MuleyMan

This issue ain't another Rugrats one.....is it??? Better leave the social programs to the ADA. I spend thousands each year with Floyd.........spell that Leica, Zeiss, Outoorsmans tripod and pan head. I'm very near ordering the Kowa Big Eyes..............but C, you guys haven't sent me your latest catalog..........hmmmmmm.

Would you all believe that I might show up with my wife and three yonkers? How bout just me then? I can prolly find the place right down LMR from my house. I'd like to chomp a few weiners and burgers. I'd like to meet Amanda plus Doug-RR and check out the Doug White products.

Woooooooow. According to the email I just received from NMGFD, I drew this highly sought after tag. Last year's draw odds for NR unguided were something like 2%, weren't they? Think I'll go buy a handful of lotto tickets tonite. I know nothing about this unit/hunt except that it has been highly rated in the past and is highly sought after. I grew up in SW New Mexico, but haven't been in this particular area in decades. I would be looking for a 90"+ Coues buck. I also would have a week before the hunt to scout. I'm not afraid to hike and glass. No backpacking, tho. Also, I would want to hunt public land only. Is this hunt 'great' or is it just 'above average'? For the kind of buck I would want, can anyone compare this unit to one in Arizona such as 31, 32, 22 or 29? Thanks in advance.

Woooow TAM! Thanks for the honest post and terrific info and pic. Good stuff.....that's what this is supposed to be about. Your buddy's buck is a beautiful one! I took your advice and I already contacted Tommy. Tommy doesn't seem to mess around......does he? Tommy is indeed reputable and is anxious to deliver. I'm rastlin' with this tag, plus an October muley tag in unit 30 Colorado (a good one!), plus an outside chance at a CO unit 10 rifle bull tag............after a mild winter and a VERY wet spring. Dunno which I will settle one. The CO 30 deer I can return and save points..............but I'm pretty confident that I can wack a biggun there.... I'll also likely draw an AZ 31 late Nov Coues tag.........or if real lucky..........a 6A Dec Coues. Not bragging......I'm just very fortunate. Where do I spend my 4 weeks and 3 days this fall?

Same buddy..........all by his lonesome...........Wyoming public land 2004. Ummmmmm............did I say..........public land? Also, this is an OTC unit for Wyoming residents. 200" plus...........tons of personal satisfaction...............the deep, deeeeeeeeep kind....................the kind that stays with you forever. Here's a 5.5 year old that I whacked in SW Colorado a couple decades ago. Big bases, 4.5 inch eyeguards........170's with a WHITE face and a roman, mature buck nose. The highlight of this hunt wasn't my nights in Durango drinkin' Wild Turkey and chasin' women................but was the fantastic Filson wool vest. Do they still make those things?

Coues n Sheep, Catlaw, & Scott.................ditto with what I told Doug. Thanks!

Glad you take the time to read my posts and that you consider me memorable. Actually, I wasn't trying to start trouble, but you are. In honor of these two hit-making threads............let me back up a bit and formally introduce you all to my eldest boy deer from Utah........named Tyler.

Now that, Doug, is a quality post! Thanks! I'm also totally impressed with the top end Kowa products. I looked at several including the 10.5 x 44mm Genesis bino at Outdoorsmans the other day and it is the best buy on the market for $1400 IMHO. Tight tolerances resulting in NO play in the eyecups and focus knob (important!) with a very tight hinge pin plus green rubber armoring and TERRIFIC glass on par with the big 3. Woooooooow! Kowa has been making optics for a loooong time and definitely is good at it. Waaaaaaay too much emphasis is put on just the glass when evaluating a bino. My personal quirk is my desire for a focus wheel with no play. What's the point in primo glass if you can't get exact focus? Thanks for the tip on binoculars.com. I'm real close to pulling the trigger on these......free shipping and no sales tax. Presently, my big glass is 12 x 50 HD Leica Ultravids. Doug, will you drive me to the ER when I collapse from 'glassing too far away'........now hereby officially known as 'Doug's Syndrome'? Doug, do you think that the new Swaro carbon fiber tripod CT 101 will hold these 13.6 lbs Kowa's??? C

Strip 1960.......I would be embarrassed to shoot this buck. Mountain Mahogany in Colorado........................yummmmmmmmmy. Mature bucks are fat, lazy bastards. They will eat, bed and water within 40 acres if they can........and NEVER leave it....... Serviceberry in Colorado..........also good eats.

