ScottAdams

Very good Amanda. I liked 'em all.

Wow! Neat photos! You know there's some high energy in those youth camps!! Watching a youngster take his first deer is not to be equaled. Their zeal, enthusiasm and just plain excitement is quite contagious. That's why we hunt!! Scott

Thank you Jason

It started out as a tough hunt but my boy Austin, the one that didn't draw an AZ tag, finally busted one. We spotted these two bucks this morning and one looked pretty good. Actually any legal buck on this hunt looked good. Anyway they were quite a ways down the ridge so I snapped a couple of quick photos and off we went to move in for the shot. We arrived across the canyon and I hit 'em with the rangefinder, 358 yards. I setup the shooting sticks and and told Austin to settle in and bust 'em whenever he was ready. He was shooting his new 300 wsm and at 350 yards I figured about a 5 inch drop. Austin was pretty nervous and decided to wait a minute or two to calm down. I took the opportunity to snap a couple more photos. When he finally shot I saw the deer take off holding up his right rear leg. I couldn't see any blood and it didn't look broken. Then the bucks got into some trees and didn't come out. There was another ridge closer that we hadn't gone to for fear that the bucks would be in the brush before we could get there. So we decided to hike to it and setup to see if we could locate them. When we arrived, no bucks. I then hiked into the canyon bottom and started working up to where we last saw the bucks while Austin watched from across the canyon. As I started up the canyon I heard the tell-tale whistle of a blowing whitetail and running deer. I dropped down and waited. Within seconds I heard the crack of that 300 wsm and the whap of a solid hit. My radio then came to life and I heard Austin say, "He's down!! I got him!!". It was a lot of fun and Austin took a very respectable Coues buck. Not only that but he took in an unlimited NM hunt. I want to thank Tommy Maldonado of Gila Wilderness Hunting for hooking me up in an area that held Coues deer and little pressure on the whitetail population. Thanks Tommy. This is one of the first photos I took of the bucks when we first located them. Austin's is the biggest one. This photo was taken while Austin was "settling down" before the shot. One happy father & son!!

coues that was great tribute. My condolences to their friends and family. Hang on to the memories and may we never take our friends, our true friends, for granted. Thanks again. Scott

Hang in there Scotty. They seem to come in clusters. One season you may end up killin' anything and everything and just have great year. At least that's how it's been with me. That is a beautiful antelope. I may have to try hunting them some day. Keep us posted. Scott

I live in unit 27 and hunt bears in the pears here every year. Below is a bear we hunted this August. We didn't get him but as you can see from the incriminating photos below they do eat the cactus fruit during certain times of the year. Scott

Wow!!! What a great hunt. I went out with some guys this morning to help them out on their hunt. 2 young men ages 19 (Waldo Gutierrez) and 20 (Michael Sedgeman)had tags and had never killed a deer. A friend of theirs, Keven Davis had located some good bucks so we went in after them. Weather was nasty last night where we were camped; lots of wind and spitting rain. This morning dawned clear but a little breezy. It didn't take long to locate the bucks. A total of 4 of them 2 2-points, a 3-point and a 4x5. The 3 point was the biggest, he was over 100 inches. The 4x5 was a good buck that would gross in the 90's. One 2-point was barely bigger than a spike and the other was an average forkhorned whitetail. We made our plans and executed a textbook stalk on the bucks except that we couldn't find the big toad of buck 3-point. We spent several minutes trying to locate him and in the process spooked the ones we could see. So we decided to take the 4x5 which Michael did with one shot to the head. Then we located the big boy and Waldo tried to lay him out but just couldn't connect, however the 2-point did give him a good shot and he took him out! Man were these kids excited!!! It was a lot of fun! It sure is nice when a plan all comes together. Scott The 2-point before he cashed in his chips. The 4x5 enjoying a morning siesta. Planning our strategy. 2 bucks down!! The one that got away!! I'm off to 27 now for a muley hunt. Scott

Way to go Bret!! It was good visiting with you in Safford. I see you made it home. Hope you got 'em in the feezer before the Phoenix heat got to him. We did clean house in NM this year!! I hope those other hunters never learn the way to really hunt or we'll never have any peace. As it is now we just walk little ways from the road and setup and glass. Even if the guys get off the road they rarely glass for more than a minute or two. Scott

