CouesWhitetail

Hunter X, I don't think you failed in making your point. It was a perfect video for showing the reactions of the animals at different distances. It seems to me that you are just pointing out the obvious....animals are more afraid of close noises than far away ones. It's certainly true, but did you really expect that people here didn't know that already? It seems like you feel like people are missing your point, but I don't think they are. They just seem to mostly disagree with your idea that longrange shooting is unfair because the animal might not run after your first shot. Personally I appreciate the discussion you started and think it's an interesting video.

Today is Mike's birthday and as most of you know he died last week. He would have been 31 today. Please say a prayer for Mike and his family. to read more about Mike, you can visit this thread: http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23629

I love the pose on that one!

Just missed yes...you were ranked #6! competition is tough around here for sure!

+ 1 on those posts quoted above. As shown in the video it can be incredibly difficult to make a long range shot. In order to be good at those shots, the hunter has to spend alot more time at the range than most hunters do. Is it unfair that a hunter works extra hard to become proficient at long range shooting? Is a 200 yard shot really that much better? It's not exactly up close and personal either. Most of the time the animal has no idea you are there even under 200 yards. Of course an animal reacts more strongly to a close gunshot than a far one. So I guess your point is that it's only fair if the animal won't stand still for a 2nd shot. But to me, there shouldn't need to be a second shot. And by that measure, isn't javelina hunting completely unfair? I shot at a javelina at 20 yards with a pistol this weekend, missed and it came right back to me at 10 yards. Is that fair chase? Lots of people think archery hunters are not doing fair chase if they sit in a blind and hunt over water or salt. That's close range....is it fair chase? It can take a ton of patience and time to get an animal that way at 20 yards. and thanks for your time putting together that video. It was interesting, although not a good portrayal of hunters.

Chad's buck grossed 98 7/8. We had tons of close guesses. The top 5 were all within 3/8 of a inch. Prizes to the top 5 will be either a CW.com tshirt or a free ticket to the ISE show (Feb 24-27). I have four tickets to give away courtesy of Mike (Bowhunter4life). The top 5 should email me with your name and mailing address and prize that you want. Amanda@coueswhitetail.com here are the winners: 111 ultra300mag EBB tbrooks81 izquik72 Thanks to everyone who played and thanks to CJ for sharing his cool buck!

+1 Love using the Jim White head. It's small, lightweight and very sturdy. No problems using it with my 15s or a spotting scope. The bogen 700rc2s are nice as well, but much larger and heavier. If you plan to do a lot of video, this head is probably best for that.

Devinator, thank you for sharing all those great memories. That was very moving and a nice tribute to Mike. And thanks to everyone else who has shared memories of him also.

Awesome! Love seeing the kids getting some fish!

Thanks for letting us know!

