Coach

+1, and +1 for Gino's comment. Archery hunters using salt/corn/alfalfa aren't the problem. Over-allocating tags is the problem.

FFD, I agree, but that's not how it's playing out. Pure and simple, a handful of tags will go to residents that may have previously been allocated to out of state hunters, but not many. The out-of-state, non-guided hunters will be totally cut out of the mix. I have no problem with any state trying to allocate more tags to residents. For many of us, hunting is a big factor on where and how we choose to live. I really get how NM hunters see this as a good thing. As a guy living right across the border, who loves NM, was born in NM, and appreciates the opportunity to hunt in NM, the way this is worderd means, either I hire a guide or buy a land-owner permit, or "kiss off" and stay out of NM. It's really that simple. I'm not about to hire a guide to hunt NM, and would rather eat a week old dead rat than buy a land-owner tag. So, now I'm in the 2% who might just be lucky enough to draw a tag? Not to mention that the Catron Boys have just about wiped out anything worth crossing the border for by poaching everthing they see for the last 20 years. Sad to say it, but, you guys can have it. If your G&F dept was more interested in preserving what you have than catoring to the guides and ranchers that literally own your resources, NM would be a world-class hunting destination, as it should be. Unfortunately, too many are too short-sighted to see that.

If NM says the only way I can hunt there is via landowner tags or hiring a guide, I guess that just means I won't ever get to hunt there again. Thanks.

What an amazing deer. The videos you have put together are the very best of what hunting Arizona is all about, just gets to the very heart of why I love Arizona so much. Huge mule deer, family javelina hunts, big coues in Mexico. Shane, thank you for putting so much effort into your passion. I've been taking my family out on similar hunts, trying to get good video, and I really get just how hard it is - just making the hunt to work out is hard, but capturing it all to share is infinitely harder, IMO, and you have done an outstanding job. Thank you so much for all the videos and pictures of some truly outstanding hunts. The work you guys put into making the hunts fun for your family, and somehow still able to capture it all on film to share with us is really an amazing accomplishment.

Went today but had nothing but boat/trailer problems. Got to fish for a bit and caught a couple. It seemed a little slow compared to what I heard they were doing just yesterday, but spent the majority of the day fighting a motor that wouldn't run, flat tires, axle problems...all the stuff that happens when you finally get that one day to go fishing... The water was 56 degrees, lots of fish suspended around the flotilla in 19' of water. The fish were everywhere from 7 - 17 feet but not biting agressively. The ones we caught were nice and the females were packed with eggs. BBC roadrunners tipped with minnows were working as well as anything. The wind picked up around noon and slowed things down. I think they'll be heading toward the shore soon, but we've got another cold front moving in early next week, so playing it by ear. I'll most likely have to wait until they hit the banks as my boat is out of commission for a while.

Those might be the heaviest bases I've ever seen on a coues buck. What a great find! I can only imagine seeing him live.

.308 Nut, can you expand a little on the "button" rifling? The reason I ask is, Savage barrels are advertised as button-rifled barrels. While I never really knew what that meant, I've found Savage barrels to be very accurate, and attributed that to the button rifling without really knowing how or why it is different from standard rifling.

Very cool Tony. I read Louis and Clark's journals and the referred many times to their "air rifle" they would bring out to demonstrate to the communities they encountered. I wondered what it was, and now I know! Thanks for sharing this.

I'm not a long range hunter, but I like the .300 WSM for just about anything. I played around with the .300 Wby, and found it harder to reload, shoot consistently etc. There is definately a Weatherby camp. Some guys shoot their Weatherby rifles extremely well. I know there are lots of RUM fans out there, and one thing the RUM's get you over the Weatherby is a beltless cartridge. The RUM's are sort-of-wildcats based on the .404 Jeffery round with greater powder capacity than even some of the better known belted cartridges. The concept behind the highly successful "Ultra Mag" is more powder in a beltless case. It's interesting to note that Lazzeroni, the RUM and the WSM are based on the same case - the .404 Jeffery. All of them took on the idea of stuffing a lot of gunpowder behind a .30 caliber bullet and making it do great things, and, in their own rights, all have succeeded. They've also adopted the same casing to put the same amount of powder behind smaller and smaller bullets. The downside is burning that much powder eats barrels faster than standard cartridges. I know a local gunsmith that has taken the .300 Ultra Mag and necked it down to .25 caliber and thinks it's the bomb. On the other hand, we have a history of buffalo hunters that shot huge .45/70 at long ranges with stunning accuracy. All chamberings considered, I'd put the .300 WSM against pretty much anything short of a .338 Lapua.