I've had good luck with the fawn distress, jack rabbit distress and even a domestic baby pig squeel. Also have called them in with the mouth blown rabbit call. Never have used the cub distress. Scott

I'll 2nd what Doug says. He'll be in his general area unless he's out chasing the does then he could be a good ways from his hang out area. I would certainly look for him in Dec. Heck most of the time the rut doesn't really get going until January anyway. Scott

Way to go Tommy!! That Gabriel is one happy kid!!! And a lucky kid to have a dad that takes the time to take him out. Keep up the good work. Very nice buck. Scott

Folks, thanks for all the compliments. We had a great time on this hunt. We hiked long and far on this hunt and my legs are actually sore which says something because I'm usually out enough this time of year that my legs are in pretty good shape. We had to locate exactly where these deer were hanging out. Most of the deer we saw before we found this little Coues pocket held the undesireable carp deer. Doug, I see you noticed I had the bucks looking the other way. Here's my secret, I just whisper "Pssst. There's something behind you." and when the bucks look away we bust 'em. One of my little trade secrets. Actually these bucks had no idea we were anywhere in their country. They would hear a bird flutter up the ridge and go on alert. I'll attach a photo of them nuzzling. Easy there Ernesto. Remember you're the one that got me back to posting from my offseason absence. Thanks for your confidence anyway. I'm free for a few days until next Friday when I guide a hunter in 30A. I don't know how that hunt will pan out. Time wil tell. Scott

I'll tell you what Bret, your uncles are some big buck killin' son of a guns. They've got it figured out!! Scott

Boy what a reception, I thought you guys would get a kick out of this hunt. I'm gald everyone likes the photos and story. Thank you for all the congratulations but I really wasn't the guide. I just went along kind of as the hunt photographer. Kevin Davis was the one who located these bucks, had them pretty well patterned and put us on them. He did a great job of setting this hunt up. Bret, gotta love those nontypicals. The skull plate was broken so the horns on the nontyp were a little askew. In answer to some of your questions. Amanda was right, the live deer photos were taken through my 30x80 Docters. I use a Leica Digilux 1 digital camera. I think it's a 4 megapixel with a 4 power optical zoom. I throw a black piece of felt over me to keep it dark and hold the camera up to the binoculars. I have to use the manual settings like the exposure and focus. Usually the photos turn out pretty good. If y'all want to chip and get me a nice digiscoping setup I'll go for that. That Leica is a great camera and takes some fantastic shots. Coues Stalker I wasn't able to kill any of the lions. I had a lion tag in my pocket but we just weren't able to get on them. Here's another photo with the "guide" Kevin in them. By the way I was there when Kevin killed his first deer several years ago in unit 31. Here's that photo Did y'all get a good look at this buck!!! My sons, who watched him through the 30's and 15's up close for almost an hour while we pulled off the stalk, tell me that this buck was a solid 3x3 with long eye guards and points, extremely symetrical; each side a mirror image. He's definitely over 100 inches but how much over I'm not sure. It would depend on just how long those tines really are! Is he a B&C buck? Scott

Yes Casey, that buck was a nontypical. The photo doesn't show it but he had a point that looked like an extra eyeguard but was actually seperate from the main beam, and of course you can see the little kicker in the photo. He was young buck and may been a real bruiser in a year or so. And, yes I'm still packin' those big 30's. Can't seem to break myself of the habit. Amanda, my son didn't kill on the youth hunt. We hunted 2 days and were able to get on some good bucks the first day but just never were able to get in on them for a shot. We passed on 2x2 and then saw 3 mountain lions. So apperently we weren't the only ones looking for Coues deer. Scott

Wow, what a hunt Tommy. That's the way it oughta be. He'll never forget that hunt. Great photo too Tommy, you've come a long way in your photography. A picture worth framing. Scott