I'm absolutely devastated to find that a thread entitled "Baby Boy Names" has surpassed this one in number of views. I just can't have that. Here's a typical that I wacked in Utah. At 10.5 years young.........doesn't he look tired and all tuckered out? Check out his old grey face and lack of black around the nose. His cape was scarred all over. I betcha he was B & C a couple years earlier. Shot him in his bed under a Juniper tree on BLM land.

Several thoughts here. 1) The ADA seems to have changed course and consequently now it looks like it needs more help to fulfill it's original mission statement. Go figure. Oh wait.....what was the original mission? The ADA should now be named the AKA......Arizona Kids Association. This is substantiated by the magazine. Plenty of kids stuff, ain't there? Almost compares to RugRat Times. If the ADA truly wants to help deer, then stick to results (spelled D-E-E-R) and not people emotions and not empire building and not survival (via funding) of the org as first priority. That mentality is soooooooooo old and tired. AZGFD clearly wants $$$ as first priority (translated this is.....more hunter opportunity=more licenses=get more kids involved to ensure the future=juniors hunts, etc...), reducing 'quality of the experience' to the lowest priority. Looks to me like the AKA is doing this exact same thing. I'm confused. I always thought the AKA and AZGFD were oil & water. 2) I propose that the next ADA board meeting be held at Lilo's Cafe in Seligman........outside........on the deck..........BYOB.

Woooooow RR! I'd heard about this story being published in the SCI magazine, but hadn't seen the pic. That frame is huge, 40"+ and equally tall. But..............I thought that every last one of the old timey racks hanging in bars, barns, and grandpas living rooms around the west had already been discovered by Kirt Darner.

Anybody have any idea when Amanda will post to this thread??? Colorado velvet........a few years ago. Rumor has it........SW Colorado......and a typical world record. I've had this pic for 10 years. Can you even imagine seeing this buck in the wild?

Woooooooooow.......I'm certainly impressed with your memory. Mine blows.............too many dead brain cells. I've been in a rehab facility for several years in an attempt to cure my hunting forum addiction. This is my first relapse.............somebody please help me.......... Is Lark still around these parts???

Ever see a typical that scores 210"? Ever see a 3x4 that does? Ever see one that didn't make the web or the mags? Taken in The Hoback, Wyoming, mid 1990's. Nope.....he ain't mine. Anybody know where The Hoback is???

Another narrow buck that scores 200". I told my buddy where to hunt in NW Colorado for a buck like this, and he did his part. Another 200" Colorado buck. Who says you gotta be a young marathon runner to whack a biggun?

Yep. Dunno if he lived there or was just passin' thru fooling with the ladies. Terraces and the tops of flat, rocky points are excellent places to find feeding desert bucks. Mature bucks know where the eats is. Flat country in the desert is usually sandy, not rocky.........and consequently what little moisture there is doesn't run off......it infiltrates and moisturizes the shrubbery. Here is a front view. Width is overrated. Ever seen this one from high on The Bab, 2001?

This buck was whacked just a few years ago in the location of one of the first pics in this thread. Which one???

Ever seen this one??? The Bab.....1966 winter/lion kill, 44+" outside, slightly restored, 290+.........holy cow!!!

