Flushing -vs- Glassing

[coueshunter]

One other thing I have learned is that years ago you didnt have to manage as many other hunters around you. The last two years I have not had any problem finding a good buck or two but have had hunts blown while the stalk is in progress by Dumb & Dumber coming over the hill trying to jump shoot coues. this type of guy most of the time didnt know they bumped deer let alone a Big buck. They stopped on the ridge line huffing puffing and then started glassing, talking bitching about not seeing anything........I just watched hidden from them for awhile, pissed about the blown stalk...... This type of pressure wasnt around 15-20 years ago so killing a buck that isnt bumped every day during a longer more liberal season where guys where buying over the counter december tags was a bit easier......Nowadays you need to be a better manager of the potential problems from other hunters blowing your area and have multiple back up spots to go to especially if the season is only three days..........I think its a bit tougher today but thats just more of a challenge...........LOL>......Allen............

[az4life]

Allen, you called it.

I had a 2 or 3 of those same guys (Dumb Dumber and Dumberer) Blow several nice Stalks I had set up this year. I have noted it is getting worse as time goes by. The inexperience and just foolish behavior or the goofs makes me a more defensive hunter.

You just don't know what the other guy is going to do to you because he doesn't see you, or doesn't care about you.

Sad to say, but this year I had 1 case where a Doofus walked up the ridge about 1 mile from me and plowed his way across the top of the ridge right past me. He spooked 2 bedded bucks I was watchin and another larger one I never even saw until he bolted across the canyon 1/2 mile ahead of Doofus. All the while, Talking into his radio, but he really didn't need to since he was so loud. I could hear his voice for a mile away at times. He finally got within 10 yards of me and stopped to use his radio again and take care of a nature call. Started to walk again as I stood up in plain view. I cleared my throat, and he looked around, and stared right at me for a few seconds so I waved my hand and smiled. He looked around some more and started walking. I heard him tell his partner on the radio tat he thought he heard a deer, but is must have been a rabbit or bird.

Un believable! I thought he saw me, but he apparently did not.

I met his partners in a truck down on the road later and told them about the encounter, and they said it was one of their uncles. They said he told them he didn't see any other hunters, or deer. He hasn't got a deer in years, but he always hikes a lot and shoots a box or 2 of bullets in trying to bag one!

Defensive is the safest way to hunt.

My hunting buddy lost a nice buck to 2 goofs last year too. Very similar set-up but they just yelled their way up and down the canyon as they moved thoght the brush about 1/4 mile apart. Blew out the buck he has been watching for 1/2 the day.

 

Take care and watch out for the Dumb ones!

[Diamondbackaz]

I have a friend who was hunting a canyon and a couple of guys came over the ridge in a vehicle and got out and shot their rifles into the canyon to try to scare something out. I was doing a stalk on some Elk when I heard voices behind me and looked back to see two hunters walking side by side across the meadow having friendly conversation. Lets face it there are too many people who like to hunt but are not real serious about it, or just ignorant about what they are doing. As I mentioned in a post I started titled "December Hunts", I would be willing to pay three times the going rate to hunt a December Hunt with less hunters. I believe Yahoos that don't take hunting very serous would be more likely put in for a cheaper hunt. Another option is to hike into an area where most hunters would'nt think about going.

Edited January 1, 1970 by Diamondbackaz

[COUESAZ]

Here is a case of someone else flushing for me that worked out great. A few years back if you can remember. A big group of tree huggers were getting together to go out and bang pots and pans to scare the deer and elk out of an area.Well during there research someone forgot to add that this might spook the deer out in the open. Well the law stoped most of them from doing it knowing the disaster that could come from it. But they were not so lucky in my area that year. My friend and I saw them getting ready when we passed there camp in the morning. So we watched them and got infront of them. They flushed two nice mulie bucks right up the draw to us. We shot them and were coverd in blood and deep in the guts when they got to us. They said you call this sport. And My friend said no we call it luck that we had so many people willing to chase a deer in our derection. If looks and words could kill I would not be telling this very true story today. Now those were two flushed bucks worth shooting.

