coueshunter84

28-32 archery piggie tags for me and the oldest,, Nadda on the turkey, Folks, There are enough pig tags left to outfit all of us again. AApps are due in the office on or after Nov 21st. List is on the website. Shane

Rimhunter, Thanks for the info. I know there are shoots in or around SV about every month or so. Good thing for someone to put everything in one place. Shane

Well folks, We drew the javy tags first choice. Things are getting way off hand on one front and well into line on another. Kayla has been shooting well, and often, for the last couple of weeks. We spent several days getting all her equipment up and running to perfection. New, correctly spined arrows, crested with flourescent pink and green 4" feathers ( cant miss them they all but glow in the dark). New arm guard. and the whole works. She is now holding broadheads in the kill zone 8/10 shots out to 20 yards. Thats the good part. Now she is asking if I know anywhere she can shoot competitevly. I am going to try calling PSE and see if they have anything of that sort. Does anyone know of any shoots coming up. I was so caught off guard by the new request that I did not ask what type of shooting she wants to do. I dont know if she wants 3-D or something else. I will enquire again tomorrow when I get home. Leave it to a 12 year old to throw you off as often as possible. I could not be prouder, or more baffled, at this point. But going to take it as far as I can. What the hay, might have an olympian in the family,,, Who knows. LOL.. !!!!???? And on top of this the 8 y/o has been out shooting also, and is more then significantly bummed that she is to young to have a tag also. Her groups in the javy target are just as good if not better then her older sisters ( only to 15 yards with her 15lb long bow. ). So her argument is she can hit the target why cant she hunt. LOL... I cant win for losing. LOL.. Best perdickerment I have been in in quite some time. Now if I can just get my 5 y/o son to shoot the target instead of tackeling it.. Shane.

Ultramag, Just give them access to a stick bow....LOL... Then in the back of your mind you will forever be wondering what you got yourself into ... Man I had no idea shooting a stick bow would be so time consuming and a pain in the posterior.. But in the end its worth it. I started all my kids out with dove hunts. You can stay close to the truck, with the ice chest for drinks and other goodies right there. Along with staying warm, or whatever else you want to take with you. They are my official "bird dogs" . I always ask if they want to shoot. I usually take a 22 along also. Make it a family type day, - the wife. Just me and the kids. And aside from the oldest having to shoot a stick bow, its all working well for now. I generally get a question about every week throughout the year, wondering if dove season is coming up. Good luck, Try adn get them out with you as much as they can handle. And find a way to let them participate. The more excited they get the better. My oldest was out chasing deer with me on an archery hunt when she was 8. I dont know other then that. keep plugging away at it. Good luck, Shane

I love the fact my oldest asked to be put in for pig this year. But as per my previous post, I wish she had chosen anything but a stickbow to hunt with. LOL. As much as I will enjoy her being out inthe boonies with me. This recurve thing is kicking my tail. I been quizing everyone I know about stick bows, and a few other things. I cant wait to post a pic of her on here with a piggie and her recurve. I hope she can get an arrow into one. She still wants a deer also, but we will work on the pigs first come Janaury. And again thanks for all who lent a helping hand to getting her motivated. She has been shooting about every day now. She is shooting out to 20 yards and keeping all her arrows in the target. ( granted I had to get some arrows that were spined correctly) But she should be maintaining " kill zone" groups by January. Shane

Chief, Good to see you on here. Give me a holler, I need to bring you a fishing pole back and maybe give you an extra set of eyes on your hunt. Shane

Bill, I would group those you are talking about into the group thats going to far. If a road is historical then it should remain open. And there are alot of other reasons to keep lots of road open. But if you ask them ( the ranchers) they will have lots of reasons to close them. I also agree with you that some of them are using hunters as scape goats for problems caused by others. Being they are human, Well, I will not make excuses for those who do. They are wrong and thats not right. But still, whether it was a goober with a tag and a gun or not, something of theirs was broken or destroyed, or killed. And to them locking a gate or 2 might prevent it from happening again. Just last week I was told of a cow found with an arrow wound in it tword the end of the archery season. In this case the cow survived, But thats a Vet bill the rancher had to eat. This was in the Santa Ritas. I am definately right smack on the razor wire on this one. The only thing I can tell you folks as hunters. If you want to get on the good side of the ranchers. Take the time to stop and talk them. Most of them are hunters also. If you come across and level minded and an honest person it will get you farther then anything. Being most of them are honest and fair, it might not get a gate unlocked, but it will almost always get you info on the land, the critters, the water situation, the feed situation, and everythign else attributed to that ranch. Most of them are at the last resort to lock a gate. They have tried everythign else. Couple of tricks I learned. On the way back out, Stop and ask them if they have somewhere you can toss all the garbage you picked up. Tell them the condition of the waters you visited. What the feed looked like. How the cows you seen looked. And anythign else you can think of. You will probably enjoy the conversation, Get a good cup of coffee or glass of tea out of it. So stop by the ranch house when your out scouting, Let them get to know you. Stop by on the way out and let them know how your hunt went, and hwo everything looked. And if you see something happening get a good description, a plate number, any info you can. I bet the rancher will make the call for you. THings like this will go along way to getting the gates opened again. Shane

