COOSEFAN

There are a bunch of Coues bucks that have been killed because of Duwane and Tony's book! Very informative.....maybe too informative on some points ......but an outstanding book that I would reccomend to anyone interested in Coues huntin'. I've got one paperback copy that looks like it's been drug behind my truck, every open spot throughout the book has numbers and scores scribbled down and it goes with me on every coues hunt I've been on since I bought it! It's great to flip through the pictures to get the heart pumpin' the night before opening day! I've also got a signed hardback copy on the shelf signed by Mr. Mandile and Mr. Adams The other book " Deer of the Southwest" is a must have as well. I haven't read all through it yet, but it's a great book full of all the fine details pertaining to these little critters we love so much! ( i've also got a signed copy of that one on the shelf as well )

Hey guys, have to make this short, headin' out for a Sheep hunt within' the hour!!! Here is one of my guys and his bull. I hunted with my buddy and the client for most of the hunt and finally on the evening of the 6th day we had a good bull to put on the ground. The problem was that it was in the deepest canyon in the unit and lucky for us there was a road on the other side! We still had a 200 yard packout but it was mostly straight up! The pic's don't do it justice at all, but we had to tie ropes to the elk to keep it from rolling to the bottom! In the pic's we are trying to not move the bull much for fear of it takin' off through the tree that initially stopped the first fall! That was the toughest and scariest skinning/quartering job I've ever done! The bull has 54" beams, 42" wide, and small tines but still scored 325" and was a great bull after all the effort put forth throughout the hunt. Here's some scenic pics and some indian rock art..... Here's a cool pic of the peaks.....

Took a pic of this buck at a friends house. Thought it was cool with the shadow of the Christmas tree on the wall. The buck is an absolute stud and has no history other than it was purchased in a silent auction at a ADA banquet..........for just a little over $100.00! The mount was too high up for me to pull it down and score it, so I don't know what it is.......but I would say between 115" and 120". JIM>

Thanks guys, now I'm finally headin' out.......had to stock back up on the rain gear almost forgot it I've never had the opportunity to hunt Sheep before so this is my first, I'm not guiding, just excited to finally get to experience it! Thanks, JIM>

Hey David, your daughter has a great sense of fashion! Sorry about the pressure over there....but if we didn't kill those bulls, you guys would have, so somebody had to do it! It's OK.......we got new spots I did hear who is sending people over there and it's a shame they are resorting to doing that type of stuff. They will have less pressure in their spots now, but they will also be seeing more of us there I just wish they weren't giving hunters my pictures to go along with the detailed maps they are handing out! Oh well......great bull David!

Hey now, you guys are way to kind and are makin' me blush like a little school girl ..... back to topic........ Way to go Longshooter!!!

She's a beautiful dog Amanda! Congrats on the new addition to the family I love her coloring and I would name her "Tawny" because of it. JIM>

Gorgeous buck! I have a saying about how I like to hunt....."smarter and harder".........you obviously utilized the first part of that motto! Great job, great buck! JIM>

Jack, that is awesome! That is an amazing collection of huge coues bucks! Are those just the smaller ones that you didn't feel like mounting? I'm gonna pretend like those all came out of the same area too.........get's me all excited for the upcoming Dec. hunt! JIM>

Right on David! Great bull, love the character AND that fact he ain't broke I really wish I was in your unit with ya, it was definitely a better year this year Huge congrats to you buddy, and If I'm not mistaken, I like that hat your daughter is wearin'! JIM>

WOW.....what a stud bull! Great job and effort gettin' that bruiser! Congrats! JIM>

WHOOOHOOOO! That's awesome guys! I was hoping you would find one of the bigger ones, but who cares when it's down to the last evening hunt! That's a whole lotta good eatin' right there All I did was give you guys a spot on a map........you guys did the huntin' and shootin' that put the bull in the truck, you guys deserve all the credit, great job! It was great meeting you guys and glad I could help out a little JIM>

Awesome pic's and fantastic bull!!! Congrats to you guys! JIM>

Congrats on a great hunt! I'm sure the memories and experience of that hunt won't be forgotten! JIM>

I've been asked several times now about the similarities that the bucks we've taken have. I can see the similarities in my '07 and Craigs beast, but Shorty's '07 and my '06 are quite a bit different I think. All these bucks came from the same area and the one thing that hold's true in all the deer we see and kill out of there is the very small G1's! It is neat to see the differences and similarities in antlers from one small area though! (i forgot what a stud Craig's buck was until i dug this pic back up!!!) Craigs beast.... My '07........ Shorty's '07...... My '06.......

