Coach

Nice Brian, Looks like it's going to be another "Done-in-One" year for you. Awesome spot you've got there.

That's pretty amazing. I wonder how they were able to hit the moving pistol bullets with a bb. Maybe a shotgun fired upward simultaneously??? Cool vid anyway.

TJ, Peg is trying to talk to you. This is a tough one for me - my own father just turned 69, he worked hard his entire life and now has one passion and one passion only - fly fishing. He's phenomenal at it. In the middle is my mom, just a year or two behind him. His job required relocation - but for her that meant leaving friends and eventually feeling very isolated. Sometimes, wives feel that their entire life is all about supporting the men in their lives, and they do it selflessly, making many quiet sacrifices along the way. When they finally do say something, you bet your sweet backside, it's important, and you would be wise to take pause and really listen. I'm only about 1/2 way into years of marriage as you have, and I surely don't presume to give advice that wasn't asked for on that matter, but since you did ask, and since I do care about you, I'll say this. There is something that has been on her mind for a while and she ignored it as long as she could. Now she's doing the only thing she can by getting it out into the open. Whatever it is, hear her opinion, encourage her to elaborate even though it might be painful. She needs you to understand something she can't easily communicate to you. That means you have to work all the locks and keys and firewalls to get at what is at the root of whatever it is she is feeling. Women are amazingly complex and wonderful, but unlike a guy you can punch enough times in the chest to get them to unload what they are feeling, require a lot more nuance, setting up a comfortable zone with boundaries, even if you have known them for many years. Women have an incredible fortitude that allows them to press difficult issues below the surface and keep them there almost indefinately, unlike men who can't carry an ounce more baggage than will fit in our pockets. But when the pipe bursts, you've got a big job on your hands to contain the emotion that has been welling up, supressed and gaining momentum for a long time. When that pipe busts, it's a hard fix. The good news is, you don't have to wait for a Chryronble melt down. What you do have to do is actually listen, be aware, understand where that special person is emotionally, and do everything you can to be her rock before a melt-down occurs.

Awesome! Great desert muley. Thanks for sharing - those guys are tricky!

Huge thanks to Chef for some new ideas. This one came out really good. Carrie and the boys all thought it was one of the best ones we've done so far. Here's the roast I started with. Seems like a pretty good cut, but does have the thick vein of fat running through the middle. Good marbling though on a close look. Seared all sides in a skillet. Had to use EVOO because I couldn't find Pomace olive oil. Minced up two heads of garlic by hand - in another bowl mixed Cayenne Pepper, Montreal seasoning, Kosher salt and a little dry mustard. Added EVOO to the dry rub and then the minced garlic. Stirred it all up into a paste and patted it on. Once on the meat I sprinkled on some Cavenders, a little garlic powder and just a little more Cayenne. I like a pretty "loud" crust. Took right at 3 hours at 325 to get the inside to 120 degrees. Let it stand for 15 minutes while the veggies were steaming and the au-jus was mixing with the leftovers from the baking pan and sliced in... Overall, the family loved it. The crust was fantastic (thanks again to Chef for the idea of making a paste with olive oil, minced garlic and the dry ingredients). I might have pulled it maybe 5 to 10 minutes earlier - very tricky timing on a 3 hour cook time, and for the au jus, I think next time I'll just use pure beef stock with kosher salt and white pepper. The drippings (considering how much OVOO was in the paste) were a little more oily than I prefer. But I'm nitpicking. The roast came out delicious, the family all enjoyed a Christmas Eve treat. Would have liked to have a pretty picture of a slice on a plate with some steamed veggies, but got too busy eating to take pix - LOL. Once again, a big shout-out to Chef. While I'm not totally new to prime rib, having someone like you to give some truly expert insight is really comforting when trying to tackle a meal that you want to be special for your family. Your insights really helped out. Merry Christmas to all CWT members, and thanks to Amanda for creating this awesome site where we can get together, share ideas, and meet new friends.

Man you guys are getting me all pumped up. I've taken serveral coues now, but so far only one muley, and he was a velvet buck in the high country. A nice, hard-horned desert mule deer is one trophy that has always eluded me. I've only been able to go after a few decent ones, and with does, they have got to be one of the hardest things to sneak up on. Even when I think I'm being really quiet and working the wind, it seems I'm busted every time way before I'm within even marginal shooting distance. You know how you plan out a stalk and pick certain points you have to get to and check the deer to see if they're still relaxed. Well normally out of 5 or 6 "get to" points I can only get about 1/2 way before I look up to check on them and see every single doe on their feet and staring right at me. LOL. It's a challenge for sure, and I'm in awe of the guys who pull it off successfully. Finally got my 4x4 fixed, apparently I'm pretty rough on vehicles. So once all the Christmas formalities are over I'll be going back at it. Sounds like the action in the desert is heating up too.

One more vote for the accubonds.

Will do - I'm actually cooking it up tomorrow since my mom making nice Christmas Ham and my aunt is in town. So we'll be doing our in-house Christmas dinner one day early. (Yeah) Who doesn't like Christmas to come early?

Wow - that buck is just awesome. How many times have you dreamed just seeing an incredible buck with a huge frame, close to touching beams with double drop tines? Now I've seen one - lol. Huge congrats to Luis - just flat out amazing.

Nice - huge congrats to Lilli on her first coues!

Wow - thanks Chef. That was a very complete and informative series of posts! I've been using the wrong oil for sure (EVOO) gonna fix that this time. Also, I don't know if let the last two stand long enough and maybe that's why didn't come out as good - or quite possibly I just had a much better cut of meat the first time. Looking forward to it! I also never thought about calibrating my themometer - it's a "dial" type so I'm not even sure how to adjust it. I'll have to look into that. Last question - for the best au jus, do you pour the drippings and pieces of the crust from the roasting pan into beef stock? I dont' necessarily want greasy bubbles in the au-jus but want as much flavor from the meat as I can get. Ok - I lied - one more. You mention using minced garlic instead of garlic powder. I usually coat entire outside in in EVOO (now pomace OO) to help the outer seasonings stick to it better. Any issues with getting minced garlic to stick to the meat and stay there along with all the dry seasonings? Thanks again!

Thanks TJ, Shoot me a PM with your email address and I'll flood you with pix of these critters with javis, turkes and elk.

Sounds like it was pretty domesticated from the get go. It was obviously more comfortable playing house pet than pretending to be a true "wolf" in the sense that the people re-inroducing the "wild" wolf would like us to imagine. About 10 years ago, I was lucky enough to move from the city back to the White Mountains. Immediately our family came to adopt (by our own reckoning) a couple of coyotes, we named Farmer and Fuzzy. Don't blame me for the naming, that was strictly the kids' choice. Eventually, a longer-legged dog showed up, turned out to be a young, male adolescent wolf. At first, I discounted the sightings, but it was later confirmed he was part of a pack released around Sunrise Lake and rather than seek out other wolves, he headed to town looking for an easy meal. While I didn't feel threatened by this one, young wolf showing up in my back yard, I did realize that the wolf re-introduction program could not succeed. This effort to bring back wild wolves to the White Mountains was like trying to transplant bear or javelina. Once they get the smell of human occupants, they will be drawn to it.

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.