Coach

Given that it's close to Christmas and we all dream of that "red rider" BB gun under our pillow. Imagine a hunt on Tiburon Island for rams that dreams are made of, and a voyage across the sea catching yellow fin tuna, el dorado and sailfish. And when the boat docks back onto the sand, with the sun turning into a red orb over a black sea, a warm welcome with a fiesta of colors and dancing and fire, shared amoung friends - all the bounties of the sea and land, lobster, crab, halibut, fresh picolte, a pig roasted over a spit... As a hunter, I have a dream of what heaven might be, and that would be my heaven.

TJ, I don't want to "jack" your thread, but since we are on the topic of cooking up a perfect standing rib roast, and since we have so many people who have done it well, and probably as many who have messed one up, I would love to hear from the fellow CWT members about how to do a perfect rib roast. I've got a nice hunk just waiting to be cooked up, but I don't want to blow it. Here's how I've done it in the past. I sear both ends in a hot skillet with olive oil, to keep the juices inside - just brown on both ends. Then I smear the outside in olive oil and pack on a dry rub of galic, kosher salt and some black pepper. Then i put it in the oven at 350 and watch the internal temp to make sure it doesn't go over 120. I pull it out at 120'ish, put some foil over it and let it stand. Usually this will give a good outer cook with a tasty crust and the inside still hot but not "cooked". Just curious how other prepare a standing rib roast. I've heard others cook it really hot then turn off the heat, and basically let it cool itself. Seems like with this cut you just want enough heat to sear it ouside and let it cool outwardly. So then comes the question of Au Ju, do you heat up beefstock separately or do you use the drippings from the standing roast, or do you combine them?

Here's Josh. He's always just hanging with his big brothers when they get something... He's got his little stuffed tiger - lol. Right there behind his brothers. It's his turn this year.

I've been hunting Arizona for a long time. The debate over tag allocation (read quantity) vs. "quality" has become the new cornerstone of wildlife management in Arizona. To back up just a few years, many units in this state used to provide huge numbers of game animals - from bear to deer, javelina and turkey. In those days there weren't nearly as many hunters as there are now. In the 1980's for example there were more coues deer tags in AZ than hunters. Based on memory of the hunting back then, units like 23, 24A, and 27 always had leftover tags for everything from javi's to mule deer, and coues deer tags were considered "give-away" in that anyone could buy them OTC, leftover and kill one, maybe two and not count against the legal deer bag limit of one muley per year. Correct me if I'm wrong - but in the late 80s, didn't taking a whitetail not preclude you from the annual bag limit. Long time ago, and I could be wrong, but that's the way I remember it. Maybe I'm assigning more nostalgia to that time period than it merits, but I still have pictures of some old-school AZ hunters posing behind a 107" buck and a 117" buck taken 100 yards apart and with 10 minutes of eachother right in the heart of modern coues hunting, before anybody was even into it.

Thanks TJ. It should be a great time. The youth hunt in there is awesome because it covers more than one unit. If you can't find 'em in one spot, just head over to another. Matt's been shooting his bow as much as he can given the crazy snowfall we've had here. The way he was shooting at the Sunrise 3D shoot and just a couple weeks ago before all this snow, it looks like the only pressure is on me to get him in range - and he can handle it from there. The big "what if" for me this year is our youngest son. He'll be turning 10 on Jan 28th, has his hunter's ed field day scheduled on his birthday in Superior, and will be trying to get his first pig and turkey this Spring like his big brothers did on the springs of their 10th birthdays. I have a lot of work in front of me to try to give him the same opportunities his big brothers had. LOL I've got my work cut out in front of me for sure. But knowing Joshie, he'll be a real trooper either way.

I think TAM is right on. I prefer a .300 WSM but when shooting at coues-sized game I steer away from some of the premium "bonded" bullets and prefer the CT silver tip because of it's rapid expansion. The last buck I shot with a rifle was a .300 WSM with CT the silver tip. The shot was hard quartering away and went in behind the ribs on one side and out the opposite shoulder. The deer went only 20 yards, but there was little blood and no excessive meat damage. Many years back, my buddy shot a small bodied coues with a Nosler Partition in .270. There was a tiny entry wound, a tiny exit wound and no blood. Luckily he fell where we could easily find him. This bullet entered around the flank and exited the opposite shoulder through the vitals. This deer went only 20 yards from the hit, but there was only one tiny drop of blood below his nostril where he died. If we had to track that buck into the thick stuff he was heading to, we would have had a very hard time finding him. If I'm hunting elk, I'll be shooting a bonded bullet like the Nosler AccuBond or Barnes - both are great for elk. My boys killed two cow two seasons ago, one was a 300 WSM with Barnes TSX, the other was .270 WSM with Nosler Accubond, and both dropped in their tracks. But, if they were hunting coues deer, I don't think I would have used the same bullets. Probably the CT silvertips because of the rapid expansion. It's always a fine line between expansion and penetration, expecially when higher velocity rounds are concerned. The ultimate goal of a bullet, from what I can discern, is to translate as much energy into the core of the animal as possible. The 2 most common failures are: 1 - The bullet explodes on impact tearing away a chunk of hide and flesh but fails to penetrate the vitals. 2 - The bullet fails to expand and pokes a small hole all the way through, but doesn't kill quickly and doesn't cause enough trauma to produce either immediate shock or massive blood loss but causes extensive internal blleding leading to death. Of these two cases, 1 will sometimes result in a lost animal, and a 50/50 chance of eventually surviving. 2 will almost certainly result in an untrackable animal that will eventually die. If I had to sum-up bullet selection, on elk and larger sized game I would ALWAYS use a strong bullet - either a good bonded or solid copper. On Coues or pigs, I would select a very "expansive" bullet, like the Silver tip. Upon re-reading this, I hope I don't come across as a "know it all" because I certainly don't. If there is a take-away, just pick the bullet that best fits the game you are after. Bigger, thicker-skinned, heavier boned animals need a bullet that can handle their body. Smaller, lighter-game needs a bullet with faster expansion.

