Coach

Great buck, and great write up. It's so awesome when a good man meets his great inner hunter, and through hard work and dedication, things come together. I loved your story, and I especially liked how your faith shined through it all. Truly an inspirational story.

Sweet buck - you made that look easy, lol. Huge congrats on a really cool looking buck.

Nice job! That's some true hunting right there.

Awesome buck, and spot-and-stalk - that's an amazing accomplishment. Huge congrats to Mike!

Someone's paranoid about their daughters dating haha...jk LOL, I don't even have daughters, I was just trying to be funy. 3 sons-

Man, what an awesome buck! Huge congrats, and I really enjoyed the story. That's a great write-up - nicely done all around!

You guys got my vote even though a local guy here was trying to push his vid. I liked yours better and I really think you deserve to win.

Bears are extremely tough. Their anatomy is a little different in that you have to place the shot further back than you might think. The area around the shoulder is thick with bone and muscle. Help us out, when you say you could see the arrow sticking out, was it high up in the thigh?

Great buck, and a really well made video! Nicely done all the way around. Huge congrats.

It's always nice when we get direct feedback from G&F. Thank you, Brian for taking the time to respond to this thread.

My oldest son beat the ever loving crap out of my truck today. I sent him off to scout for deer and bear and he asked if he could drive up the road a bit. As my middle son, Nick and I got out of a blind after about 8 hours, and packed up our stuff, Matt drives in right to the tank, that doesn't even have a road to it. Scratches from the headlights and hood to the tail lights, 3 dents in the cab and a HUGE dent in the back quarter panel... This just after he mangled a 88 Toyota truck... This morning all I could thing about were bear and coues, and tonight all I can think about are repairs I can't can afford to fix, and a mindset I can't seem to get into. Sorry to vent, and don't mean to derail the thread, but my hunt was absolutely ruined by my own kid who just can't learn when or how to slow the "F" down....

Sat all day in a blind - had some great one-on-one time with my middle son, no deer, but good times.

This is a great topic. I really hadn't thought about it too much until now, but I tend to agree that a lot of the bucks taken in mid-late August have some more growing to do. I've also noticed that over the past couple of years, the monsoons have started later and ended later than they have in the past. Many archery hunters are relying on sitting tanks but when it's still raining all over which is very hit-and-miss. I spent all day today sitting on water with my middle son hoping for a buck to come in. It was a good set-up and had some good sign but no deer came in. The moon is definately a factor, and the abundance of water plays in heavily. But back to the original question, I agree that most bucks, especially the bigger ones, are not done growing when the archery hunt starts. As Amanda pointed out, I think from G&F perspective it's all about scheduling - and the start of the hunt this year seems to be at least a week later than years in the past. I seem to recall Aug 14-17 being typical - but that's just going from memory.

Facial hair of most kinds has many benefits - camoflage being the least of them unless you are trying to blend in at a homeless shelter in hopes of securing a free meal. The principal benefits are psycological. The pure intimidation factor of gray and black facial hair, for example, is enough to convince most game animals, and most 40+ bar-fly/ex-biker chicks to give up playing "hard-to-get" through nothing more than mere display. The same is true for local hoodlums (also knowns as those wanna-be's that are trying to get your daughter's attention). Try and scare one of those testosterone-filled knumb skulls off with your clean-shaven face, and pink - or "coral" - as they say now, collared shirt and Birkenstocks with socks on - not gonna happen. But a clean shaven head, some curly fuzz around your jaw and chin, a tight, sleeveless shirt that shows off your 24-pack abs, and sunburned forearms, camo shorts with boots, and junior Mr. tough guy becomes Mr. "Yes Sir, No Sir".

Great Buck! Congrats, Joseph!

WOW! That's the way to get 2013 archery Coues off with a bang! What an awesome buck. Huge congrats!

LOL, Keep 'em coming.

its because you got a hoyt, not the drop away. I shoot crx 32! You might be right. I've shot PSE, Mathews, Bowtech and now Hoyt and I finally have a setup that just flat-out works for me. Could be the bow, could be the rest, could be the arrows, or the sight, or the release - or more likely it's just a bunch of parts that work well together. Not meaning to derail the thread into this bow or that. The Wisker Biscuit is a great rest, and it works very well for a lot of people - and I was one of them for a long time. I happen to like the way my new setup shoots better than my old one. I still have full containment on a stalk and zero arrow/fletching contact during the shot. Would I stick a WB on one of my bows, or my sons' bows and be able to count on it? Absolutely, but it isn't my first choice either.

