Coues79

Jim, I respect your opinion and know that you take your job seriously and diligently. My question about Unit 31 in particular was addressed in a post made on a different area of this forum. After having many family members, friends and relatives hunting this unit for many years, it seems apparent from our observations, that the buck numbers don't appear to be that high. I can specifically recall numerous conversations held with family over the past year, in regards to days spent hunting, and the main points always discussed were, "Man, we just aren't seeing the bucks like we used to." I know that is all heresay, but when you have people that frequently hunt the unit, frequently get out and scout, and are successful at knowing how to spot game, and these people are all saying the same thing, it just appears that the numbers aren't there to back up the increase in tags. This information comes from people who care about where they hunt, and in specific, care about the future of their hunting grounds. I can remember specifically from hunting this past year, there were two days spent that myself and my brothers spotted over 18 does and each day, and only one small buck. The majority of the days spent out hunting proved to be the same way. Lots and Lots of does, not a whole lot of bucks. When you have seasoned hunters hunting the same areas they do year in and year out, I feel that their input is important. We are the eyes out there, and we do care about our areas and how they are managed. That is why I don't understand the increase in tags for 31. But I guess numbers don't lie either. If those numbers are what you say they are, then i'll live with that. I wish I could see that ratio of bucks to does when I'm out in the field.

The proposed guidelines and recommendations for the fall draw are posted online at the AZGFD website. Here is the link, http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/hunt_guidelines.shtml I see that they are trying to do away with the October Mule deer hunts in 29 and 31 this year. I'm not so sure if I like that or not. They bumped up the November hunt by 100 permits to allocate for the October hunt. This puts it at 300 permits for that specific hunt (unit 31 Mule Deer). I think there are pro's and con's to it. Pro: October coues hunt all by itself. November Coues hunt mostly by itself. NEG: I think that with only one Mule deer hunt available, it will make the draw odds for the Coues hunts go down in those particular units. It may get harder to draw a tag for October or November (Coues). Oh wait, they did bump up the number of tags for the October Coues hunt by 100 permits. WTH? Deer population didn't seem to be flourishing by any means last year. I can't see why they are trying to bump up the number of coues permits in 31. What do you think Gila Valley Hunters? What's your thoughts?

100 of em' in 31. Don't understand it.

Sorry guys and gals, didn't see the already posted thread in the political discussions.

Man you can really see how much carving a glacier is capable of in that first glacial picture. I would love to see that in person. Definitly my favorite pic. of this thread so far. Glacier pictures are awesome IMO.

That is a wicked, wicked shed. Nice pick up man!

Is that Washington State, Mount Rainier? It looks a little differnt from the one in Washington State.

Nicely put Keith. To single out Bush is funny, when we invaded Iraq the senate and the house were behind him, the majority of the public was also behind him as well Wasn't that the truth huh. Funny how some forget those things.

I'm surprised you could even hold your arm up for the picture. That is some serious bruising going on there. Coosefan has a good idea, use it to your advantage That also puts a dimmer on shooting a gun for a while eh? Hope you get to feeling better.

I probably would never vote for Hillary but I think it is funny how people need to take cheap shots at her... maybe it is the republican MO.. Attack so you don't get called out. That's funny. What are we doing when all of this talk is going on right now? Not taking shots at Bush? There's attacks and bashes going on from both sides. Not just the Bush supporters here. Besides the factual statements that are occuring and will occur from this thread, everything else is purely an opinion based statement. We can sit here and go round and round and round and round and round and round and round, trying to prove our own points. That is why this is politics. We all have different viewpoints. No matter how much we think we can see something so clearly, someone else sees it a different way. It's just the way it is. IMO.

I had the hunt two years ago as well as in 99'. My neice had the hunt last year. It can be a real good hunt with a lot of opportunity to take a good bull. The last two years seemed to be a little difficult in locating bulls, but then again, I didn't scout like I should have. At that time of the year, most bulls are bachelored up. I'd start hitting the scouting hard after the rut and the fall hunts.

