gotcoues

I'm bummed, been to PA 4 yrs in a row to hunt. I have licenses for my two boys and I and we each have a doe tag for mercer county. Until this year I have only bowhunted, but the three of us were going during the rifle hunt. We're going to have to abandon the hunt this yr. due to fact we are remodeling a new home and it's over budget and my timeline is streching out too long. What part of PA do you hunt? I've still yet to see a bruiser buck in PA, biggest being a 120ish buck.

That is just awesome, I'm jealous! To endure and triumph makes the trip so memorable.

I've been struggling with the idea of posting this and I probably wouldn't have, but it was my oldest son's (13) first coues deer and we were unable to recover him. As of late it seems the internet has provided some assistance in what would normally be impossible. My son Cody shot a nice 3x3 in the youth hunt and we were unable to recover the deer. I'm guessing the score to be around 90 + or -. We looked for the deer everyday glassing for birds or the buck and also combing the area. The buck went down hard after the shot but he fell behind a giant whale size boulder, so we couldn't see him where he lay. After 20 to 30 minutes we dropped off the canyon to hit the bottom and head up the other side. When we were coming up the other side, we got a call on the radio that the buck was up again. Well, it went really bad from there and although we came close to being able to get a follow up shot at close range, it didn't happen. We were hunting the Oracle side of 33 and would be grateful to share exact locations if someone happens to find a buck similar to this or hear through the grape vine of someone finding a buck. Cody and I were already celebrating and talking about how awesome his mount was going to be when the dreaded call came in. He passed several small bucks and was holding out for a "trophy". I feel terrible about making in hindsight less than great decisions in this situation and even though I know this is a one in a million I figured it's worth a try. The blood trail was non-existent and we were unable to figure out which way he dropped off the ridge top making the search much more difficult. I've been told by a friend that lots of early rifle hunters have been hunting the same area. I'm hoping birds might have or will put a hunter on Cody's deer.

I can't imagine all these cams getting stolen. Can people just not control themselves knowing their chances of getting caught are slim to none? Do these people steal everything they can or...? I know anti's didn't steal my camera because my blind and chairs were undisturbed. I've been busy with remodeling our house and my boys' youth hunt so I hadn't returned to retrieve my gear. I packed it out today and it was a LONG AND PAINFUL walk out of the woods. Cams aren't really THAT expensive, so why are people stealing them like they're bars of gold or something? Looks like it took em some time to get mine out of the bear box. I'm bummed I lost 6 weeks of prime time pics. I hope it wasn't a hunter that got my sd card with my top secret buck pictures and if it was I hope he stole the cam the beginning of Sep right after I formatted the card LOL. Hey Chief, I only wish I had 70 pics of these A holes trying to steal my camera. Good job on posting their pics IMO.

I'm still waiting Will, please teach us........ Kidding aside, a Dec tag is a no-brainer. Some friends I know are camping by a BP Cyclops or spy tower. You can camp in safe spots. Or, compromise and stay in a motel. Problem is if you fold on this, what about next time? Dec tags will only get harder to draw and who knows if you might see another one. On the other hand, hunting played a part in a long term relationship (10 yrs) of mine going sour. I laid it all out on the table upfront and early with the wonderful young lady I have in my life now. Hunting is not an option, it is a way of life. She still had no idea how seriously addicted I truly was.

Lance, Box was made by covert. Also, someone else brought up the fact of lagging to tree. Tree is dead and I would think lagging to it is fine?

I need clarification here, do you actually talk about hunting while your making love? Or, do you mention these things after you performed well knowing she's in a great mood? I can really learn something here Will, please elaborate!

Nice! Quick story: A G&F officer told a hunting buddy and I that two licensed hunters shooting at the same deer was not legal. I believed he termed it "buddy hunting". We still believe he was incorrect about his statement and have often wondered what the answer is. Anyone know???

Hey Shelvin just a thought, I would try and look for them were they were going at first light. It sounds like you had their patterns down but maybe they are close just not coming to where you were finding them at first light. I was trying to put my boys on a couple decent bucks that were toping over a ridge early and then feeding back over in the late afternoon. We never saw them during our hunt, but a friend found them in the steeper more dense canyon they were bedding and took one last Sat (we had the youth hunt) For whatever reason they changed their routine, I assumed it was from the hunting pressure. I wish I would have pushed my boys a little harder and gotten deeper but I didn't. We had a great time, but the boys are already wanting to be trophy hunters LOL....GOOD LUCK!!!

That's a real bruiser! I enjoyed reading your story. So glad you had a wonderful adventure with the other ladies. Treestands are great aren't they? My first experience with stands was in PA 5 years ago and I love em!

