Manamal

bowsniper, You're right, in fact a browse line as tall as a deer can reach on its hind legs can still be discerned on the Kaibab today. As part of the study a wildlife biology major from Texas Tech is trying to find out if the high density of deer within the enclosure is negatively impacting the vegitation. I don't think he had finished his study by publication time as there were no results available. However it is mentioned in the article that some of the top bioligists in the field have looked at the habitat and have not detected overuse by deer. 111, It has been a few weeks since I have seen a lion track that is fresh. One question I have is how old of a track can a dog follow? I will PM you with GPS coordinates and directions to the spot next time I see a fresh track. I usually see them in 21, 22, and 37b. .270, It really bothers me that the AZGFD would sit back and watch that happen to the strip. Do they just not care, or were they putting all their money into the states elk herd? I wonder why they don't hire some predator control specialists. Is it a money issue? Desert Bull, I've had some success at calling coyotes and plan to hunt them quite a bit between deer/pig and turkey seasons. I'll let you know when I'm going. Apache7MM, Way to go man, glad to see you're doing your part!!

I agree with Rembrant, a few years ago I had an idea and didn't patent it in time and someone else is profiting, not me. It just takes one good idea to make a ton of money. Think of all of the eastern hunters that might buy the "Can Clip".

My buddy and I went down to 37b on Sat and Sun, he is new to bohunting and this is his second pig hunt. On Sat we went to a place that has produced many pigs for me and my dad in the past four years, my dad has the ham hunt. I think it is where the home ranges of two or more herds overlap. I also think pigs routinely walk the perimiter of their home ranges and mark with scat as sign (I could be way off on this but that seems to be what is happening) I have heard the average home range is approx 800 acres. I didn't do any scouting for this pig hunt being pre-occupied with the bucks and ducks, I was relying on past years expierences in the area to keep me in the right spot. Well on Sat there were no pigs to be found but we found them on Sun afternoon. I glassed them feeding on roots on a small bench near the bottom of a steep ravine. Pretty thick down there so we could only see up to four at a time. I think there were five or six total. This would be a long stalk down a steep rocky mountain. Things were going good for most of the stalk. Wind in our favor, three hours of light left, and enough cover to keep us out of sight of the near sighted pigs. We were getting close, at 50 yards they are still there, feeding away now, out of range for such a small target so we kept going. We circle in front of them to cut them off. If it works out right it will be about a 30 yard shot. The pigs had other plans, they turned left up another ravine and it got dark as we tried to cut them off again. We'll Be back down there this weekend.

Well sometimes I get horney when it is raining and I bet the coues are no different. I say the rut continues as scheduled!!!

Sooner or later as hunters we are going to have to face this very dilemma. I'm no stranger to the situation. Both instances were almost five years ago. The first was an archery javalina, hit high, probably in the gap between the lungs and spine. Who knows, we looked for a day and a half, ran out of blood, and tracks were very tough to distinguish on the rocks. I took a very large boar the next day and felt good about it!! The next time it was an early archery deer hunt. I totally hit this 3x2 muley too far back. I followed up too soon ( 10 min.) jumped him and lost the trail as he went into a canyon. Looked for a couple days and had to come back to Phoenix. I took a 65" 3x3 coues W/ eyegaurds on the Oct. rifle hunt. Felt good about that too!! I look back on these instances with no regret because I know that I exhausted all possibilities and scenarios. Since then I have also learned to wait alot longer to follow up after a shot. One thing to keep in mind is to practice with your weapon. If you are prepared, then this sort of thing is less likely to happen.

Fourth year in a row in 37b. Theres a ton of pigs and some huge desert muleys, it's always a good time!! I normally cook the backstraps in a crock pot and make the rest into jerky. I was wondering if anyone had tried the pit method, I've heard it was great.

