coueshunter84

Anything thats respectable either gets a shoulder mount or euro.. And of course anything that makes a book somewhere.

3 of them in here.

Was definately a good hunt. Tough coues country, and the older class bucks were no where to be found but BOth tags were willed with "largest to date" bucks. Both made excellent shots after lots of practice at ranges consistant with coues hunting. And it paid off. The one part of the story that Tommy did not include was I talked them out of these 2 bucks opening morning at first shooting light. In hopes of finding their older relatives. LOL 3 days of looking over lots and lots of country, and seeing lots and lots of does. Both bucks were hard earned.

Anyone hearing any bugeling around the Prescott area. Leaving tomorrow for the wifes bull hunt. Just wondering if they are bugeling up there or not. Shane

seen a few but way off. only heard one bugle. lots of work , nothing to show for it. Shane

Shes got the Bull hunt units 15a-19b. So lots of area to hunt. Just wondering if they were bugeling in that part of the country. Thanks Shane

I have killed a couple of animals with the ultimate steels. And they are neat little heads until they start sheding blades. I finally had to torque them in with a pair of pliers, and loc-tite. to get them not to shed blades. After that they were fine. BUt almost cost me my first big muley. took 3 arrows, and of the nine blades that went into him, only 2 came out. and all 3 arrows were pass throughs. And yes no blood trails on any of them even after I got them figured out. no blood at all on a heart shot on a pig 2 years ago. Only went 45 yards down hill. and I watched it the whole way. But no blood at all. That was my last one, and they wont be replaced just due to the lack of blood, and the amount of energy and maintenance needed. But they did work every time I used them.

There is a whole squadron of A-10's within easy reach of the border, and right next door to that is Raytheon. Problem solved!!!!! I bet they would figure out where the border is right quick.

Should proabably point the finger at Smokey The Bear, more then todays ranchers, which have gon e a long way to fix things that had happened in the past. Now foks need to figure out that fire is a good thing instead of the Smokey The Bear approach. Grasslands were designed to burn , and burn, and burn, and burn. Kali hasent figured this out yet. Forests were designed to burn every few years, not every 30-40 years when they reach catastrophic porportions. Granted the ranching of the past ties into everything else. But its not the only thing. not at all.

call me crazy, but are those not two different bucks? Looks like the bottom one has a fork starting on the left eyeguard and has more mass, and the top one is wider, with more tine length. Might have to make a tough choic if they are different. HMMMM. Good luck with that.

Other good reading along those lines . Find some of the books about the battles off of Guadalcanal ( Iron Bottom Sound). I got lucky enough to spend 2+ hours with the fellow who was the gunner on the number 1 turret on the South Dakota The night they "crossed the T" on the 2 Japanese battle ships. he touched off the first main gun rounds of that one. Was quite the story. He watched a couple of our destroyers take torpedos just to keep them off of his ship,, on pourpose. Quite incredible.

hunter22, The onlyproblems I have ever had with the t locks is they tend to fall off past 50 yards for me. Anythign past that and I have to drop down a pin. They are fine out to 50. Good luck.

I had one come out of a salt ceder at my feet. It covered 61 yards ( by range finder) in 3 bounds, and was back into the thick stuff before I was able to get my bow up. And thats with the arrow on the string and the release already hooked. From where it came out to the first spot it landed was 17 yards, from there to the second spot it landed was 19 yards, and the last 22 yards was the last leap. We measured from where it took off to where it landed, so there is some ground time between leaps. But was incredible to see. Makes you wonder how the Desert Museum keeps theirs in the pen.

Self addressed stamped envelope and survey with every tag. Either return the unused tag or the survey, or dont hunt the next year 2 years whatever.

Seen 2 hens and actually heard one gobble 2 times in the Cochise Stronghold, over the weekend. And last year there was a flock in St. David for a couple of weeks. They appear to be migrating all over the place. LOL>.. Shouldnt be to much longer and the number of tags will grow to where they are easier to draw.

