Coach

My buddy, Montanna Casey, is gonna get a good belly laugh at this. He loves Javelina and their weird social behavior. Thanks for posting this - one of the coolest threads on here in a while.

Can you tell us what unit this is?

One heck of a buck for sure! Great job to the hunter - any story to go along with it?

That's pretty darn cool. Great job!

Wow - I would love to hear the story on that buck - what a stud.

Glad you posted them - someone has to know these guys. I can't quite make out the license plate though - I'm sure you could look them up by that if you can make it out.

It's worth mentioning that the term, "Go ahead and run, you'll just die tired" was coined by military snipers shooting Springfield .308 sniper rifles (M1A to be exact). Nothing spread fear among the battle fields more than a well-trained American sniper that could kill at 1000 yards - with one shot.

I got this email a while back, and I was in the "red hammer" group. I don't really think it has anything to do with the preceding questions, more of a Rorschart test associating the most common color with the most common tool. Red is the color of passion and if you asked 100 people on the street to name a color without pause, most would say red. If asked to name a tool, most people will say hammer because it is the most accessible, simple tool, and widely recognized as a symbol of humans' first use of tools. Long before there were screws to twist, there were things to be beaten into the ground with a rock affixed to a handle. Love the post by the way.

Man you guys have me drooling for a Mexico hunt. Two things I have to do before I kick the bucket are hunting Coues or muleys in Mexico and bass fishing in Mexico. The way things are, I just can't get the wifey on board. She thinks I'll end up one of those hostages, or just disappear down there, lol. I actually have the opportunity to go there this year for an unreal price on a great ranch, but I just don't think I can make it happen. Boo hoo, and for all you guys lucky enough to hunt down there, my hat is off to you.

I've got an older Nikon that has been really good. I probably bought this thing at least 12 years ago, way before the ARC and other angle compensating technologies were available. It ranges reliably out to 800 yards, but what really blows me away is the battery life. Every few years I've replaced the batteries even though the indicator shows they are still full strength despite years of heavy use. This year I'll probably make the old Nikon one of my sons' first rangefinders and upgrade to a newer model. I would love to get a Leica, but I also like the Leupold models from what I've seen.

My first bow was an older PSE "garage sale" bow. It wasn't all that great, but I hear their newer bows are really good - never shot one. My first "good" bow was a Mathews Conquest Light - great bow for the time. Then I went to a Bowtech Allegiance - great bow. Last year I sold the Bowtech and bought a Hoyt CRX 35. Wow - I love this bow. The good news is, it's almost hard to find a bad bow these days. Mathews, Hoyt, PSE, Bowtech all make exceptional bows. Every time this topic comes up, it seems you hear the same mantra, shoot them all and decide which feels best for you. Still solid advice. Everything I've heard about the Mathews Heli-m is very positive. Seems they have finally come out with a bow that people like as much as the older Switchback. Personally, I love my Hoyt and wouldn't trade it for anything else on the market. But I know lots of guys who feel the same way about their Bowtech Destroyers.

Wow - that buck is awesome! Big, some great character and beautiful. Nicely done!

Nothing wrong with any of those - but you might get a little more versatility with a 7MM Mag, .270 WSM or .300 WSM. Same bullet selection but a little more umph.

Yep, generally a small range until they get pushed hard enough to want to leave, which obviously differs from deer to deer. As long as they feel relatively safe in a spot they seem to stay there. Many years back I was hunting with a buddy and we bumped a nice buck off a bed. We quietly backed out and came back the next morning. He was bedded within 100 yards of where we had bumped him the previous day. This time he ran the wrong direction, and it was lights out. Can't wait to hear how your hunt goes. 140 is huge, so be sure and take a camera. Hopefully you'll get a shot, but maybe you can get some good live pix too.

Thanks guys, and good luck on your hunt AZP&Y. Sounds like there will be quite a few of us out there opening day.

That's for sure, Gearsnagger. I was fortunate enough to hunt 24A several years in the "gravy" days when there were only 350-450 tags per year total, and they were all in late December. It doesn't even seem like the same unit these days. Anyone could have told G&F that slicing the rut tags to 50 or less and adding 700+ tags in November would wreck the unit. As you mentioned, instead of seeing the destruction and responding to it by decreasing tags, they've increased to over 1000 per year, which is pure madness. Somehow 24A became the new 27 in terms of intentionally (or neglegently)decimating the herds. I remember back in high school there were something like 1700 mule deer tags in 27. There were always leftovers. My first ever hunt in AZ was over by Maple Peak. I didn't even have binoculars and saw dozens of mule deer every day including some really nice ones. These days, you're lucky to see a handful of deer in there on a good day. All I want for Christmas is for G&F to stop over-allocating tags! Oh yeah, and maybe my hair back.

Wow! What a great lion - that thing is HUGE! Great job. Lots of deer thank you too!

I feel your pain. I'm in the same boat. I got a really nice caller a couple years back and have had very little luck calling anything in. Finally got a young yote to come in last year and blew the shot. I think the older dogs are pretty shy if they are in areas that get much pressure at all. Gonna take mine out tomorrow or the next day and try again.

LOL - when I first saw this, I though "please tell me he's not gonna waste a whole bottle of tequila in a cake!!!!" Looks like a good recipe for sure.

That's awesome! Great job leaving the snake too - they are way to cool to kill just for the heck of it IMO.

Wow - what a great looking ram! Awesome job.

I guess I'm going to be in the minority here - I really like it. Yes, I've come across a couple that were really strong, but for the most part if they are well cared for in the field they can be very tasty (even mild). Keep the meat clean and be careful not to touch the hair and then touch the meat. That's usually how people transfer the rank musky taste to the meat. Good luck.

After decades of hunting these little deer, I have learned one important thing. They will be where they want to be, often not where you expect them to be.

Kind of funny isn't it? I spent countless days fishing the creeks that flow into Tenkiller Lake in Oklahoma with my gums filled with spit shot sinkers. My dad's high school teacher would break open thermometers and pass the mercury around the classroom. Today, we'd have a Hazmat team making sure no one comes in contact with a broken light bulb. Funny how times change, I guess.

Barnes, Nosler and others have done an excellent job of creating quality lead-free bullets that perform well ballistically and do the job downrange.