Bear with me folks, this may be the longest story i've posted, but it's a good one, I hope you take the time to read it, it was definitely a special hunt! You all have seen tons of pic's of my buddy Craig on here last couple of years, but his two boys Tyler (14) and Tanner (12) drew a tough Muley hunt this year and they invited me to go and I excitedly accepted the invite! These boys have both killed pigs but this was to be their first deer hunt! I've been on this hunt many times before and have had the tag myself and I know how tough it is and how bad the hunter pressure gets, but we felt confident we could find a few bucks to hunt if we hunted "smarter and harder"! This was to be our theme that we would live by and teach these boys during this hunt and we did just that! "Smarter and harder" is the best way to hunt this hunt because of all the hunters runnin' around. The "smarter" part is easy 'cause you just sit back and watch where all the quads, trucks, UTV's, and people are at during that first day of the hunt. We climbed up to the highest peak and made a note of the pressure areas and the non-pressure areas and we would then glass those non-pressure areas and find deer! By the evening of the second day, a bunch of the deer had been pushed further into higher country and further from the roads. The canyons are deeper and farther from the roads but this is where the concentrations of deer were showing up. Saturday evening we glassed up a herd of bucks. The light and distance kept us from seeing antlers, but we could see two of the deer sparring and pushing each other up and down the hill, so we now had our destination picked out for the following morning. This is where the "harder" part comes into play! Sunday morning finds us four taking the Ranger as far as we could into our area and then setting out on foot an hour before sunlight. We had two deep and steep canyons to cross to get to our pre-determined glassing point that would put us directly across from the bucks the night before. The boys did awesome! They each carried all their own gear in their adult sized backpacks and never complained about the hike! We arrived at our point and set up the 15's and instantly had bucks in our veiw! They were less than 100 yards from where we left them the night before. This was a huge lesson for the boys and they thought that was awesome we knew where the bucks would be in the morning! Craig noticed the big buck first and he was sparring with a smaller 2 point and would continue this for another 45 minutes after! There were around 8 other bucks and I don't know how many does on the same hill and it was amazing seeing that many deer in one spot. I'm sure it's because of the surrounding pressure and it helped the boys realize where the "smarter" part of our theme comes into play! The boys knew the hard work hiking in to this spot was starting to pay off and the exictement was about to kick into overdrive! The hill was 1100 yards away so I stayed put while Craig and the boys hiked down the canyon and up to a small hill in the middle, hopefully putting them within 200 yards of the deer. I watched as the big buck, which was a beautiful 3x3, sparred with the smaller 2 point. The other bucks were all small spikes and forkies, but any of them may be in danger on this day! We planned on Tyler getting first crack at em' and they would try for the big buck first and hopefully get Tanner on the 2 point if given the chance. They topped over the hill and the bucks all had made their way directly accross from Craig and the boys giving them a 200 yard shot. They located the big buck, Tyler set up and dropped the hammer sending the bullet just over the bucks back. The deer all ran up the canyon and Craig, leaving Tanner on point with his rifle, grabs Tyler and they haul butt up the canyon as well. The buck slowed down to cross the bottom and made his way up the same hill they were on. Tyler set back up as the buck walked up and stopped in an opening less than 200 yards just long enough for Tyler's .270 to blow out both his airbags and tip em' over!!! Craig took Tyler down to the deer to make sure he was done, then left him there and ran back to Tanner. Tanner had watched as the rest of the herd ran back towards me and they proceeded to follow. I had the whole herd below me as they snuck up to 200 yards again, but Tanner was facing directly into the sun and the deer were all bunched up making it impossible to pick out a single buck. We decided to let them go as they were settling down so we could hunt them later. We hauled butt back over into the canyon to get our hands on Tyler's first buck! What a beauty....especially for a first deer! It took me alot of years before I finally got a decent muley and Tyler whacked one right off the bat! It was a special moment to share with them and I know I was proud as heck for Tyler and his daddy! Tyler got to finally experience first hand what his daddy had been talking about over the years......."watch out when you kill something and Jimbo's there with a camera, it ain't no fun if yer the lucky hunter"! Tyler did awesome and hung in there for the photo session even though his legs were killin' him! With the