couesmagnet

Those are super cool. I've never seen one myself. The one on the first page is the best.

Really cool someone honest found them. Hats off to the effort for getting them back!!

Heck if that guy talked about himself constantly on the internet like some of the golf course hunters that are famous now he could be a star. With all the help he had and all, I see a star in the making. He just needs the right presentation and spin. Pretty easy to fake most People out in the hunting world now a days. Give it 10 years or less and I'll bet he could write a book on how to hunt mule deer and most of you would buy it. Laugh now but it's true. Gettin really deep out there and even sadder than it is deep. All about ego and fleecing your cash out of your wallet these days. Who cares about truth it's better to believe the lie. Makes for a better story and gives the presenter a t.h.o...

Conservations a hard one to swallow sometimes, you'll come around someday. I get far more joy out of releasing the fish to be caught another day by another angler. We've caught the same fish 5 times in some circumstances over several years. Nothing like watching your buddies or maybe a total stranger get the same enjoyment out of the same fish over and over. What was better catching him once and down the hatch, or making someone else's day, time and time again. If bad apple equals sharing i'm proud to be that apple!!!! Conservation=Sharing. Keeping the fish = ? One time event for yourself = ? Those that know me, know how much i like to share. I wish i could have shared all the giant coues bucks i've found for so many others time and time again with yet another person , but there's no catch and release in hunting and unfortunately you can only shoot a deer once. They just need to legalize tranquilizer guns.

Pixman, that is a really really cool buck you photographed!! I've watched the motherload of coues deer over the years mature from yearlings to 6 and seven year olds and we've killed every one of the bucks we decided to pluck out that we were watching when ready. From what i've seen coues bucks grow their horns steadily and incrementally from year to year through the first 4 to 5 years. Maybe a little bit quicker from 2 to 4 but still pretty uniform incrementally wise. Then once they reach 90 inches, around 4 usually it seems to be about 2 to 3 inches a side from year to year. The biggest jump in incremental addition is between 5 and 6 years old. If a buck is going to blow up so to speak its usually at the 5 or 6 year old mark. Most deer dont have the genes to go over 105 ish but if they do have the "special" genes for a blow up it will occur after 5 usually. I have a good friend who watched a deer that we believed was 117 ish and the next year they killed him and he went over 142. The largest addition i've witnessed was that buck. An average of 2 to 3 inches a side of additional growth is normal to us per year. Out of the many bucks we've watched that were really big as in over 120 most add a couple inches per year in size per side. The biggest clue however to a real freak is the trash addition like the pic you have of that awesome deer . In my opinion your deer has a really high chance of doing the big explosion as in 10 inches or more per year. we've never seen a blow up come from a deer that didnt have the genes for a lot of extra tines being added type growth. That's usually the big surprise in the equation, ability to add lots of extras in the tine configuration, and a big blow up is hard to find in a straight typical with typical genes. I think your buck pixman has a 50 percent chance of being a super freak next year and he's already showing the tendency. Some say this was an amzing year for antler growth, but i personally think that being an extra wet year doesnt have the big helping affect that it has on growing antlers like it does for elk and mule deer. Just my opinion and i've been running cams hard since they first came out in 2000, that even the dry years dont seem to affect the coues specifically like the rest of the species. I would venture to say that moisture had little affect on horn growth of coues this year overall. The bucks we were watching that were over 120 ish didnt get any bigger this year, and in fact got smaller inch wise. Both these bucks were over 5 and not on the downhill and didnt get any extra growth with all the rain. When it comes to coues genetics and a possible jump in those genes being expressed timing alone of those genes expression trumps 10 feet of rain every day.

Becker I have lots of respect for your talents on coues no doubt and I believe we share the same intensity of passion for the little grey fellas, but when it comes to habitat for a coues to live in and how many units we have to hunt them in I respectfully disagree it's the same as fish in streams in az. With millions and millions of acres for the coues and just a few streams for the fish to live in the comparison is far fetched. Not shooting small coues deer has very little affect in my opinion than keeping trout from just a handful of streams. The fish are boxed into one place, water,and the the bucks have millions of options to hide and live. I'm not trying to say anyone who keeps a trout is horrible but just asking some to reconsider the ramifications of keeping said fish. Fish has super limited habitat and the coues has unlimited habitat. I could care less how many small coues get shot for that very reason, because just a canyon away there's probably a 110 buck but it doesn't work that way in reverse for the trout from a stream. I don't lake fish hardly at all and think the comparison you made would be better applied to trout from a lake. Becker congrats again on that pig of a buck you killed with a bow recently. What a specimen indeed.