Along with Willcox packing, There is a guy in St. David, he works at the Safeway in Benson as meat cutter. Other then that I dont know any more in the imediate area around here, or anyone farther over into that part of the country. Shane

Let me clarify a little more.. I dont agree with charging for entry. And there are ranchers that are taking this to extremes. Whether you can add the Mercers to this list ?? But in knowing them personally, They are good people, Some of the best in the business, when it comes to catching wild cows and breaking horses, or at least Mike is. But you have to look at it from their angle, they are in a business that is getting phased out. Due to politics, drought, and everything else, including modern progression. The American Rancher is becoming a thing of the past. They are on the short end of the stick in ways most of us will never know. Take Smith Ranch at the north end of the Whetstones. Don has kept his land locked off to everyone ( even me) since they bought the place. But its was a nice hidy hole for some big mulies and one or 2 whitetail over the years. Which occasionally wandered off his place, and ended up on a wall somewhere. Thats now 4000 acres of private land/ habitat ( big buck sanctuary) thats going to developers. Granted this is private land, but the state is definately not against selling chunks of land to the developers either. Old Spanish Trail in Tucson.. used to be surrounded by state land. Look at it now. Now think about this. What will happen to our favorite hunting spots when they ( the ranchers) start going out of business ( which is already happening slowly but surely as developers are offering ungodly sums of money for what little private the ranchers do have. ) . Those areas that are partially locked off and or controlled right now. might end up totally inaccessable. What of the waterholes some of you hunt? those will dry up and be gone. I know most of you realise what all the ranching community means to our beloved coues and every other critter. But not everyone realises whats happening to those who are keeping the range what it is today. The place I help out on now has put in no less then 10 miles of waterlines, 10 large water holding tanks. somewhere around 20 troughs and other water sources. He has 8 windmills I think. Spring boxes on 3 or 4 different springs and seeps.. and lots of this water is in whitetial country. Lots of critters rely on water hes made accessible. If a developer comes in a offers him a ton of money for the 400 or so acres of private he has. I don tknow if he would turn it down. HE already having to work to support the ranch. Him selling out would put 29 sections of land without a care taker. his herd capacity is only 250 mother cows. Not much for someone to pick up and take over. See what I'm getting at here. They ( the ranchers) are scrapping harder to keep their lifestyle then we the hunters are. So the more they can keep folks from destroying what little they have left, they will lock the gate every time. And if it gets to the point they have to lock the gate, they will fight to keep it locked. Sorry to get so long winded on this. But its something that irks me alot. The only reason I dont ride a horse for a living is I cant make much of a living doing it. We as hunters kind of need to watch what goes on with this. Might be the road to your favorite hunting spot thats obscured by 200 homes (or more) one day. Think about it, Lots of the roads leading to coues country run through private ground owned by ranchers. Thats what this post is all about. Those folks who are trying to rid our lands of ranchers are just as capable of making a mountain into a mole hill as the anti hunters ( same bunch of screwballs usually) are. The ranchers are CYA the same as we do when they come after us. Shane

I have worked for many ranches in most of the units in Cochise County over the years including Mercers. Yes it does get old repairing damage done by vandals with guns. Bad thing is, some of them had tags with them when they did the damage. ALso being an avid whitetail hunter I spend lots of time up high glassing just like the rest of you. IN some of the areas I hunt it dosent take long to witness some of these folks in action. I have personally witnessed; fences cut (was nice enough to spend 1/2 an hour helping me fix it, after I explained to him that no the road does not go there ( Oct whitetail tag), an entire quiver of arrows stuck into a saguaro about 12 feet up(explained that he was seeing if his bow was sighted in and asked me if I would pull them out for him by standing on my saddle( got 6 months of probation and had to pay for the cactus)), people shooting water tanks and troughs, and folks sighting in their rifles on windmill vanes, and one time the head itself. That was a $5000 fix that put the troughs below it out of service for 3 weeks. By the time we got back down to the bottom the bum had gone. We could hear the shots hitting the mill. Nothing ever came of it. This was reported the same day. We know who he is. and still it was our word against his. Literally, nothing was done and the ranch was out a whole bunch of manpower time plus the cost of the mill head, and having to move the herd to another pasture until it was fixed, which messed up his pasture rotation. I realise this is an personally isolated problem amongst people with tags and guns ( I refuse to call them hunters). I have not met a HUNTER who was capable of anything this despicable. But idiots with guns and tags.. WELL ya know. makes all the rest of us look bad. However,, Even though I understand both sides,, I have to side with the ranchers on this one. Saving $5000 worth of problems just once, is well worth the headaches of us complaining all the time. And besides them locking off roads just makes it better for me the hunter who is not against taking my pack back in to the boonies. Kind of takes the road hunters out of the picture. Lots more bucks for me to chase. Shane

