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Hey Everyone! Please help me welcome HD Trophy Hunts as a new sponsor of CouesWhitetail.com! Mike Harris and his partners Daniel and Rodney Crook provide hunters with some great lion and bear hunts with dogs. Mike has been a forum member here for quite awhile and has been guiding since he was 18. He started HD Trophy Hunts 3 years ago and in that time they have had some great success! Last year they harvested 5 bears over 20 inches! Wow! Last year they harvested bears in nine different units, so they definitely know some great spots. Most of the lion hunts are done in Southern Arizona, but of course they will go wherever needed. They offer fully outfitted or just guided hunts, whichever the clients want. "Our camps usually consist of wall tents and or camp trailers depending on the location of the hunt. All meals are provided on fully outfitted hunts, we provide a “meal survey” for the hunter prior to the hunt, we realize not everyone likes to eat the same food, this seems to make the hunts go smoother. Preparation eliminates surprises." Mike said. When I asked what their success rate has been for clients, here is what Mike said, "We have a VERY high success rate for bear, we do not guarantee a kill, but last season we were 12 for 12 on bear with quite a few clients taking their bear on the first day of the hunt. In the last 3 years we have a 90% success rate on bear hunts. Lion hunts are much more difficult, our lion hunts take place primarily on dry ground, this is one of the toughest hunts out there. The only guarantee we can make is that we will hunt our tails off for each and every hunter. We take pride in the fact that we harvest mostly mature males. Last year we were able to harvest 5 boars over 20”. This is not typical, it was a fantastic year. We sorted through lots of animals and were very picky about what bears we wanted. We did harvest 20” bears in 2010 and 2009 as well. We strive to take large mature males. As you know our bear hunts are ran on quotas and it does not benefit us as outfitters to take sows. We would rather pass on a sow and go try to find a boar for this reason. In my experience Arizona is not the land of the 200lb mountain lion. If you are looking for a 200lb snow cat, you should not book with us. You should contact an outfitter further North. Mature toms here average 100-140lbs. Females are usually 60-80lbs, occasionally bigger. We do get some good skull growth in Arizona and occasionally a 15” tom will be taken but they are few and far between." On average, HD Trophy Hunts has between 12-20 clients each year. Last year they had 18. Right now they only guide in Arizona, but are looking to expand into New Mexico. When I called and spoke with several past clients, I heard raving reviews of HD Trophy Hunts and their service. Comments like "very knowledgeable", "lots of bear", "great houndsman", "great dogs", "lots of fun" came up with just about everyone I talked to. And without exception they all planned to come back as soon as they had the money and time. In fact some of his clients got all excited over the phone just remembering the hunt and realized that they needed to come back sooner rather than later to hunt with Mike. Here is what Mike said when I asked him why someone should hire him rather than another outfitter: "There are lots of good outfitters in Arizona, in my opinion what separates us from the field is the amount of time we dedicate to pursuing lion and bear. We truly LOVE to hunt these species. We are 100% committed and all our efforts are focused on hound hunting. Athletes do not play multiple sports professionally they focus on football, baseball or basketball, we focus on hound hunting. We like to think we put on a good camp, and we realize that there is more to hunting than a “kill.” It is our goal to make the WHOLE hunt enjoyable not just the taking of an animal. Harvesting an animal is just the icing on the cake, the real joy should be in the experience itself. " So check out what HD Trophy Hunts has to offer....here is the link to their website: http://www.hdtrophyhunts.com and here are a few pics of some bears and lions:

Hunter was with his dad on the hunt we did for him earlier in the month. He is a fantastic kid, most everyone in camp could not believe he was 13. After 2 days of close calls earlier in the month the unit closed and Hunter had to go back to school. He got caught up on school and his dad informed me if we had any openings he would love to get Hunter back out for another chance. Sunday morning at daylight they rolled in. After running into some other bear hunters in the spot we originally had planned to hunt we went to plan B. We changed country and rigged a bear late and did not end up getting him caught. The next 2 days were brutal, the feed seemed to have changed again and the bears had moved from where we finding them last week. Tuesday night Randy gave Hunter the option to go home so he wouldn't miss anymore school. Thankfully for us he stayed and we were able to get him what may be the prettiest bear I have ever seen. Literally if you run the hide one way it is a golden blonde, when you run it the other a strawberry red. Being his first big game kill Hunter got the honors of gutting the bear. He put a fantastic shot on it with a .44 lever action. It was awesome seeing the excitement in the kids face when he realized "thats MY BEAR" Ironically, he killed this bear on the 4th day of his hunt and his dad killed his on the 4th day as well. This was truly a nailbiter, the night before we found out the quota had been met and the unit was going to close and dark Wednesday. I think we will all remember this hunt for a long time, and we will look forward to future hunts with Randy and Hunter. In my opinion these type of hunts are the best part of being an outfitter. -Mike