COOSEFAN

Whooo Hooo! Great job Garrett! Loved the story and it sounded like you really know what you are doing, you deserve it and congratulations to you! Great job gettin' em' out Joe! JIM>

You know, that Chupacabre incident still gives me the chills just thinking about it........definitely the most scared I've ever been, even though it was probably something harmless I'm sure Thanks Ernest, you said it best though...."you won't see them if you don't get out". We spent ALOT of time behind the binos last month and that definitely increases your chances of rare sightings. We never would have known there was a Jaguar in the vicinity if it weren't for Craig "slicing" through the bottom and kicking it out. We had sat on that same spot for several days prior and that cat was probably there below us the whole time! I use the cheap chaps which are just snake chaps from Sportsmans Wharehouse, but my client had a nice pair of brush-buster type chaps he got from Cabelas.....but I don't think they are snake proof, but they are alot quieter. The rancher killed two BIG rattlesnakes the last week of Dec. just before we got there, so we were on edge all the time to say the least! Thanks, JIM>

I knew there had to be somethin'.......... thanks for unveiling his secret! JIM>

HOLY MASSSSS!!!!! Dang nice bucks, huge congrats to both!!! JIM>

That is funny..... Thanks Gino for slappin' some mud back at em'! You know, my season is done, and I'm ready to do some of that kind of scouting! Funny stuff right there! Thanks, JIM>

Thanks guys and gals! I really appreciate the fact that nobody has questioned me about what I saw. I knew I could tell my CWT.com family about this and you wouldn't kick me out the door......you guys are awesome! The sight of that Jaguar is something that will be burned in my brain forever and I still can't believe I saw one! I've done some research and I'm now fully confident that it was indeed a Jaguar, it had short legs and had an arch to his back which made him look similar to a bear with a long tail! The darker colors was probably due to the elevation and terrain but I did see pic's that showed the same color phase as the one I saw, so now I have no doubt it was a Jaguar! As far as setting trail cams up, I can't explain to you how thick the bottoms of the ravines are, it's unbelieveable thick! And to be truthful, it's very scary 'cause all you have is a dull machete, you can't swing a rifle around in there, and I have no clue how protective a Jaguar is over his kill! So, pretty much we were too chicken to go back in! Scottyboy, I did see one covey of quail and they looked like those Elegante' Quail! I asked the cowboy on the ranch and he said he see's very few as well but agreed on what type of quail they were. They held very tight and with the amount of country I covered I feel I should have seen more, but I don't know. Also I would be afraid to try and follow dogs in that mess of cactus and thornbushes! I told my partners to find out more about those quail and if there's any better places to hunt them. I'll let ya know. Thanks again, JIM>

