matthewp45

That is awesome and congrats that is a great looking buck especially with a bow. I had the 19A archery tag 3 years ago and it was unbelievable. You have to walk every where but was worth the 10 miles or so a day because you were constantly stalking bucks. I had my buddy on the side of a huge hill spotting for me and when I got done with one stalk he already had another lined up to go after. I would run into other bucks on my way to stalk another. Even though I took six shots and missed them all. which was because I would get in to to much of a hurry and not get a range on them and guess the yardage and shoot over them every time. It was still one of the most action packed hunts I have ever been on. Not to mention there are quite a few good bucks in there. The only bummer about 19A is the AZ Antelope Foundation took 80+ goats off the ranch that I huntedlast year so there may not be as many bucks butt I know there were a lot more than 80 antelope on the ranch when I hunted it. Good to hear it was good to hear it was good in other areas and congrats on a good buck.

I have not seen hardly any pics of antelope being taken during the bow hunts. I wonder how it was for others in different units? Just curious. I am also curious to see if others in unit 1 had the same experience or maybe it was better in other areas in the unit?

Man he is going to look good on the wall. That is a gorgeous buck congrats!

My buddy Jake is up there hunting with Lance from Timberland Outfitters. Another guy in the TLO camp killed a buck today that is an absolute toad. My buddy Jake sent me two pics of it and it is a GIANT. Hopefully someone with permission will poast some pics of this beast soon. Jake said they are seeing tons of bucks each day and getting in some good stalks. Hopefully he will be sending me some pics in the next few days. I have to admit I am jealous.

Clay, You showed me how to cape an animal the way you do it and it sure works great. Do you have an illustration or maybe some instructions on how to do it. I have hunted with a bunch of people that do it differently and I show them what you taught me and they think I am crazy but it is really easy and then you do not have to sew anything that may affect the mount. Just to teach some people that may not know how their taxidermist likes the animal to be caped. Thanks.

That is awesome. You have jumped a big hurdle in your bow hunting career and at a very young age . Great job

I thought it was to early for any rutting activity as well but, Friday morning while on my archery antelope hunt in unit 1. There was an elk that bugled s couple times at first light and the last time he bugled another bull answered him down in the bottom of the canyon. After that a ton of coyotes responded by barking and howling. It was pretty cool.

Thanks it reminded me to go make sure all my mounts are clean and the hair is tucked in. Also I can't thank you enough for filling my walls with absolutely beautiful mounts. Every time I look at them it reminds me of all the good times I had hunting each one. Thanks again and hopefully I will be seeing you soon with another animal to add to my walls.

I went to check one of my melon fields today and looks like some Mule Deer had a big party in the middle of it. Strange thing is it is about 3 miles from the desert. Luckily they don't like to eat melon plants. I have seen them eat 2 acres of lettuce in a night. Last year we had to put up a 6 foot tall electric fence around a lettuce field so it wouldn't get eaten up. Before we put up the fence we had put two guys out at night with shotguns that had no shot in them and all it did was scare them to the other side of the 40 acre field and tear it up more as they ran across it. They would not leave the lettuce no matter what. Down here in Yuma farmers spend thousands of dollars keeping the mule deer and javelina out of their fields each year. The good thing is we only have to worry about them until opening day of deer season in unit 41. Once they watch one of their buddies die they are gone. Last year that lettuce field had two real nice 4X4's and a monster 5X5. I will go out one night and take a look to see if there are any good ones.

It always amazes me when you are 4 or 5 miles from any road out in the middle of no where in real rough terrain that motorized vehicles can't go through and you find beer cans and bottles. What the heck I thought people that wanted to drink just stayed at or in the jeep to drink. I don't see the need to hike your butt off to go in the middle of no where to drink beer. I don't understand some people in this world.I have never left even a candy wrapper out walking let alone a bottle of water or a freakin beer can. We need to start taking finger prints off these bottles and cans amd giving these vandals some hefty fines and maybe that will make them think twice before leaving their trash out there.

Jake I will give you a call when I head out and to tell you the truth those deer are less than a mile from your house. You guys have that alfalfa just north of your houes and then Coronation has the next piece north and east of that called the Irwin. That field is the Irwin 12 just south of that little triangle piece that is in sudan next to the river. Get your spotting scope out and check it out just before last light. Mr. Quimby- It sure has changed even in the last 10 years. All of the deer and javelina are from Dome Valley east all along the Gila River and where the desert borders the farms. You can tell when the desert is dry and isn't providing enough food because that is when the deer start flooding into all of the field for good food and water. The reason there are so many out there now is because they have the Army's Proving Grounds to run and hide on since you aren't aloud out there. They also have the nasty dense salt cedar ridden Gila River bottom. That is where the big boys hide all year. They never come out until way after dark and return to it way before light. The only time you can catch them during the day light is during the rut. As far as Javelina go they have migrated all the way west down the river almost to the Gila Valley. They live in the river and are very nocturnal so they just keep multiplying like crazy.

