Flatlander

Enjoyed a successful weekend of Coues hunting and hoping to complete it all this week by hanging a tag on one more buck before Thursday. Friday morning we glassed up 4 bucks and 8 does feeding across the canyon from us. After a quick relocation we were setup @ 450 yds. Unfortunately I underestimated the windage and both shots missed to the right. We were able to move down the canyon and get setup on the deer one more time. My first shot hit the buck in the neck, and a follow up anchored him right there. Unfortunately the cape had a hole the size of a baseball in the neck. Oh well, we still have two tags to get a cape with. During the excitement my buddy missed the other nice buck that was in this group. Sat. morning we again had abuck located by 7:30 AM. A ridge between us and the buck offered a perfect setup 231 yds from the buck. Levi must have been a little amped up cause the first shot went right over the bucks back. A second shot dumped him. Unfortunatly this shot left almost an identical hole inthe neck of this deer as mine did the day before. I couldn't believe th body size of this deer, he was a horse. This was the oldest coues buck I have ever been a part of taking. Congrats to Levi on taking a wiley old buck. The pack out was brutal, 2.5 miles with some steep canyons to cross, but Levi was the man and packed the entire boned out buck himself.

Good bucks. Congrats.

Awesome!

Havalon + Gutless + Bone Out = Easy Walking. We have adopted the policy that if you are willing to shoot it you better be willing to pack it, so the guy who pulls the trigger ends up packing a complete, boned out coues while the rest of us divide up his gear and carry that. It adds to the experience and builds character. I haven't had anyone decide not to shoot despite glassing up deer in some pretty messed up spots.

I lived in ID for a while in college. I hunted some 4 point only units thinking they would have less pressure / larger animals. Boy was i disappointed. As someone who has seen these antler restrictions in effect I can tell you that Amanda has nailed it here. Point restrictions are ineffective at targeting mature deer and encourage bad genetics. But hey maybe they could help those of us who have always dreamed of killing a 90" 2 point.

Try glassing the big canyons. They are the few places you can see more than 5' that have decent bear populations.

Hope UA fans can get refunds on all of those plane tickets to Pasadena.

I sent some field pics to one of my buddies who is a taxi and we decided the cape probably was not salvageable, it was a big hole and it was right in front. Its ok now I have an excuse to be trigger happy next year. Redman - You are correct, I got a little close to the scope and it bit me right on the bridge of the nose. Sad to say but the deer actually drew first blood. Thanks everybody for the comments.

September 27, 1997 I was 14 and took a cow elk in unit 5A with my dad and brother. I thought I was real hot stuff. Those cow hunts at the end of Sept. were tons of fun and perfect for getting a couple of youngsters hooked on hunting.

I know how good it feels when you finally take a mature buck. It took me a lot of years and I ate some good tags before I was able to make it happen on a decent buck. Congrats on a job well done.

I will say this, we saw a lot more bucks than normal during this hunt. I think it s a good year combined with a growing community. Success feeds success.

Thanks Josh. Wish you could have been with us this year. Things went more like we thought they were going to go last year.

NTS I would agree with your Dad. Every rattler I have ever killed (which is nearly every rattler I have ever seen) moved for a long time after it was dead. I dont know if they can actually bite, but their fangs are still deadly. I have always removed the ehad and put it somewhere no one would step on it. Only in the last couple of years have I started letting noisy snakes go about their business, with age I have become more of a pacifist. Snakes that don't rattle always get removed from the evolutionary chain.

Pic is worth a thousand words. Congrats on great adventure, can't wait for the story.

Congrats. That buck of your brothers is a stud.

Heck of a deer congrats.

Looks like a big dark boar coati. The males are usually pretty easy to distinguish cause their coat is similar to a chocolate lab and they are usually alone. That looks like a real big one. I usually don't see them up in the pines.

I was in hunting camp. Only a UA and Washington State fans would start talking Rose Bowl after ending a 3 game losing streak. Congrats on the win, it was a good one, but you might not wanna book your plane ticket to Pasadena quite yet.

Looks awesome. Good luck on your bivy adventure. I have always wanted to do that.

Yes, and no. The reason that UA got shut out was because Oregon was playing their starters in the second half. The reason they were playing their starters was because the outcome wasn't certain at half (not that it was close, it just wasn't 20+), ASU had the opportunity to play its starters against a lot of Oregon backups in the second half. Now, that being said if ASU had been able to make a field goal, punch it in from the one, and make a catch in the endzone on the last play of the game; the outcome could have looked a lot different. That would have put them within 5. Unfortunately, they didn't. What they did do was turn the ball over a lot, and give up an ungodly number of rushing yards. Those big runs in the first half were directly related to the lack of Will Sutton up front, that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes. So all in all I really think both performances were pretty similar. ASU had trouble executing against the duck defense, and UA never could take advantage of opportunities that presented themselves. One thing is clear to me, Oregon is a big, bad football team and I for one hope they beat the pants off an SEC team in the BCS championship. Sutton would of helped, but you guys were beat in every aspect and still would of been with him in. Remember you guys lost to a bad Missouri which hurts the PAC because they are a bottom barrel SEC team. Still along ways to go for these programs to be thinking national recognition. And UA's dominance of SC State really lent itself to adding a lot of credibility to the Pac. BTW - ASU gave up less than 100 passing yards to Oregon, and had 200 of their own, so I think its a stretch to say ASU was outmatched in that department. The inability to stop the run was the card that brought down the house. I am not saying that Will Sutton would have stopped it if he was in the game, but Oregon sure did a good job of exploiting his absence. With Will in the game I do not claim that the outcome is any different, just that the odds of those two big runs goes way down.

How much life left on the tires.

I have some buddies from Joe City that hunted 3A during the late archery hunt and did well. Ended up killing a smaller 6 point but they stalked 300+ bulls everyday they hunted. Get out of the pines, and glass and I think you could do really well. Good luck and have a great trip. Don't forget to give us a report afterwards, we will all be excited to hear how it goes.

I was wondering about this also, does the kid get cited, or the adult he was hunting with? Unfortunately things happen, especially when dealing with young or new hunters. I can see how someone could shoot and wound a cow and in the hustle to put another round in her hit the wrong elk. I have seen this happen. Its a bummer when it happens, but I would guess it is not all that uncommon. Glad to hear G&F was reasonable for you Siwash, my experience has been similar.

Great bull. Congrats on sticking it out and getting the job done.

I hear the squirrel hunting is great up on the rim this year.