rabidApache

If anyone on here has a tag for Jan. San Carlos WT hunt their in luck. Seen WT buX from unit C thru units D east and west with excellent activity . I think about every doe we glassed up had a decent buck with her and a couple dinks in the mix. Biggest bucks we had seen was in unit C about a 110" class and a 100-104" in unit D east. I saw more bucks in unit D than anywhere else. Stalked up to a 80-83" 4X4 WT with a bow in unit D. I had a 28yd shot broadside, but a dang cat-claw brush was directly between us. No shot was presented until the wind shifted and blew-out the hunt. We even saw Elk tracks in unit D area, probably a lone lost cow. Unit D is located in some prime coues habitat from ~6500ft to Sonoran country dotted with springs and seeps. Good luck out there .

I've found that most animals I've spotted are not stalkable. When this situation occurs I normally would wait it out. Its either too thick, too many eyeballs, winds not right or no chance in heck of me getting closer than 50yds. My max range for a bow shot is under 40yds. I usually carry a pair of old heavy hiking socks for the final close-in stalk under 80yds. If everything is OK and I'm closing in on the deer I'll slip off my boots and put-on the socks. This year I snuck-up to a nice 4X4 muley at about 31yds. I shot and hit-em high forward above shoulder with no recovery . Trailed deer for ~3 miles until I jumped'em from its bed. All that time (~5hours had passed from shot) with minimal blood loss. We then watched the buck cover about 1mile of country with no signs of the wound being fatal . It sure was a RUSH... . I think I was more satisfied with our tracking skills than anything. Tracked animal up and down, thru mesquite thickets and rocky terrain. Upon tracking we found the arrow with about 2" of penetration. Maybe next year .

LOL....we planned to hunt with another group of hunters but last minute changes came up. So instead of a squad it was more like a fire team of apaches. GH, We now have internet, too. No more smoke signaling.

A great first day......two bucks spotted with one on the ground. The first buck (~90") spotted within 10 minutes of opening day in the unit. I decided to give it a try with my .44mag pistol. Hiked to within 1/4 mile dropped pack and proceeded with final stalk. While in stalking mode I lost sight of buck in creosote thicket. To my surprise the buck had bedded up by 8AM. Searched last known area buck had been feeding ~60yds below me. With pistol at the ready I crept slowly another 10yds. Searched with bino's NADA. While standing there lil confused about the situation the bedded buck blows out!! He jumps out from under a stand of cat-claw less than 28yds! Buck turns one last time at ~50yds out, BAM shot taken with a clean miss... After the mornN hunt we hit point's with excellent views and glassed 4 more WT does. Called it quits @ noon. It was pretty hot that day, so we found some shade and hung-out til ~3PM. Later that Pm we decided to hike into some back country dotted with cedars and Pinyon Pine. Set-up the Long-Glass..(thanxxx to Glass4days) and picked apart the Mtn. side. Just as we were gonna call it quits, I took one last look and spotted a WT buck getting up from its bed! We scrambled our gear together and hurried over to the next ridge over with less than half hour left before darkness. We set-up for the shot which was about 200-250yds out. One shot One Kill...... . My bro BJ (hunter) and youngLing bro Ace (pack animal). Day after..a nice General Issue 4X4 SC Rez Whitetail buck.

I have found the method I use to locate sheds and follow-up a fews days later. Even after a couple days/weeks when time permits I can go back find that "needle in a haystack". With azimuth and notes I'll locate the originial "shot" position, shoot the back azimuth and a few hours later, antler in my grubby hands.

I've been very successful in picking up sheds with this method. First locating with bino's then recovering antler/s from distances of up to a mile away by: 1. Finding a prominent feature from shooting/glassing spot like an old snag, rock out crop, saddle etc. even an paticular plant like a century plant or point on hill. 2. Mark spot with TP, or if location is easy to locate from a distance memorize features around your last position where shot was taken. Remember to mark or find a feature that you can easily see at a distance. Maybe even one you may have to find late in the evening. 3. From the selected spot with flagging/TP take a reading on Compass to exact last known site of animal, shed, or even a tree near destination. I usually carry a little notepad with me at all times and write down the azimuth (reading to target spot on compass). I even sometimes quickly sketch the ridge, Mtn. the antler/down game is on. Heck even taking a couple snaps on a digital could work. I make sure to put down every noticable features in terrain like a tree or grassy open spot etc. basically anything to help you zero in on your target. Because once to leave your position to find target, every thing is gonna change. 4. With compass at the ready take one last heading pick a spot between your position and target and hike to that destination. Once at the spot and lil closer to target take a back azimuth to keep ya on track. Ex. if your heading is N.30 degree's to target spot your back azimuth should be ~210 degrees when shooting compass back toward your last TP marked spot. 5. Once again shoot compass, take note where target area is located (referring back to notes). Pick a spot between target and your second stop then GO! 6. Once you feel within 60-100yds of target take a back azimuth to first spot marked with flagging and adjust your position to 210 degrees. You should be pretty dang close. Hope this helps, I use it find deer & elk sheds across canyons and at long distances all the time ALONE . Good luck and it give shot.

jjacks, I'll let ya know . I'd taken my first P&Y WT buck from D east in 06' rut hunt. Myself and a squad of "apaches" will be out and about scoutN and huntN D east come Saturday morning 10/13/07 opening day for tribal hunters. My bro with the long gun 7MM Maggie and a 44mag. pistola for back-up that I'll be huntN with. Can't wait... FYI- I've seen WT buX from scrub country 2200ft to ~ the summit of Mt. Turnbull.....excellent country and dang tough on vehicle traffic (hope it stays that way) . Plenty of seeps and excellent feed this year for wildlife in that country. Most roads? in that area are blown-out from the rains. Good luck and stay tuned for update of hunt.