Just wallowing in self-pity...LOL. That area is VERY decieving. We knew they had to be there, but following those hard-to-break habits, we just had to walk more country than we glassed trying to figure out the layout of the land, like any die-hard hunter looking to understand a new area would. I think we both burned ourselves out the first day with a very early start, setting up camp and then trying to take in so much territory at once. We both set out on the first day with a quick trip in mind, not packing nearly enough food or water, assuming we would be back in camp in an hour or two. Somehow, we both endend up walking as much country as we could see (which turned out to be HUGE) just trying to figure out how the open areas tied into the the lower wash areas, looking for sign, etc. I know by the time I got back to camp the first day, I was cramping, tired, beat-up and discouraged. Bry was the same. It's really funny. The areas there that have pigs just don't show the kind of sign I'm used to seeing. Everyting looked old - no new tracks, no new scat, no fresh rooting, and I was totally convinced that the herds had moved further into the foothills because of the pressure during the archery season, and that anything left were broken, small groups looking to find the larger herds. Then you guys go out there and find them exactly where you said they would be. If there's a lesson to be learned, it's that once you know where they are, sit tight and keep glassing. Sooner or later they'll show up. Big-Bry and I just couldn't wait to walk every square inch of every wash tyring to figure out where they were holding up. Turns out, they were right under our noses the whole time. However, I do take some solice in the fact that we did eventually find the "phantom herd". That was part of our continuing joke that we were looking for "ghost pigs". We sure had a good time and truly appreciate your hospitality and guidance. Congrats to the hunters that were able to score on the "ghost pigs" and are now hooked on hunting. Great job getting them out there and giving them some guidance. Take Care, Jason

I know I can never show my face around there again! LOL. Me: Hey, anybody need help glassing? Everyone: Uh, no thanks, we've got it covered.

Wow, great job Scott & Johnny. Great pictures too!

Looks fantastic!

My two oldest sons were fortunate to take a couple javi's opening morning of the youth hunt. Tonight I cooked up the backstraps from both using one of my favorite techniques for elk and deer backstraps just to see how they compared. I have to say, they were amazing. The process is simple. Clean as much fat and sinew as you can from the backstraps then slice them at an angle to about 3/8" (deer and elk straps are large enough to cut straight). Lay the pieces on a plate and give them a little salt, pepper and Cavenders on both sides. More pepper or some cajun spice if you like them spicy. On the stove get a large skillet pretty hot with some olive oil, dab each piece of meat in flour, both sides, and toss them in the hot skillet. When one side gets a little crispy, flip 'em over and let the other side crisp up. Remove them from the skillet onto a plate with a couple paper towels to pull out any extra oil from cooking and eat 'em up like fish fillets. They were crazy delicious. I had to steal a couple pieces from each batch because the boys were eating them just as fast as I could get them to the table. Next time you have a piggie and think it's not good for anything but sausage or chorizo, give this recipe a try!

Appreciate it 308, but maybe a case of a mis-read post. Not me or my boys. Gabe and Ward's did it up right, and they deserve to be recognized. Passing the praise along to the ones that did it.

I've only shot one elk with a rifle, and it was a .270 my dad built way back when he was a teenager. Kinda funny, he bought all the components from Herter's way back in the day and built the rifle from scratch, and did all his own reloading. I think it's a Mauser action or BSA, beautiful gun - looks like a Weatherby. For him, going out and shooting blackbirds off of cattails on an Oklahoma dirt farm cow tank from rediculous ranges was just a hobby. He had no intentions to shoot game at long range because most deer where he grew up were shot inside 100 yards. Somehow he built a true sub MOA rifle for around 150 bucks (1950 dollars) including the scope. I shot my first coues with that rifle, and while it doesn't look like a long range set-up, that is the most accurate gun I've ever seen, even with its outdated optics. My boys shot elk this year with .270 WSM and .300 WSM, shooting barnes bullets and both looked like you had stuck a hand grendade in their vitals and pulled the pin. Ok, maybe a slight exaggeration, but when an elk drops flat in it's tracks like it was struck by lightening, you get the picture. There was no tracking job, no looking for a blood trail, they both collapsed like rag dolls. I'm a huge fan of the WSM in either 270 or 300. Great unbelted "Magnum" cartridges that knock the living bejeezus out of whatever they hit with a good bullet, like a barnes XT, or Nosler Accubond.

Holy cow, that's a serious rifle that young man is holding. Looks like a well-done custom job. And to be proficient with it between 350 - 500 yards, and past that, is amazing, given his age. Just goes to show, with enough practice and the right equipment, long shots can be ethical and rewarding. Congrats to Gabe. He has obviously earned some great trophies.

