Coach

Exactly! I've got the unit 1 hunt this year, and there's no doubt it will still be a great hunt - if the feds don't screw it up for us. This really chaps my hide. They were the ones who reacted too slowly to beging with and let a small fire turn into a HUGE fire, now they want to over-react when it's too late to do any good. Typical knee-jerk big-government B.S. Tell you what, if they close the forest and G&F says too bad to tag holders, I'll probably take my chances with the forest circus and just go hunt. I wonder where AZG&F will stand if you have a valid tag, but the feds say you can't even access the areas that weren't affected by the fires. The whole North half of unit 1 was untouched, and as others have pointed out, even the burned areas stil have tons of huntable country. Not all of unit one is national forest. There also is a lot of state land and private land with elk on it. You may have to hunt in junipers instead of pines, but there are elk out there. Bill Quimby Thanks Bill. You are spot-on as usual. And my response was, well "hasty". None of us know for sure what the situation is going to be in September. Many of my favorite areas in unit 1 were not affected by this fire, but will undoubtedly hold higher concentrations of elk this fall. I am sure hunt will be allowed, and I'm guessing that the speculated closures are being exaggerated. I'm looking forward to a great hunt, and possibly breaking that magical 360" mark. I've taken a couple of nice bulls from unit 1, but in the 330 range. I think this will be the year to get one of those great bulls I've seen and video'd over the years. I was really close last year, with a nice 350+ bull at 100 yards with a ML, but somehow missed. I still, for the life of me, can't imagine how I missed. I ended up actually making a 257 yard shot on the last day of the hunt not 1/4 mile from where I missed the bigger one, so I know the gun wasn't at fault - I just flat-out blew it. This time though, I have to get inside 50 yards

What an awesome buck! Congrats, and way to stick with it!

That gun is too pretty to use in the field. I was thinking the same thing - absolutely gorgeous gun! I'm a big fan of the .270 WSM and .300 WSM. The .300 (Savage 114 American Classic) is my go-to gun if I ever get to rifle hunt. I've only had one coues tag since I bought it, but shot a nice 4x4 (not counting eye guards) at 357 yards. Pretty much a chip-shot for this gun but it hit exactly where I aimed and the buck died in under 20 yards. I've also got a Howa .270 WSM that I got as partial trade from Gino on a WBY 300 mag. This is the best kids gun I can imagine. They've taken elk and javelina with it and that thing is awesome. Almost makes me want to put a better stock and trigger on it and make it my go-to gun - but even "almost stock" it's extremely accurate and versatile. I put a wood youth stock on it and a limbsaver recoil pad, and it kicks about like a .243 but has better ballistics than a standard .270 Win. The kids can shoot all the handloads I can produce for hours and never feel beat up, and they're 12 & 14. It's pretty cool watching a 12 year old shoot 4-inch groups at 300 yards. 25-06 is a great coues/antelope rifle too - unfortunately mine is super heavy (Savage 110 FP with a 1" bull barrel) so it hasn't gone on a hunt yet, but at the range it is amazingly accurate out to 500 yards. I'll post some pix later.

Dang - beat me to it. I was gonna make it an 18" "Just in Case"...

LOL, I'm sure your dad has taught you all about keeping secret spots, well... secret. PM me, with dad's approval, and we can swap fishin' holes, etc. BTW, that Turkey vid your dad posted from this Spring was in one of my favorite spots. Both of my oldest boys killed their first birds right there. My youngest is just about ready to take his hunter's ed course and with any luck, he'll take his first "big game" on that ridge.

