they've been in there way too long.. in fact, they never shoulda done 1 day in that hole.

I'd like to see them win it all, but I surely have my doubts.. If the past is any indication of the future, the Cards are toast. They have had their butts WHOOPED by Phili too many times not to take that into consideration!! With that said, I'll be pulling for them all the way!

I love trapping.. Its awesome. My Dad was a HUGE trapper when I was a kid (back when the fur prices were thru the roof).. there was NOTHING more exciting to a 10 yr old boy than walking up to a set and seeing it all trashed out with the drag marks headed out!! You just KNEW that there was gonna be a big 'ol bobkitty on the other end!! I never got tired of seeing that. I remember getting taught how to set the diff kinds of traps (snares, conibears,etc), learning how to boil and care for them, how to make a good set, etc. It was a great hobby. I havent done it in years, but if I had the time, I'd dang sure fet back into it!! Last time I really was trapping was my 1st 2 yrs of college.. I paid for 2 yrs worth of apartment rent and beer money with bobcat, ring tail cat and coon skins!!!

I ended up going to thr Dallas Safari Club convention this yr instead of Reno.. Ive been to the SCI gig a few times and its awesome!! Have a blast!

The mass is unreal on that buck!!

I highly recomend you taking a few days and attending the Dallas Safari Club convention. I just got back from 5 days over there and it was another great show for sure.. I would rate it just behind the SCI show in Reno in terms of number of booths, sites and such..but no slouch by any means!! There is enough stuff there to keep you and the better half entertained for a few days!! I got to man handle a 180,000 $ 28ga. Holland&Holland, kicked around the idea of some hunts I've never thought of doing previously, bought a few new bronzes for the collection, etc.. Wife got to ohh and ahh over the clothes, fur coats, insane jewlery, etc.. There were so many mounts of insane trophies that three days wasn't enough time to see them all!! Ive missed the last couple of years due to schedule conflicts, and it felt great to finally go back and catch up with alot of old friends who live around the globe.. BTW, I got my 2009 and 2010 hunts all lined out and money handed over!! I'm headed to Tajikistan in Nov of this yr for 2 weeks of HIGH altitude hunting! I have a couple of buddies who have been waiting to see if their permits were going to be granted by the USFW for their Marco Polo Argali sheep. Finally, they got the "green light" and were granted the permits to import them. I'm going with them and will be hunting Mid Asian Ibex (largest species of Ibex) while there, then helping them with the sheep.. 2010 will find myself and a couple of other CWT'ers in Namibia stalking a vast array of African plains game. My list is getting smaller and smaller with every Africa trip(this will be the 5th), so my menu is small and was purposely made with species found in that particular country.. Hartmanns Mountian zebra, Klipspringer, Damara Dik-Dik, Gemsbok, and Kalahari Springbok.. the other guys will be on their very first African safari and will be hunting kudu, warthog, impala and such!!

Jeff, PM sent..

Thanks guys... I am really excited about the Ibex hunt, but its sure has been an uphill battle for my buddies with their import permits for the sheep. It seems that Marco Polo hunting is going to be closing its doors soon.. They keep giving fewer and fewer import permits every yr..And who wants to pay that much to sheep hunt and not be able to bring your sheep home??! As long as USFW keeps their end of the agreement, our hunt is golden.. If not, the outfitter mentioned I might have to change my hunt from Tajikistan to Kazahstan. No sense in going to Tajik if we cant hunt sheep, when there are just as many Ibex in Kaza at lower elevations at the same cost. We'll be hunting them at 16,000 to 16,500 ft. elevation in Tajik!! Africa will be my 1st trip to Namibia. The others Ive taken were all to South Africa and once to Zimbabwe. The countryside looks exactly like southern AZ.. dry desert grasslands CRAWLING with game!! We arent going until 2010, but it will be here before we know it.. Never hurts to start planning early! As far as the BBQ, I'd do it! Just have to have enough time to get the house in order!

Cool pics Amanda.. I have got to see a few lions in traps back home in west TX. I have a buddy who is a govt trapper, and he makes his living catching lions.. I agree with ya though, it aint hunting when you catch one like that. BUT, trapping is fun in its own ways as well. It always gave me that "Christmas morning" feeling when you got check your line then next day! You never knew what you were going to have!

How are the bird pop. doing over that way?? They seem to be doing great here in SE AZ.. Ive seen a TON of them this season while Mearns hunting. If there is a good chance that there will be birds seen, I'll buy a couple of raffle tickets for sure!

Are any of you really that suprised?? Its a daily occurance..

BTW, thanks for watching the casa while I was gone, Casey! I appreciate it!

Btw, GET YOUR BUTT/ RUMP/ BACKSIDE/ ANUS OFF THIS SITE AND GET TO RUNNING!! Time is 'a tickin'!!!