Great write-up and pictures. Glad you could make it home for another hunt, and hunting with your dad as he gets older is priceless, regarless of whether you get a deer or not. I lived in Tucson while going to college and also eventually ended up in Houston. Funny how you can drive through all that hill country heading back to AZ hoping you don't run into deer (literally) because they are all over the highway like opossum and armadillo, then get here and hope you can find them. It only took a year in Houston to realize it wasn't a good fit for me. Lots of hunting and fishing, but it was all private and kind of "pay-per-day" to fish, or join a club to hunt. I missed the thousands of square miles of public land we have out here, where you can just jump on a 4x4 road and drive all day without worrying private property issues - at least in most units. Anyway, enjoyed the pics and story. My dad is 68 now and we don't get out much together these days - not as much as I'd like. He's still very active for his age, but he's way more into fly fishing these days and doesn't even put in for AZ hunts these days.

Awesome job Steffan and Skyler. My oldest boy, Matt is going to try to take his first with a bow this year. He's gotten a few now with a rifle. He's shooting the same bow as you guys. Did you guys draw again this year?

Nice, looks like Shane whacked his first pig with a Marlin 30/30. Same gun I killed my first pig with - got it as a Christmas present when I was probably 12 or 13. Almost a year ago, my oldest son shot his 3rd or so pig with that gun. I bet you could practically start a thread about who killed their first pig with a Marlin 30/30 lever gun - lol. Thanks for the pix and info. I like calling them too, but it's about 40/60 for me where 40% they come back and 60 they head out of dodge like they are on fire. But that's usually if you call to them before they are broken up. Once broken up, I don't think you even have to call - the boar and older matriarchs will tend to come back and check on things once the herd is broken up if you sit tight.

Am I the only one who had to google azimuth?

I don't think that technology exists. I've always thought it should be possible using a combination of optics, range-finder & GPS. The GPS knows where you are, and what direction you are looking - figure in the distance to the ranged point and you should be able to calculate the coordinates of that spot pretty closely. Seems like it would be an invluable military tool as well.

Wow - that thing is amazing! Huge congrats to the hunter and everyone involved.

Congrats, Mark! And Thank You for your service.

Man that looks great! Awesome job, TJ. I'll be doing the 4th installment of my Christmas Prime Rib this year. So far, the first one came out the best - beginner's luck I guess. Yours sure looks like it came out really good!

Lots of great info here guys. It's good to get different perpectives, and from what it sounds like more people find that pigs will come back the same areas even after getting pressured. That's really good information, and becuase of that I'll be going back to some of my old spots this year that have previously dried up. Maybe they'll be back! Good hunting, Jason

Thanks - I'll do the same.

Patience is the key. The best glassers I know are the most patient ones. The faster I move my glass, the less animals I see. It's simple to say but hard to do. Pick a grid and don't move your glass from one field of view to the next until you have at least counted to 10 slowly. Pretend you are watching your buddy walk from bush to bush in your field of view and only once he has determined there is nothing there, move slightly, a couple of degrees up or down, left to right and repeat. I said this on another post, but it's something I have to continually remind myself of. Once you pick out a doe, watch her and keep track mentally how often she is openly visible compared to partially visible to totally invisible. That's a good mental check when you are glassing to keep you honest. Most coues deer will be partially or completely invisible most of the time, even if you know right where they are. It's a good excercise to recognize how many deer you pass over because you are glassing too fast and looking for a deer instead of an ear.

LOL, I forgot to mention, one of the huge misconceptions about Javelina is that they aren't good to eat. Smell, like beauty is usually only skin deep. I've heard about how horrible javelina are to eat as much as I've heard older bull elk in the rut taste like boot leather on a good day, or even worse, jackrabbit over a spit (yes I've done that and it's horrible). The vast majority of javelina that taste horrible do so for the same reason a lot of rutting bulls taste so nasty. When handling the meat, people touch the hair, then the meat. Rutting bulls are covered in their own urine plus mud plus the musky smell numerous glands in the epidermis produce. Pigs are the same way - if they are threatened, the exude a musky, skunk-like oily "stink". But it's a myth that this actually enters the muscles and makes the meat taste the way they smell. If not gut-shot, and handled carefully, the meat of a javelina (or an old bull elk) is usually very good. That said, I do avoid the neck meat of an older bull, and have had occasions with javelina where the meat smells as bad as the dead pig itself. But, for the most part, if proper care is taken, javelina meat can be as good as, if not better than, the tastiest deer you've eaten.

For the second time in one week, I've got my foot in my mouth. Yum.

Hmmm. I've got feral cats running around all over the place...I'm thinking baiting for coyotes is legal...

Wow - that's an awesome buck!

Looks like a tough hunt. You fought the elements and worked hard for a well earned trophy. Great job.

Welcome on board! You've found a really good community here.

Gearsnagger, you are a riot. This forum needs a little levity, IMO. BTW, nice avatar. Lord Humongous Rules the Wastelands...

Nice job, this time of year it's all about filling that tag and putting some great meat in the freezer. I got some cell pix today from a bud who killed a nice, fat 2x2. Holy smokes, I've never seen a more "graphic" blood trail - (snowy area). I'd like to post them up, but gotta get permission first. My take is, the last couple of weeks with an archery tag in you hand, any buck is a trophy. And it takes a LOT more hard work and determination to take any coues with a bow than some recognize. Hat's off to you. Nicely done, indeed.