We headed out early Wednesday morning to the Black River for a family outing. As always, it was a memorable day this one more than most. On the drive out we saw a herd of elk then got right into the middle of a flock of turkey. They were strutting and gobbling, so we shut the truck off and Matt made his best hen sounds at them while I used my turkey call to get them to gobble at us. They seemed to respond better to Matt than my slate call. Eventually, they decided my black Tacoma was just a big turkey, and they were strutting, fanning and gobbling within yards of us. A few minutes later we saw a few antelope with a small fawn just off the road, with either the biggest coyote weve ever seen or a young wolf in pursuit he didnt give us a good look, but we were pretty convinced it was a wolf. He just didnt carry himself like a coyote. Shortly after that, we came upon two coues deer bucks that had shed their antlers. Minutes later, we parked at the edge of the Black River canyon and hiked down to my favorite place along the river. Ill let the pictures tell the rest of the story… Getting started... Josh gets his first fish of the day... Matt lands the first big one... Carrie gets her first fish. She's laughing because she says it's "Biting" her. Nick and I team up on this big boy... A really nice one that couldn't resist a live crawdad in the afternoon... Carrie and I with a really nice one... My last cast of the day landed one of the bigger smalley's I've caught there... On the way out, we had a group of nice pronghorns challenge us to a race. One of them was HUGE. It was really cool for the wife and kids to see them open up and race the truck - they were totally amazed at the speed of those little buggers can do! All and all, it was one of those days that was truly blessed. Our family, together from sunup to sundown, seeing and doing and experiencing things together some people never get to experience. I hope you enjoyed the story and pictures.

LOL, what do want in trade for that crystal ball?

Man, that is a sweet pistol. Wish I were in the market. I'd take that over a Glock .40 or Springfield XD in a heartbeat. Someone is gonna get a really nice gun.

Exactly! I've got the unit 1 hunt this year, and there's no doubt it will still be a great hunt - if the feds don't screw it up for us. This really chaps my hide. They were the ones who reacted too slowly to beging with and let a small fire turn into a HUGE fire, now they want to over-react when it's too late to do any good. Typical knee-jerk big-government B.S. Tell you what, if they close the forest and G&F says too bad to tag holders, I'll probably take my chances with the forest circus and just go hunt. I wonder where AZG&F will stand if you have a valid tag, but the feds say you can't even access the areas that weren't affected by the fires. The whole North half of unit 1 was untouched, and as others have pointed out, even the burned areas stil have tons of huntable country.

Wowser - congrats on a great looking buck!

Thanks, Brian. Yeah, I'm kind of curious to see how the ash will affect the river too. There was a canyon I hiked in Utah a couple summers ago and it had a lot of these "quick-sand" kind of holes that were just ash-mud you could stick your arms or legs way down into, and the fire responsible was nothing compared to this. I sure hope the Black cleans itself up better than that. On a positive note, just think of where the water line gets to on a heavy-runoff year. I've seen the White River bridge on the Amos Wash road covered with driftwood before. That's enough water to flush a lot of ash down.

What I heard was that they immediately mobilized every piece of equipment they had and started bulldozing like crazy. Mt. Baldy is a very sacred place to them, and they jumped right on things. Also, since the wind has been pushing the fire to the NE they had a lot less spot fires to contend with. Most of the 40% containment number we're hearing has to do with fire fighters' success at preventing any Westward movement of the fire toward Green's Peak, etc. I imagine the tribes have both been able to prevent Westward movement in much the same way.

This is getting really old...If they catch someone starting one of these fires, they had better keep their identity secret...just sayin'.

I have a 2005 Bowtech Allegiance that I would like to sell. It's great bow with top-shelf accessories, so I don't want to just give it away. It has the Bowtech 2-piece 6-arrow quiver, a top-of-the-line CAP (now Trophy Ridge) Quick Shot Wisker Biscuit, and a Spot-Hog "Hogg-It Hunter" sight with the "Seven Deadly Pins" housing. I spent over $300 just on the sight, as the SDP was not offered on the "Hogg-It" sight. The string is a custom job, done by Jed Larson, who, IMO, builds better strings than anyone in the buisiness. I've got at least $1500 in this bow, plus I'm including a dozen Gold Tip Hunter Pro (camo) arrows that are perfectly splined for this bow. Draw weight is 70#, and length is 28 5/8 (inside knock to end of insert). It's set up for a 6' shooter. I have no idea how to price used bows. I'm thinking $550 is more than fair. Anything less, and I may as well keep it for a solid back-up.