heat, we didn't take that long with pics and we knew we would have to fully skin and quarter this deer to get him out! With Craig's and my packs loaded full of meat, Tyler's pack full of hide and antlers, and Tanner's pack overfull with our jackets and other gear we finally headed out. We made it about 3/4 of a mile when Craig, who was in the lead, dropped to the ground. I grabbed Tanner who was in front of me and pointed ahead through a hole in the brush and you could see ears and antlers! The deer were about 100 yards but were in tight with each other and Tanner wouldn't be able to shoot from his knee so all we could do was stay motionless! I was hunched over with my heavy pack holding on to Tanner and we all stayed still for about 3 minutes when they finally moved out. Tanner and I ran up to a clearing as the deer single file made their way through and we identified it was the same herd, but they had a new-comer! A bigger buck joined up with them and he was nice! He ran through at about 80 yards and Tanner got one shot off but shot behind the buck. Now Tanner and I ran up into the clearing, followed his tracks to make sure it was a miss and then proceeded along the base of the hill that they ran up. It was hot, around 12:00 and the deer acted like they didn't want to run anymore so we just took our time looking under the shade trees on the hill. Several hundred yards later we had deer shapes under a tree 200 yards up the hill and they weren't spooked any more! I (gladly) pulled off my pack and wrestled it into position in front of Tanner. He got his rifle on it and watched the deer as they slowly fed out into a small opening. Tanner sees that they are spikes and steady's himself for the shot......BOOOM....miss, the buck runs forward and another small buck steps into veiw........BOOOM....miss! The shots were just high and I calmly told Tanner to aim a little lower than he had been and just then the bigger buck steps through but not long enough for a shot! Now the deer are hidden from us, and surprisingly not spooked! Craig and Tyler are about 80 yards to our right and Craig is holding up the "feeding" sign and he could see all the deer from his angle. Tanner then informs me he's only got one bullet left and Craig had the rest in Tanners pack with him! Tanner was set up and I didn't want to chance moving so we decided to make our last bullet count if given the opportunity. This whole time I'm worried about the meat and the uncaped head of Tylers buck because the heat was cooking us where we sat! We stuck it out for another 5 minutes and then a spike stepped out heading back to where we had previously shot. Tanner got his scope on the opening as the spike passed by and then the small 2 point stepped out but Tanner and I decided we would save that last bullet for the big buck! There was a little pause with no deer but as I was trying to calm Tanner down the big buck stepped out! I yelled to try and stop the buck but he kept walking and .....BOOOM! Tanner had the buck dead to rights even though he didn't stop and I didn't see or hear evidence of a hit so I jumped up with my binos and watched as the buck appeared in another opening, running with his rump and tail in the air and then doing a flip into the grass!!! HE'S DOWN!!! WhoooooHooooo!!! I'm gettin' all excited again just typing this! We got up there and were all excited at Tanners great buck and noticed he made a perfect shot just above the armpit in the shoulder and through the heart! The hugs and hootin' and hollerin' started and it was a great time to be on that mountain that day! Again, it was a special moment that I was very thankful to be a part of and just proud as heck of those boys! Now it was Tanner's turn for the photo session, but with the heat and fact that we were already in the middle of packing a deer out, we took a few with Craig and Tyler and they took off to see how far they could get the Ranger in there. Tanner and I finished a few pic's and then started tearin' into that deer like a pack of coyotes! I guarantee if we hadn't skinned that deer when we did, we would have lost most of it! It was very hot and the meat was even hotter as we opened it up, but we got it skinned and quartered in record time and soon had a tree full of venison and two extremely worn out, but very content dudes sittin' under it! Craig and Tyler were able to get the Ranger close to us so we thankfully didn't have to pack out two deer and made it back to camp that much faster. I caped out both bucks and got the hides on ice and then let the boys finish cleaning off their skulls. They enjoyed the heck out of it and spent quite a while cleaning them up, doing a great job. From start to finish, Tyler and Tanner did an amazing job, they were willing to go wherever and whenever we needed to, and they never complained or lost hope! They worked very hard for their first deer and I'm sure because of that, they will treasure this experience as much as I know Craig and I do, and i'm sure they won't ever forget their first bucks! Thanks for reading this "book" that I wrote, I've just been excited to share it and all the details with you all JIM> Here's the boys cleaning off their skulls......