While out and about snapped a couple pix of bucks at a cattle lick doing there thing. Plenty of moisture and feed throughout the rez since monsoonz rolled in. I've been seeing herds of cow elk w/ calves and a few raghorns up there lately. I even heard from tribal folks that they've heard bugles now and again. Hopefully the rest of AZ is gettN some rain and I get drawn for any elk hunts this year on SC. I've been skunked 4yrs in a row......not even as a dang alternate. Whatz up with that.... . How many bucks do ya see...... . Look carefully... Picture quality sux but give it a shot.

I was thinking the same thing. Yeah thats a muley hanging with the Whitetails. But anyway here's where the fourth buck was hidden. Take good look and you'll see eyes/ears and muzzle.

Yeah my camera sux, I know it (lol). When I capture the Bigfoot fella on camera, it'll buy itself a bigger and better camera. I'm still waitN for him LMAO. But anyway I guess I'll still have to work. By the way this buck is that picture!!!!!!Check the spread . Its in unit Z on SC (lol).

Hey Amanda, You didn't by chance hear or observe any wolf sign while on your surveys? Great pix by the way....also seen and heard a couple of Spotted owls in Malay Area during a recent Fisheries project. "kinda strange they let you get that close..." I guess many didn't know SC Rez is about a 2million acre Petting Zoo.....dewey lol

Man....I'd like too see the side holster its kept in.

Hey Dan, Check these WT sheds out! I figure it about a 105+" outta of Hilltop. Both sides where found within 5yds of each other, how lucky is that. Leftside is probably broken about 4-5" off. The rightside is awesome.

Funny, we only found one right antler the whole day. The rest are all lefty's. I tried hard to find the others but to no avail. I'd say its a 1:9 chance that both sides fall within eye site of each other. But most of the time I find one side than the search is on. Then when I find another or think its the otherside it a totally different elk or the same side . Its all good though.

Some more Shed HuntN pix from today. No sets or Brownies but had a great time. Total at days end.

Josh, I was wondering when you were gonna catch that! Dewey not Dan, Dan is the 7MM guy. lol Yeah dude, Randy's got some nice "brownies", all of my pick ups are Hard white's. But I hope to score some fresh BONE this weekend.

Hey there Matt, Yeah myself and Randy are gonna try and hit it HARD this weekend. Saturday and maybe Sunday?(ISE show in Phx). But we'll see how many sheds we pick-up Sat. Maybe follow up in the same area Sunday. Randy's got quite a few sheds, about 9 sheds and a set of browns that'er NICE. We've been seeing 100+inch WT's almost everytime when shed huntN. I saw the first Bear of the year this past Saturday... .

Hey Josh, Myself and a couple buddies made a few trips this week. So far I picked up 6 racks, one set (~2yrs old). My bud has a nice stack of bone in his garage. We picked up maybe 5 antlers total that are brownies. Still quite a few bulls carrying their antlers around. Here's my find today.....

It looks like last year was great year to grow an antler. Seems like this bull lost some inches, but its still amazing to see this bull still coming to its Wintering Grounds every year.

Check these out . My buddy picked these nice sheds just today. They're out there and don't think you covered an area entirely. My bro explained to me how he must have walked by one of these sheds twice just last year! Finally when it got sun bleached a year later he spy'd them points point'N skyward thru the grass. LOL

Not too bad for a day hike out! We even spotted a couple bulls with they're head gear on... I figure this set was dropped a few days ago.I bet this bull lost about 20+inches in some battle royal over some snatch......I can't wait til this weekend.

Check this double beamer WT

Hey coues N sheep, I'll post them pics ASAP when I do find . I already heard over the grapevine tribal folks are out scattering the bulls and tearN up the roads from all this moisture Dang it man...rookies, but thats alright I've got my Bone Holes and a new slab of VIBRAM on my boots to wear out. Woohoo rackN time around the corner.

I got Feb. 28th for the first Elk drop last year. So I'll wait til the first week of April for San Carlos. I keep a log book of where, when and how many bulls have dropped since 2001. The 28th of Feb. is the earliest I've seen a bull missing its headgear, but remember that this bull was huge SC bull, it seems that rez bulls tend to drop a lil earlier.

Matt, I would love to say yeah he was the buck I was after. But I glassed "a" buck up about 2.5 miles out with my 10X's. All I could see was that the buck had heavy main beams. Before I could get my Spotter out he went over the rise and outta line of sight. I can say this, the animals were on the move (deer, elk, etc.) yesterday mornN. That front coming in sure stirred things up. The bucks in unit C were rutted up pretty good, seen a couple bucks going toe to toe with each other. Pretty neat watching deer in the combat mode .