thegunsmith2506 Report post Posted February 7 Be part of the solution and stop hunting Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AZBIG10 Report post Posted February 7 Deer populations will be fine. They banned trail cams. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
firstcoueswas80 Report post Posted February 7 2 hours ago, thegunsmith2506 said: Be part of the solution and stop hunting I was part of the solution in 2023, and didn't kill schit! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Couesnut Report post Posted February 7 All the units get Pounded...maybe not over killed ?? , but Pounded From Aug. /Sept bow hunts ....Early Jr. hunts, .. Muzzy... Oct.... Nov. Coues & Muley... 2x Dec hunts ...Dec/Jan Bow hun. Jan Pig,. Feb/March Pig.. Plus 4 months of Quail.... Every weekend has a hunt going on,. plus scouting w/ SXS... Coues Hunts have become very desirable so guys hunt all season, not just the weekend. Plus all those tags seam to have multi people helping. Every hill has glass. AND IAs by the thousands. Big Bucks are getting harder to find because they've learned how to dig. See "Small borrowing deer" related to the Gofer family. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PRDATR Report post Posted February 7 1 hour ago, Couesnut said: All the units get Pounded...maybe not over killed ?? , but Pounded From Aug. /Sept bow hunts ....Early Jr. hunts, .. Muzzy... Oct.... Nov. Coues & Muley... 2x Dec hunts ...Dec/Jan Bow hun. Jan Pig,. Feb/March Pig.. Plus 4 months of Quail.... Every weekend has a hunt going on,. plus scouting w/ SXS... Coues Hunts have become very desirable so guys hunt all season, not just the weekend. Plus all those tags seam to have multi people helping. Every hill has glass. AND IAs by the thousands. Big Bucks are getting harder to find because they've learned how to dig. See "Small burrowing deer" related to the Gofer family. Fixed it for you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wildwoody Report post Posted February 8 I believe that the coues deer have gone back into the thick brush and trees like the elk have. Growing up you would see a good bull on every manzanita hill top. Then came the the long shooting guns and optics, and 4 wheelers. I think there more coues deer that have never been seen then are killed in a year. And cameras now supposably banned will help. Hunt with a rifle like you do archery and you'll shoot a Toad. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bigbuckin Report post Posted February 8 Well I don’t want to shoot Todd, he’s cool , just want to shoot a big coues deer.. Lol 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trphyhntr Report post Posted February 8 1 hour ago, Bigbuckin said: Well I don’t want to shoot Todd, he’s cool , just want to shoot a big coues deer.. Lol Nah xxxx Todd fr 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wildwoody Report post Posted February 8 Ya you got my point, but kill Todd anyway just for fun.. Haha 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trphyhntr Report post Posted February 8 OP doesn’t kill a deer for 1 year and the sky is falling smfh 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AZAV8ER Report post Posted February 8 On 2/6/2024 at 6:55 PM, Shawn said: I agree with a lot that has been said. I think one of the things we are seeing now is the horrible rain year of 2020. Driest on record for Tucson. I saw several springs dry that I never seen dry. Predators had to be eating good. I only saw a few fawns that year and 0 twins 2020 buck just did not put on heavy antlers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
firstcoueswas80 Report post Posted February 8 10 hours ago, trphyhntr said: OP doesn’t kill a deer for 1 year and the sky is falling smfh It's not that I didn't kill. It's what I didn't see while trying to kill one. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sneakem33 Report post Posted February 8 This year was super unusual, there was very little water in the Southern units. Tanks that I had never seen dry. Very few deer in the hills comparatively, most of the deer way out on the mesquite flats. Most of the coues in the cholla as I think that's where they were getting the majority of the water source from feed. The rut was super weak and sporadic. Most of the reports out of Mexico are very similar. The deer in the thick $hit and flats have always been in that habitat, no one likes to hunt it because it's tough and not conducive to glassing and seeing bunches of deer. How many places do you go anymore and see crap tons of does and no bucks. I personally still find good bucks, but I'd be lying if I said that I find them like I used to, it takes a serious amount of work to find a good one anymore and buck numbers are wayyyy down. The amount of rifle tags issued is absurd, this coming from a CO guy who's state whores their wildlife for the almighty $$$. We have or had approximately 450,000 deer in CO and don't issue those types of numbers of tags and we're slaughtering our deer herd to reduce CWD. Arizona has a much smaller deer population, you'd be naive to think it's not having an effect... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trphyhntr Report post Posted February 8 1 hour ago, firstcoueswas80 said: It's not that I didn't kill. It's what I didn't see while trying to kill one. OP didn’t like what he saw on 1 hunt and the sky is falling 1 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesFanatic Report post Posted February 8 I've noticed the same thing. The number of bucks over 75 is much less than it was 5-6 years ago. Personally I think we are seeing the effects of the 3 bad drought years we had. The upper age class isn't there right now. I have seen lots of young bucks this year. One area I scouted I saw 26 bucks in one morning and 24 of them were spikes or 2x2's. The other two were tiny 3x3's. There are a lot of really young bucks around. If we continue some good rain years I think things will change in the next 2-4 years. Lowered tags would help as well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
