Kevin

I know, nothing like late notice, but there is an additional meeting at the G&F office here in Cruces tonight at 7:00. Kevin

I don't have a lot of time to write a story as I'm leaving soon for my elk hunt but wanted to post a quick bit about my deer hunt. My hunting buddy and I found several bucks last spring during turkey season. Many of you that have been around here long might remember the shed picture and later a trail cam pick that I posted. For those that didn't see them ... We drew tags this year for this unit and spent a lot of time and money (diesel fuel is expensive if you hadn't heard) scouting and running a couple of trail cams. We were able to get a few pictures of this same buck through July and August. Well, long story short, at 8:15 Tuesday morning Boone killed "Stubby". Boone nicknamed him that because his tail is missing, or was just a stub. He made a great shot at 25 yards with his Hoyt Katera and Stubby went down 18 yards later. To say we were exstatic wouldn't describe it. We're both a little sad though that we won't get any more pics of him. We were both excited each time we would go check our cameras just to see him, and really disappointed when he wasn't in any of the pictures. Since Stubby was done, I became less picky and was able to kill my first deer with a recurve on Thursday evening. I shot him at 7:20 pm with my Black Widow 59#@29" at 27 yards. He went 175 yards before crawling into a bush to die in. I'm not sure why, he was hit nearly identically to Boone's deer and died quickly but he sure covered some ground in the process. Sorry about the field photo, taking pictures by yourself in the dark is a PITA! The second is the next evening when Boone came back to help tear down camp and he's a better friend than photographer! Now, on an infuriating note, I have already heard a rumor going around that Stubby was killed in Jamaro's neighborhood. It really sucks when you put in as much time as we did to scout this buck that that sort of crap gets started. All I can say is that there are over 1000 pictures from our cams, two different guys that saw us packing this buck out, and a game warden friend of mine that know exactly where this buck was killed, and guess what? None of it was in J's hood! Kevin

Everyone, thanks for all the comments! As you can tell, we are both proud of our deer. We haven't measure him, heck it took us twenty minutes to count the points! We kept getting confused, but he has 11 on each side and is 31 1/2 inches outside. Well, I'm off to go see if we can kill a couple of bulls. Good luck to anyone hunting this weekend. Kevin

Yep, Ben is right on. It is the mesquite twig girdler, Oncideres rhodosticta . It is a beetle that is about 1/2" long and the larvae develope in the stems. Kevin

Ranger, I'm sorry to hear this. It hurts for a long time. You already know where you made your mistakes. Patience for the right shot is critical to successful bowhunting and you trailed him too soon. It is a difficult decision to make when it looks like it will rain or when it is hot. That said, most likely if you would have just sat tight and waited several hours he would have been laying right where you jumped him. Once spooked, they can go for miles. He will be difficult to find now because in general gut shots don't bleed much in the first place and obviusly most of the sign has been rained out. A spray bottle of peroxide will distinguish blood and gut fluid from water and red leaves or rocks even after several days. Spray the peroxide on suspect spots and if it is blood or body fluid it will foam. As others have suggested he may have tried to make it to water so check any nearby water sources. As a National Bowhunter Education instructor, our curriculum says to wait at least 6 hours before trailing a gut shot animal. They nearly always will lay down within 200 yards and if not pressured will still be there six hours later, sometimes dead but generally not. It is important to "still hunt" the trail, alway scanning with your optics ahead of you. Sneak in and put a finishing shot on him. I highly recommend all bowhunter take this class as even long time bowhunter can learn something and they often provide some great insight from their experience to new bowhunters. I hope you were able to get out this morning and look for him again. Coyotes sometimes are your best ally in these situations: They can lead you to him and if they have openened him up and not completely consumed him the meat won't spoil as fast. Keep your chin up and learn from your mistakes, it will make you a better bowhunter. Kevin

Congratulations, that's the stuff dreams are made of! Kevin

Congrats J, good shootin' and nice story. You've got huevos to hunt in that country in a lightening storm though! Kevin

Casey, I believe your quote above mentions nothing about make or model, just the amount the man is spending! That was my point, you made a broad generalization about "cheap guns". You yourself own two "cheap" guns that are shooters. I'm not a fan of the 710 either but I would bet it will shoot well enough to hunt with. Kevin Sorry Pete for the derail. Have her shoot it and see how it goes.