Good job, congrats to the hunter and family for a job well done.

If the bucks usually disappear after they shed their velvet, then why did you have your camera out there so long? Did you have a later hunt in the year for the area? Some cameras I leave out most of the year depending on where they are. Bucks are obviously still there, but after they shed their velvet their interest in salt licks drops off tremendously. I like to get pics all the way through until they shed and the camera is also set over water. I was hoping after the monsoon rains dried up the bucks would start hitting the water instead of the salt. They seemed to hit the water hard in Oct and Nov last year and I was hoping for even better results this year. I did mention in my first post why it had been so long since I was in there, but really, they could have taken it anytime. I don't think to say why it was out there so long is really relevant. The camera has been there for almost 2 years non-stop without a problem so far. I do pull some cams after they shed velvet, just depends on which one.

The tree that the cam was bolted to is dead. I use ladders with cam straps instead of tree spike steps for my tree stands. My buddies and I make an effort to follow all rules. Even though a screw or lag can be removed they are not aloud and you could be fined. I assume I could not be hassled for lagging into a dead tree. They perps had to have found my spot and came back with tools. NO ONE would be that deep w those kind of tools, no way.

Coach, I was thinking the same thing about reinforcing the angles with welding. Perhaps invest in some boots with spikes and a climbing belt. I've seen a guy trimming palm trees with some similiar equipment. Maybe a camera high up would be a lot safer. Just sucks packing in all the extra gear to switch cards I'm definitely more bummed about the possibility of 6 weeks of pics going to some snake than I am about the cam. The bucks usually disappear after they shed their velvet so I lost valuable info and if really pisses me off. I used the lock box to keep honest people honest. I knew someone could steal it if they really wanted too. Just flat out sucks you put a lot effort into something and someone rapes the scene like this. I'll have to move shop even a little farther off into the sticks.

My son Dillon who is 11 drew his second youth deer tag this year. He ended up taking a coues on Sat morning, he made a great shot from 200 yards and the deer never took another step. His brother Cody and our new friend Ralph we had met on Friday stayed behind on the knoll where we had glassed him up from. They got to watch the whole thing through binos. I can't tell you enough about how much fun we had on this hunt, we hunted 5 out of 7 days to try and fill 2 tags. My other son Cody also had a tag, but we couldn't seal the deal. We had some heart aches to go along with tons of excitement. My buddy Harvey, his son Aaron and Tracy also came to help and hang out on a couple of the days. We met Ralph (bow.hunter8971) and is son Jacob along with his cousin Edward on Friday. His son had just taken a nice 3by and after shootin the bull for a while, Ralph asked if he could help out Sat and Sun with our hunt. Well let me tell you, we couldn't have run into a nicer guy while out in the sticks. That's two for two on meeting people from CWT. Tracy and I became good friends after realizing we both had hunting sickness and I'm going to go out on a limb and say Ralph and I and our familys are going to do quit a bit more hunting in the future. Rock, T and Mo, sorry we couldn't get er done while you guys were there. I would have loved to be packin out #2 while you guys were with us! Thanks for coming along. Good Times! Thanks for hanging out with us Ralph, it was a pleasure!

I agree, you got to love the youth only hunts! Good job guys

That's one gnarly buck, very cool.

Sorry it took so long to fix the pics, I needed to change my default program for opening pics. Not sure what happened.

There is a listing for that name in Queen Creek, only one in the state that comes up on the whitepages.com website. $1.95 says it will give you contact info. I sure there other internet options that will give up the info for free. Good luck in finding the owner and good job for trying! Kudos to you

WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT.......... I had my man card pulled because I had a facebook account. Took me three months after I deleted my facebook to get my man card back! Be careful boys, someone's gonna pull your card if you keep talking this facebook nonsense!

Still having trouble changing the pics to Jpegs. I sent them to Amanda, hopefully she can post them correctly.

Congrat's again to Jacob on a great deer and gettting it done fast! Here are some pics of Jacob's deer. I somehow corrupted the pictures in my email when I sent them to you and now I can't attach them as jpegs??? Not sure what happened. Let me know if you have trouble with the pics I sent you and I'll get my tech guru (17yr. old daughter) to fix em. Hopefully we'll see you tomorrow, two more need to go down! Jacob__s_deer_2010..bmp Jacob__s_deer_2010.bmp

Both my boys have tags this yr, one has a muley under his belt and the other one is looking for his first deer. We'll be chasin whitetails come morning. WOO HOO

That summed it up pretty well, craziness!

Hands down best place to go, Jonathon WGP. He accepts game and at any hour and is a great guy. He is located 5 minutes from I-10. No need to look any further