Well the first day of our hunt has come and gone and we came home empty-handed. My 15 year old son has taken 3 bucks to date, 2 muleys and one Coues deer. His Coues buck was pretty small so we are out looking for something better. We only have 2 days to hunt so tomorrow is it. We got onto 3 good Coues bucks first thing this morning. All were 3 pointers and 2 of them were really nice. Of those 2 one looked to be a solid 90's buck and maybe even over a hundred. I wasn't able to get a long enough look to tell for sure. The bucks stayed one step ahead of us and we just couldn't put it together for a shot. We had the big one at 350 yards but he never stopped long enough for us to shoot him before he crested the ridge. We setup on the backside of that ridge this evening but weren't able to locate the bucks. We're going to a different area tomorrow where I saw 5 different Coues bucks last month. Here's the only photo I was able to take of one of the bucks from this morning. I never was able to tell which buck this was. It may have been the smaller of the 3. Scott

Thanks Doug. That photo was one of 17 I took of the sunset using the trial and error method. Gotta love those new digital cameras. Scott

Happy birthday Amanda...a couple of days late. Scott

We're back from the day's hunt, empty-handed yet again. Our morning started out unusual and was a sign of things to come. While the boys and I were riding our 4-wheelers in, we came around a corner and of all things had a lion in the road! We "chased" him on our quads for about 300 yards before he decided that he'd had enough and bailed off the side of the road. We were only about 10 yards behind him the whole time and he didn't seem too concerned. It was about 4:30 in the morning so the lion tag in my pocket didn't do much good. When we made it to our hunting area we had a pretty good wind hitting us in the face, but we still managed to glass up 17 Coues does and a small 2x2 Coues buck. He really wasn't much bigger than the one my son had killed a few years ago so we let him walk. I'm not sure where all the bucks were in this area. They must have been on the windy side of the hills where we couldn't see. This evening we went into another area and battled the wind yet again. This time after about 5 minutes of glassing my youngest son, he's 14, using the 15x60 Zeiss spotted 2 mountain lions right where we were hoping to find some bucks. The lions dropped into a canyon and came out about an hour later where we had spotted 2 Coues does. I never was able to go kill one because they moved constantly and we were some distance away. So that's how the hunt went; we had a good time and saw a lot of game, including a really nice bull elk while driving home last night. We did see some very nice coues bucks Friday morning and I'll be keeping tabs on them and maybe get some photos too since Bret has the December tag for this unit. Trying to kill a good Coues buck in 2 days on this early hunt was a little tougher than I thought, but it was great fun trying. This is where the 2 lions were this evening. They were about a quarter mile beyond the tank. There was a really nice sunset this evening. Scott

TAM, I was using my own chronograph. I chrono'ed 7 shots the highest was 3422 and the lowest was 3272 with the average being 3322. They are Winchester ballistic silvertip 130 grn. I hope to find out in morning just what kind of medicine they are for our beloved Coues deer. Scott

I'm taking my son out in the morning for the junior deer hunt in unit 27. He has a new Winchester Super Shadow chambered in the 270 WSM. It really smokes!!! We were out yesterday shooting and he nailing the target clear out to 500 yards! I'm thinking this may be my next Coues caliber. That bullet was zipping out there an average of 3322 fps with factory loads. I'll let y'all know how the hunt goes. Scott

Thanks guys!! I'm spending my birthday here in Irving, TX for the spring break. I'm ready to head to Arizona though and head to the hills. Thanks Rich, and yea I'll think I'll keep the goats seein as how I'm not near as spry as I was 15 years ago. As a matter of fact I've got 3 more on order that I'll be picking up in May. Thanks to you also Jade. Let's hope we all draw some good tags this year. And Allen, I didn't realize we were that close in age. No wonder we get along so well. Let's hook up again soon. Earnesto, the Lord has already blessed me beyond what I deserve. I have a beautiful wife that I've been married to for 19 years and two great teenage boys that love to hunt and fish. I make a decent living and live in the greatest country in the world. What more could a guy want? Well...maybe a little luck in this fall's draws eh? Thanks a bunch guys. Scott

I was helping my cousin Duwane out several years ago in unit 36C on the Oct. hunt. As we were walking to our glassing point in the early morning Duwane felt something "soft" under his boot, looked down and saw he was standing on about a 4 footer. Don't let Duwane ever tell you he can't dance because he can. I some him do the ole anti-snake dance that morning! What a sight! Scott