Dang, Rifleman and Jeffcros have some studs on film. All I got on camera this year were dinks, then cows came in and chased even the dinks away.

I shot a WB for years, and just loved it. I tinker, so I cut away some of the whiskers where my fletching went through, and pretty much just left it thick at the bottom. Enough up top for containment. I've never been into FPS as much as accuracy, so I never gave a second thought to 8 or 10 FPS lost. It was just a "no brainer" with full containment, consistent draw and release, good accuracy, no moving parts, what's not to love? However, when I bought my last bow, I had it set up with a QAD Ultra Pro HD drop away - and I have to say I'm a convert. With my trusty old Wisker Biscuit I had some tuning issues and had a really hard time getting broadheads and field points to hit together. I never really liked the full contact approach, but it didn't bother me much either. But switching to the QAD, my groups shrunk immediately, tuning issues were literally non-existent. To be fair, I switched bows when I switched rests, but my old bow was a Bowtech Allegiance, which is generally a pretty easy bow to tune, but I had a VERY hard time not only getting broadheads to hit with field points, but getting two brands of "top-of-the-line" broadheads to hit together consistently. I destroyed a couple targets and countless broadheads trying to get to that "sweet spot" where everything just works. For me, it never did. Then I got a Hoyt CRX 35 with a QAD drop away and some Easton ACC pro hunters - groups were cut in half, I can shoot any broadhead I want - Muzzy, Slick Trick, Magnus Stingers and Buzzcut, G5 Montec or Strikers, and everything just flies together. I've actually had two fletchings cut off one arrow by the second and third arrow, all with different broadheads at 30 yards. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Wisker Biscuit for a LONG time and had nothing but great things to say, until I started shooting a QAD drop away, and realized things just got a whole lot easier all on their own.

I'm certainly not "afraid" to hunt down there. I've done some backpack trips along some of the well-used smuggling routes. It is a little creepy at times, if you are completely solo because your imagination can spoil the beauty of the rare opportunity if you let it. I've seen it as more of an annoyance than anything. One year I hunted the Whetsones with work buddy who grew up there hunting. On the way in we encountered BP making arrests, and later some guys set fire to a ranch as retribution for turning their buddies in - most of the time we would get to a hill and glass and see strings of illegals, take time out of our hunt to call them in, etc. I would be hesitant to set up a big camp and leave it unattended down there, simply because everything you leave at camp is very valuable to someone coming across - food, water, tents, clothing, even vehicles, are potentially life-saving to someone who has been on foot for days, hungry and thirsty and needing to get another few miles North.

The Flagstaff Xtreme ropes course looks like a really fun place to work for a young guy, if he's into that sort of thing. Also, if he has access to a truck, trailer, some simple yard work tools like rakes, shovels a weed-eater, lawn mower, maybe a chainsaw, and snow-blower, there always seems to be high demand for that kind of work. My oldest son just turned 16 and he's been doing odd jobs and yard work and stays pretty busy, and the money is darn good if you do a good job and get personal referrals. I know of a guy here local that got some yard work which amounted to nothing more than cutting down a 40' row of dead 4' tall dead evergreens and hauling them off to the tune of $600 - that's about 2-3 hours of hard work max and having the right tools and a trailer. Snowplowing driveways at $20-30 a pop can earn a good paycheck every good storm if you've got clients lined up and do a good job. All those places you listed are good starting points, but probably won't teach him the things he will learn (or pay as much) as some type of simple self-start business that he is in control of where he has to advertise, get the job done right, be accountable, and ultimately own the fruits of his labor.

I like the idea of the Rhino, but I agree with the guys above for range. I've seen them in action during a stalk and they can be awesome, but I've also seen much cheaper radios get far more range. I had some older Cobra radios that I loved, but the newer ones not so much. I was never a fan of older Motorola radios, but I recently bought a 3-pack of the Motorola MT352 TPR in 35 mile range, and they have been way better than my old Cobras. The 35 Mile Range is complete BS, of course, like all the range ratings - it's strictly line-of-sight, perfect conditions, etc. They do perform way better at longer ranges in uneven country or separated by a few miles when driving in the mountains than any radio I've had before. And for $120 for 3 on Amazon, they don't break the bank either.

The rabbit hole goes much deeper...

I sure hope you find it!