Chiricahua scouting

[Memac63]

A friend and I with Late November rifle tags in 29 went scouting in the Chiricahuas yesterday. We saw a few coues does and a black bear sow with cubs inside the National Monument boundary where we went looking for printed maps, we saw a few turkey in Pinery Canyon and one more Coues doe browsing down by the mouth of Turkey Creek Canyon but other than that nothing. We were there all day, dusk til dawn scouting for where to hunt but got almost zero usable data. We saw a fair amount of sign in Pinery Canyon by the creekbed but couldn't locate a good spot to glass from. We hiked up in Turkey creek over Turkey Pen saddle and spent a few hours glassing Turkey Pen Canyon. Lots of green ground cover, the area looked great but we saw absolutely nothing. We spent the last of the fading light in Rucker Canyon in a spot that looked good but again saw nothing.

 

I think we're going to try North and Eastern areas like Emigrant, Wood, Brushy, Oak, East Whitetail, and Jhus canyons next time. I'm only third year into Coues whitetail hunting and have had little success previously, though I've hunted hard and hiked a lot. Rifle hunted 34a and 36b past two years, plus a lot of time last year with a bow up in Redington Pass and a bit down in Madera Canyon. I usually look for water sources near slopes with ocotillo, manzanita, and oak. I saw very little of that in the western chiricahuas yesterday, found some ocotillo and manzanita in Rucker canyon. The AZGFD write up says try the upper reaches of the major drainages but those areas look more like heavily forested pine with limited visibility for spotting. And there's the very real possibility that access to those upper reaches will be difficult and unwise come late November and snow.

 

Soo, any tips? We stopped near Fort Bowie in the morning and I liked the terrain but we didn't spend much time there, that area is where I plan to start scouting on our next trip.

[oz31p]

man, from the home page. my brain saw "chupacabra sitghting" i clicked on it right away. i have no info on the area thou, sorry.

[muledeerarea33?]

Eastern side of the mountains country looks like only dead men would walk it. Check there

[STOMP442]

Good luck I hunted 29 last year on a left over and hiked my tail off and glassed my eyes out to only find does by the hundreds at hunts end. 17-25 does a day lots of turkeys and that's about it.

[PRDATR]

While snow is a possibility it usually melts off in a couple of days.

[Hoss50]

We hunted a November hunt there last year. It was pretty rough for buck sightings and the success data showed that. The hunt I was on last year had a 10% success. We are drawn down there again this year but in late October so I hope it will be better this time. The weather was great last year but I have been snowed on in 29 in the past on a later hunt. It was a nasty storm that didn't melt off and got worse. We got lucky and got out before it got too bad but it was 4-6" deep as we made our way out.

 

We saw does, a bear, and a bunch of turkey there last year but nothing with horns.

 

Good luck.

[Hoss50]

The only other thing I can say about the hunt you are on is I would be looking to go pretty deep in the hills. They will have been hunted for over a month pretty much non-stop so they will be really skidish and hiding pretty hard.

 

This year I am going to try and get a lot deeper and farther away from camp then I did last year. I am actually thinking about taking a long day hike that will require me and a buddy to be picked up by other hunters in our group miles from camp. Last years tactics didn't work so it is time to try something new.

 

Harley

[Bandido243]

I've hunted 29 and 30 all my hunting life. And 29 is like that. They're in there though. Good luck ey and gimme a pm if you want.