Coach

Wow - that is one great looking buck! Congrats. Nice taxidermy too.

Congratulations! I'm glad you two found eachother. I believe the keys to happiness are finding your soulmate, and finding a job you love. I'm batting 500 - I have the best wife I could dream of. "You know what is worse than a spouse that does not support your hunting addiction? One that can't wait for you to leave on your next trip." This reminds me of one of my favorite jokes... A guy wakes up early one morning to head off to his favorite hunting stand. He makes his coffee, eats breakfast and loads the truck but it's windy, with a mix of sleet and hail. He starts down the road, but can barely see the road with all the water and ice. So he turns around, heads back home and crawls back into bed. He snuggles up to his wife, and says, "Man, it's really nasty out there". She replies, "Yeah, can you believe my idiot husband is out hunting in that crap?"

Awesome! Great job Amanda! Nice write up too. One day I'd really like to hunt the SC for turkeys. Here's an idea for the tail. I took a big chunk of manzanita and sliced off about 3/4", sanded it down, inscribed when it was taken and oiled it. Wrapped some leather around the beard and tied it through a couple holes in the plate. The plate is connected to a second piece of wood with 2 small dowells and the fan is sandwiched between them.

I've got the J105, and it is a great pack for certain types of hunts. It's a lot to carry around for a daypack, IMO, but if you get a long way from roads the ability to haul out your meat without making extra trips in is huge. I use it now mostly to carry a double-bull blind around which it does quite well. For my hunting style, I go bare minimum - just a high-capacity fanny pack with shoulder straps (Cabela's Hybrid 2-in-1). If I happen to get something I hang it and come back with the J105. It will handle a full elk quarter no problem, bone-in, or a full deer boned out. 50-90 pounds is not a problem. I just don't like carrying that much pack while hunting. Even though it sinches down really small and tight, it feels hot and big for carrying around the basics like optics, a tripod and lunch. I like to stay pretty mobile, so I prefer the style of the Cabela's Hybrid or the Badlands Monster Fanny. You can strap on a Slick Sprint tripod, a stool, carry all your optics, field dressing tools, game bags, food, water, and even your first-aid/emergency essentials, and still not feel like you're carrying around a big pack all day. I even carry my 15's for long-range glassing and don't feel bogged down. However, if you go in light with a that type of fanny, you're probably going to have to come back in to haul out the meat. That's when you hang it up in bags, go back to camp, and come back the next day with a frame pack or J105/J107, and a buddy or two. If you absolutely have to go in hard, carry in all your gear, and pack out heavy, you should look at the Kifaru or KUIU packs. These are packs built with sheep hunters in mind and are definatly top-shelf packs. They are pricey, but they are designed for guys who have to pack into the roughest country around and come back out with substantially more weight than they came in with.

Very nice looking mount! I think pronghorn make some of the prettiest mounts, if done well and that one certainly was. Congrats on a great trophy.

Congratulations! What a wonderful gift!

In that range I would look at the Vortex Fury 8x42. Doug @ cameraland has them for $179 - normally $269. I haven't looked through the Fury, but have a couple of pairs of Vortex Diamondbacks that are good glass for the money. http://www.cameralandny.com/optics/vortex.pl?page=vortexfury8x32

These may look silly, but I've heard they work. http://bethedecoy.com/ Now, I sure wouldn't use one during a rifle season. Last year I was with a buddy who was archery hunting antelope in NM, and we used a variety of decoys to hide behind and try to approach, and never got very close using that tactic.

One more just to keep this awesome thread near the top. My boys followed up a great elk hunt with a great javelina hunt. Unit 23 youth, opening morning we found the pigs before we even had the big glass set up. A couple missed shots, and a couple of great off-hand shots and they were done by 9:30.

Bump. So far 100 views and only one reply. Is $550 too high?

As always, great footage, Jed. That's a great looking bull.

Nice! That took a set of big brass ones, and he earned my respect. Thanks for posting!

Thanks Jed. I think you know where I'll be concentrating my scouting efforts. I thought for sure I was on him last year with the muzzy, but, well you can imagine my surprise when that long crab-claw with nothing but beams and a short fork stepped out. I've got 3 or 4 bulls in mind this year I want to focus on, and you've got footage of at least two of them.