Standman, it is funny to see everyone's diff passions when it comes to the outdoors. My biggest passion is coues deer for sure, but fishing for trout is a super close second. I would love to catch a 2 pound crappie also, because it's a spectacle to see, and a 3 pounder would be super cool even though i'm not into crappie fishing at all. Basically anything freakish in size whether a coues or a fish is what i live for. The freaks of any species in this state are up against tall odds without throwing back the little ones. Store bought fish still taste good. Well said standman.

Ha ha!!! Guys if i had the choice tomorrow i would trade any 105 to 110 buck for a 25 inch type brown from a creek in az tomorrow. There isnt a 110 buck walking that could rattle my nerves like a 25 inch type brown from a creek. I like fishing that much, and a giant trout from az is much much harder to find than any 110 buck. 110 bucks are almost a dime a dozen in this state. 25 inch trout are about as rare as a 130 buck in my mind. do they even exist? our stream fishing is garbage here My biggest is 24 from a creek. I've seen and lost a couple that i think would go 25 ish but that was several years ago. I saw a pic of a fish caught last year in a creek near payson that was 25. Can you imagine how many guys that had caught that fish and had to have released him. I was with a friend 2 years ago that caught one that went a hair over 24 less than 3 hours from phoenix. I have to believe there's a couple still roaming but without more catch and release their days are numbered.

Ha ha!!! Guys if i had the choice tomorrow i would trade any 105 to 110 buck with a rifle for a 25 inch type brown from a creek in az tomorrow. There isnt a 110 buck walking that could rattle my nerves like a 25 inch type brown from a creek. I like fishing that much, and a giant trout from az is much much much harder to find than any 110 buck. There's so many 110 bucks in this state it's not even funny, but there's so so few really big trout. 25 inch trout are about as rare as a 130 buck in my mind.

One more thing chief, i have no complaints about the fish i'm catching. It would blow your mind how many giant fish i catch year in and year out, so again i'm not complaining. I was complaining for the average guy with a couple kids that can't get into remote sections to fish. Get over yourself please, and yes i know there's much better stuff to use these days than a spinner, i just didn't want to give the farm away to people who would use such diff lures to keep a stringer full. I need to convert to fly fishing because there's a mortality rate associated with using any artificial bait other than a small hooked fly. Someday i will switch over completely because of that very mortality rate associated with using anything on the end of a spinning rod. i owe it to the fish. I just can't get over the strike on a spinning rod, in my opinion it's twice as hard as a fly rod. Call me selfish but i can't get over that big strike!!! For now ill keep crimping my barbs and using a single hook. My last post on this one. Go get um chief star.

Str8 shot your trying hard to prove my point. Why do you think you have to hike multiple miles to catch a reasonable fish. Again my point. I also hike many miles in to catch a decent fish and i don't fish tonto or oak creek either. Why do you think you have to hike multiple miles to catch something decent? Could it be because of exactly what i'm saying about catch and release???? You would argue with me if i said the sky was blue. You just proved my point. If we had more catch and release you wouldn't have to hike like me also. Thanks for proving my point, i couldn't have said it better than you just did!!! Now carry on, my work here is done, thanks to you!!! Long live the dink without catch and release, and without being in good shape and having to hike several miles you'll see what i'm saying when you can't hike any longer!!! Have a wonderful day chief!!!