I had a great time at the camp too! We had about 16 novice women hunters and 16 mentors plus several husbands that came along as well. We also had about 4 people from the Outdoor Experience 4 All group. We had some great representation from the CouesWhitetail.com family. TJ (TJhunt2) and his wife Peg, Stan (Stanley), Tracy (Gr8whitejr), Ilene (lucky2hunt) and her husband Roger, Chris (SunDevil) and his wife Shannon, Bill (Azslim), Jake (Tines) and his wife and sister were all there. Oh and we had Laurie (Girls Shoot Better) (as a student) and her parents there as well. TJ and his wife came early and set up a great tent complete with cots, rugs, a heater, latern, tables, chairs and water station. This tent was for the ladies who signed up but didn't have any gear for camping. here is a pic of the awesome setup. The first day four ladies got a javelina and ALL four had never killed a big game animal before. One lady was about 64 years old and said hunting was on her "bucket list". She saw the article in the paper at the last minute and signed up! Gerry Perry (retired from AGFD) took her out and let her use his scoped Thompson Contender to shoot a pig! I can tell you Joanne was thrilled!! She kept asking when we were doing another camp! a pic of her and Gerry We had ladies young and older at this camp. It was great to see the mix. I am guessing our own Girls Shoot Better was the youngest. She and her mom are shown sitting at the table in the pic below the cooks. We had some amazing food provided by the AGFD grant and cooked up by the guys from Youth Outdoors Unlimited! a pic of the cooks Meals included chorizo breakfast burritos, gourmet merlot burgers, tacos, amazing ribs, and on Sat night we had a GREAT game tasting. Many of the mentors brought game meat to share and TJ and Peg cooked up some of their famous stuffed doves and stuffed javelina mushroom caps. WOW, that was awesome. We had bear jalapeno summer sausage, oryx, elk, deer, javelina, antelope and more. AZslim actually taught one of the ladies how to make sausage from her javelina right there at camp and we cooked some up to share. So the ladies got to try some of everything. We enjoyed some great chats around the campfire. Temps were in the 30s at night so it was great to have a big fire. Thanks to Ilene and Roger for bringing a load of firewood from Flagstaff!! here is our resident fashionista, Jennifer and OE4A participant Kellie in her PJs at the campfire in the morning Thanks much to the AGFD for funding the camp. Gabe Paz played a big role in our success by providing tons of locations of javelina herds for us. Most of our mentors had not spent time in the 36 units, so this information was invaluable! Thanks to all the great mentors and to the Youth Outdoors Unlimited for cooking for us! It was a great weekend and I know the ladies won't forget it anytime soon. Many thanks to several businesses and groups that helped support this camp: Arizona Game and Fish Department Youth Outdoors Unlimited Buenos Aires Wildlife Refuge Crooked Horn Outfitters Sportsman's Warehouse Outdoor Experience 4 All Arizona Outdoor Women Mentors included: Kathy Greene Cindi Richardson Marcy Harris Deb Wesch Ilene Hailey Michelle Crabb Craig McMullen Gabe Paz Steve Paz Mark Frieberg Jake Lindsey Gerry Perry Tracy Boorn Jr Stan Johnsen Tom Joiner

LOL!! Love the pic of Kathy in the port-o-john! that's too funny...I hadn't see that pic yet!

I only recently started hunting other states. So far it's been NM for turkey and Alabama for deer and wild hogs. I will likely hunt turkey in Alabama this spring too. Tags are all over the counter and you can shoot tons of deer and hogs in Alabama. Even the turkey season is set to something like 5 gobblers a season (not that everyone really gets 5, but still it's nice to have a liberal season)! Flights to Alabama from Phx are cheap and direct, so it can be almost cheaper for me to hunt there than NM. Would love to hunt Antelope somewhere, probably WY or CO. That's probably the next thing on my list. Interesting discussion Doug...thanks for starting it.

Did you get a bunch of videos of him moving stuff? It would be fun to string them all together and do in fast motion to see all his handiwork....

Gorgeous!!! Thanks Doug!

Hey Bill, Glad you enjoyed the camp. I had fun glassing with you and thanks for sharing some of your favorite spots! I think the camp went great and was very successful. We got some first time hunters some javelina and everyone seemed to have a great time. I will post a writeup about it soon. Thanks for your help out there!

Congratulations on another great time in Mexico! It is certainly hard to sum up 6 weeks of hunting in a post! I really enjoyed your slideshow (for those that didn't notice, click on the first little thumbnail in his post to see slideshow). I loved the pic of you with your bow doing the the thumbs-up with your buck in the background. Cool. Bummer about shooting the wrong buck, but way to stick with it and I can imagine that hike out was quite an adventure! Thanks for sharing your time down there with us!

Great buck and great mount!

Have a great one gentlemen!

here is some more proof of our little coues deer using secret tunnels! I love putting cams on mine addits!

Awesome video! Amazing moment to catch on trail cam!

