couesmagnet

. I was lucky enough to be with mike when he shot this giant. Ended up dying next to a road which was nice. Congrats to mike on such a giant. 384 is goin to be tough to top again.

What an awesome buck, and congrats to shane and the A3 team. Who cares what the score is, even the most demanding coues deer hunter score wise would have shot that buck with the gov tag. Really really impressive to say the least!!!! Just awesome!!!

I've never seen a screw hurt a tree or heard of a screw ever hurting a tree used for cameras. Now on the other hand I've had several die because of elk rubbing them to death. It's crazy str8 shot thinks putting a screw in a tree is anything to be concerned about with how much trees go through in their life. Someone needs a hug or needs to hug more trees, which ever comes first.

We lost one of the best hunters the state had. Brian was a grand master in unit 23. Hunted with him a couple times and was always impressed. Kinda guy you could learn something from every time. Prayers to the family.

Our veterans are the best asset our country has!!! Without them all of us would have nothing!!! Thanks to all our veterans, and the families that support them.

Now this is funny right here and made me smile knowing who I'm dealing with. I've got more days in the field than you and bone 777 have combined in both your hunting careers. Multiply a 125 days or more a year in the field times 16 years if you can and I'm the one laughing. That's just since 1999. Throw in another 10 years of 60 to 80 days a year and I've got more miles on my truck with all 4 tires off the ground than both of you have days alive. I'm done with this argument. You can't argue with inexperience. You just can't. It's like a kid in college algebra arguing with his calculus 3 teacher. Ya I just went there. I'm done with this argument. Bone777 how can you say one agency sucks and not compare it to the whole which includes other agencies. It's like saying a 400 inch bull is small but if no one is shooting 400 inch bulls then is it really that small? There's lots of other guys to learn from on this site that know hunting dynamics better than me no doubt but experience is just what it is experience and it can't be bought, bullshited , or faked. A coupe jokers for sure filled with nothing but bs but they all want to be big shots these days. Exactly what's ruining hunting and this site. Over and out. There's many people better than I am at hunting without a doubt but getting trampled by amateurs isn't going to happen on my watch.

No bone don't twist my words. Do you have any experience to make any comparison based arguments on our g and f compared to other g and f departments. Is it a safe assumption that based on your age you probably don't have any. I think not ,unless your parents gave you 10000 a year to galavant across the west. High probability that's not the case based on your age. It's an odds thing I'm right. Correct me if I'm wrong but I doubt it.

I said we have the best g and f department in the west due to our quality, and you said that was hilarious cause it's all genes and nothing else. Then i had to answer your gene comment with comparisons to other states. There's countless other agencies in other states, and they are not doing as well as we are. I don't know how to say it any diff, do you.

I'm waiting for an experience based argument, do you have one? I'm sick and tired of everyone bashing our g and f department, and if you can't handle a fact filled argument, then why are we even discussing this. Just go back to hating in general if you want ,it's all good, but please have some facts or observations based on experience, please. Seems like it's easier these days to open mouth and insert foot without any facts to back it up. Sorry i've actually been out there to witness in person what i'm talking about.

Bone777, have you spent much time in other states? Maybe you started hunting when you were 3, and started going outside az to witness other states quality all the way up to your current age now, but i doubt it. What experience do you have to be able to even have an opinion on comparing az to other states? Please tell me of all your experience in other states so i know you know what your talking about when it comes to comparing us to other states. Maybe i'm not the one that's being conceded, but simply talking about something you really have no clue about, nor any experience to chime in about. Please tell us how by your age you've had enough time in the field in other states to compare us to them. I'm waiting for your educated opinion on this if you want to argue. Instead of hating, give us some facts based on your extensive experience on the subject!!!

being a kiss @$$ isn't going to make it easier to get tags How would kissing butt get me a tag if they don't even know my name. Anyone that knows me, knows i almost never kiss butt in any situation, but i like giving credit where credit is do though!!!

Bone777 i realize you haven't been hunting long enough to fully understand the dynamics of why big animals exist or don't exist(this is not a put down, just a fact based on your age). I've guided in or hunted just about every western state and multiple units within each state. After seeing the quality our state has to offer, it's with a very educated and more so seasoned opinion i make the claims i just did about our game and fish department here in az. There isn't a coues deer unit, mule deer unit, or elk unit i couldn't drag a giant out of here in az, not one!! This isn't cause i'm saying i'm superman, but because our department has chosen to allow this to happen. Genes don't go very far if they get shot out before the culmination of said genes. Our game and fish allows animals to reach maturity, and yes with those genes several grow to a huge size. There's several other states that have the same quality genes that our state has but it's almost embarrassing what they produce. That's why most of new mexico is littered with medium sized bulls, and has only a few units that produce the bulls i like to shoot. I could name off 30 other case study units across the west that have genes equal to ours but pail in comparison to az's quality. It's not your fault that you think it's funny what i said earlier but if you think you can just chalk up to our quality to genes you have a lot to learn about animal dynamics. Step outside this state and spend a 3 or 400 days in other states like i have over the last 20 years, and you'll see what i said earlier is very true and correct. We absolutely have the best game and fish department in the west, and the reason we have the biggest critters is because of that department.

I'll take a messed up draw every year in trade for the quality of animals arizona has potentially around every corner in every unit . It's easy to look at specific mess ups, and over look the big picture. I would give the honor to the az game and fish for us having the biggest representations of the critters we all like to hunt. Let them make the small mistakes in trade for the big rewards like receiving an arizona elk tag. There's a reason our tags sell for the most at auction!!!