When you get to your glassing point.....with sweat dripping off your hat and you are only wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt......and the sun hasn't even come up yet........you know it's not a good day to be hunting "rutting" Coues deer! It was 70 degrees just as the sun started to peak over the horizon and I knew we were in trouble. The ranch that we have been trying to develop is so thick you need rutting deer to increase the chances you will have a buck walk through an opening, or hear them at least. We had decent ruttin' activity the week prior but weren't lucky enough to have the big bucks stop long enough in a clearing for a shot, and I had hoped it would be colder on this hunt and see more activity, but I was wrong. It did get down to around 40 degrees just before sun-up towards the end of the hunt, but it didn't take long before it was in the mid 80's on those days. Regardless of the temps, we found a couple bucks everyday and even seen a few great bucks but they were too fast and too far. Finally, the day after I had my experience with the "big kitty", my friend and client "Steve" and I tried out a new spot. We had gone in the evening before using machete's to cut a trail to a glassing point and cut down trees and bushes on the point so that we could sneak in the following morning. It was nice to walk in that morning and not have to do the "chop n' dodge" with all the cactus and we settled in on what was now our best vantage point yet and it was also our coldest morning of the hunt at around 40 degrees. With the sun lighting up the adjacent ridge we started finding deer and soon Steve excitedly said he found a shooter. He got me on it as he slapped on his shooting fork and readied his rifle. This was our 4th day and this was a shooter if it would stand long enough for a shot. I grunted loudly to stop the deer and it worked, but Steve couldn't relocate the buck in his scope. The buck started walking again and I stopped him again, this time I kept grunting and he stayed put listening to me. I looked up realizing Steve was pointing in the wrong spot and quickly got him back on the buck just as he started to go again. I stopped em' one last time and told Steve the range was 453 yards.......BOOM.................................WHOP! The buck went straight up on his hind legs and continued over flat on his back and never moved again. Steve is the gentlemen who lost the buck in Dec. with me that got back up and later was seen running around, so you could imagine how cautious we were before taking the rifle off the "appearantly" dead buck! The buck was indeed dead and after an hour of using machetes to hack and cut our way to the buck we finally had our hands on em'! This was one of those small bodied bucks that are impossible to judge when standing by itself, it looked ALOT bigger than it was but it didn't matter. With the incredible difficulty in finding deer in this terrain and getting a good shot on one, we knew that any buck would be a great trophy and this one certainly was! I don't like hunting really thick country, but the big bucks live there and we saw a few on this ranch. The problem is that you need the rut to help get them moving around and you have to be ready to judge quality fast and shoot even faster! Next year I'll be hunting near Hermosillo and I'll leave the machete's behind!

I love that frame..........I would probably have shot Thanks for sharin' the video Jason! JIM>

That ram is a beast! I love all the character he's got, wide flaring, dark colored, and tons of battle scars........that's a freakin' awesome ram!!!! Thanks to Eric for lettin' Gina post the pic's and congrats to you both on a once in a lifetime experience! Would love to hear the whole story Congrats again, JIM>

Gorgeous buck!!!! I want one like that! Great job and congrats! JIM>

I don't think a day went by where I wasn't thinking about startin' a fire! I really did enjoy the heck outta choppin' cactus and trees down with the machete.........that relieved alot of the frustrations for sure! That ranch is mostly under 1000 ft. elevation, the ranch house is at 350 ft. and one of my glassing points was right at 975 ft. LOTS of Palo Verde, Mesquite, Organ Pipe Cactus, and a bunch of trees and cactus that I've never seen before. The bigger bucks I saw "looked" like they would easily meet or exceed that 110-115" class................BUT, after puttin' my hands on a few of these deer I realized they can have VERY small bodies. Those "dwarf" deer can make a 110" class rack look every bit 120"..........so I really don't know how big they were, but they were big regardless Thanks for the replys', JIM>

I just got an email from a guy saying he saw my article in Hunting Illustrated and I was curious if he got it mixed up with the one that was in Western Hunter? I haven't received the latest issue yet, and Hunting Illustrated does have an article from me, but they never said for sure they would print it. Anybody see the latest issue? Thanks, JIM>

"YOUR" Victoria's Secret catalog?? I didn't even get that in the mail today.....dangit.

Everyone else seems to have gotten their subscription but me? I'll run down to the mailbox for the 3rd time right now, maybe it's there? Thanks, JIM>

Here's some pic's of my Mexico buck from last year. This one is my biggest so I wanted something a little different and had him mounted as a table pedestal and wanted his head tilted back, nose curled and teeth showin'. I think the taxi did a decent job, but having been best friends with a taxi (GTT) for alot of years I know what to look for. I should have had GTT do the mount to begin with but I've already overloaded him with all my other critters so I tried a new place out instead. It's crazy how some taxi's just don't care about what leaves their shop. It's usually just a matter of a few small details that can make a world of difference on the appearance of a mount. I know it's just commercial, "slam n' jam" style taxidermy, but you would think there should still be an element of pride in workmanship, especially on something custom. Oh well, I love this deer regardless how the mount looks and it does look good from a distance (especially after GTT fixed some things on it) The taxi I took it to does very fast work and puts out a high volume of work every year, he is very professional and it was a pleasure dealing with him..........just keep it all in perspective and don't expect "show quality" work and you'll probably be happy. If you want "show quality" work, take it elsewhere and don't get upset if the taxi says it'll take 2 years........he probably takes his time and prides himself in what leaves his shop Thanks JIM>

