CB1 Report post Posted January 2, 2004 Catclaw, i have spent some time on the san carlos bear hunting and varmit hunting over the years and have seen some nice bucks, but very low densities where i was at and never spent the money for the tag,spent a litte more and went to mexico.Wondering if anyone on this site hunted the carlos this year in nov. or is going on the jan. whitetail hunt,have any stories to share in recent years of whitetail hunting there...i know the tags went on sale today,and will be sold out in a couple days...Amanda great hunt and photos..thank you..do you hunt the san carlos? Allen, any reports of big bucks from duane adam's hunters?...BH Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted January 2, 2004 CB1, Yes, I have hunted the San Carlos several times when I was working there. It's an awesome place. There is some potential that I may be hunting it this Jan since a friend I know with a tag can't make it. Maybe I will be able to hunt in his place. I am crossing my fingers. Amanda Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hawkeye Report post Posted January 2, 2004 What a great season! Like a lot of you I was going to hold out for a big buck. Well I tried. On the 5th day I was hunting an area where I had seen a large buck. It was a brushy canyon and at 325 yards a flag flashed through the brush. I had time to set down my pack and sit down to get a rest on my knees. I chambered a round and looked through the scope and caught a glimps of a rack through the brush. When he came out into the open I had about 4 seconds to make up my mind, and with him going away from me, I could see his rack. Just before he went behind a juniper I fired. As I walked up to him I could see he wasn't the buck I was after but I'm not upset. I passed on a few bucks bigger than him but I had a great hunt and he sure tastes good. He is a 4X4 with a couple of broken points, and I made a pretty good shot through the neck at 325 yards. (I ranged back from where I had shot after I got over to him). I hunted this season with 3 other people, and all of us were succesfull. My brother-in-law got a 4X4 the same size as mine. His son-in-law killed a nice wide 3X3 with good mass, and my nephew held out until the second to last day and bagged a nice 5X4 that should score in the mid 90's. We had a great hunt and saw a lot of bucks. The future looks pretty good for some nice hunting. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TREESTANDMAN Report post Posted January 2, 2004 I went up to the pines in unit 22 on jan 1st and as I was driving the road to my treestand, I saw an adult mt lion running full speed across a little meadow. I didn't see anything else so I'm not sure why it was running. This was 7:00 am and not quite light all the way yet. I got out of my truck and tried finding it but never saw it again. Nothing better than to start the new year off by seeing a mt. lion. I just harvested a rutting buck from my treestand in dec and yesterday I put down some doe estrus bead trails all ending at my salt. I also put up a scent dripper. I will be sitting my stand all day tomarrow and I am curious to see what affect these manufactured scents have on the deer. It is supposed to snow up where I will be so hopefully not too hard. I will let you all know if these products work. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
catclaw Report post Posted January 3, 2004 I did not buy a San Carlos tag. I got there at 4:00 am this morning and it was all for naught. They are going to have to go to a lottery system. They claim it's first come first serve and then they let the tribal guides buy as many of the few tags as they need. If you wanted the Jan "A" tag you would have needed to be there 24 hours prior- camped out. It was ridiculous. I'm sure all the tags were sold by noon. Dennis Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CB1 Report post Posted January 3, 2004 Dennis, boy how things have changed, huh...have you ever hunted it for whitetail or bear? BH Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coueshunter Report post Posted January 3, 2004 CB: Duwane's camp shot some real nice bucks and missed a couple monsters. I believe they got a couple 110's and a couple other over 100 and missed on a 120 and 115. He left this a.m. for Mexico for January.......I know they saw lots and lots of bucks.......Allen......... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CB1 Report post Posted January 3, 2004 Thanks Allen, those are some strong numbers...i need to give him a call this spring....thanks..BH Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Shane Report post Posted January 3, 2004 Scott, Amanda, and anyone else, Do you have tips on taking picture through your binos? I have a pair of Swarovski 15*56 and a Sony digital camera. Will this work? What is the best way to align the camera lense? Thanks. Shane Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ScottAdams Report post Posted January 3, 2004 Shane, I think your Sony should work. I use a Leica Digilux 1. I don't have any special adapter to mount my camera to the binoculars, so I just prop it up on my knees to hold it steady and hold the camera right up to the binocular lens. I also have a black blanket I throw over me when I'm taking pictures so I can see the display better. I usually use manual settings on my camera when shooting through the binoculars, and adjust the exposure setting otherwise I might get a whiteout photo. I also use the manual focus and can usually get a clearer photo that way. In the future I may upgrade with a digital camera that adapts to a spotting scope but until then this is how I do it, and it works. Hope this helps, let me know if you have any more questions. Scott Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