Str8 i am from arizona and born and raised!! Carrying capacity is a moot argument when every fish is being kept out of our waters. Again in a perfect world, maybe a hatchery where exact ratios of small to large fish are culled you might have a point, but i've yet to see that in the real world. In az in some streams if you wait 2 weeks after a stocking there might not even be a fish in the pool to catch irregardless of size and this is exactly what i was saying earlier. I wish we could argue about carrying capacity but what's the point when our streams are strip mined for anything with a pulse. Again that's my point about catch and release here in az especially for trout. Unfortunately we have almost no catch and release here in az, and thus on average we have some of the worst fishing for trout of all states. Theres a reason why people pay extra to fish the rare waters here that have restrictions, most on private. Your argument simply holds not one drop of water with regards to your previous post. if we had quality waters on tonto or oak creek i can assure you not only would there be nice fish in those sections, they would also be plentiful. Carrying capacity is an argument reserved for fish actually existing 2 weeks after a stocking, and my whole point about az waters. If you want big fish or at least fish over 12 inches you must catch and release for that to happen. Quit using labs to compare to the real world where a fish doesn't have a chance to get big cause they get kept on the spot.

One of the best example of this is the frying pan in colorado. I've seen many more examples of this all over the place. Public section filled with dinks, a couple feet further into the private where none are kept, tons of monsters. Please explain this!!! Please explain why tonto has no big fish anymore. According to your concept there should be monsters in tonto cause everyone is keeping the little ones..

Str8 go to tonto creek or oak creek for proof of what i'm saying about az waters. People keep everything they catch there and there isn't a fish in tonto that goes over 14 inches unless it was stocked yesterday. If you can catch a fish over 16 inches that wasn't stocked yesterday i'll eat my words and then some. If you keep all the fish how do they get bigger for another day. Maybe in a super controlled hatchery pond your right, but in the real world here in our streams your example doesn't float. this is why you can go to any stream in any state that has private waters in it for any stretch of distance and that private will have giants swimming anywhere and everywhere. You can literally go to the line of private on that stream and enter the private stretch where they keep no fish and the diff is amazing. Then exit the private a the big fish are gone. Streams aren't a hatchery and thus can't be compared in the real world. Please explain why the diff is so great between the private stretch where none are kept and the public section filled with dinks then. It's the same stream, and the private in many cases is only a couple hundred yards long. Why the big diff if what you say is true??

Thanks rossislider for the perfect example of how most people think here in az when it comes to trout. I've never fly fished before, but would like to try someday. Those 3 guys on the video are a perfect example of how most think here in az. Couldn't have said it better myself. I will say i've never seen a fly fisherman keep a trout here in az. Fly fisherman seem the have the concept of catch and release down, now we need to reach out to the rest on the concept of catch and release. Long live the dink for the rest until common sense kicks in. Nothing better than a giant hammering my spinner. I quit using bait long ago for the sheer reason of the mortality rate on the fish i caught by using bait. I would almost rather catch no fish for the day than kill one by using bait. It's about the future for the rest of the fisherman out there and the big strike. Sharing a resource instead of ending the resource. Conservations a tough one to swallow.

Arizona g and f hasn't stocked brown trout for many years. The reservation has plans to stop stocking browns in the near future in favor of the apache trout. The browns that are left in az will be extinct someday due to people keeping them. Without the stocking of browns i see no reason to keep them cause they already have enough to contend with against other species being stocked regularly. They might be more aggressive but the species deserves a chance to stay in az against the odds that are placed on them now. I fish for browns almost exclusively and catch and release every trout i catch regardless of the species. Without browns fishing in az would be boring. At a pretty young age i realized that any fish kept is one fish to many in arizona, unless you want to keep catching dinky substandard size fish for the rest of your lives. I never heard a fisherman say that darn 20 inch brown needs to go, after having his pole go super bendo for a couple minutes. I've payed others before to release browns from their stringer that were of breeding age. Doesn't everyone go fishing for a chance of a whopper hammering their lure? If you keep any species of trout from az waters, you kinda just shot your fantasy in the foot by keeping any fish. Give the fish a chance to grow for a chance of that fantasy strike of a big fish. Unless your starving to death throw them back for another day. There's nothing more depressing to me than to see a guy with a stringer full of trout headed for the fish fry. Why not spend a couple extra dollars on food for the trip to further why your there fishing in the first place. It's almost like the guy who keeps fish here in az wants a bunch of links for his kids in the future. Az has become a put and take state and with so few streams and lakes here any fish is a precious resource to be protected for another days excitement and hopefully a couple inches bigger the next time caught. I'll spend 20 minutes trying to revive a trout of any species i've caught. For those who keep trout out of streams here i beg you to reconsider keeping them, and maybe buy a store fish previous to the trip instead of setting back the joy of maybe catching a fish that actually has a chance of bending your pole more than s half inch. In my opinion there's nothing better than the first couple seconds of setting the hook in a beast, and if we ever loose the beast here i'm done fishing. Long live the dink is what most people are asking for by keeping any trout here. I can't even imagine fishing az without the chance of a wooly mammoth sized brown on the end of my pole. If they are not being stocked anymore give them a chance to coexist, for the sake of your pole bending more than a half inch. How does this not make sense to so many!!!!