I switched bows this year to a Hoyt CRX 35. It shoots like butter - so smooth, so quiet, and way faster than they advertise. So I started messing around with broadheads the other day to see how they shot out of this bow compared to my field points. I shot Muzzy, G5 Montecs and Strikers, Slick Tricks, Magnus Buzz Cuts, some Rage practice heads and others. Ward's was kind enough to send me out a couple of Inverters to try - all I can say is WOW! At first I thought that the design was too similar to a fixed blade to add the moving parts of a mechanical. My take on broadheads is, if you can shoot a fixed head - you should. There are no moving parts, fixed heads are generally stronger, etc. Let's face it, most of the time guys shoot mechs is because they have tuning issues that make fixed blades fly differently than field points. My opinion of mechanical heads has really changed over the past couple of years. Everyone has their favorites, and I'm no different in that. I've heard really good things about the G5 Tekan II, the Rage, the G5 T3. I wouldn't any longer be concerned about taking a mech head into a real huntign situation. Back to Wards' Inverters. Of all the heads I shot, these were some of the smoothest flying heads I tested. I wasn't sure at first, before shooting them, if I would really try them on a hunt, because, well, I'm super picky and don't like experimenting when an actual hunt is on the line. I'll be hunting archery antelope in NM this August, AZ Unit 1 bull in September (hopefully) and December AZ Coues in 24A , and I'll have these heads on my arrows. I loved the way they fly, I love the fact that even if somehow they don't deploy, you've still got a solid fixed-type head, and when they work as they appear to, you've got the advantages of a large-cut mechanical. It's hard to express how effective this design is, because at first look it might appear to be the worst of both worlds. It seems almost like a fixed blade design that might negate the need for using a mech in the first place, and add on the the shortcoming of a mechanical, which is reliable deployment. In my actual testing, it performs just the opposite. It flies like a field point, but because of it's design, if it somehow failed to deploy, still has the cutting diameter of many fixed heads. If it deploys correctly, which every shot I've taken with it, it has, the cutting diameter increases tremendously. Bottom line - I'm not a mech shooter, but I would feel comfortable taking these heads on any hunt. My quiver will have 3 Muzzy 100 graing for 50 yards or less, and a combo of Triverter and Rage for longer shots.

I know they are currently setting up the course. They are planning to hold the shoot at this point, but the big question is whether FS will have open areas for camping nearby.

Maybe the've seen how fast 360 acres can turn into 360,000 acres and jump on it while it's still controllable. Best wishes, Jason

I am very interested in your bow. I am in Tucson so I would not be able to pick it up. I would need it shipped unless you may be here in the near future? You can call me at 520-591-1889. This is my first posting here. A friend has been watching for me. I'll give you a call tomorrow. Who should I ask for? I think you're going to be really happy with this setup. It's very accurate and fast. For much less than lots of guys pay retail for entry-level equipment, you're going to have a top-shelf bow with top-shelf accessories and arrows that together have taken elk, mule deer, coues deer and javelina. Shipping will be around $25, and I'm willing to split that if you are.

I've had good luck with IMR 4350 in a number of magnum loads including .300 Wby, .300 WSM and .270 WSM. Also, experiment with primers. I've had a little better luck with Winchester mangum than Remington or CCI.

I use the National Geographic software state topos too, and really like them, but like others have mentioned, you can't download them to a GPS - just transfer waypoints, etc. back and forth. I like to carry a laptop connected to my GPS to get a continuous route plus the screen size of a laptop is way more useful than just a GPS, IMO.