I was wrong, you dont even need to identify the snake. Heres what we do when you call 911 down in the southern part of the state for a snake bite. http://www.saems.net/Downloads/Snakebite122007.pdf

Some interesting reading for everyone, on this topic. http://www.pharmacy.arizona.edu/outreach/p...rattlesnake.php And if memory serves me correctly the only real thing (other then seek medical attention) that needs to be done is identify the snake. And I'm not sure of that anymore as they changed the antivenom they use a couple of years ago.

My little ones started out shooting the smaller sizes of long bows 15-20#. They are very inexpensive ( in the $30-$40 range) and teach them the finer points of instinctive archery. The 2 oldest have graduated in larger bows, One a recurve and the other a wheel bow. I let them choose. I would not want either one launching arrows at me out to 30 yards or so. The stick bows are just another option not to forget. and for the most part lots cheaper then even the Micro Midas, and way more forgiving then any wheel bows. Good luck and keep those future generations of hunters coming up in the world.

Pretty easy to get better info. Either return the survey or the unused tag one or the other. Not completely fail safe but better then what we have. And no survey or tag you dont hunt for a while.

Couple of AZ. critters you dont see every day, They were stuck inside an empty storage tank. WE caught them and turned them loose. And one of my most favorite pics of last year. The ingenuity of a 10 year old, wo got tired of watching us glass, strapped her binos to her unipod, and added another set of eyes to the mix looking for her a piggie to go after. Shane

Sweet!!!! Guessing 115-116" Bruiser either way Didnt see the actual measurements Until I posted. What a toad. Shane

Congrats on the one that did not get away, definately a neat looking rack almost like hes on the decline but either way pretty. Nothing like good backstrap on the ground. Same thing happened to my daughter during the jr. hunt this year in 33. She hit a little forked horned muley at about 175 yards, it fell over and kicked for about 20 seconds then stopped. When it stopped kicking we stopped watching, and started congradulating her on her first buck. we looked up again just in time to watch it make tracks out of the area. Spent 12 + hours over 2 days trying to find it, without any luck. Talk about an emotional roller coaster for a 10 year old. But shes ready for this next year. And a friend of mine finally found her buck, about 3 weeks later still up a getting around pretty well. With a nasty little scar atop his back, right over the shoulder. sounds pretty close to your story.

they are actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. fold it up into the big circle, hold it together and pull both sides in at once. bracing it against your body. When the sides touch in front of you, hold it with one hand and push the top down away from you. The sides will overlap, and the bottom of the circle should end up outside of the top of the circle as the top goes down. It should all fold pretty easy after that. The only problem might be getting the folds to go into each other due to the fabric. Then all you have to do is work it back a forth a few times , and that should do it. Just dont turn loose of it anywhere in the middle of the process as it will get you in the nose or the chin..LOL I have one of the cheapy ameristeps for the little ones to hunt out of when they get tired of tromping the hills. Just takes a little practice.