Howdy again, Doug. Yep, the base of that ledge is a place that you would definitely check. Sometimes, older bucks will bed there with a sagebrush in front of them so you can't spot them from afar. And then, sometimes you can see 'em laying there plain as day outlined against the cliff. A simple hike along the base of rimrock cliffs during a scouting trip will allow you to find beds if there are any as well as big tracks............tracks don't lie. Once in Nevada I found bucks actually bedded inside a small cave that went back into the face of the cliff. Those bucks wanted out of the sun......even to allow themselves to be boxed in. I saw them bed from across the canyon then I snuck to the entrance of the cave without exposing myself.............and all heck broke loose right in front of me when they detected me. Almost got trampled...... Here is a buck that I located in the summer in the 1980's in northern Nevada in the same place. Never saw him.........but I did find several of his regular beds and his large tracks along the base of the cliff shown in the second photo. I just kept checking and checking during the October season, and eventually caught him up feeding in a patch of tall sagebrush right near the cliff. Unfortunately, his rack didn't quite match his track size, but he was a good last day buck that was 4.5 years old taken in area 7 in Nevada. This buck was instrumental in teaching me my present hunting strategy. The first choice buck that I was after was very nocturnal, had even bigger tracks, and a mid 30's 190 type frame. I spotted him for just a few minutes the morning I whacked this neat last day buck. The difficulty with the terrain shown in the original photos of this thread is that the country.....at the base of Mt. Trumbull, is REALLY terrific big buck country and you may find one bedded in other places besides the cliff base. There are sooooo many places to catch a bedded and feeding buck.......

This thread is indeed about the Strip......and Mt. Trumbull (with the snow last year)......unit 13A Arizona. Yep, I actually did hijack my own thread and added the Colorado stuff. Here is a buck (not mine) whacked in the conifers on the higher elevation portion of Mt. Trumbull in 2001. Scored 220ish..............super heavy..........6 x7, 9.5 years old...........what a toad.

Here's the buck I was after (first choice) in Colorado unit 10 in 2000.............couldn't find him.............another hunter did. Scored 247ish. A guy I knew found the right shed from the year before that the buck dropped while jumping a fence.

Sssshhhhhhhh Stan............Amanda will recognize me and tell me "I'm welcome to leave" and boot me into next week. I actually just wanted to sell the binos and then I lost the fight against my loooooong suppressed desire (several years!!!) to...............ummmmm.......................post! I just had to let the badger loose..........

I have an rifle bull elk tag for a 1st of October rut hunt in unit 10.............................in Colorado, LOL. I have a unit-wide landowner voucher locked in for that great unit in NW Colorado that is a trophy unit loaded with 6 x 6's.....Oct 1-11. I've got 6 months to get into 'elk shape'. I shot this buck there in 2000, as it does have a few nice muleys as well. I hope that you weren't suggesting, Keith, that I might actually draw an Arizona bull or goat tag in my lifetime!!! I now have 12 points for both............ I'll apply for Coues hunts here first 2 choices, likely 6A Dec/Nov since it's close and I can scout it.

C is the place to fill that tag. Had it in '03 as I recall. Camped and hunted the SE corner........Airplane Mtn, Martinez, plus some lower country a few miles to the NE of Martinez. The lower country directly off the east side of Martinez is where I would start. I also found bucks and a TOAD on the upper half of Martinez..... in the biggest canyon coming off the north side kinda draining northeast toward the road. Good spot for morning and evening show glassing the east facing wall of that canyon........but a long shot or a helluva brutal quick hike. You can also cowboy up and hike back behind (south) Martinez & Airplane using the canyon between them and you'll have unhunted bucks in 1.5 hours. Lonely country that isn't too thick but has a few conifers. You can camp up near Airplane............just follow the road that loops around the north side of the base. At the east end of the loop, there is a nice, flat spot to pitch a tent or trailer. I camped further downhill along the creek (Bonita Creek???) in a fenced corral out of the wind. A good second choice is Hog Mtn in unit A. I would hike up some of the canyons from the west side from 'Can't Remember' Creek. There are some good areas on the lower west side that are virtually unhunted...........cuz you have to hike a ways. The Mescal Mountains down in the far SW corner of A are mostly thick oak. There are deer there, tho. The Hayes Mtns in A are also thick oak and consequently hold some hawgs. Saw the biggest bear of my life at the base of Martinez Mtn.............bigggggg chocolate sunofagun.