Love it! Way to get that young man out there learning the "finer things in life". Nothing like dusting a few clays with the old man. Thanks for sharing.

Nice! Finding a honey hole like that will pay out for a long time to come if you can keep from over-pressuring them. It's funny what you mention about not gutting them too close to the den. I just talked about that subject with a buddy a while back and we both had come to the conclusion that it can really mess with them if you clean them too close to a den/bedding area. Those little piggies are a lot more social and complex than some people give them credit for. Thanks for the story and pictures, now go get your son and dad into them. Nothing better than 3 generations hunting together.

I'm kind of with 308 on this, but as I said earlier on this thread, I did find the videos interesting and in some ways enlightening. I don't think you necessarily posted this topic with the idea of starting any kind of fight. To be honest, it's very similar to another recent post along the same lines by a very respected member of the coues hunting community, particularly this site. Only you were able to show actual footage of hunters attempting shots that they clearly weren't capable of in a real-life hunting situation. While you have some very valid points, and you do bring up a subject that we should all think about WRT our comfortable range, shooting under pressure vs. on a bench at the range, you can't expect to start a topic like this without ruffling a few feathers. Personally, I don't agree with some of the comments that were aimed directly at you - the shooters in all of those situation clearly weren't you, and you were pointing out, not so much what they did wrong, but the idea that the further the shot, the less likely the deer was to bolt after the first miss. That's a valid topic, IMO. But you have to be ready for some staunch criticism, which is fine if you have thick enough skin. We've all had our own mishaps in the field, and more than likely tried to help a buddy out who seemed to be able to shoot well at the range but sprayed bullets all over the hillside in an actual hunt. It happens, and we should be able to talk about that. Overall, I think the videos you provided were valuable, and important for people to see. Not everyone can make those long shots even in perfect conditions. Where I think you might have drawn fire is in some of the wording, regarding "is it fair to shoot xxx yards?". It's as fair for an accomplished rifleman to shoot a deer from 900 yards, when he knows how the animal is moving and where his or her bullet will hit as it is for the average joe or jane to shoot a deer at 15 yards with a bow, knowing how the animal is moving and where the arrow will hit. Some people spend a lot of time, effort and money to become proficient at ranges that others could not dream of. You can't put a cap on what the ethical shot distance is across-the-board for all hunters, because I guarantee you, there are some people who can shoot better at 600 yards, even 800 yards and beyond, than the average hunter can shoot at 300 yards. I've been shooting and reloading for a very long time, and my own personal "comfort zone" is less than 500 yards with most of my rifles. That's not to say that someone else who practices hard and aquires the skills of long range hunting isn't just as comfortable at 750 yards as I am at half that distance. "Fair" in this case, the way I take it, is whether the shot is ethical. And that means being confident in your equipment and abilities to make a clean, humane kill. You know when you pull the trigger or release an arrow if you are confident in the shot, or just hoping to connect out of luck. Bottom line, I appreciate your willingness to enter the spotlight, and take a lot of grief in the process, to illustrate how often some people over-estimate their abilities, and the impact that can have - again, assuming that was your intention. I'd bet anyone here has seen similar situations to the vids you posted, and it should be important for us to think about the idea of knowing what our comfortable, ethical range is, whether it's rifle, bow or muzzle loader. We have an obligation to know our own limitations and stick to those, even when it's tempting to "push the limit".

Awesome job! Those piggies aren't anybody's pushovers. You guys did well, and I'm really happy for Felix. Thanks for the great pictures and story, Scott.

I don't need a whole bunch but I would be interested in 4-6 medium-sized coil traps (like racoon size) if possible.

That was a very interesting (and entertaining) video. Thanks for posting it. As for the long-range shooting, as others have said, that horse has been beaten enough, but it was really cool to see the different reactions from the deer. Man, that last one, was crazy. You must have been a lot closer to the deer than the shooter. Seemed the impact and sound were virtually simultaneous. Did he even realize how far low he was hitting?

I never had the priveledge of meeting Mike, but my prayers go out to his family. What a tragic loss.

Funny how as we get older, we get more resistant to change. I'm having a tough time with both of the available skins. One is like a white-out, and the blue one is like an astronomy sight or something, with all the text jumping off such a dark background. Both make my eyes hurt with so much contrast, compared to black text of the light tan background we are used to. I know it's only been a day since the upgrade, and more and better skin options will be coming, so this certainly isn't intended badly toward Amanda, but I am looking forward to some skins with more nuetral/earth-tone type colors, and not as stark contrast between the background and text. However, thanks Amanda, for jumping on the more important issue of the illicit/porn stuff that was all over the place this morning. I appreciate you taking time off from javelina hunting to get that cleaned up so quickly.