Really nice buck. Great job!!!

More and more cheese every year. I'm a fan of the az g and f but this new change is stupid. I see tons of angles to be exploited. I'm glad I have lots of friends with lots of points. Instead of cheesing out everything over 5 bucks just raise prices on the tags by 5 bucks. The average guy with a few points just got hosed down with unfairness and tons of cheesiness. Bad idea. And the 24 hour thing is beyond crazy. There's always an agenda to these moves and this one involves more than the typical one being money. Sorry average guy, your now screwed.

We were lucky,blessed, and fortunate to have harvested this buck this year. It's been a long journey to harvest this buck, after 3 years of hunting him. Last year, we hunted him for 7 days with the rifle, and came close to getting him, but in typical coues fashion he gave us the slip. It's the only buck that we've decided to go after that didn't end up taking a dirt nap at the end of the hunt. This year we decided to go hard for him, and made it a personal goal to get r done. On saturday i spotted him less than 90 yards from my brother feeding before dark. He was in some thick stuff and with no elevation to shoot from, we decided to back out hoping he would end up on a more open hillside nearby the next day. Sunday morning i glassed him below my brother about a 160 yards. My brother promptly dispatched the buck and the celebration began. The previous year the buck had maybe 7 inches of trash more than this year, but this year he had added at least 4 inches of mass.. The buck has over 35 inches of mass, and is our families heaviest deer mass wise. It was an honor to be there with my dad, and just my family. This is my brother jason's 10th buck over 110, his 3rd buck over 120, and his 14th buck over a 100 inches. I'm blessed to have learned several things about hunting from my brother jason over the years, the most important being how to glass. I've learned over the years that without luck, and God's blessing, one tends to go home empty handed. The buck ended up grossing 122 inches, and we couldn't be happier. Coues deer are the most cunning and impressive animal we've ever hunted, and it's such an honor to walk up on a giant. Thanks dad for taking the time to take us hunting when we were young!!!!!!!!

Excellent job on a excellent deer. Love it when a dream comes true. That's a really really nice buck.

Awesome job guys. I like that the actual guide service hired found the bull, these days that's becoming less and less of the case. The ground pounders are really impressive, and in my eyes seem to be one of the hardest working guide services in the state. I have a feeling in a couple more years their name will be at the front of names mentioned when it comes to guides as it should be. These dudes do it the old fashioned way, and that's on their own. I hope i get to meet you guys someday in the field and say hi. It's always an honor to meet guys doing it the way you guys still do things, and that's on your own minus the dog and pony show. Hats off to the hunters and you guys!!!

. The buck lived the entire time in about a 800 yard by 800 yard box. Usually in very thick and flat terrain. He had to be on the fringes of that box in order to harvest him. That's why we were lucky to get him because catching him on the fringe of his core habitat required the luck of timing. Gets old sitting in the same spot all day, day after day waiting for him to make a mistake.

Thanks to everyone for all the kind statements and positive posts. In the end a lot of luck, blessings from above, and lastly hard work coupled with lots of scouting trips prevailed. We had our lucky feather in our cap that morning, that being my dad's presence up on the hill with us. I hope good fortune on everyone in the field this year!!!!

Awesome buck. Congrats. A lot of big bucks killed this year. Really like how your bucks tines sweep forward. Great character and a giant.

Cool pic, reminds me of the old days. Great bull.