Coach

Should have mentioned, I'll be sitting for antelope and there is NO shade to be had. BigOrange - love the pix of the home-made AC. Gotta try that some time! Thanks for all the responses.

I know a guy who posted pix of a really great bull during the summer, got contacted by some outfitters guiding an auction tag, went through G&F to get his guide license before he could accept the "finder's fee" (substantial $$). Problem is, the bull was close to homes. He showed the outfitters where and how to hunt the bull away from homes, legally. Long story short, the bull was shot in someone's back yard and died in someone else's front yard. Not only did the guy in question never get a dime from the outfitter, he had to testify against the hunter and outfitter in exchange for not getting dragged in as an accomplice. My take, hunt for the hunt and involve only close friends and family. When big money is involved and giant trophy animals, it just ruins things.

I'm becoming a quick fan of DNZ One Piece rifle scope mounts. It just makes sense to have a one-piece mount. No lining up the front and rear - very solid machined mounts, IMO. http://www.dnzproducts.com/

I've seen coues doe running with herds of muleys. In one instance the older mule deer does were aggressive toward the coues doe, but she kept following them.

Super awesome - congrats to Brooklyn. Never saw a deer shed velvet quite that fast, lol.

Who doesn't smile taking a cool dip on a hot day?

That's the best news I've heard all day. So glad for you and your family.

Oops, guess I'm late to the party, didn't see this one. http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/59486-leftoversbad-news/

I put in with a couple friends for some leftover tags. Usually, you have pretty good odds with leftovers but when my buddy checked to see if we were drawn the person he spoke with at AZGFD said there were over 4000 applicants for the left-overs. That seems really high - anyone heard the same?

If I weren't building one, I'd buy it. Great gun, and great price for everything that's included.

+1 vote for Knight. I have the Knight long range hunter and really like it. It's a little picky on bullets and powder combos, but when you find what it likes it shoots more like a center-fire. Killed a decent bull at 290 yards and a coues at 250 yards with it.

Ordered the Shilen S4 Savage Heavy Sporter stainless select match, bead blasted so I can cerecoat in 6.5x284 Norma. No turning back now, lol. Going to get a boyd's thumbhole stock, probably the featherweight, but maybe the varmint. Would love to hear your thoughts on pillar vs. glass bedding.

Here's a fact - this one incident gave hunting a LOT of bad publicity.

Great looking buck! His right side (our left) is stellar.

That first bull is a beast! I sure hope you get one of your hunters on him. Can't wait to see what he looks like hard-horned. Thanks for posting the pix.

Check this one out. http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/59199-selling-rifle-for-my-buddy-7mm-08/

.270 WSM. Muzzle brake is a plus. Wear hearing protection, and have a good recoil pad. 2nd choice 7mm-08, 3rd choice 25-06.

<iframe width="854" height="510" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZCNGaafnAGk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Ok, How do you embed a youtube vid? lol

I just think it's silly how we increasingly pay more to have someone up our butt making sure we paid enough. That's gov't for ya.

It's looking like the Feds are wanting to take more control over public lands. Personally, I don't see how or where we gave the government the ability to charge us to access public places. When I lived in the valley and had to pay to park my car at Canyon Lake or Bartlett, I thought it was a little over-the-top. Now, when camping at Roosevelt, you need a Tonto Pass - even if you are dry camping, Lone Rock on Lake Powell, you have to buy a $25 access pass because it is a National Park and $12 nightly camping fee - they provide NOTHING except the guy who charges you. It's a lot like the OHV program we have here. You have to pay $50 a year to legally drive your off-highway vehicle. The justification for the charge is to pay for officers to enforce the new law. Am I missing something here? We have to pay to have someone to make sure we are paying? From what I'm hearing, the Forest Service now wants to set up pay booths in the White Mountains, while shutting down back country roads. So now I get to pay more to access the land I've always been on with less access to that land. What part of this is supposed to benefit me? I'm not really just venting here. I'm asking how we fight this. To me, public land should be open to the public, not a chance for some gov't employee whose salary I pay, to charge me to access what I should already have access to. What are your thoughts?

2 good take-aways from this. #1 Congress will squash it (I hope) #2 It shows president obama's true alliance. (Lower case intentional)

I hope whoever did this gets a good case of gonorrhea. Karma's a bitch.

When I look at that rack, the only thing I can think of besides how amazing he is, is how he would have looked this year hard horned. That bull has it all - the long curling fronts, the whale tail, just about anything a great bull can be. Huge congrats to the hunter, and those who made it all come together. Awesome job.

Let me first start out by saying I know absolutely nothing about hunting big bears in AZ. I had one close encounter several years back where I talked to a rancher that had a really huge bear killing not only his calves but some of his cows, and when I finally got to see the bear that was doing the damage I passed over it thinking it was a big black cow bedded on the hillside. When I came back to it in the glass I was totally blown away. I dismissed it because I really didn't think we had bears big enough to be what I had just panned over. As I scrambled to the truck to get my gun and rangefinder, the bear ambled into an oak thicket and I never got a shot. We found that sow's paw prints on all the water in the area but never saw her again. Well, this last weekend I was out looking for some places to set up trail cameras down in the desert with my family and we found a pond with deer and bear tracks all around it. There was a set of bear tracks that literally dwarfed anything I've seen in AZ, and I have seen some really big ones on the San Carlos, and those of that bear that was so big I thought it had to be a cow laying on the hillside. Without pictures, it's hard to describe, but I wear a size 12 Danner and the back foot of this bear was a couple inches shorter and 2-3 inches wider than my foot. The front paws were easily 5.5 to 6 inches wide. There was a huge storm coming in as we found this pond, so we kind of hurried out, but I really want to put a camera up. Unfortunately, the tanks is #1 right off a pretty well used road and #2, no good trees at all to put a camera on. So, for you guys out there that know how to hunt big bears, what would you do? I'm thinking just get on higher ground and sit or do some calling. Not much water in this area, big, huge, extremely thick country so glassing isn't an option. We either have to call him or sit his water hole. How would you hunt him?

Gino nailed it, IMO.