Popps got his Mexico beast back and we hung it up last night. The taxi did an OK job and it looks good from a distance at least . I'm learning that getting a mount back fast and good quality..... rarely go hand in hand Anyways, here it is and check out Popps' awesome wall......just pretend like the floppy-eared critter in the middle isn't there Here's the feild photo again of Popps' 109 7/8" beast!

Hey all, just a heads up that I am leaving for a couple weeks and won't be checking emails or PM's after today until I return. Best of luck to all with Elk and Deer tags! Should have a bunch of pic's in a few weeks! Thanks, JIM>

Dangit........those links don't work for me and I don't know why.....just a blank screen?

Yeah, Popps isn't droppin' the hammer unless it's at least 120's! but then again.........i think he's more interested in catching a whole mess of 10+ pound bass out of the lake, so he might whack the first thing that steps out I'll whack the 120 while he's fishing

Howdy guys and gals, I've been on here for several hours already just trying to catch up on everyones great stories and successes! Holy cow there are some great critters hittin' the dirt this year!!! Congrats to all of ya and best of luck to those still out! I had the good fortune to draw my early WT tag again this year and so did a few buddy's of mine. I took the ol' .270 out and got it dialed in better than it's ever been, had my confidence all jacked up and I was chompin' at the bit to get out in Coues country again! Shortypants and T-bone (Terry) would meet us down there and we arrived 2 days before the hunt started and shot our rifles to make sure everything was set. Our shooting was on and camp was soon set up. We found some bucks on Thurs. and our hopes were high, but as expected all the long lines of hunters started rolling in Thurs. night and it was hotter than heck! The full moon made for easy hikes off the mountains but it put the bucks to bed early and most had no intentions of getting up during daylight hours! This was going to be a tough hunt! My buddy Craig showed up Fri. morning to film my hunt and was a little late so we didn't make it to my hill in time and three other hunters beat us there. This rarely happens and I was frustrated but I hunted the "back door" instead and let these hunters do the hard work! I watched as they kicked up my bucks and took one shot. They missed and obviously couldn't find the bucks as they snuck out the "other back door" and dissapeared. We watched as they walked around and threw rocks trying to kick out the imaginary deer and then we headed back to camp to reorganize and change our plans. The cool thing I noticed on this hunt was that everywhere that Shorty and I found bucks last year on our backpack trip, I found bucks exactly in the same spot this year! They seemed very habitual and it made it easy to formulate game plans that would surely end up in spotting bucks! Craig and I set out mid-day to a spot where two nice bucks gave Shorty and I the slip last year. This spot had several great North facing slopes that were not visible to anyone driving roads. With sweat pouring off Craig and I, we hiked up to the biggest hill and sidehilled over to a saddle. This was a long finger ridge running south off the biggest mountain. It had several small catclaw filled draws running to the West off it which created perfect North facing bedding areas. Our plan was to sneak down one side and crawl over to the south to glass the North facing side of the next draw. As we made our way slowly down the finger just off skyline, we ran into a covey of Mearns and we held still until they walked away without busting. We continued on until we got about halfway and took off our packs. I slowly crawled over with the sun beating down on me and started glassing the ridge as it came into veiw. The distance here was only about 100 yrds, and the vegetation was very thick catclaw and beargrass with some big oaks and mesquites. I moved farther over the crest to get a complete veiw of the draw and set up my tripod and 15's to look into the dense catclaw. Craig stayed back and waited, but as soon as I scanned down the draw I panned across something white! I looked harder and noticed it was the front of a back leg on a bedded Coues! I looked left and then noticed a dark rack sticking above the catclaw and two ears out either side of the small bush. His face was blocked by this branch but he was looking my direction so I didn't move. I scanned around to see if any bigger bucks were laying with this one and saw nothing and then went back to the rack. SHOOTER! I didn't pay attention too much at first, but after looking closer I could see he had great G2's and long beams! I turned to Craig and just said I'm gonna kill em' now! Craig almost yelled at me "NO YOU AINT"! "I didn't pack this heavy tripod and camera for nothing", he said, so I got all set up on my shooting set-up with my sticks and tripod and once the crosshairs were steady I gave Craig the thumbs up to make his move with the camera. Craig crawled over next to me, acquired the buck, panned over me with the camera and zoomed in on the bedded buck. I ranged him at 190 yards and held for slightly less because of the downhill angle.........all went calm......crosshairs low on his shoulder.........BOOM....WHOP! The gun jumped off my tripod, I jacked another shell in while turning the power down on my scope, lined back up and all I could see was the bush below him moving! I scanned around and nothing else moved and soon the bush stopped moving! I turned to Craig and he just had his thumbs in the air with the camera already back on me! I knew it was solid, I heard the sound I wanted to hear, and Craig had the smile that I wanted to see! I played the video back and watched as the bullet smacked right where the crosshairs were, the buck had jumped straight up, spun on his back legs and tipped over faster than I was able to get back on him! I was thinking he was a solid 90" type buck when I shot, but was thrilled when I finally pulled him out of the catclaw an noticed how great a buck he is! Craig did a fantastic job with the video and was a huge help in packing him off that mountain, I can't thank him enough! My boys, Shorty, T-Bone, and Troy all threw lead at great deer in the following days and we came home with some fantastic bucks and incredible memories!!! Thanks to these guys for a hunt I won't forget and I can't wait to do it all over again next year! This is my biggest AZ Coues buck and is actually the 6th buck I've taken in less than 2 years! It just goes to show I can't get enough of these awesome little critters! We taped my buck out at 99 6/8" so he was only 2/8" away from me finally taking a 100" buck in AZ! Oh well.......next year I'll get that 100"er Thanks guys, JIM> And here's the one to show off the new CWT.com shirt! I was goin' to pack it in my backpack to put it on for the feild photos, but forgot

Whooohoo.......what did I win? How 'bout a day in the creosotes with ya showin' me how to kill big archery Mulies jk.....best of luck to ya Jason beatin' your last buck this Jan., and congrats again to your pops! Gorgeous buck! JIM>

Awesome effort and equally awesome buck! Congrats, JIM>

Awesome story and an awesome buck! Great job to everyone and huge congrats to Tina! JIM>

LMAO......."dinglecheese".......... Thats a new one!