I would rather have Jesus in my life than 40 early rifle tags in 23 north. It's easy to take His sacrifice for granted, the Lord knows i do on an hourly basis, yet His love for me never changes. Finding love like that only comes from one source!!!!!

Flatlander your right on line number 1 in your response. I don't know what i'm doing either half the time. Shouldn't have phrased it that way, that's not what i meant. Everything is just an opinion after all.

Flatlander I was never referencing you or anyone specific so I don't know why you took anything personally. When you have 1000 tags on one hunt that lasts for a week verses 4 or 5 hunts stacked in a row, I think the one hunt is better for the animals overall. Let me ask it this way. If you were being hunted would you rather have a 1000 guys chase you for a week or 250 brand new chomping at the bit guys chase you week after week for 2 months. Remember you could just lay down and hide for a week and avoid everyone thus surviving another year on the one hunt structure, but you wouldn't be able to lay down and hide for 2 months straight on the stratified structure. Skip grazing in the open for one week or skip grazing in the open for 2 months, that's what I was saying. Also hunter days in the field go up per thousand tags on the stratified structure. More hunter days in the field per thousand tags equals more dead deer. More dead deer equals less big bucks. It's actually a rather simple concept.

I sure hope it's not a way to increase tags. Throwing 50 to a 100 tags on each hunt wouldn't look as bad as throwing 100 to 200 on one hunt. I would think the success rate would go down on the 2 hunt structure. Having a bunch of hunters in the field tends to stir things up so to speak and keep deer moving. At least the smaller bucks.

What was the rational at the meetings for doing the 2 diff hunts?? Was it simply numbers of hunters in the field? I've been on this hunt many times and never had any issues with hunter density ever from the north to the south end. Not trying to argue with anyone but as Long as you stayed clear of a few spots just like any other unit on opening day everything was fine. Just my opinion. Are there other reasons??

I think spreading out the hunts in any unit such as 24b is a horrible idea. I would far rather have a 1000 tags in the field on one hunt than 4 hunts with 250 stacked one atop the other, week after week. I know they did this to spread everyone out on these whitetail hunts, but it's worse for the critters. Guys that know what they are doing don't care if there's a 1000 tags at once or 250 spread out over 4 hunts in a row. Having fresh dudes rolling in week after week with that opening day mentality is hard on the deer, more importantly the big bucks. Ya, the small bucks are going to get shot regardless of hunt structure being 1 hunt with a 1000 tags or 4 hunts with 250 tags. When it was the old structure of 1 heavily tagged hunt, you could have variables such as weather remove more than half the hunting days from a particular hunt. One well placed storm could do more for the next years crop of bucks than all the other factors combined just because of the reduction in hunters days in the field. Also, it's very hard on the deer that every week there's a fresh wave of new hunters rolling in ready to give it all they have. Before when it was 1 or 2 heavily tagged hunts, many hunters would go for just a couple days and even if there was a 1000 tags by the middle of the week there was only 250 left in the field anyway. To much consistent pressure is being placed on our deer due to the stratified hunt structures as of late. Stack the hunters in these units like cord wood and send them home for the year is the way i like it. Guys that know what they are doing don't care. Also with the current 4 or 5 hunt structure you have bucks found on the 1st hunt being passed to the friends with the second hunt, and the 2nd hunt guys passing their bucks to the 3rd hunt guys, and so on and so on. The gifting of bucks to future hunts starting week after week is and mark my words going to reduce the overall big buck population in any unit that uses this stratified structure. This will be the death pill for 22 and 23 over the long haul, with all the pressure it already receives. I guess it doesn't matter that 22 and 23 will become like 24b now which is sad to say the least. Everyone gets caught up in spreading out the tags but don't see the adverse issues that play against the deer because of it. I almost feel sorry for the deer after looking at the regs and seeing a juniors hunt in early october, then a slammer hunt tag numbers wise starting every week for the next 3 months. week after week getting slammed. The big bucks aren't that smart i promise you to sustain this type of pounding !!!!

I think this has to do with the camera angles. There needs to be more to put the buck in perspective size wise. Add some pics that aren't so close up with something in them to relate tine length too. Some pics the buck looks 135, and some he looks 120 or maybe even less. Really tough to judge this one based on the pics given.

What does it score??

124.

I like the system the way it is. In all the other states i get a hopeless feeling when i put in for elk. Arizona is the only state that has a true lottery so to speak, and preference points suck cause your chance is much lower without the required number of points of getting a tag, unlike arizona. Since 2004 i've had 7 early archery bull tags including 9,8, 6b, and various other mediocre units. It's the randomness combined with sheer luck that all of us should be a fan of here in az with our system. Without that randomness it almost wouldn't be worth putting in every year. Everyone has the same chance at getting lucky here, and with any other system including the preference point system, you might as well forget about getting lucky. Some people flip heads with quarter every time, some flip tails, and wouldn't most rather have it fall down to the flip of a quarter verses having to have a 1000 prefernce points to even have a chance!!!

Good to see several members on here that haven't drawn in awhile get some tags!!! Congrats to all so far, going to be a good year.

To each his own brothers. Clear goggles never hurt anyone And all I was saying. I'll go back to crying now. I don't know chad at all but if something happened to me I would hope that I had at bare minimum due process from my supposed comrades, the hunting community.