OK after going through all the formalities of being nice about getting her to shoot. I took her bow out today, and after about 300 arrows could not hold a decent group with 5 arrows anywhere past 20 yards. Which is alot farther then I would shoot a recurve right now. Anyway she was watching and told me she was able to do better. At 20 yards she hit the javy target once with a dozen arrows. So I flat told her She was to shoot at least a dozen arrows each day between now and January. She will still be able to go with me when I hunt , but if she misses more then 3 days between now and then she will not be able to carry her bow while I chase piggies. If she wants to carry her bow and hunt she will make the grade. So she went out and shot, had fun doing it, and out shot her cousin by a large margin, and seemed to out shoot me a couple of times ( I hate it when that happens ) . Hopefully this will keep her going. I tried everything else I could think of and most of everything you folks helped me with, to no avail. I hope this dosent backfire on me. And the wife promised to shoot with her as much as she can. so with any luck that will help also. For now my only problem is trying to explain to my boy (4) (who says his groups ( 5 yards) are good enough to hunt) why he isnt old enough yet. Bad thing is he is already at the mark I set for my oldest. He can keep 4 of 5 arrows in the kill zone of the javy target every time he shoots. I told my oldest that she needs to be able to do this at 15-20 yards. Well at least for now I dont have to keep him motivated. Thanks for all the help.. Shane

Any of you parents out there.. I have a 12 year old, who wants to hunt with her 42# recurve. She is already applied for archery pig, and thinks it would be neat to take a deer also.. The first problem I have with this is her shooting. She can just barely keep 5 arrows in my javy target at 8 yards with maybe one in the kill zone. I realise there is plenty of time before January, but I cant get her to practice. My biggest problem is trying to get her to understand that she wont be hunting unless she can get her groups into the kill zone. I dont want to push her so hard that she quits, But I also wont let her out to hunt unless she is profecient with her equipment. She refuses to shoot firearms, and does not like compounds. Period, we have had that discussion several times. She will sometimes shoot as many as 2 dozen arrows a week never any more then that. The bow fits her well and she draws it well. never complains about any pains. But she will actually use homework as an excuse to not shoot. Anyone have any helpful advice??/ I would surely appreciate it. Shane

Well, Was going to take her and the 8y/o out this afternoon chasing grass and bushes. Alas, She is doing well with the soft ball tryouts, and wont be home until dinner time. LOL... But if she makes the soft ball team she will be the first 5th grader to make the team in quite some time. Got to love being a parent. very proud of her,, But she still hasent shot this week. Shane

One more question, Does anyone know when the Women in the Outdoors is having another clinic, and do they take youngsters? That might get her going. Shane

Again thanks for the input. I dont think there is anyone else her age that she is willing to "hang out with" that hunts. Trying to find a hunters Safety course close right now. She is really conscerned about the course though. She refuses to shoot a fire arm. I dont know how the instructors are going to take that one. I dont know if the shooting portion is mandatory or not. As for archery shops , we dont have one here in Benson anymore. We made one of the 3d shoots over in Tucson a while back. She wasent to thrilled with it. However I think thats also good idea. Would give her a chance to see for herself that she needs more practice. We have the Javy target here at the house, along with the regular targets. She usually only shoots the javy target. I have been trying to get her to shoot the other target, so she has a smaller target to focus on. Still leaving it up to her. Going to try and take her out Friday afternoon stump shooting, and see how that goes. At this point she hasent shot all week. The last arrow she flung was Sat. And now she has tryouts for Soft ball this week. HMMMMM. oh tthe fun of parenting. LOL Thanks again folks for the advise. Shane

