elkmaniac Report post Posted April 23, 2003 A couple buddies and myself were lucky enough to get January "D-west" coues deer tags for Jan. 2004 on the San Carlos Res. Has anybody ever had that tag? Does anybody have any help to offer as far as information of where to start looking (We cannot start scouting the unit until 3 days before the hunt starts because they consider this unit a "closed" unit so any information will help so we at least know where to start scouting). If you have had the tag, how did you do? Any help would be appreciated!!! Thanks, Chris Jacob Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coueshunter Report post Posted April 24, 2003 Chris: Amanda will be a great person to help with this, she was an game officer up there. Hopefully you hit the jackpot..........Allen........... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elkmaniac Report post Posted April 24, 2003 Allen, thanks a ton! Now, I am going to show you how ignorant I am and ask you, who is Amanda? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted April 24, 2003 Elkmaniac, Let me introduce myself..... I am Amanda. I am the creator of this web site and a wildlife biologist. Like Allen said I used to work out on the San Carlos. I was there for about 5 years and I must say it's one of the greatest places to hunt anything. Have you considered hiring a tribal guide for your deer hunt? They have the advantage of knowing the area and being able to scout it whenever they want. That might be a great way to make your hunt more productive. You can get a list of guides from the San Carlos Rec and Wildlife Dept. 928-475-2343. When selecting a guide, ask them how many Coues Deer hunters they have guided and ask for references. Not all guides offer outfitting services aslo, so make sure you are clear on what you need. I have hunted Coues deer in Unit A, B, and C, but not unit D. But some areas that I know hold a lot of WT are along the 300 road as you get closer to Ash Creek, East of Eskimazene Ranch. There are quite a lot of WT North and South of this road near the rez boundary. However, several hunters usually camp and hunt around there so I personally might avoid it. Also, you will want to check the rules for hunting around Ash Creek because it used to have a closure to help protect the Desert Bighorn. That closed area within unit D-W should be spelled out in your current regs. If not, call the game Dept and ask the Director, Harold Hofchissey or the chief Game Ranger, Whitman Cassadore. 928-475-2343. You don't want to accidentally hunt in a closed area. Make sure you know the regs. You could try out toward Deer Creek, along the 310 road. But that is a really rough road. It takes forever to drive it. Another spot that I would try for Coues deer in Unit D-W is around Hawk Canyon. There is a road (the 506 road) that goes along that canyon. There are many nice side canyons with WT around there and fewer hunters go in that area I believe. Also, when I was the biologist there we had a list of hunters who were willing to talk to other hunters about their experience hunting on the rez. Those lists were broken out by species and unit. So there was a list of guys who had hunted Unit D-W that were willing to talk to other hunters about their hunt. I don't think they do that anymore, but they may still have an old list around and I bet a lot of the same hunters are hunting it now. This is a long shot though because it may be dept policy not to do this anymore. But call Nate Pamplin, the biologist there now, and ask him if he has any of those lists, even if they are old ones. His number is the same as the one I listed below. You might also just ask Nate's advice on where to go and ask him about the closure for sheep. Chuck Adams killed the world record Pope and Young buck out of Unit D many years ago. The unit has some big deer, although I imagine the drought has kept their growth down in recent years. Hope that helps. Amanda CouesWhitetail.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elkmaniac Report post Posted April 25, 2003 Amanda, Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my request for help on the Res. The information that you gave me will be a great help as I can look for common factors that all those places have and look for other areas that contain the same things in case the places you told me about are being hunted real hard. I think there are only about 15 tags so it shouldn't be that bad. We are going to attempt to do it on our own. I live in Safford, and have hunted some of the country on the white-man side so with that and the information that you gave me, we might have a decent chance at a boomer. Thank you again, that helps a lot!!! Chris Jacob p.s. You have done an awsome job with this website! Keep it up... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coueshunter Report post Posted April 26, 2003 Chris, the only thing you need to do to thank Amanda is get all the southern boys to spend some time on the computer and check out this site. Get some people to buy a book or video and register on here and expand our members...........hope you smoke a monster on the rez.......Allen..................... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