Gotta be last year, 3A/C youth cow hunt. The first time both of my oldest boys drew tags together they had a Muley hunt in the same unit, that we were unable to capitalize on. But after days of hard hunting, hard hiking and lots of learning to glass, they got to shift gears to some cow elk. Both of them made good, one-shot kills, and during the process made a lifelong friend, and got really hooked on hunting.

How long do you think the current inventory of Covert 2s will last at this price? I need a couple more, but right now just isn't the right time.

I was in the same exact situation. I ended up going with a Hoyt CRX 35, Axcel Armortech sight, QAD drop-away, and the new Hoyt quiver. I absolutely LOVE this bow. My first "good" bow was a Mathews Conquest Light I bought back when they first came out, maybe late 90's??. I shot that bow for years and loved it. Around 2004-2005 I bought a Bowtech Allegiance, shot it for years and loved it. Two days ago, my new Hoyt showed up, and I have to say, it is one heck of an amazing bow. I haven't shot the PSE or some other bows listed here so far, so I can't give a comparison. But, before you buy, I would recommend shooting the new Hoyt. Heck, shoot as many as you can. What one guy likes another won't.

Jim, GREAT POST. Pretty much nails it.

I almost hate to admit it...but...I drew Unit 1 archery bull in Sept. And last year I drew Unit 1 ML bull...The odds were certainly not in my favor, but the draw angels have been good to me. This will be my 3rd rut hunt in Unit 1 since 2005. Technically, I had 2 bonus points. 1 for Hunter's ed and one loyalty point. Don't be a hater! Let's go get those bulls!

Several years back I was bowhunting the border areas between 1 & 27 along the Black River. For all the years I had ever bowhunted growing up, these bordering unit shared the same seasons. For some reason, for only a year or two, the season closed in 27 a few days earlier that 1. I was camped in unit 1 at Sheep's Crossing, and hunting unit 1, but one morning I decided to go hunt the other side of the Black, which, of course, is unit 27. I should have known that season for 27 ended two days earlier. I was in the wrong for not knowing about the date changes for that unit. As I was driving to a spot I wanted to hunt I encountered a G&F guy. I politely pulled to the side, rolled down my window and started a converastion with him. I told him I was planning to go up the road to Middle Mountain and do some deer hunting. He then asked me if I knew where I was, and I said, "Yeah, unit 27". He then said, "So do you know the deer hunt ended on Thursday?" You could have knocked me over with a feather. But the one comfort I felt I had, was that I hadn't left the truck. I was planning to hunt in 27, and admitted as much. At this point, given every encounter I had ever had with AZ G&F, I expected him to say something along the lines of, "Go back to unit 1, and make sure you know the dates, you knot-head" Instead, he wrote me a ticket for "Taking Game in a Closed Unit". I was floored. Not only had I not "Taken" any game, I hadn't stepped foot out of my vehicle. Yes, I was wrong not to know that the hunt dates had changed that year from what they had been. And if I had been actually hunting when I got the ticket, I would have very much deserved it. But I wasn't. I was on my way to a certain, specified location with the intention of hunting, and I admitted that freely. I fought the ticket, and ended up having to plead "no-contest". It was a tricky one for me. I knew I was in the wrong for forgetting the unit-specific hunt dates. On the other hand, I hadn't actually committed an infraction. I was planning to hunt 27, and was on my way to do so, but never actually hunted in the closed unit. Both the judge and the prosecuter were clearly hesitant to persue the case (Springerville), but it became obvious that they didn't want to step on G&F authority and drop it outright. With a "no-contest" plea, and a "voluntary" $100 donation to operation game theif the ordeal was over. But I've still got this on my record, as if I were an intentional poacher. That's the part that really hurts. I consider myself a real stickler for the rules and laws, and never intentionally even "bend" them. The point of this story is, sometimes law-abiding, well intentioned people make honest mistakes. In those "gray areas" I think LEOs have some discression. It is those type of situations that make people either embrace them or become agtagonistic. We all love to hunt and fish, and we all, generally, respect the job of our outdoor law enforcement officers. We have to know and follow the laws - but they also have to be able to make some common sense judgement in the field. One bad experience can turn hunters against LEOs and vice-versa. We definately don't want that. Just to be clear, I don't mean this as an AZGFD bashing thread. I admit my fault in this situation 100%, and in over 2 decades of hunting and fishing AZ, my few and brief encounters with G&F officers have been very positive. But, in this situation, having not actually made it to my destination and actually hunted there, I thought this could have been handled better by the officer. What are your thoughts?