$450 - last call. I'll be putting the bow and sight separately on archerytalk for $300 & $150, respectively. The shipping costs are less for me if someone takes both for $450, which means I can negogiate a little. And if I'm breaking it out on archerytalk, the 14 Gold Tip Pro Hunter 7595 arrows will go separately as well since they run around $120 and up per dozen for raw shafts on ebay, etc.

Any takers for $500? If you are close to Lakeside, I'll deliver. If not, PM and we'll work out a fair shipping arrangement.

I've been hearing some positive things as well about unit 1. Yes, some areas were completely torched, but it sounds like a lot of the area burned through quickly and the pines will survive, and even some of the areas shown in the maps of the fire's path survived unscathed - or with minimal damage. Maybe that's just hopeful thinking from a guy with a unit 1 bull archery tag to look forward to. Some areas will take years, even decades to recover. Others won't make a full recovery in our lifetimes, or even our kids' lifetimes from what I've seen. Overall, and I'm basing this on what I've seen over the past years in 3A/3C since the Rodeo/Chedisky fire, units 1 and 27 will see a huge surge of game in the next 5-10 years as a result of this fire. On the other hand, it will look charred for a very long time, even if the wildlife rebounds. I'm really just waiting to actually drive around and see for myself what the actual fire damage has been. I'll take my camera with me, and share what I see.

As always, this site is full of good people with good advice. If I can add a tidbit, the .223 is one of the easiest rounds for younger shooters - especially those groomed on rimfire rounds. Shot placement is vital though. A good hit with a .223 will drop anything from a jackrabbit to an elk (or larger as others have pointed out). A less-than-perfect hit with a .223 can easily lead to a lost animal, and with a youth hunter, that can be really tough. I've got 3 boys all learning to hunt, and they all like shooting the AR, but I reserve that for only javelina. We don't have a .243, but it's a great all-around gun. If you compare the recoil of a .223 to a .243 it's pretty minimal compared to the actual energy of the bullets. If your young hunter can put the bullet in just the right place in hunting conditions with the .223 and is not comfortable with anything bigger, then that is probably the right gun for them. On the other hand, if they can shoot more gun, they should. A .243, 25-06, .270, on and on, are much better for deer sized game. My boys are not really "large-framed" but my 14 year old shoots my .300 WSM and my middle boy, 12 shoots a .270 WSM. Both are around 100 pounds wet and well fed. But if you compare a 55 grain .223 bullet to a 150 grain .270 bullet, there's no comparison at all. Glad to see you getting a youth hunter in the field. When it comes to picking the right deer bullet for kids, I think the trade-off is what they can shoot accurately, vs. what is most effective. Given our range of great youth guns out there, I would put the .223 at the low end of the scale, and the .270 WSM or 7mm-08 at the upper end, and see what the kiddos can handle, and put the biggest stick in their hands that they can shoot comfortably. Good hunting, and best wishes. Coach

Lots of great advice here. You might try shooting a 3D deer target from an elevated position - if you have a tree in your yard, use that, if not, get on your roof then look at the hits and where the arrow is going to pass. Real deer are not as dense as a 3D target, so the penetration will only give you a reference as to where the arrow will go once it hits. The closer the deer is to you on a treestand shot, the higher you want to aim. The more it is quartering away, the more back you want to hit. Generally, you want to aim for the opposite side (think of aiming for the back-side elbow) when sharp angles are in play. I totally agree with AntlerObession about quartering toward you shots. Those are some of the toughest ones to make in my opinion. A deer's anatomy is designed to be able to deflect things coming at their chest, head-on. There's a lot of bone and muscle up front on a deer. Look for the broadside or quartering away shots. This can be tough if you're sitting a treestand and a deer comes in walking toward you. Try to be patient and avoid the frontal shots. For one, the deer is already facing you and will probably pick up the movement of you drawing. Secondly, if you draw on him coming in, you are trying to hit a very small spot. Be patient, if you can, for the deer to come in get relaxed and offer you a broadside or, even better, quartering away shot.