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I have only hunted this unit once, last year. The area we were in held fewer deer than I'm used to seeing, but some nice ones. My brothers work buddies also had the same hunt as us. They hunted a different area, but they went 5/5. Here are some pics of what came out last year (sorry for the bad pics, but only had my cell phone and the five on the tailgate were from brothers buddies). Be patient and glass hard! Good luck. JDH

Great questions as I'm getting ready to take my oldest daughter out. #1. I plan on making her carry the rifle as much as she can, but figure there will be area's I need to help and towards the end of a long swing may need to carry for her. #2. She has been practicing with a .243 100gr Federal Power Shocks. My wife has proved they do the trick. #3. She has already watched me and my wife clean hogs/deer, so this is her turn to get her hands dirty. I'll help with any tricky knife usage. She and her little sister's have always helped clean birds and fish, so I don't think there will be any issues there. Best of luck.

PM sent.

I have not hunted all of the border units, but talking to people who hunt some of the others and my experiences, I would have to second the 35A/B and 36B/C. I was brought up hunting 35B, starting at 11 years old, and allowed to hunt by myself. Now, as an adult, I am leary about hunting the area by myself. The last year we hunted there we ran into several illegals that seemed to just be crossing. I have glassed up a couple groups of drug runners. I think the worst part though for hunting, although I am extremely glad to see it, is all the BP activity. I've seen BP repelling(SP?) out of helicopters which are constantly flying up and down the canyons, ATV's running up and down old mining roads that don't get any other traffic, and many other things that keep the deer spooked, even in the most remote areas of the unit. JDH

There are many ways to hunt and as long as it is legal, to each their own. I hunt with my dad and his friends and they give me a hard time, all in fun, because I'm such a high tech hunter, I have a range finder and use the internet . Each method of hunting has it pros and cons. Each method takes time to master and requires you to build your skills. Even baiting takes thought, time, and work. It is just different than other methods. Don't knock it till you've tried it, and then if you don't like it, hunt the way you like! As Coues 'n' Sheep said, its "Dodge vs Chevy", or a pesonal opinion. Recoqnize everyone's different and respect their opinion. JDH

As a ten year old my first hunt was the Kaibab doe hunt. It still holds the most memories of all my hunts. I would encourage you to take your kid on it. Hopefully both of you will have the fond memories that my dad and I have. JDH

Check out Eagle Optics website. They have the Skyline ED for sale at a price real close to the regular Skyline. I'm thinking about picking one up right now. JDH

Here is the buck I shot last year. The hunt was the early rifle in unit 31. I glassed up this buck and a smaller fork bedded in a draw in the middle of a grassy spot. The grass was so high all I could see was the antlers. I was able to move to about 150 yards away and droped him with one shot. Although he is not huge it is the first decent coues I have taken and after 11 years of chasing these guys will be a real memory for me. This is my first time posting pictures, so hopefully everything shows up correctly. JDH

I had the mount done at Weller's in Tucson. My wife picked it up to surprise me so I didn't get to talk to anyone from the shop, but my wife did. She said that Bud talked to her and mentioned he thought the deer was really unique and maybe something was genetically wrong with it. He said there were three things that were not normal. The first was the lack of eye guards. The second was the extremely smooth bases. Finally, the pictures don't show it well, but there are large snow white patches on the lower chest area. As for genetics in the area I'm not sure. I know my dad shot a three point the year before about two ridges over and his had nice eye guards. My great uncle also shot a two point the same last year in the same area on the November hunt and he also had eye guards. I'd like to think it is a unique deer, but I'll keep on eye out as I'm hunting the same unit again this year. JDH

Excellent link. It really makes you realize that you have to not only pay attention to what you are doing while driving, but always keep on eye out for what everyone else on the road is doing. Thanks again. JDH

While glassing for elk one year I spotted a hawk flying down a small wash. All of a sudden he went straight up and then dove straight down behind a small juniper. About a minute later I heard the distress call from the rabbit. Over the next 5 minutes I glassed up 4 coyotes coming straight into the juniper. It was pretty neat to actually hear a real live distress call. JDH

I also am all for the youth hunts. I was lucky enough to draw a doe tag on the kaibab when I was 10. To this day, that hunt with my dad and family hunting friends means more to me than any other hunt I have been on. I have been hunting for twenty years since that hunt and have filled a couple tags but nothing to brag about. I keep dreaming that the next few years I'll take a real nice bull or buck. My daughter will turn 10 in four years, and I can say that I would give up any tags for myself to let her have a hunt like I did when I was 10. Its amazing how much their excitement gets to you. When she was 4 she spotted her first deer by herself. She was so proud and to this day reminds me about how she saw the deer before I did. I think it would be great if more kids had these chances to grow self confidence and mature into responsible adults. JDH