First off all of my 10 mounts, all of my families mounts and everone that asks me who to take there animal to gets suggested to go to Clay. I have never been anything but 100% satisfied and amazed at every single mount I have gotten or seen come from Clay. I do know how people can be unsatisfied with 100% perfect work. I have the perfect example that actually happened this week. A friend of mine has had a coues deer mounted from a guy in San Diego for about 4 years on his wall. He has looked at that one deer for 4 years and being the only mounted coues deer he has been looking at for 4 years every day he got use to it and to him that is the perfect mount and thats what they should look like. To me I have 3 mounted coues deer from Clay on one wall that I look at every day and I always pay attention to all the mounts I see and I thought that my friends coues deer was average at best. It looks more like a mule deer and just doesn't look like a live coues deer with to big of a nose and to big of a neck and the forehead and eyes don't look like a coues. Well, he shot another coues deer and sent it to Weller's and when he got it back I went over and walked in and said man that thing turned out awesome. I said now that is how a coues deer should look like mounted and he looked at me and said I think the one from San Diego looks better and I was considering taking it there to have it remounted. I almost fell over. Then I thought about it and came to the conclusion that he got use to his deer on the wall and became use to it and in his mind that was what a mounted coues looked like and when something different came back it had to be wrong because it didn't look like the mount that he grew to love. In my opinion people that don't really pay attention to the details on mounts and think that their mounts are a true reprensentation no matter what because it is their deer can developed a skewed sense of how a good mount should look. My $.02.

That is a stud Blacktail Mitchell way to go. Your new boyfriend Steve sure is being nice to you in your new relationship JK. Congrats on a great buck. I am jealous.

I will be way far away from the fields for my muzzy hunt. But I do have one penned up by one of my fields just in case I can't get it done out in the desert . I am going to go out one night and see if I can get some pics of any good bucks out there. First I gotta remember where I put all those guns in my truck so I can get them all out before I get out the spot light. Ernesto, if you aren't busy next week one night after my antelope hunt this weekend maybe we can go out to look and see whats out there. Keep you all posted.

That thing is beautiful. Your taxidermist did an outstanding job on him! I would be proud of that on my wall.

Kidso, AMEN Brother! Great Bear and like my momma always told me if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. I think you need to mount the skull with the arrow and broadhead still sticking out of it exactly as you shot it. That would be a pretty cool mount. Please post some pics when you get it done. I bet that meat is going to taste great and be very tender. Let us know how it tastes as well.

To each his own. It's his tag and it's a legal bear so he should be able to take whatever legal bear he wants. I think it is pretty cool with a bow as well.

Semi sneak is how 90% of all of my deer are with a turn on all of them. To me up right doesn't look natural and you need the right deer to have a sneak pose. I have 1 sneak and 7 semi sneak. The 1 sneak pose looks great with all the semi sneak deer around it. Also they have some new forms that are off set at the shoulder and some that don't sit flush on the wall. It is nice to have some little differences in each mount. It is just my preference others may like it different ways. I also have the ears posed differently like both back or one kicked way back and the other back just a little. On one of my mounts I had a great picture of it alive and I had the mount done exactly like the picture, the ears and everything. It took some customizing by Clay at Mogollon Taxidermy but he made my buck look exactly like the picture. It is pretty cool. If I kill two more big bucks I want to do either a double pedastol or one pedastol and a full body coues. I think full body coues mounts are about one the best loooking mounts there is. By the time I retire I will have more money in mounts than in my house.

We are so glad you made it through so well and made it home so fast. There is no place like home to get some rest and recover. Take it easy and make sure you give it plenty of time to heal. I know your going to want to get out there in the deer woods before your fully recovered. Thank God for all of our prayers being answered. Take care I need you 100% so you can film me shooting that 137" buck on the rez this year

I think it looks real good. As you know the summer time coat and color are very different than the hard horn later coat and color. I would say he did a good job.

Any one who has hunted with Amanda knows how tough she is. She will come through this with flying colors. We will be praying for a speedy recovery Amanda. God Bless.

My archery hunting buddy is out there by you spot and stalking. I hope he calls me soon to let me know he has one down. I should be there with him right now but I had to stay for work. Good luck Blake.

I will be up August 19th that Thursday evening. I am so glad you are coming looks like it is just going to be me and you. I have scouted quite a bit and have quite a few places and a bunch of different goats that I want to try and go after. You can be my spotter and my decoy holder as well. No matter what we will have a good time like we always do. Looking forward to it. I wish my dad and I had elk tags so you could come haul them out. Take care and I will give you a call next week to touch base. Take care and I hope that new baby is doing well and letting you get some sleep.

This is totally for real too. They interviewed him on the Opie and Anthony Radio program and they really gave him a real thorough interview and I was laughing so hard I almost pissed my pants. He has run for office some 10 times for all different kinds of city, state and national offices and for some crazy reason he has not been elected yet. But I think he may have a chance at govenor. If old Arnie can get elected in California and Janet got elected here why can't Marceaux. He would have my vote. Especially with the ethanol production from planting trees on all vacant lots. One word revolutionary!

To anybody wondering about Tommy his horses are great and he is an absolute pleasure to have in hunting camp. We had him come out with his horses last year for our hunt in 23 and it was great. It would have taken forever to get my buddies bull out and we got it out in a couple hours with Tommy's horses. Ever since the hunt Tommy has become a good friend and we have started hunting together quite a bit as well. I would recommend him and his horses to anyone. On a side note he is a dang good taxidermist too. He is mounting my dad and I's turkeys that he helped us kill in unit 1 this spring.