catclaw Report post Posted January 4, 2004 BH, I have not had a tag there before but I have spent a lot of time on the reservation hunting other things and scouting it and fishing in many of the stock tanks. I have hunted unit 27 via the reservation for the past 20+ years. My old hunting partner has hunted bear as have some friends. The glory days are over. There are still good bears, but the only advantage is they have a season that allows hunting the prickley pears where some of the AZ units do not at this time. ( specifically 24A) I have seen a couple of tremendous bucks in Unit C and my buddy, who hunts bear and quail in "A" has seen some very nice bucks. It is not easy country to hunt like the 34-36 units in AZ. I saw some decent bucks in A while hunting in 24A this past December. I have lion hunted in C quite a few times and usually that is when I see the bucks. Dennis Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CB1 Report post Posted January 4, 2004 Catclaw, our stories are similar. For almost 20years if have spent time on san carlos, especially A and B....like to spend more time in C,but there is so much great habitat, its hard not to believe that theres not more deer, but i have seen great bucks as well, always wanted to buy the tag but wasn't totally confident in my coues deer hunting ability to pull a $1000. deer out, probably missed the chance when the nov. were cheaper and easier to get .I've seen some terrific bear's, all colors, even an pure white bear. Turkey hunting is great, varmits, fishing,bear hunting still best in state,huge elk, not many but some huge coues deer,quail,lion....no quads....it's still a great place.My biggest fear for years of wheter or not they would require a guide for all hunts... i figure its a matter of time so, i have a 10year old son just starting to hunt,the san carlos was going to be a training ground for him, so i hope they leave it the way is...the system to get the tags does'nt sound fair...needs to be more equitable,hopefully they address this the right way..Bob Horchler. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
catclaw Report post Posted January 5, 2004 Bob, They tried to go to a guide only system 3 years ago in Unit "D". They had a mutiny on their hands and couldn't get rid of the tags. They won't go to a guided-only system any time in the forseeable future, at least not for deer. I have seen some really good mule deer on the res as well but they are reserved for tribal members. The reservation is still good, but except for elk, I'm afraid the glory days are over. Black river is only a memory of what it used to be. San Carlos lake is nearly dry. The river is always so low that the waterfowl hunting is very sporatic. The drought of the past 15 years has taken it's toll on the reservation as well as it has on the rest of the state. Elk are a lot like cattle and can be managed via artificial water. Deer CANNOT. Deer will spontaneously about their fetus if the browse conditions are not sufficient. This is probably the single biggest reason for the terrible recruitment that we have seen statewide in the past 8-9 years. Elk seem to avoid this and are spreading over the state like ragweed. I see more turkeys on the reservation that anywhere else in the state. I cannot remember a time when I have traveled across "C" and not seen a flock of turkeys. I have seen then flocked up in the winter months to bunches in excess of 300 birds! I once jumped about 300-500 of them in one mass migration off a stock tank as I drove to an elk hunting spot in the pre-dawn hours. It was like ducks taking off from a refuge. The coyote calling on the res is not near what it used to be either. It was nothing to get 8-10 a day. Now I'm lucky to get 3. The long term forcast for the climate changes does not look good. The 20th century was the wettest century in two millenia. The 1980's were the wettest of the 20th century. If history is to be trusted, things won't likely change for the better for another 30 years. Many foresters think that we will eventually lose the pondorosa pine forests and anything below 7000 feet will be replaced by an oak savana habitat. I guess time will tell. I am going to continue to enjoy things as I cannot control them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted January 5, 2004 Shane, Regarding using your camera to take pics through your scope... I rigged up an adapter that attaches my camera to the scope, but it's not perfectly aligned. There are some manufactured adapters that work better, but they are generally pretty heavy and costly. If you get a good adpater, then you can use the timer on your camera so that once you hit the button, most of the vibration from that is gone by the time it snaps the picture. It works ok for stationary objects, but I don't do that much with deer unless they are bedded. For moving deer, I usually just manually hold the camera up to the lens and shoot. I use autofocus, but I press the button half way down, which allows the camera to try and focus and then I use the focus knob on the scope to fine tune it more. I find that works better than if I let it try and focus itself. But whatever you do, the images will not be as good as you see in the scope. You can clean them up quite a bit using Adobe Photoshop or some sort of program like that. You can improve contrast and lighting and sharpness that way. I also take pics through my binoculars with the digital camera. That seems to work even better. I guess there is less distortion because of the shorter lens than with a longer scope. I have been meaning to write an article for people on doing this. But haven't had time. You can search the internet for "digiscoping" and learn more about it. There is lots of info out there on it. Amanda Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CB1 Report post Posted January 5, 2004 Dennis, great response, thank you i learned some things... i agree 100% about the change in climate and loss of habitat, i too think we are in for a prolonged drought... i feel your frustration...thank you BH. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
