Coach

Very cool buck - congrats!

Hate to ask, but you're selling a lot of really nice guns right now. I hope all is well. Maybe just cleaning out the closet?

You'll know you're close when it's still green.

I hunted TMP a long time ago - back when I was in college and stage coaches still went through, no electricity...oh wait, not quite that far back, but even then I got nasty looks from hikers and dog walkers. Did see some deer though. I'd suggest more South and East. From Reddington road you can get into some awesome country if you are willing to hike. If you want to drive even a little more, there's endless country for a bowhunter willing to hike. Actually, just about anywhere 1/2 hour from Tucson you are in some good stuff. Just hard to navigate the private land but OnX maps are great for that.

Lion kill or something else? Too bad - that's an awesome buck. Wish you had been the one to put an arrow in him.

Stud buck for sure - is he really dead?

Nice job on the double! Look like some big old boars. Sure is fun chasing them this time of year.

Very nice bucks - love that comparison of the buck with/without velvet in pretty much the exact same spot & position. What are the chances? Awesome photos and thanks for sharing. Some great bucks for sure.

I was into a big herd this morning - cattle less than 100 yards away. I agree with Flatlander 100% - kind of funny because I started glassing near a cave and within - no kidding 5 seconds found the herd that lived there. And this was at first light, so the theory that they only move late in the morning - well that hasn't been my experience for sure. They are very interesting critters. You can find them just about anywhere, but someplace close by has to be some type of protective structure - thick brush at the base of rocky outcroppings are good. Usually a complex area with a lot of structure like lots of ravines close together where they can get out in the open when they want to but have access to multiple escape routes. And because of their size, they can disappear really quickly, either in a drainage you can't see, under a cedar or even some thick brush and they'll stand there motionless for a very long time. I sat on one today at 50 yards but all I could see was his head. The herd caught a sound from my approach in the frozen dirt, and just all of a sudden, it was like they were just gone. 20 or so minutes later they started moving again right where I had been looking for them. They settled down and looked totally relaxed but the wind shifted slightly and they started bouncing around popping up everywhere. Didn't get a good shot, but it sure was fun.

Man those are some pretty horses in that vid!

I was going to head down this afternoon to 32 to chase pigs and deer but decided to put it off for a day. We had family in town over the weekend and last I heard, they left for Phoenix about 4 hours ago and are barely past Heber. Glad I'm not out on the road right about now. Good news is I got to use my snow blower finally and after a couple hours my driveway looks a lot like Standman's pix.

Prayers sent from our family - hard to imagine what you guys are going through. Best wishes.

Snowing hard in Lakeside - supposed to be a big one. We'll see. I hope we're getting lots up top.

If you are British, is Jag-oo-ah.

Part of the problem, IMO is the negative publicity that comes with any type of predator hunting. If I'm not mistaken, hunters used to be able to go along on the helicopter coyote hunts with G&F but the anti's got wind of that and made a stink. The same thing happens when there are predator contests. These are really effective at getting people out there killing coyotes because of the prizes/cash associated with them, end up getting really bad publicity for the same reason. I think the best thing we can do is, like standman and several others here, get out and kill them, make money off the pelts and don't make it too public. It's really fun, and you can do it just about anywhere in the state year round.

I know it's probably rhetorical, but all the lakes up here used to have a lot more ice. If you could get up to Holly, early fall or late spring, good ice fishing. One story I come back to from time to time is way back in the day. A bunch of ice fishermen in a truck going up to Sunrise, and occasionally there would be a few out on A1. One morning there's 2-3 guys out hiking in the snow, drilling holes really early and we stopped to see what they're catching. They kept saying it was shallow and "weedy". They were out in the cienega before A1 trying to fish a frozen field of grass. Can't make this stuff up, but still funny. To this day I can't drive past that cienega and not chuckle.

Animas Valley - typo on my part. Sorry for the confusion.

Belated Merry Christmas to you. I miss seeing you around here too!

That is going to be a really fun challenge - but if anyone can do it, you can. Fun thread, and best of luck.

I've seen a few in Animas Valley just before you break West toward Clanton/Whitmire - right in the main road.

After reading through the recent 6.5 creedmore vs. 7mm-08 thread, I found myself in pretty much the same predicament. I was looking at the Tikka T3X superlight in one of these chamberings. One of the more compelling arguments I found in favor of the 7mm-08 over the 6.5 Creedmoore was the attached youtube vid. It's not particularly exiting, as the two rounds turn out to be very similar with the conclusion that 7mm-08 tended to have more retained energy at longer ranges. Not a surprising stat. What did turn out to be interesting is, the conclusion that if you are deciding between the two and you reload, the 7mm-08 comes out on top, mostly because the best loads for the 6.5CM were factory loads by Hornady using a proprietary mix of powders that the author of the video couldn't reproduce with normal hand loads. Our resident expert, Lance had pretty much the exact opposite conclusion, that hand loading for the 6.5 CM provides better results than 7mm-08, and I'd take his word over anything I see on youtube. He's forgotten more about hand loading than I'll probably ever know. So, that got me to thinking. Of all the hand loading I've done and all the research, I can't recall one time where someone recommended blending powders for an ultimate load. The question is, who out there have tried mixing different powders to get the ultimate hand load, and how did it turn out?

You guys living under a rock or what? We have girl jedis, all girl ghostbusters, even Ocean's 11 - um 8, all girls. I'm just waiting for the all girl version of Lone Survivor, where the don't only kill all the bad guys with jujitsu and knives, but restore peace in the region. Shoot those tranny muleys before they destroy the herd like we have! 😉

Thanks Brian. Man it's weird. When I first moved here back in the '80s the hardest part about ice fishing was either the long trudge in with a couple feet of snow, or drilling half a dozen holes through 12-18" ice. Guess it's just a sign of the times. I know some old guys who used to drive out on Rainbow Lake and cut blocks for their ice house every winter. Can't remember the last time I saw it iced over. Times they are a-changin'.

The crap part of this is we live in a social media age. Simple pictures without context spur emotion. The great thing is, we live in a social media age - we have the power to create discussion. Dichotomy has the power to influence.

dayyumm. Great game.