Thanks for the input, so far. I do occasionally shoot with her, if I'm at home. She is allowed to shoot when ever she likes as long as either I or the wife are at home and can contain the other little ones. I shoot just about every day I'm not working, and she is invited every time. Every one in the family has their own bow and its not often anyone shoots alone. All of the kids have had one from about the age of 3-4, and the wife shoots a bowtek stalker lite. As for the bow. Her form is pretty close to what I would conscider perfect for traditional. Most of the weight on the forward foot. She dosent hit her arm with the string. Has a solid anchor point. She draws it easy enough. I havent seen her strain at all. Seems like abig bow for a 12 year old but she is already mature, and probably as big as she will ever get. 5'6" about 150# or so. ( leads her vollyball team in aces, and she is the cleanup hitter for her softball team) And carries a 40 lb book bag around at school all day. I hadnt thought about stump shooting. I think that might be a great idea. I will be trying it sometime this week with her. She has been out hunting with me several times on mostly archery hunts. I take it kind of easy on her. NO 4 hour stalks or anything like that. She does well for her age and size. LAst year she took her bow along to plink at rabbits and whatnot. She got one shot and missed. I whacked several, then had one I hit a little back with the Judo, ended up not being able to find it ( after a 3 hour search, lost it in a hole). Lost both the rabbit and the arrow. ( who would have thunk a rabbit woud run off dragging an arrow with it). That was the end of the hunt for her. SO will have to keep it to clumps of grass and other things, But sounds like a grand idea. As for taking her out so she can miss a few times. I dont know about that one. I'm leary of turning her loose to shoot at big game animals until she profecient. I dont want her to wound one and have to live with that. After me losing a rabbit, and what happened after that one. Also I respect the critters to much for that. I have no doubt I can put her on pigs. My last 5 filled tags were all shot from within the herd. The longest shot was 15 yards, and that was passing on a bunch of smaller ones at my feet. But maybe thats what she needs. When we go out stump shooting I will let her know that its her decision as to whether she shoots at critters or not. See what that does. I dont have a problem finishing a rabbit if needed. Another strange thing is after the rabbit incident I did not think she would ever try again, and I did nto push her at all. This year she asked to be put in for javalina, declined turkey, then said she would like to try for a deer also. So the motivation is there, I think I just have to channel it. Again thanks for the input, and keep it coming. I'm a little anxoius to have a full time hunting partner. Thanks again Shane

Hoyt turbo tech 75# 28.5 draw Easton Axis 422 grain Appx 310+fps Hoyt Hypertech 68# 28.5 draw Carbon Impact 396 grain 298 fps Martin Cougar (LH) 75# 29.5 draw Carbon impact 396 grain 296 fps Mostly use Sonoran 100 grain 2 blade for anything bigger then deer and the 3 blade for piggies and varmits and such

Firefighter/Paramedic, Southeastern part of the state. Stated that way as I work about everywhere.

Greyghost, Anything on the north end of the that unit is a good place. but if your after something nice plan on getting off the beaten path and back in the bush a ways. Good luck. Shane

Anyone know how to cook bonus points? I drew one for elk and antelope this year. and the wife drew one for elk also. That gives me 3 now in the freezer for elk and 2 for goats. Now I just have to figur out how to cook the durn things. I figure if I keep up this luck streak in about 4 or five more years I might actually have enough to make a broth out of or something. And one with any good recipies. please help.. also anyone knowing a good taxidermist for bonus points, I could use that name also. Thanks Shane

Are you talking about the old state DOT camp up there. Just wondering? I spent my first several years up there. NOrth about 30 miles from Globe on the west side of the road? Man what a flashback.

Amanda, I'm still debating on whether or not I could sell what I have. But I will give him a call one of these days. Just to see what he thinks they might be worth. Thanks Shane

Josh, What are you looking for in sheds that you purchase? I have seen the pics posted here but hogs like those arent an every day occurance. Most of the stuff I have found over the years will run in the 60-100" range That being for both sides. And I dont think I have to many matched sheds. And how about lion kill skulls. I have a couple of those also. I'm just curious about how much sheds and the lion kill skulls would be worth? Ranging from fresh to couple of years on the ground kind of thing. Shane

I have been using the Sonoran heads for the past couple of years, and havent had any problems with them yet. They have taken 2 pigs, a bull elk and a mulie. I use the 3 blade 100grain for the pigs and the deer and the 2 blade on the elk. I like the penetration before the blades kick open. The mulie made it the farthest at 120 yards. everything else has dropped within 70 yards. All double lung hits. Sure makes the tracking job easier when you can watch them go down. I have yet to tag a coues with a bow. Hopefully January I can get one of the little buggers within bow range.!!.

Idahocoues, that sounds about right for hwat I have seen. I have only found them in one spot in one unit down here. And only one herd of them. I wonder if they are maybe closer related to the Carmen Mountain than the coues. I know they have to be different just by the body size. And the fact that I have seen this herd several times. All of them are the same size. What make me really think they are a different sub species, is this herd is right in the middle of a bunch of coues and they seem to stay apart. I have never seen a coues with the fantails or vice versa. Although I had a coues buck bust right through the middle of these little guys one time. and the size difference was obvious. He went one way and they went the other. He did not bust them up they stayed together as a herd. The red ones I have seen in several different places and running with coues. I dont know if they are a different sub species or just a wierd gene. But the body size of the red ones seems to be more than a little bigger than what I call a coues?? Makes you wonder if they have found all the subspecies. Shane