[billrquimby]

I've been hunting Coues deer off and on since 1948, and hearing someone say deer have changed since I started hunting them puts a smile on my face. The only things that have changed is 1) there are a heck of a lot more whitetails in some areas now than when I was younger, and 2) it's harder for me to get to them. Deer are no smarter now than then, and there are few places that had more deer then.

 

I've taken perhaps 30-35 Arizona/desert whitetails (which is what what we used to call them) from just about every mountain range in southern Arizona, plus a couple from Unit 27 below the rim. About half of them were glassed up. A couple were taken from a mule I once had. A few were found by walking just below a ridgeline, and rolling rocks as I went. The remainder were taken on drives. We had someone drive us up to a high peak above our camp at dawn, then four or five of us would spread out and hunt down a long canyon. One guy would be on one ridge, another on the opposite ridge, the others stayed low. It was amazing how many bucks we could find in a single canyon that way!

 

Although we couldn't be called trophy hunters, we did take a few nice bucks.

[stanley]

Well Bill, with > 50 years of experience hunting 'desert whitetails' (I love that!) it sounds like you've got some wisdom & stories to share! Welcome to the site!

 

After hearing all of the comments, it appears to me that there is not any ONE method that would be effective all of the time. I'm for glassing though, for my first choice of hunting methods.

 

S.

 

[More D]

Great stories guys!! Thanks!

 

 

[Diamondbackaz]

Mr.Quimby, nice to hear from you again, the Citizen hasn't been the same since you left, if you are the one I think you are//.

Edited January 1, 1970 by Diamondbackaz

[billrquimby]

Yes, I'm that Bill Quimby. Thanks for the comment about my leaving the Citizen. The last few years were pure heck for me, and I left as soon as I reached 59 1/2 in 1995, when I wouldn't be penalized for tapping my 401K. I didn't retire then, though. Beginning in 1983, I also was Safari Club International's publications director, responsible for publishing Safari magazine, Safari Times and Safari Times Africa, and the SCI record books. I did that until 1999, when I no longer had a "regular" job. I have written (and ghost written) eight books for/about Weatherby Award winners since then. The latest is on Prince Abdorreza Pahlavi of Iran, Jack O'Connor's hunting buddy. I spend Nov 1 to April 15 in Tucson; the rest of the year I'm at our cabin in Greer, counting elk and watching the trees grow.

 

Bill

[Guest Ernesto C]

Impressive Mr. Bill Quimby,God bless you a lot more and dont forget to bless us with your knowledge and your stories please.

 

Welcome to the coolest hunting site and is an honor to have you here. Thank you.

 

Ernesto C.

[Diamondbackaz]

Well Bill I fiqured it was you. Both my father and I miss your column, especially since they now have a politically correct outdoors page that's not worth opening up anymore. You talked with me one time on the phone when I worked with the Forest Service. You called me to get some information on Charouleau Gap to write a story on it back in 1991 or so. A couple of days after the article came out, despite the warning you put in the story about the deep water spot, some guy went back in there with a brand new Toyota Fourrunner and sucked water into his engine and hydra locked it. Since he saw my name in your article, he called me up to get some help. I went in there with some people from the Roughriders to winch him up a hill so and towed out of there. Fourwheelers always help each other out. Glad to hear you are doing well and hope you can add some knowledge to this forum. Diamondbackaz

Edited July 27, 2005 by Diamondbackaz

[Guest bill quimby]