Well, the guy that makes the CouesWhitetail.com stickers for me is from Alabama (he goes by the name Bubba --- yes, I really did go hunting in Alabama with a guy named Bubba!) and goes back there for two weeks every year to hunt deer. He invited me along and so I got to experience what it's like hunting there. I wasn't sure I would like it since it's not glassable country...it's pretty much all thick forest where you either still hunt or stand hunt and you can generally only see 50 yards or so. But I really enjoyed it. The forest is predominantly planted pines with hardwood bottoms. The deer seemed to bed in the pines and feed in the hardwoods. I couldn't believe how many deer there are out there. You couldn't take a step without seeing deer tracks, rubs and scrapes. We got there around New Years and it was pre-rut with lots of activity at scrapes. The second week we were there the bucks were chasing does. So, like our Coues, these deer seem to rut in late Dec and January. I was surprised too how small these deer were. They were larger than coues, but not that much larger. I was able to pack out the boned-out meat in my pack without much trouble. But then I didn't shoot a really big buck either.... The deer season in Alabama is a few months long and you can shoot two deer a day! Those can be two does, or one doe and one buck. Up to three bucks a season, but pretty much unlimited on does. The hunters out there told me the insurance companies have put a lot of pressure on the game and fish to reduce the deer population in order to reduce collisions with autos. The hunters also told me the deer population is nothing compared to what it used to be so I guess the intended reduction is working. I ended up shooting three deer and a hog. One deer I snuck up on and shot at 15 yards. Another I was sitting on the ground tucked in some brush and shot her at about 30-40 yards. And then the third deer was a buck that I shot from a ladder stand at about 250 yards (it was a regenerating clear cut so you could see pretty far). I am not so much into treestands so I spent alot of time still hunting or sitting on the ground waiting for the deer to come by. When I got too cold or bored, I would go for a walk to warm up or to hunt another spot. The views were almost always limited to small sections of the forest, so of course I set up in places where deer trails merged or there was a rub line or something like that. I took a couple days off from deer hunting to pursue a hog. One of the local guys out there was kind enough to take me to some private property that he knew had hogs. We spent one day walking all over looking for sign. Hogs do a ton of digging up of plants and can leave some big turned up areas. They also wallow in mud and then rub on trees. I thought this sign was pretty amusing. They essentially are painting the trees with red mud! here are some pics: That evening we caught up to the hogs but there were in such thick stuff we didn't get a shot and eventually they smelled us and moved off. On a different day we had just a short time to find them and started near that same area we had heard them before. We walked the creek bottom until we saw them grazing out in a field adjacent to the hardwoods. Snuck up and shot one at less than 100 yards. It was a young boar and he weighed maybe 130-150 lbs. The meat is supposed to be excellent, so I am eager to try this! There were deer rubs and scrapes all over the place. Here are some pics of some of the largest. this rub was on a fairly large magnolia tree and if you zoom in you can see tine marks about 5 inches above the main rub. I very much enjoyed all the southern food and great hospitality while I was out there. Fried chicken, fried okra, collared greens, biscuits and gravy, boiled peanuts, etc. All great and interesting food. I made a new hunting buddy out there in AL and he invited me for dinner at a couple family gatherings and we enjoyed some great venison backstrap and all kinds of excellent food. What a treat. I was invited to stay with Bubba's dad at their nice house in Eufaula. It was a nice luxury to get to take a hot shower and sleep in a warm bed every night since the temps were sometimes 18-20 degrees at night. Eufuala is a beautiful town and they have some amazing mansions there. here is one that I drove by everyday on the way to the hunt area. And here are some deer pics. a doe I shot: and a buck I shot: and here is one of the bucks Bubba got, it had some nice mass to it: I had a blast on this trip! The hunting was excellent, the hospitality outstanding and it was just fun to try something very different. I enjoyed hearing and seeing all the different birds they have out there. They also had different critters like opossum and armadillos out there. I am hoping to get back there to turkey hunt this spring. Saw lots of turkeys while I was there, but mostly hens and young ones. Many thanks to Bubba, Bill, Sandi, Jeff, Bobbie, Tom, Denise and others for making my trip so successful! You all were so welcoming that it made my trip that much more enjoyable. Thank you.

Someone donated a Dec WT tag to Outdoor Experience 4 All and Sadie got a nice one using that tag. I think she shot it yesterday in 6a. For those who want to learn more about OE4A, please visit: http://www.oe4a.org

Well jim and I are having fun at the western hinting and conservation expo in salt lake city! Jim brought 11 heads and almost all are over 120. And we have 12 skulls that range from 106 to one from san carlos that nets 136...wow!

If you know of a woman interested in learning how to hunt, she may want to attend the upcoming Women's Javelina Hunting Camp that CouesWhitetail.com is hosting during the HAM hunt. This camp is funded from a grant from AGFD and two great youth organizations are helping out on this camp too (Youth Outdoors Unlimited and Outdoor Experience 4 All). We will try to provide 1 on 1 guiding for each novice woman hunter that signs up. All food is provided as well. YOU and OE4A are going to cook all the food, so all the ladies have to do is to go hunting!! Pre-registration is required and space is limited, so get those ladies signed up ASAP! For more info, visit this page: http://www.coueswhitetail.com/womens_javelina_hunt_2011.htm