Well said Keith. Being President would not be an easy task. One thing that I do believe about President Bush, is that he truly does care about the safety and well being of his people. A lot of people have forgotten about the feelings they had back a few years ago when those towers went down. Well, we are still after some of them B#$@%&rds, and trying to keep that from happening again. That's the key right there. Happening again. If you are not capable of seeing the possibility of that happening again, you are blind. Now of course, every President will make his or her mistakes. He has made some decisions that I don't necessarily agree with. There's things I think he should do better. (Oil, Borders, Structure of NCLB) But holy cow, if he makes a mistake on one or two things, let's not talk about kicking him out of office. Have a little trust or forgiveness. After all, he is human, so are the people that make up his administration too. Regardless, one of the best things to come out of this is Hussein having his ASE hung. If you could imagine the rage you feel of having your loved ones brutally tortured, beaten and then having your wife and your daughters raped and humiliated then you should be happy that butthead is gone. He never thought twice about allowing that crap to happen. It don't matter if they were in a flippin' Civil War or not, if there is a leader allowing and condoning these things to happen to innocent women and children, I am all for our military to intervene and say "I don't think so buddy". So even if this whole Iraq business were a mistake, at least Hussein isn't there to terrify these people anymore. I pray often for our troops and their families to be blessed and watched over and thank them for doing their jobs. When a person signs up for the military in this day and age, their falls a tremendous responsibility on each one of their shoulders. I am thankful there are people that will take on this duty of helping to protect my family here in the states. They are great Men and Women. You do have to worry about the future NOW. There is alot going on at this present time, but to not allow yourself to be informed of POTENTIAL PRESIDENTS, you aren't being fair to yourself. These are the people who will take over and who knows, might be president until the year 2016. That's a long time to have someone in office. I worry about the future and hope like heck Hillary or Obama doesn't get in there. I don't have a good feeling about either of them. Just my $.02 and my opinions.

That's a good one right there. That's one happy Lab.

When I used to work construction, the bladehand I worked for told me some stories about people gettin' underneath his skin on the jobsite. Like folks that would drive on our finished grade while we were waitin' on the inspector to show. Or parkin' right in the middle of the subgrade and not being able to do anything while they were just sittin' there. His, and I'm sure others bladehands remedy, was to kick up a giant wind-row around the truck so they would have to dig it out with a shovel. That sounded pretty funny, but this picture takes the crown. That's gotta suck pretty bad.

As I pulled up to the stop light at Power and Baseline, there in front of me, was my first coueswhitetail.com sticker sighting. Tan Toyota Tacoma Pre-Runner x-tra cab. Big sticker on the back. It was a lady drivin, and when I pulled up next to her, I honked and pointed to the rear window of my white Nissan Frontier 4-door, which has a sticker on it. She waived. Anyways, just wonderin' who it could have been?

Those are great advertisement items. They stick out really well. I wonder how many people have been turned on to this site via cwt.com stickers. Amanda, do you have that as an option when someone registers? How they found out about the site? Might be an interesting tidbit to know.

It don't matter who you are, if you're not expectin' it, those darn things will scare it right out of anyone. Man oh Man, I hate snakes. I hate em' I hate em' I hate em'. Those pics. give me the creeps bigtime. I'm glad I've invested in some gaiters.