Thanks Ray. I apologize for taking so long to respond. I have been in a hospital and spent ten days at our cabin in Greer (we had 2-4" of snow nine of those days!) since your message. I don't remember the Charleau Gap incident you speak of, but I have spent a lot of time in that part of the Catalinas over the years, especially when I still had my mule. A guy I knew had a pack of what he thought were lion hounds and we rode up and down upper Canyon del Oro and Samaniego Ridge a lot. We ran a few lions (and three bears) and more than a few deer and "chulas" with those dogs. I eventually shot a lion on the east side of upper Canyon del Oro after riding from Peppersauce Canyon to Rice Peak with Ollie Barney, the best houndsman anywhere in those days. I remember riding past the heads of at least two very good whitetails that day. Barney took five or six big male lions out of the canyon that year. Bill Quimby

[Diamondbackaz]

Bill, I didn't relize that there were that many lions on that side of the mountain although it would make since though since there is plenty of deer and cover. You probably would'nt recognze the area since the fire. If you remember how thick the oak was on top of Oracle Ridge and Rice Peak where it was so thick that you would have a difficult time seeing through the trees on each side of the road, well thats all gone. The trees have been reduced to stubs in the ground and Rice Peak and that whole side of the Canada Del Oro is moonscape. Driving up to the top of Rice Peak is a different experience now. Charouleua road going through the streambed has been changed from the floods. The Gap gets a lot of people now especially on the weekends. I use to drive up to Burn tank and I would always see deer up there even from a vehicle. I hope your hospital stay wasn't serious and I envy you with that Greer cabin. My parents lost their cabin up on Mt. Lemmon to the fire. They bought the lot back in 68 when I was 5 years and they were up there every warm weekend for the past ten years. Are you still hunting Deer? Take care Ray//

Edited January 1, 1970 by Diamondbackaz

[billrquimby]

Hello Diamondbackaz.

 

I've not seen Charleau Gap, Rice Peak, Oracle Ridge, Dan Saddle or upper Canyon del Oro since the fire, but I can imagine what it's like. Although it looks like a moonscape now, just wait three or four years and see what that fire does to the deer population. It will boom! I've seen it happen in the Chiricahuas, in Eagle Creek in Unit 27, in the Galliuros, and elsewhere. Fire brings new growth; new growth brings deer.

 

Yes, Oracle Ridge and Samaniego Ridge used to be great lion-hunting areas, and I would guess they still are (or will be when the deer move back in). We used to see a few bears and turkeys there, too.

 

The last deer tag I drew was two years ago, and I shot a forked-horn mule deer in the Dos Cabezas. About three years before that I drew a tag in the Santa Ritas and took a very good 4x4 mule deer on the Experimental Range. I am the world's unluckiest when it comes to drawing tags. It took 39 straight years of applying to draw a sheep tag. I draw elk tags only about once every ten years, and deer tags every second or third year.

 

I haven't hunted Arizona whitetails for awhile, and don't know if I'm physically capable of climbing our peaks anymore. I'll be 68 in September, and I'm just not in shape. I have a heart problem, and a thyroid condition has loaded me with an extra 40 pounds of blubber. I'm pretty much limited to hunting mule deer, Wyoming antelope and elk around my cabin, when I can get the tags.

 

At the rate I'm going downhill as I age, it won't be long before I'm limited to shooting from the backs of Toyotas in Zimbabwe and Botswana.

 

bill quimby

 

[coues addict]

billrquimby

Bill, I got a kick out of your post on your basic physical condition. I feel for you and I know what you mean. It is definitely tougher to get up on those ridges than when we were 25, but, I think you can do it if you just take things a lot slower than you used to when you were younger! As for the extra pounds, well, look at it this way. You won`t get near as cold as you did when you were lighter and you won`t have to pack as many clothes Right! I know I am thee eternal optimist, but I really just have a fear of dyeing with some stupid disease or in a hospital bed and thats just not were I want to be when my time comes. You can email me if You get a tag and still don`t think you can haul out your buck and I will be willing to help,but we will have to pace ourselves, or maybe we could call Lark and he can put it in his back pocket for us,just kidding Lark! Good Luck Coues Addict

Edited January 1, 1970 by coues addict