I went over to my buddies house the other night to have a few beers and have some deer steaks. We were watching a few hunting shows on channel 302. There is an outfitter in Colorado that books catch and release hunting trips. I'm sure they were on private land, but they were hunting elk with tranquilizer darts. After the 350+ bull had succomed to the drugs these guys went over and cut his antlers off!!! How rude!! The guide was selling the idea by saying "You get the trophy (antlers) and the bull gets to live another day". I feel this type of "hunting" puts alot of stress on the animals and shows total disrespect for them , other than their antlers, the hunters seemed happy. This type of thing may happen to a particular bull/buck year after year interfering with their ability to defend a harem/breed. They are not able to live life as they should. What does everyone else think of this?

sothpaw, I know the gutwrenching pain of not being able to find a bowshot animal. You just need to keep looking!! I dont think a buck can live with only one lung (correct me if I'm wrong), so he has gotta be out there somewhere. Also when bloodtrailing, sometimes it is necessary to get down on your hands and knees to see the little specks of blood when the trail seemingly goes dry. There is also a product called Blue Blood Tracker that will turn the blood into a blue foam when sprayed on it. Never used it just thought it might help. If you still cant find blood or tracks get your buddies and search in an organized grid pattern. If all else fails wait for the birds to start circling. Just wondering, how long did you wait to follow up after the shot?

Let him walk? Only if he needed to clear some brush for a clean shot!!! Nice buck man.

Good job rugerman!! How many bucks did you see while hunting/scouting?

Looks good!! I think with fewer hunters in the field, and antler point restrictions in place it can only be good for the game of New mexico. I also like the fact that they seperated the coues and muley hunts.

DesertBull, It really sucks when a lion moves into the canyon you are hunting. I'm sure you have some "Ace in the Hole" spots, but I sent you a pm about a spot where I have seen good bucks recently.

Well I've been able to get out deer hunting a couple times between duck hunts , I've been in 21. I got to stalk a nice 3x3 muley I glassed up that was with a couple does yesterday morning. At 65 yards one of the does saw me crawling to the next juniper I was going to use as cover. They bolted, but only into the next ravine, I found them again and planned another stalk. Ten minutes into the stalk I heard some friggin' quail start to chirp incessantly and just knew they would flush and blow my cover. Well of course I was in the open when they flushed. The deer picked me out pretty quick and were gone. I didn't find them again. I'll be back out there Tues a few miles from where this Sunday hunt took place, don't want to freak those deer out too much and scare them out of the area.

It's getting close, just wondering if ya'll are ready. I am. I'll be hunting 21 and 22 like I was in the early arch season. Good luck to everyone.