I never thought of it that way........... but now, thanks to you I will forever think he looks scared! He does look better in person, the camera creates wierd angles and higlights, but the overall mount is not bad. I just stare at his massive antlers everytime anyways so who cares what the rest looks like Thanks JIM>

Nevermind, I just got word that my article did make it into the magazine...........AND IT'S ON THE FREAKIN' COVER BABY! WhoooHooo! I can't wait to see it! JIM>

I've been testing the waters in the southern portions and I know there are some monsters but it's generally very thick in most areas. I think in general you will stand a better chance at killing a really big deer farther north and you will see more deer in most areas farther north. On our southern ranch we averaged around 4 bucks per day and at least one 90" class buck per day with only one 110"+ buck seen in 5 days. In only 1 day on a ranch in the northern part, we killed a 105", saw 14 bucks, with 4 being 100"+ and one 110+ buck........in one day and we weren't even hunting hard! The rut was just getting started last week on my southern ranch and it was in full swing on the northern ranch, so I'm hoping this next week I can prove that you can kill huge bucks in southern Mexico.......just need a little more patience when hunting thick vegetation, but they are there P.S. When I say "Southern" I mean only 3 1/2 hours south of Hermosillo.......and about 1 hour NW of Hermosillo is "Northern" to me.

I noticed a difference in the deer we took last week. The deer around Hermosillo were much lighter grey just like our AZ deer, but the deer we took farther south near Obregon appeared brown from a distance. The pictures don't do it justice, but the coats on the Obregon deer are the same color of a late season Kiabab Muley coat! They had very thin hair and very small hooves. The antlers were polished and smooth like an eastern whitey. I'm sure the differences are because we were at 375 ft elevation, tons of vegetation and it never gets very cold. As for the very small hooves......I'm still stumped on that one. I'll get more pics this next week. JIM> South Mexico Coues.... and here's the normal grey colored Coues taken near Hermosillo....

WHHOOOOOHOOOO!!! What a PIG of a buck!!! Huge congrats to you! JIM>

Hey Monty, you sure that bull didn't get whacked last year? I think we've got video of him and if it's the same one I heard it died JIM>

I went through all my photos and tried to stay away from kill photos but I can't help it...........for me, NONE of my photos evokes the spirit of the hunt or joy of hunting more than these two photos! It was amazing to share in the experience as these two boys took their first bucks, and for me it's what hunting is all about. The size of the bucks didn't matter, it was all about experiencing the hunt in every aspect and ultimately ended up in success for both JIM>

i don't like to bring that one up.........my counselor advised against it

I like "Survivor Man - Redneck Style" ! I think with gettin' in a fist fight with a Coues, gettin' bit by a sidewinder, teaching a bull elk how to drink out of a water bottle, climbing in caves after pigs, finding human body parts and whatever else I've done.......that title fits perfectly! The water bottle incident happened a few years ago with a very sick spike bull that couldn't jump a fence to make it to the shade of a treeline. It was extremely hot and no water for miles so we tried splashing water on his mouth and after a while he got comfortable and took the bottle from me and drank it himself. You could tell he was feeling better and got aggressive once he found out we were out of water.........that's when he used his spikes to "help" me over the fence I dropped a gate not far from where he was and left returning a while later and he was gone, appearantly making it to the trees. I think he lived to see another day Here's where I showed him the bottle was empty, I told him there was no more, and he did a dog-like growl and charged! This was actually neat to see 'cause he could barely stand up when we first found him.