Not familiar with that one, but I have a Knight Long Range Hunter that I am happy with. The Green Mountain barrels on Knight are very good, and everyone I know how shoots Knight likes the accuracy. The ignition system on mine is more standard bolt/inline with the disk system you put the #209 primer in. Of course, one downside to Knight is they are no longer in business, so if you need parts, they may be hard to find. Good luck!

Officer Hartzell, I appereciate you adding your perspective of the situation. I think we're in almost complete agreement about the facts that day. I was in 27 because I had forgotten that the season dates were different from unit 1 - something I have admitted from that day. BTW, I think there is a misunderstanding about the elk scouting - I had mentioned that I was camped on the unit 1 side of Buffalo Crossing because I had been deer hunting and elk scouting there (my elk hunt was in unit 1) - but I don't know how that would affect any part of this discussion - just wanted to clarify that. You stated in your response "Had I felt that he was trying to be in the correct place no citation would have been issued". I think it was really obvious that I had forgotten about the season dates changing, so I guess I don't see a big distinction between unintentionally being in the wrong unit and intentionally being there while honestly thinking it is still open. In either case, I felt then, and still maintain, that we both knew I had blundered, but but also both knew it was unintentional. Since I had been honest from the beginning, clearly stated where I had been, where I was on my way to hunt, and that I honestly thought the area was still open and hadn't actually gotten out of the car to "persue" deer, that the "Take" violation was excessive. I also felt upset that the report that was filed on the incident was carefully worded to sound as absolutely bad as possible, leaving out many key the elements that painted the "whole picture". One point I want to make about this whole situation it is this: I truly respect our G&F officers and appreciate the difficult job they do. More importantly, it is critical for hunters and G&F to have a postive, trusting relationship. We need to feel like we're on the "same team". This requires that sometimes we as hunters need to cut a little slack to the officers and to G&F as a whole. And while I despise poachers and intentional breaking of game laws, I think a little descression can go a long way toward preserving and maintaining that trust-based relationship, which benefits us all.

I'm not spoiling for a fight with Bill, and I sure can't say much about the "real" old days, but there was a time in the lat 80's when I had no idea what kind of coues potential certain areas held, but there were monster coues all over the middle part of the state with few guys hunting them. I've got pictures on my hard drive right now with a 107" buck next to a 117" buck taken from an area that I learned years later was full of deer of that caliber - and you could get a tag for coues back then over the counter. Some buddies of mine used to hunt Cherry Creek from the Roosevelt side and would consistently take 100+ bucks with rifles, bows and optics far inferior to what we're using these days, and talk about the really HUGE bucks they saw but didn't get to take. The same guys hunting the same country with better equipment now have a hard time just finding a buck these days. I have no doubt, knowing what I've learned in 20-some years of hunting in AZ, if I knew back in the late 80's what I know now, I could have been on huge deer every year. The game changes - it challenges you every year. The hunters are getting better, the big bucks are getting smarter, things that work great one year don't work at all the next. That's what keeps us hooked. If it were easy, it wouldn't be so addictive. As far as baiting, well, using salt or corn will work for a while. Then that too will become harder as the deer will adapt. Can AZGFD actually enforce a baiting rule? Probably not IMO. They're already spread too thin. If there is a baiting law passed, it will be a "self-enforcement" law. Which is pretty much what we've grown accustomed to.

Nice to see the cats back on track. Good coaching, recruiting, and some hard played ball. Kudos.

Hey Chef, looks phenomenal! What a great way to enjoy a supurb cut of fresh coues venison. Thanks for sharing! I can almost taste it!

My son took some great video of gobblers in 27 a few weeks back going nuts. With the lack of snowfall this year, we should have some great turkey hunting this Spring. Good luck, and take a camera with you!