Round 2, Arizona January 2011

[bear402]

I spent another week in Arizona trying to close the deal on a Coues Buck ! No Buck for me this time but I had a good time hunting Solo .

 

Lots of exercise packing the doghouse to various locations and trying different setups. The windy weather and Border Patrol agents doing their job. busted up several of my attack plans , but That's huntin'. I did have one shot at an 85" class Buck but no cigar. The shot felt and looked good but passed over the buck high and smashed into the rocks on the slope just behind him. The Buck left with a insulted attiude and I netted a Busted arrow and bent dull Broadhead for my efforts.

 

Here's a few pictures of ambush setups and a couple of does from the hunt.

 

First set didn't work . Deer spotted the tent like a fly in the soup. ??!!

 

 

Second set same pond , uphill in the shade of a lone oak. This worked, had deer come in and missed decent Buck.

 

 

The view from the oak tree down to the pond. I spotted the buck come in within the reflection of the hill in the pondl. He was upside down in the pond walking across the hill

 

 

A pair of Coues does sharing the pond.

 

 

Another pond set . I had a buck coming in off the ridge, but the Border patrol busted up this hunt looking for illegals.

 

 

 

 

 

The view out the window on pond 2

 

 

 

These two does finished their drink and grazed a bit on the sweet new Grass.

 

 

I got busted by this doe when the flash on my camera accidently popped up with a loud click !

 

 

Here are a couple of sets with blind material and a disk blind on a seep and another pond.

 

 

 

 

 

I hunted hard and covered a lot of miles for 6 days. Things almost came together a couple of times but I was always just off synch to close the deal. Now I'll wait for August or December to try and fill my tag.

 

Just means I get to hunt More !!

[CouesWhitetail]

Excellent writeup and pics!! Hopefully next year you can seal the deal

[izquik72]

Looks liek a fun week.

Best of luck rest of the year.

[tjhunt2]

Thanks for sharing your experiences wth us. Some of your setups look a little close to the water and should be concelled a little more in my opion. Good luck next year.

 

TJ

[bear402]

Thanks for sharing your experiences wth us. Some of your setups look a little close to the water and should be concelled a little more in my opion. Good luck next year.

 

TJ

 

 

Thanks and I agree with your opinion on being to close to the water and not brushed in on a couple of those sets. I set the first pond up in the dark and having never been on it before, made a bad set. The deer told me right away that it was wrong . I moved it up the hill and it worked well.

 

The last set was more of an experiment with the leafy blind material that I picked up at wally world. The afternoon wind was really bad and the pond bank was the only break that was available to get out of it. It was so windy I didn't bother to brush it in . It came back down in short order and I hiked ot of there.

 

I'm not done for the year just for the January season !

[Chef]

Thanks for sharing the pics with us.

Best of luck next year as well.

[Coues Archer]

Atleast you had a great time!! good luck this coming year..

[azslim]

Need more brush behind the blinds so the sun doesn't spotlight your movements. I haven't bowhunted coues but have made about every mistake that can be made sitting water for desert mule deer. I try to set up at least 40 yds from water and build the blind or make my spot under a tree 2 to 3 weeks before I sit it, otherwise it is an ugly coffee table.

 

 

Ugly Coffee Table - you go out for the day and while you are gone someone comes into your living room and adds an ugly coffee table - you notice it right away when you come home. Same thing for deer with a new blind on water, the closer you build it the uglier it is to them.

[bear402]

Need more brush behind the blinds so the sun doesn't spotlight your movements. I haven't bowhunted coues but have made about every mistake that can be made sitting water for desert mule deer. I try to set up at least 40 yds from water and build the blind or make my spot under a tree 2 to 3 weeks before I sit it, otherwise it is an ugly coffee table.

 

 

Ugly Coffee Table - you go out for the day and while you are gone someone comes into your living room and adds an ugly coffee table - you notice it right away when you come home. Same thing for deer with a new blind on water, the closer you build it the uglier it is to them.

 

Good points all. I like the Ugly Coffee Table analogy.

 

Not being local to my Az hunting areas makes it difficult to set up very far in advance. The best I can do is usually to set up couple of days ahead of time. , When things go wrong like illegal & border patrol activity or bad winds at the tank location, the only option is to break it down and change locations.

 

I absolutely agree that under or sucked up to shady cover works out best to conceal the blind and movement. I have been using the pop up tent blinds exclusively for the past 7 years with fair success on deer and coyotes, but they do limit my distance of travel as I get older and become an OLD FART. I generally pack those blinds in 3 or 4 miles to get to fairly remote tanks in an effort to up the odds of deer activity and get away from the cattle and other hunters.

 

I am trying to lighten the load a little so I have been experimenting with a small disc blind, leafy blind cloth and natural materials. I definately will make mistakes along the road, but I am a quick learner. Taking photographs of each set and reviewing the pictures usually shows me what the deer might see as they approach and gives me that "well I could have done this" or "I shouldn't have done that" look at each setup.

 

Optimal cover in the right location on a tank isn't always favorable to wind direction so that's one more challenge to be met. I try to figure out the prevailing wind directions on a tank , but I swear half the time it changes the morning you go in to sit the tank. Murphy's Law always messes with Me !!

 

 

Here are a few tent setups that worked out in my favor and I killed deer out of.

 

I killed my first Couse out of the blind in the Background. It wasn't brushed in that well, but being in the shadows under a mesquite tree made it work.

 

 

I took a Ca Muley and a Coyote out of this blind on the same evening. Took deer 3 years in a row out of it. Hunting it after 4:30 P.M. puts the setin the shadow of the hill behind. It works well.

 

 

This tent on the levy yielded the forked horn pictured below. It stuck out pretty bad in my eyes but the deer didn't give it a second look !

 

 

 

I custom painted this tent to try and blend in with the desert . I named it the "Pond Monster" because it looked like it had a pairof dark eyesr. This set didn't work but I partially blame cattle on the pond .

 

 

I'm going to conitnue working on perfecting a run and gun blind setup that works in quick set stiuations and doesn't weigh 50 pounds. I'm sure Ill make many more mistakes along the road but, Ill learn along the way and that's half the fun !

 

I appreciate the input from you guys and will post pictures of future sets , good or bad!

[azslim]

I have a Rancho Safari ghillie suit and a 4'x12' strip of camo burlap, this lets me build a blind pretty much anywhere - clip out some branches under a tree, dig a flat spot for my stool and string the burlap in front of me. The chair is the heaviest item. Nice thing about it is when I leave no one can tell I am hunting there, have lost a few spots because I built a blind out of brush and trees. I also wear Scent-Lok when I am sitting water. I know people say it is BS, oh well it works for me.