Not the biggest on the mountain. But will look good on the wall. I only had one or two days to hunt, and my partner had tagged his first coues on opening day without me. I had a daughter getting a cast removed. ( the one she got while I was elk hunting that caused me to miss most of my archery elk hunt. LOL got to love little girls). So anything with antlers was going in the freezer. We made our first glassing spot right at first light. And after glassing for several hours all we had come up with is 2 does, one fawn, and one bobcat. I started my third or fourth pass with the glasses, and caught a deer just topping over the hill onto our side of things. I watched it for a few minutes, and was finally able to see antlers. Game on!! due to the distance I was not able to tell how big it was just that it had something on its head other then its ears. He topped the skyline of the saddle at a little more then a mile and a half from where we were sitting. The plan being to watch him bed and then go in. Within a few minutes the lone buck had company as the rest of the bach herd made it over the crest of the hill. All 3 had antlers. Even better now, more to choose from. While just looking for freezer meat, I will not pass the chance at something a little bigger. I spotted them at about 0830, and they fed down the hill a ways. Finally bedding just after 1000. A quick game plan was made and the stalk was on. The 2 of us made it to within 403 yards of the biggest one in about 45 minutes. We stopped on a little ridge just to set up and try to find a way to get closer. Now all I need is to find a way to get closer, or for him to stand and give me a shot. Now, I'm usually an archer and patience involves being close and waiting. Which for some reason, now seems easier to deal with .This sitting out and waiting is killing me. Maybe if we back out and come over the top. Ruled out, wind is in our faces right now. And will take 3 hours to get over to the back side. Just after 1100 he stands. No shot, only belly visible through the shooting lane I had. Then he finally turns around, again no shot, and he bedded back in the same spot. and so the day goes on from here like this. 1215hrs. He stands again. And once again, no shot. this time he stayed up for about 3 minutes milling around behind the mesquite. Agian no shot was available, and he bedded again in the exact same spot. By now we have measured him anywhere from 75"to 100" as he was bedded, the only thing we were able to see was his head and antlers and he was giving us every angle to look at. Maybe if we move left and down that drainage then back up. Nope, ruled out, will not have a shot even if we do get closer. 1245hrs, One of the little forks stands and almost catches a bullet out of pure frusteration. he moves around and lays down right under the bigger one. With my partner all but phycially holding my finger off the trigger the little one escapes certain freezerdom. We haev to get closer, How about the right side. Again ruled out. will be visible the last 300 yards, no cover at all. After 2 hours of discussion we determined that we were as close as we were going to get, due to wind direction and the placement of the 3 bucks. With this being decided the range was firmed up with 2 different range finders. The tripod was modified into a shooting tripod, and everything was set up for the wait. 1330hrs. Frusteration levels are now maxed out and have been for over an hour. We have watched him do everything but stand up, and give me a shot. hes cleaned himself several times, chewed his cud, cleaned himself, taken a nap. You name everything except get shot. 1445 hrs, He stands again, This time the rifle dosen't even come up. Once again no shot is given. this time hes up for over 5 minutes. Stretching, getting a little nibble of food, relieving his bladder and bowel. Then back down into the exact same spot as before. 1450. Hrs. the smallest of the 3 gets up and moves about 30 yards then beds down again. BY now I'm ready to shoot anything, and my partner has to take my rifle off the tripod to keep this little one in the gene pool. Finally after the little one bedded again I settled down and got something to eat. 1612hrs. He finally stands again. This time if he beds again I will take the head shot ( not really, but was thinking it out of pure frusteration) He takes one step forward and finally, finally exposes his vitals. I settle the crosshairs, and squeeze the trigger. He casually turns around and walks out from behind the tree. he stops and looks back. I settle the crosshairs and again squeeze. My partner tells me he has no idea where I'm hitting but both shots sounded like hits. I send one more down range. By now my mind is a complete blur. I'm sure of my rifle and my shooting, But after the rollercoaster I have just gone through with this buck. I have no sence of anything. I watch as he walks behind a couple of trees. I put the gun down and pick up the binos trying to either find him or one of the other bucks. My partner tells me that the little one up high has left the area. About 5 minutes of this and the one small buck still in the area comes out from behind the tree flagging, and heads for parts unknown as fast as he can. The big one does not come out. We decide that one or both shots were indeed hits and leap frog up the hill. With one of us always watching the bunch of trees he was last seen under. My partner made the final leap, and found him laying there. 2 shots right where I wanted them, and the 3rd, well I wont go there and should not have taken the shot off the tripod, but all 3 were hits and only one got meat. Not a bit of ground shrinkage on this one. Grossed a little over 93" and netted just over 90". again not the biggest in the area, but will do . Took us until 1930hrs to get him back to the truck. This is the 3 bucks bedded, those of you with well trained eyes will pick him out easily. The 2 little ones are the hard part. One is just below and to the left, and the other one is all the way up on the far right. They are barely grey spots. And here are all of them outlined. This is 403 yards to the tree where the big one is, with a 12 power digital camera These are not the best of pics, but am still learning the art ie. grass removal and skylining etc. The second camera has one or 2 better, just havent got them on the computer yet. And daylight was fading fast, being more then a mile from the truck and it being 1700hrs when we got to him. Shane

www.hoalarizona.org That should do it. They have all the info on how to donate.. I dont know about the short notice. But you can give it a shot.