mroctober5

Thats a nice Muley! Great job! My mom lives in Alpine north of unit 27. She's seen a few Mule deer lately, but no elk this month. I love the eastern part of our state. Not alot of Coues, but plenty of turkey, elk, mule deer, etc. A beautiful place to hunt, and fish.

I might have some input on this, but it might involve bagging 2 deer in 1 year, which is illegal so just forget I said it!

I hear ya & see your point w/ a newbie. If you'd of talked to me about 6-7 years ago, you'd not even think you were speaking to the same person now, in regard to bowhunting. I wouldn't even use a sight w/ more than 3 pins, because after all, if you're shooting more than 40 yards, you might as well be rifle hunting. Use a laser rangefinder or electronic scouting camera?! Are we hunting or waging international espionage against those animals! I had a lot of ethics & high standards, but what I didn't have were any kills with my bow. At some point I got smart & realized that we all work, have families, etc. Our time is limited & it's worth while to buy some gadgets & try some new tricks to get the most out of that limited time in the field. Needless to say, I put a lot more arrows in animals the last few years than I ever did back then. Anyhow, I would never suggest for anyone to take a shot outside of their confidence zone, but I would encourage everyone to try to extend that zone. Killing deer in Az w/ a bow & arrow is tough, especially in the desert. We've got the lowest success rate for do-it-yourselfers in the country. You guys work hard at your scouting, work smart at the practice range & make the most out of every opportunity you get, because most people don't get that many in a season. Good luck! Thanks for sharing that info! Bowhunting is a very precise, technical skill, and can be absorbed at alot faster rate when someone with some experience helps us. The variables you spoke of in your earlier post take a long time to apply, especially when you have to learn them on your own. I have taken 4 deer with my bow, but I still consider myself "new" compared to the people I've learned from.

Making blanket statements on the internet based on your opinions rather than facts is dumb. I shoot 68lbs. & get great penentration out to 80 yards. Probably wouldn't shoot that far at a big animal like an elk that has thick hide & heavy bones, but on small deer, like coues, there's no reason not to except for the obvious reason: you simply can't hit the mark. The topic of long archery shots is probably one of the more highly debated on the internet. Bottom line, in my opinion, is if you can hit the target at 100 yards, then your arrow will do the job once it gets there. Ethical/ unethical, smart/dumb, all depends on the situation (wind, animals' level of alertness, visibility, etc.), skill level of the shooter & the confidence level the shooter has at that moment. If you're sure you can make the shot, then I say take it & live with the results, good or bad. If you think you'll probably miss, but take it anyway just so you can say you had a shot, that's probably a poor decision. Yeah, I'm sorry, I did'nt mean to blanket my opinion to all the marksman out there, I directed my semi conservative opinion to someone who had already stated that he was "new to bowhuntig" [not you!]

Unless your pulling back 75 lbs or more it's dumb to take a shot over 60 yards. PRACTICE, and use your range finder AFTER a mental guesstimate in order to get more accurate at determining yardage, because you don't always have the time to range your deer.

Hempland nice picture, but this is CouesWhitetail.com not Muledeer.com

Awesome picture! A woman that works the bar in Arivaca told me that a deer hunter in 2008 showed her a picture he had taken with his cellphone of a solid black jaguar while deer hunting then.

There's alot of very good hunting areas in 36b. I'm familiar with areas west of Pena Blanca lake like Sycamore canyon northeast of the Ruby road, Warsaw canyon south of Ruby, and the Blue wing mine area. Last October I seen a few really nice bucks taken out of drainages that flow west into Bellatos canyon. It has become a litter zone throughout most of 36b, and between the border patrol, and the walkers the deer are very very jumpy. Even the does are nervous as they run away now without even a snort, or a flat footed glance. I can agree with "oneshot" post too. It's such a shame that some of the most beautiful, remote, pristine country in our state is now a landfill for the disrespectful illegal immigrants! Good luck!

I was hunting in 36b last October, first time since january 2005. I was shocked to see all the trash, and only one buck. The further back, and more remote i hiked from the roads, the more trash I seen. Alot of game trails have become pronounced human trails. It's a shame. There's still alot of deer in this unit, but they've become even more skiddish, and scarce now alot more than when I first hunted down there in 2000. There's also some good camping areas around Sycamore canyon north of the Ruby road where the small bridge is. The warsaw canyon area, and the summit motorway area are too close to the border to camp I think.