Well I've been off work and hunting hard since the 9th of Nov. The 10-14th one of my hunting buddies and I were in unit 23 NM hunting bucks. The areas we hunt contain mostly mulies with some coues mixed in. More coues this year than ever before. We saw bucks every day, and legal bucks (at least 3 points on one antler) on 4 of the 5 days. We were hoping to find a better than average buck wether it be mulie or coues, and were prepared to go home empty handed. And we did. All in all I have enjoyed hunting New Mexico for the last few years over the counter. Its a beautiful place with alot of deer. I am glad however to see NM going to a statewide draw. OTC hunts get pounded with hunters. I really think that with the draw and antler point restrictions, alot of places in NM will be producing more trophy bucks with regularity. So after the NM hunt we stopped in Safford for some supplies and met up with some friends in unit 32 AZ who had whitetail tags. We got there at 11:30 pm on the 14th and were up at 4:00 am for the hike to the glassing spot. I had no tag so I would "play guide" for a co-worker and his wife. Both had never taken a deer. The first morning I had been glassing for about 10-15 min and spotted a nice,tal 2x2 feeding on an oak. The buck was only 175 yards away! no stalk. Without hesitation my buddies wife asked for my tripod to steady her aim. She dropped him with the first shot and finished him with another. We were well over a mile from a road and the buck was near the bottom of a canyon (out of the wind). She insisted however that she wanted no help getting this buck out. Not a big woman at all just very determined. Over the next few days we saw several bucks. The biggest being a 3x3 in the 80" or so range. My co-worker buddy missed him twice at 250 yards. There were some other misses on this hunt on 2x2's and small 3x3's. My buddy really got hammered by buck fever, complete with stammering and shakes!! I think everybody deals with buck fever to a point. The trick is being able to control it at the time of the stalk and shot. By the way, after each missed opportunity we followed up with meticulisuly searching for blood. None was found and none of the bucks showed sign of being hit. After the unit 32 hunt I went home to Phx. for a day of rest. The rest was good, and on the morning of the 19th I met up with a good buddy of mine in Ash Fork who had a unit 10 bull tag. He had never taken a bull before and let it be known he wasn't going to be very picky. We hunted for two and a half days and saw 19 bulls, only one spike. He ended up taking a nice 5x5 out of a group of four bulls. In that group there was a 6x7 with a DROPTINE!!! in the 350 class. My buddy saw the 5x5 first and let him have it from 200 yards. Bull elk are big and heavy!!! He was down by 9:00 am and back at camp after dark. Well after that much hunting it's going to be hard as heck to go back to work. Can't wait for the 17th to hunt bucks with my bow again. I also drew a 33/37b pig tag and a unit 1 turkey tag. I get a pig in 37b every year with my bow, and haven't been drawn for spring turkey since '98 when I called a nice tom into 10 yards and smoked him with my 12 ga. Good luck to everyone with tags. Be safe and happy huntin' Neil Large

I was lucky enough to have caught a 24" brown trout from the Black River about a month ago. Does anyone on the site know of a good fish taxidermist? My taxidermist does a great job on big game, but I don't like the way his fish mounts look. Thanks in advance.

Things are heating up in central AZ also, saw some unit 22 bucks playing around the other day. Nothing serious but still cool to watch. PSEHunter, I'll be trying some rattling this year. Have you ever had a buck show any interest to the rattling? I think it would work best to locate bucks first, get to 100 or 150 yards and then start your sequence.

Amanda, I will E-mail you some pics in the next few days. I don't have a scanner for this old computer. Az4life you're right, some of my most memorable hunts do not end with blood. Since I have started passing up on the smaller bucks a few years ago I get to spend more time in the field doing what I love to do. hookedoncoues, we were near the four mile creek area.

Wow man those are some nice looking bucks- Good job!!! Your taxidermest really pays attention to detail.

Wow, nice bucks!! I'd take either one on a New Mexico hunt. Good job, and good luck on your December hunt , thats a killer tag!!

Right on guys, nice buck!!! Another trophy hunter in the making?

Units 21 and 22 both support nice pockets of coues in areas that don't look so "cousey". In both units I have seen coues in the 2000-2500 ft. range. There are definately greater concentrations of deer in the more typical coues habitat types within those units. But there's some toads down low!!! Also coues will use riparian areas on the desert floor. An example would be the San Pedro river. I don't use a treestand, but that would probably be the way to go in a situation like that.

After a heavy rain can also be a great time to hunt the coues. They will definately be out a little more than normal. Mattule, are you planning on hunting the water sources in your area? If it rains, your chances of success will probably be a bit lower than if you were up high glassing.

A couple weeks ago I was doing a job near I-10 and loop 303. While driving down I-10 my helper all of a sudden started blowing his nose on the floorboard of the worktruck and screaming obcenities. A bee had flown directly up his nose while we were doing about 80 mph and was briefly lodged. I laughed till it hurt so did he. Man he got lucky he wasn't stung.

I have seen more big coues bucks in unit 22 than any other.I spend alot of time there hunting them with my bow, it has been my first choice for the rifle hunt for years, no tag. 36b has some really solid bucks as does 34a and 32, but I do agree that there are monster bucks in every coues unit in the state. My "vote" is for any of the above mentioned units, i gave some specifics on unit 22 on another thread. I had a few beers that evening and gave in my opinion too much good info.