I don't post on here much but thought I'd give my input since this subject is something I've been interested in. I've never volunteered for a project mainly because I didn't know about them. Because of this site I have learned a small part of what goes on and have tried to make a few of the projects. Unfortunatly, between work, coaching, and family I've never made one yet. Speaking for the people I hunt with, everytime we go out to the wilderness we do something to make it better. Most of the time it is just picking up trash, but there have been several larger undertakings on occasion. Basically what I'm trying to say is a lot of hunters do these same things every day they are out, not just at a single predetermined event. JDH

I would like to get some feedback on what others have seen regarding coues deer and cattle. Over the last few years I have found some decent spots that have held good numbers of deer. Often I go back later in the year or the following year and find that cattle have been released into the area and I only find a few deer. Has anyone seen similar behavior? JDH

I'll second the fact there are more illegals, smugglers, and BP. Last year we had daily helicopter searches over us. Spooked the deer more that I thought it might. Also ran into several groups of illegals. For these reasons I have opted not to hunt this area again, even though we have seen some huge deer in the mountains east of Paloma and Cumero Canyon area. Good luck!

More rain across the state!

I've been out scouting several weekends now and have seen a bear, maybe different bears, in a small amount of country that I've wanted to hunt. I have seen a couple deer, but no bucks in that certain area. Several years ago I saw four or five nice bucks in the same area, but no bears. Does anybody have an idea how a bear or bears will affect deer? Will they move out of the area, several canyons over, while the bear is there? Will they stay around, move up, down, or one canyon over? Any help would be appreciated? Thanks, JDH

Thanks for all the replies. You guys have helped to confirm what I was thinking. Good luck to everyone hunting this weekend. JDH

Great video, but its going to cost me a day of work. Now I have to take tomorrow off so I can get out early! JDH

Sorry to hear about your glasses. I also agree that the quick change in temperature broke the glass. Optical glass can be very fragile with respect to temp changes. I have seen some optics break due to the heat from just holding them in your hand, of coarse no binoculars use that type of glass. Try to avoid extreme temps, but if the binos do get hot or cold, try to stabilize them slowly. JDH

Thought I might add my 2 cents. I work in a fairly high tech lab that specializes in IR optics. Here is our cleaning procedures for most of the coated optics I deal with. 1. Blow off surface with low pressure air. 2. Gently use brush to loosen large (this is relative - pretty much anything you can see with naked eye) debris. Discard brush after more than five passes. 3. Use lens tissue with DI water to remove smudges. a) Fold lens in half and then in half again to quater it. Apply small amount of DI water. c) Using as little pressure as possible, wipe optic in one direction, either left to right or top to bottom. Make only one pass. d) Use a different quater of tissue and wipe in same direction. e) Repeat step d with the other two quaters of lens tissue. 4. If needed repeate step 3 using denature alcohol or ethyl alcohol. The important thing to remember is not to re-use anything that might have dust or contamination on it. When wiping, only go in one direction and only make one pass with the same surface of cleaning material. This might be a little overboard for most binoculars, but I have found it works well for mine. I have a pair of Eagle Optics and Swaros and take every precaution for the Swaros. Hope this helps. JDH

I have seen the same thing. I think the fire pushed some of the bigger predators out of the higher areas. Maybe the deer moved accordingly also.

I think you have to make it fun and get them interested as soon as possible. I started by getting my girl to think we were going out to look for cows, which I was pretty sure I could point out to her. We saw a few deer and then that got her attention. I also found a few small sheds that I gave to her and now she is real excited, even though she is only two. I hope to get her out next spring and plant some sheds so that she can find them. But as several have said, especially at this age, when they are done thats it. Don't force it. I look forward to many good memories with her and hopefully a few siblings. JDH

I have thought about the same thing many times and spend hours over maps trying to fiqure out how to get about a mile off "the road" only to find that I am now within a half mile of a different road. If the unit has good access it might be hard to get away from roads. Keep in mind that "a mile" off the road is not always equal, for example walking in half a mile and going up in elevation 1200 feet, will loose more people than walking a flat mile. I guess the most important part though is getting to an area that still has deer. I've done it many times, but in an effort to get away from other hunters, I've hunted areas that hold few if any deer. Hope this helps and doesn't just confuse. JDH

I agree with the others, keep shooting until it is down. I had a friend who shot a deer a couple years ago. It went down, then got up and stumbled away. He didn't shoot because he could see it was bleeding pretty heavy. We looked for the rest of the hunt, a day and a half, never found it. The next year we found a head and bones in the area that we think was the same deer. JDH