gotcoues

Spot and Stalk coues is hard to beat, they can only get bigger and better from here! Nice job

Very Cool! Congrats to your daughter on her coues.

Congrats on your first archery success story. Here's to many more to come!!!

Mike, that is an awesome archery goat. A true "no brainer". Congrats my friend, very happy for you!

That's great, glad you were able to make good on long wait! Congrats

Decided to do a little research on the "unwritten rules" and I found a few more. I'll list them below 6. 7. I'll keep looking into this, hopefully I can find a few more

Not really sure, just mentioned it cause I've seen some complaints over the yrs and its come up before. Again, sorry for butting in. I have no skin in the game, just been on here a long time.

I didn't write the unwritten rule, cut me some slack. I hadn't heard about 4 or 5 yet. Thanks for the heads up

Hey Speedy, is this guy a sponsor of the site? If not, I believe the unwritten rule is mentioning his name is fine but posting direct links is frowned upon due to the sponsors of the site that help keep this site a float get "the advertisement". Santana Outdoors are great people to deal with. I even shopped around and they gave the best deal on my pack. Just saying, sorry to butt in

It's all about the revenue. If archery success goes up, unit goes to draw only. Too many units go draw only and you'll probably see much less archery tags being sold. I'm sure double dipping the archery hunters because most puchase rifle tags as well is something they can't afford to lose. It all comes back to go buy yours tags and please don't fill them. When the G & F objectives for your average rifle deer hunts are set at 20% success , doesn't that tell you all you need to know

110

I started using "ambush" methods of blinds and stands in 05'. I've tried it all including sitting water, baits of all kinds, salt and salt type products and last but not least, singing loudly in the sexiest voice I could muster from my treestand. To date, I have one mature coues buck taken with archery equipment from a treestand. I've never had a shot opportunity out of blind and I have had three misses out of treestands (two jumping string & one misjudged yardage). This timeline I have given includes at minimum, 300 hrs sitting on my behind with one successful kill. I've climbed into my stand long before light after a 45 minute walk in, and many times, have sat all day until sundown. I've passed on a fair amount of shot opportunities over the years due to rack size and/or distance. Besides the long hours sitting, there are many more hours of prep, maintenance, card swapping and miles put on the dodge etc. I laugh at the notion anyone can go sprinkle some bait on the ground, set up a blind and go kill a mature coues deer with archery equipment. Good luck with that! Oh and the one coues deer I did manage to kill was from a stand set at 30' to the foot platform.

I would have to venture a guess that "the majority of hunters agree with the proposal to ban" is speculation at best and standing on a thin limb. Now, on the other hand if you were to say the majority of rifle only hunters don't like archer's baiting I could digest that and strongly disagree with their possible motives. Optic Nerd, you also pointed out how what if people go back to tactics used 20 or 30 yrs ago. My question is, what is stopping you? If you want to hike the hills with iron sights and no binoculars I think you should. I also think, no one should be able to tell you not to do that. I feel this discussion is not whether you like or don't like the tactic of baiting, it's about enough is enough with new laws and new regulations. If the archers are becoming too successful, then set harvest limits rather than to pick and choose how one should hunt. How would rifle hunters like it if someone said nothing over a 300 yard shot is ethical and by law you are forbidden to do so. Would all the tradition archers with recurve equipment shout hooray and it's about time? I highly doubt it. Another detail that I missed in skimming over all the post is archers are expanding their ranges to long long distances. My assumption is baiting would tend to provide a much more ethical shot than long range spot and stalk. I highly doubt people who spot and stalk attempt to get 20 yards from a coues deer and I would assume the opposite for someone sitting a bait pile. If indeed baiting is so wide spread, you also have an economic impact (minor at best) that would have to be a positive. Using more gasoline, buying feed etc.. I strongly disagree with the proposal of a baiting ban and would like to see mandatory harvest reporting of rifle and archery deer to better look at the numbers. Also, like I mentioned before, most Aug/Sep bowhunters have two deer tags they have paid for and if one does not go down by an arrow, one can still go down with a bullet. So the too much success is a weak statement when the rifle is brought in as back up if they are unsuccessful. Conservative point of view. " I don't like it, therefore I shall not do it" Liberal point of view. "I don't like it, therefore I'll try like heck to make sure no one can do it."

I've already found the tree stump on google earth and I believe I have the bucks located as well. P.S. They're still together and the racks look just a touch bigger from the google earth pictures I'm looking at. Thanks for showing me the way

Bob, have no fear! About 10 years ago, give or take I met a man who was a fully trained Shadow Wolf Team Member Guy. They smell the wind and follow tracks for miles. Does this mean I too can join the team? Big Bucks, Big Bucks Baby! It's not what you know, it's who you know! Put me on "The Team" Bob! Disclaimer..... I'm committed to help on the 2nd Jr. Hunt (my boys), Early Archery (one of my boys), the Oct WT (Nelson), both Nov WT (women's camp 1rst & Daughter + good friend 2nd hunt) and the December Rifle Whitetail hunt. (Angie). I'm assuming you have the early Jr Hunt and therefore I'll be a great asset to "The Team"! I won't let you down Bob.

I have the Just One pack by Eberlestock and I believe the Dragon fly is about the same except for the top hatch is removable and you can use it as a fanny pack. I can fit a swaro angled spotter in the vertical zippers on either side. It's a good fit for the spotter. Tripods slips in the outside side pocket and glassing chair in opposite side pocket. Lashing straps on the pack hold both tight to the pack. I don't see the advantage for the dragonfly pack unless you like the fanny pack idea. Check Santana Outdoors, they have a video showing each Eberlestock pack in detail. Also don't forget to ask for you CWT discount if you order from them. I would recommend my pack to anyone, I love it. I packed an entire gutted coues minus the head/ cape in the meat compartment and it rode very well in the pack.

Warranty stays with binoculars, you can verify by calling swaro.

That's a mighty big tusk you got there dog

Agreed, they don't want us to fill tags. Correct me if I'm wrong but their target goals for our success rates on deer hunts (rifle) is 20%. They will keep handing out more tags (higher numbers) until the succes rate is around 20%. A deer every 5 years of hunting? That's absurd. Also, I would think, most archers who fill their Aug Archery tag have already paid for a rifle tag. I hope hunters will unite and voice their opinion against these new type laws.

Thanks for sharing, your pictures are really neat to look at. My buddy John B over at Universal was telling me about your pictures and I knew he was referring to you even though we haven't met and John's not on CWT either. Pretty funny, small world.

Your inbox is full Bowsniper, tried to send you a message.

Geez! Amazing Bucks, and gorgeous taxidermy work Devin. According to Obama, he is probably gonna need to give one of those up.

I put most of my cameras 18" to 24" off the ground to make sure nothing gets by. I think lower to the ground is also less noticeable in case people are in the area hiking around. If you are on a trail, you need to face it up the trail and not across the trail. Some of the cams out there have slow trigger speed and the animals may walk by before pic is taken. Good luck

I've heard the x2 by elberlestock is a great pack for smaller people. I can't remember if it has the scabbard or not. If it doesn't, they also sell them as an accessory I think. There was an x2 for sale on here a few days ago.

I can't wait to see some solid thievery pics!!!