How much snow fell? Thanks for the pics

After seeing all of the posts on this thread, it should be a "no brainer" to understand the value of having a "secret" spot. In reality, the spot probably is "secret" to a few different people but hey, its nice to have a good spot. When hunting on public land, it is almost inevitable that sooner or later, you will have someone in your honey hole. I know that for a couple of years, I was hunting in a great spot for Mule Deer. A good friend actually showed me this place. ( I know that goes against what I am saying). After a lot of scouting this place out and determining it was a great spot, I pretty much kept my mouth shut about it and had the place to myself for 3 years. I never saw a flippin' soul in the country. That third year, I heard of an idiot that had been mouthing to people about some country he had found. There were bucks crawling all over the place. Big bucks at that. I also heard of the area this guy was claiming to have seen the deer. Well, that same year, I'll be danged if didn't have 3 different sets of hunting parties hitting MINE AND MY BUDDIES HONEY HOLE. It goes to show you that word spreads quickly and people will move in. I just don't understand how people can just run their mouth to Joe Schmo on the street. I guess it must just be the whole gotta prove I know somethin' about huntin' syndrome. Doesn't make sense to me. But then again, this is my own opinion and my own thoughts.

I wouldn't tell a soul either. Just when you think hey, so and so won't say anything, bam, in the next couple years, people are crawling all over the place. It's a pretty big temptation, especially just to be able to say that "YOU" found the spot, but man, it's just not worth it. Soon enough, some idiot will stumble onto the spot, will have no sense and start running their mouth as to where it is. Just enjoy it while you can and IMO, I'd keep quiet and careful with photos you post or show anyone, especially if there is a background of skyline or hills that are identifiable.

Singleshot, You are correct. John and his middle girl drew. I believe there may be a tag sign over. John's oldest girl has yet to draw an elk tag after 4 or 5 years, so I imagine he will let her have the tag. Man, I've only got 10 more years before I start doing the same thing. HOLY CRAP! I better start putting in for only Bull hunts and start accumulating some BP's. I need at least one more Bull hunt. Once you hunt them, you can't get it out of your blood. Thanks for the congrats. I can't wait to finally have a baby! BTW, did you or H.W. draw? My daughter drew a junior elk tag in unit 1. It is her second draw for that hunt in four years. H.W. and I both got skunked. I have 16 points for antelope now. Been putting in for the 2b muzzleloader hunt the last few years thinking the odds might be better. I waited nine years for my last archery bull tag, god help me if it's another nine before the next one. Hopefully we will have better luck getting a tag in N.M.. As for signing over your tags to the junior hunters... I've done it three times in the last four years, it hurts , but you got to do it. My son has been able to stay up with us all day since he was about seven, so you don't have to wait the full ten years. Hope you have a boy first, seems like your bunch could use a few more boys. C'mon, a boy? We obviuosly have a lot of the "X" chromosomes being produced as you indicated. A boy would be pretty cool to start out with though. Either way, I'll be happy. Sorry to hear you were skunked. That's never any fun. Take care.

Singleshot, You are correct. John and his middle girl drew. I believe there may be a tag sign over. John's oldest girl has yet to draw an elk tag after 4 or 5 years, so I imagine he will let her have the tag. Man, I've only got 10 more years before I start doing the same thing. HOLY CRAP! I better start putting in for only Bull hunts and start accumulating some BP's. I need at least one more Bull hunt. Once you hunt them, you can't get it out of your blood. Thanks for the congrats. I can't wait to finally have a baby! BTW, did you or H.W. draw?

Alright, When my wife and I were married, we made an agreement to make sure that when we have kids, we will make sure that we don't "try" if there's a chance they could be born around hunting season, just for this particular instance. The instance: My neice, after only applying for two years to put in for elk, at age 11, drew an early rifle bull tag. Hunt start date: September 28th. Wife's due date: October 2nd. Someone up above must know what He is doing. It was definitly not a plan to start having kids yet. A complete surprise. We ended up being the 1% that the pill wouldn't help. Oh, okay, I guess I am more excited about having my first little one. But man, what a temptation. Not to mention, my neices dad (my brother) drew a Nov. Bull tag too. I plan on being there for that one. Congratulations to all successful applicants!

Congratulation's. Hope you have a great time!!

It's kinda weird. All that waiting, a 288 post thread. All of that anticipation all for a few words to hear where you're going to be hunting/what you'll be hunting, and if you don't really care about what or where/ just if you were drawn. Just think, we get to do it all over again here in a few months. WOOHOO! :o