308Nut

Scientifecly and real world results show the B-Stinger to the best stabilizer for the purpose of stabilizing a bow. That is for a 12" stabilizer. Longer ones do a bit better but not much. Long ones are not practical for hunting purposes. They do some yet little for dampening but that is not what they were designed for. They were designed to help the shooter hold steadier and stabilize the bow during the shot. You cannot beat the design for stabilization. If you want a shock absorber, look else where. If you want to shoot better, get a B-Stinger. They work and work well. Competetive shooters in the bowhunter division (12" or less stabilizers and fixed pins) shoot more B-Stingers than anything else. Not because they pay out, because they work.

That is no joke. Stone hunts are OUTFREEKINRAGEOUS. The Canadians know the only place in the world to aquire one is in Canada. They have you by the ba!!s and know it. They arent afraid to charge accordingly. I know I dont think I will ever afford one. I will have to stick to dalls. Next to bugling elk, hunting dalls is my favoraite. Kind of an obssesion like coues are for all of you! Happy hunting!

Yeah, my wife is already dropping hints.......................

Thank you. "pwrguy" was with me on that hunt. If we both get drawn for late WT, maybe we can do a double and have two WT mounts to show off!

Well my cousin finally went and retrieved my trail cam. Someting malfunctioned as it only took 24 hours worth of pictures and crapped out. It was put in late November last year and between work and familiy issues, he has just now been able to retrieve it. It is an over night adventure to get into the area and get back out. So a long story short, we got 10 pictures of does and two pictures of one buck in 24 hours. He obviously has to grow a couple years at least but he has some impressive eye guards for such a young buck. The picture was captured last November.

22 Late WT. 8 bonus points. I am pretty sure I am going hunting this year.

Stealth cam. My cousin tested it near his house and learned how to use it. He is not sure why it crapped out after 24 hours.

Actually the apps have already arrived in AZ. You gotta love Express mail. All things concidered (and I know there may be better units) I decided to burn my 8 bonus points on unit 22 December coues. Many factors came into play for this decision but I believe it will be the best coice for me and my circumstances. As a "beyond help" sheep nut, I will head into the wilderness areas and live out of a backpack for a while in hopes to find some old mature buck who has seen very few people and hopefully even fewer hunters. My tri-pod mounted 10x42 EL's and I will become even better friends and possibly even soul mates during the quest for a nice buck. Untill December, I will be dreaming of coues bucks...............................I will be shooting up a storm and hunting the black shale for sheep (August) and dark thickets for moose (September) in the meantime to pass the time untill December...........................

I foresee that you will draw your tag. May all your sheep dreams come true for you as they have for me.

I could see where "the claw" and a finely tuned 5 oz. Jewell trigger would be the cats meow for small targets (coues) at typical coues ranges (400+ yards). I will be looking into this device as a bipod alternative.

This is where you may want to concider a good balance. For me it is always a balance between a good opprotunity and THE opprotunity. There are several units you can draw with 9 points for a honest crack at a 350 bull with a bow. If you desire a unit 9 hunt, you will have to build more points for quite a while. Unit 9 may be the cream of the crop but there are other great opprotuinites in AZ. IMHO 10 is highly over-rated. Dont get me wrong, it has a reputation for being a "big bull" unit for a reason but the logistics can make it less than desirable at times. If you have inside info and know where there is a big bull or two AND can gain access to the land, then it can be a good thing. Otherwise unit 10 will most likely leave you very frustrated. Personaly I believe that with 9 points, you can do much better than the unit 5's. There are other units you can draw with 9 points with better and more bulls. There are also some late rifle hunts, while not as exciting as rut hunts, can produce big bulls that you can draw with 9 or 10 points. Every body want the biggest possible bull, the question is are you willing to wait many more years to have the points to get the hunt you want? Even if that senario happens, there is no guarantee that you will bag that monster. Trophy hunter does a good job at making non-residents think that 400+" bulls are around every other tree. This is the farthest from the truth. Out of about 30,000 elk permits, only a dozen or so 400+" bulls are killed and that is on a good year. With all that said, apply for a decent unit and you will have a great time, have a crack or several cracks at some nice bulls, and MAYBE if youre really blessed, have a crack at a giant. NEVER let the fact that youre hunting in AZ no matter what unit or season lead you to believe that you kill a monarch easily. Now if you have killed several nice bulls, then by all meens hold out for a monster. If not, concider shooting a 330-360 bull. These can be truly impressive and beutifull animals.

I would apply for the most premium hunt only. Then, if you dont draw you still get a point. If you draw your dream hunt, then it is worth the trouble and effort.

I am thinking of applying for a coues hunt in AZ. I need a bit of help with unit choice. Not lookin for monsters, just a nice buck. How many points does a guy need for a decent tag? Thanks for any help!

Ya-but, that is cuz there ain't no deer in unit 22. And when there are soooooo few deer it is nice not to have any competion in the woods. Seems to me everyone oughta hunt 31 cuz there must be more deer there if they offer more tags. Kinda like the rest of the 30's (units) where a guy can see 100+ deer in a day. Dont spend much time in 22 hugh. If you applied your sheep tactics in 22 for coues, you might change your tune.

