Bucks

[acharenio]

hello everybody: hope your january went fine and harvest some animals, i had a javelina tag in 18b and was a success, now with my question hope not to get anybody upset don't want to know any spots, where are the bucks in unit 24B??

i hunted 24 b in october and i was very frustrated after the hunt so i kept scouting and saw lots of does, but no bucks even in december, january can't go because busy with work.

besides the where are the bucks, my question is , is the azgfd areas on their website good starting points or just they tell you and don't know really if there is any deer in there?

guys don't beat me up to bad is just curiosity.

thank you

[CouesWhitetail]

Most units in AZ have low buck to doe ratios due to lots of hunting pressure on the bucks. So your unit may only have 20 bucks to every 100 does, so you can see lots of does without bucks. I suspect as the rut kicked in stronger in January your odds of seeing bucks with those does would have gone up. A good idea is to get a copy of the annual "Hunt Arizona" book from AGFD and it will give you buck:doe ratios for all units. You can use this data to pick units that have higher buck:doe ratios for your hunts. Some of the old data is on this site:

http://www.coueswhitetail.com/where_to_hun..._coues_data.htm

 

As far as info for hunt units from AZGFD, I think they generally give good information and are based on the wildlife manager's experience in the unit. However, there is a flip side to that also. Many people see those recommendations and therefore you are more likely to have lots of hunters and lower buck:doe ratios in those areas if they are easy to access.

 

Amanda

 

[krp]

archareno, 24B can be a difficult unit but it does have quite a few bucks, once you find an area that holds bucks it usually produces year after year, finding the big ones isn't always easy. If you can get back into the wilderness during the rifle hunts it will up your odds.

 

I had the same oct hunt and backpacked into the wilderness. I was physically and mentally tired from constantly working or hunting since aug 1st, even up to the wed before on my dad and brother's cow elk hunt, wasn't really on my game. I did see some bucks, nothing big, decided sun morning would be it and I would shoot any 3 pt for jerky meat. Glassed this deer bedded with a 2 pt under a bush in high grass. I thought I could see the outline of his head and antlers in the yellow grass but wasn't sure, he never twitched the 10 mins I stared at him. I was about to give him up as another deer shaped rock when the sun topped over and then there was no doubt, they can be hard to see even when you are looking hard.

 

 

A friend of my son-in-law took this buck two weeks later in the 24B nov hunt, his first hunt of any kind. My son-in-law had chances but couldn't connect. I really enjoyed seeing the excitement of a new hunter on that trip.

 

 

My brother had been out of hunting for awhile until his cow elk tag and had so much fun he decided to try for an archery buck in dec. We set his bow up on Christmas day and went out in 24B a few days before the end of the year. We stayed down low looking for muleys and found some, the suprising thing was there were a ton of coues bucks. We were able to get him a shot opportunity on a great coues but he missed over.

 

My best advice is to keep scouting and use your binos, it's the best way to eliminate or add country before the hunt. If you draw for this unit again and still need help I will steer you in the right direction.

 

Kent

[willhunt4coues]

Wow that second buck is crazy. Congrats to you both,

[acharenio]

Hey thanks Man i will keep it in mind.

thank you again.

[azryan]

Wow that second buck is crazy. Congrats to you both,

 

 

I just noticed that too....its a freak of a buck

[BigBfever]

Wow that second buck is crazy. Congrats to you both,

 

 

I just noticed that too....its a freak of a buck

 

 

looks like one of Santa reindeer got loose before Christmas

[Coues Sniper]

Wow that second buck is crazy. Congrats to you both,

 

 

I just noticed that too....its a freak of a buck

+1

 

any other pictures of that deer?

[krp]

I wasn't trying to hijack the thread but will add a few pics. I cropped a couple and added one with Luis and Matt. It was an odd deer, I named him the World record spike/forky, 13" spike and he was still in velvet in nov. Might be some good genetics around there. He diffinately was only a year and a half old.

 

 

 

 

Kent