How do you think I have so many points? Thanks but no thanks! As a NR, I have come to realize that since I do not have max deer points I will NEVER draw the hunt I really want. Hence my move to coues.

What do you think of 6A, 21, 22, 23?

I would also say that just because you have a Dec. tag doesn't mean you will have massive bucks blazing every which way. Oh I got that! I have bowhunted them in the past. I realize they are not around every corner. Just looking for a good time with a chance to see a monster or two and maybe bag a decent buck. Decent being 100". Thanks again.

Dont care what part of the state. I dont have a preference between high and low country. Back country is also OK. I am in good shape and willing to work hard. I have 8 points and am willing to suffer with tough odds. Thanks!

AZGFD has gotton greedy. They can sell MANY more early tags by taking away from the late tags and maintain the same harvest rate. They call it more hunter opprotunity. I call it greed. It used to be they gave out a generous amount of late tags and a generous amount of early tags. Now they give out mass quantities of early tags and very few late tags. This is why most of the units have very few late tags. Heck 22 only has 25 late tags.

This is a very good thread. I am an ex AZ resident. Born and raised. I now live in a state where there are NO bonus points period. IMHO, both systems have their advantages. I must say that AZ has one of the most "meet in the middle" systems. No matter how you arrange the system, the fact remains, there are way more applicants than their are tags. Period. You cannot send everyone afield after bull elk and coues bucks in the rut who simply wishes to go. It can also be a crap shoot. I remember in 04 drawing a rut elk tag for archery in a good unit. I applied for nine years. No gripes here, I picked a number, got in line and waited my turn. I showed up before the season, stayed a day after and hunted the whole thing. There was a guy that showed up near my camp and hunted 1/2 of the friday opener, saturday, 1/2 of sunday and went home. He addmited that he would not make the rest of the hunt. To me that is an entire WASTE of a premium tag. No wonder it took me 9 years to draw. Every yahoo and their brother is putting in so they can hunt less than 3 days of two week season. What a waste. Enough of the rant, it is public land and there are no rules as to how long one must hunt if at all. Back to the thread. I enjoy knowing that sooner or later, (other than strip hunts or early rifle elk hunts/unit 9 archery hunts) that the BP's I have accumulated will make it so that it is impossible to NOT draw a tag with the chance of drawing before I am in the max BP pool. Arraing it how you like, the fact remains that most of the guys who are seeking premium permits will be sitting at home this season dreaming of next years chances and accumulating BP's in the proccess due to more demand than supply. IMHO, with the extremely HIGH bull to cow ratio and the subsequent mass quantities of broken elk antlers, it is my opinion that the gods at the game and fish could up the bull permits a bit and thin the bulls down a wee bit. AZ has some huge bulls, but also huge bull to cow ratios. Fewer nice bulls would have destroyed racks by lowering the bull to cow ratio and lessening the competition for breeding rights. I am not saying move to an open season policy like colorado, just harvest a few more bulls.

Hello, I am new to this site. Thanks for a cool place. I have not bagged a coues buck yet but have hunted them a few times. Archery mostly. I am planning a rifle hunt later this year in AZ. This post caught my eye and thought I would offer my two cents. Mono metal bullets have both advantages and dis-advantages. Depending on ones shooting abilities and accuracy standards there may not be any major dis-advantages but for precision shooters and or long range shooters, there are some dis-advantages. Advantages: 1: Very deep penetration. Not as necessary on deer as it is for elk and moose. 2: There are no jacket wall concentricity issues to deal with for accuracy concerns. 3: No lead to contaminate the enviornment. Dis-advantages: 1: Many rifles will not shoot them as accurately as some shooters would like. Some rifles will shoot them with a resonable degree of accuracy and in some case exceptional accuracy. Others will just not tolerate them. 2: Regardless of what you read, they do copper foul a bit more than jacketed lead. This can lead to accuracy and inconsistency problems. 3: If larger bones are encountered with mono metal bullets at oblique angles, the hollow point tends to get pinched shut. When this happens, expansion does not take place. Expansion is critical for clean kills. 4: From a long range shooters view point, the minimum impact velocity requirements are a bit on the high side. In some long range senarios, the lower BC of the all copper bullets slows the bullet fatser than conventional bullets. Between faster loss of velocity and a high impact velocity requirement, they become unreliable for longer shots. It is popular belief that all copper bullets have a higher BC than jacketed lead. This is not true. The specifec gravity of copper is 8.89 where jacketed lead is 10.7. The higher the specifec gravity, the higher the BC, provided all other things such as diameter and shape are equal. It is not my or anybody elses place to judge how far a given hunter should shoot at his quarry. The key is to use gear and components that work for the style of a given hunter. For a long range hunter, the all copper bullets dont always work reliably. Again, depending on how far one is going to shoot and what his accuracy requirments are, there may not be any dis-advantages. For other hunters the dis-advantages may be huge. I dont meen any flame here, just my humble opinions. Thanks again for the site!