BigBugPete, The hardest kicking rifle I ever shot was a 7mm Mag! That's not to say they are all that way because I've shot several others that weren't bad. The thing to remember is that the gun should fit your girlfriend if she is going to be the primary shooter. If it does, and you follow Doug's advice and put a good pad on it she might handle a magnum rifle. If it doesn't, and it hurts her to shoot, she will never gain the confidence and accuracy she needs to hunt with. Don't ruin her experience by over gunning her. What is she built like? If she is 5'2 and 80 pounds vrs 5'11 180 it will make a difference. Keep in mind that even the 270 might be more gun than she can handle if it doesn't fit. Casey, your generalization that he's not getting much gun is BS. I've got a $265 stock Savage 06 that shoots better groups than your posting from your goatsucker! Kevin

Tracy, I don't know anyone offhand. I'd suggest finding a place you want to hunt and ring their doorbell. Kevin

Tracy, 99% of the NE corner of NM is privately owned. You may be able to convince a landowner to let you call coyotes though. If you have any NM hunting license you can hunt coyotes. If not, it is $65 for a non-resident non-game license. This license only allows hunting or calling, not trapping. For that you would need a furbearers license. Kevin

I'm running the Open Country AT's on my F350 PowerStroke. 18,000 miles and so far so good. Kevin

Dang, it took mine 10 years to figure that out. Looks like you (and she) done good. Kevin

I'd put my gutless method up against any way, any body wants to field dress an animal. There should be no more waste or hair on any thing if it is done right. I do take the ribs to. A pair of pruning shears that I use to build blinds or clear shooting lanes will snap the ribs off cleanly with no bone chips in my meat! If you don't want to pack the bone out, trim the meat off the outside and between the ribs. Just because you field dress with the gutless method doesn't make you a slob! Kevin

I recently got a new computer with Vista as the operating software. I can't get it to run my NG Topo! cds. Is anybody on here running Vista successfully with the Topo! program? I looked into purchasing the upgrade from National Geographic but the most current version doesn't say it will run on Vista, just XP. Any help would be appreciated. Kevin

Got it up and running! Had to buy the version 4 software update. Once it was installed I had to re-install the older versions (one for NM and one for AZ). Everything is good now. AZOnecam, I don't notice any problems with panning on any level. There is a update to 4.2 that may fix your problem. Thanks for all of your input and help! Kevin

Thanks TLH. DDS, running as administrator did the same thing. The program opens but the maps don't show up. Everything else is there just not the maps. Kevin

Thanks. I've got version 3.4.1. Version 4 may fix the problem but its description just lists Windows 98 through XP. If you're running verion 4 and its working, I'll spend the money on the upgrade. Thanks again, Kevin

Tommy and Jason, just to let you know, I think you both suck! I can't draw a Burro Mountain tag to save my life. I won't complain though, after not having an elk tag for 4 years I drew 16A second hunt Elk tag. I also struck out for the 20th (yeah, thats right 20) time on antelope. I'd probably just keel over if I drew a goat tag anyway. Kevin

I came across this website and found this handgun pretty interesting. Obviously not a hunting revolver but maybe a great defense gun. Have any of you had any experience with one? http://www.gunblast.com/Taurus-UltraLiteJudge.htm Kevin

J, how's the recoil? I don't want it to kill on one end and cripple on the other. I think it would be just the ticket for the wife at home but not if she's afraid to squeeze the trigger. Kevin

Jason, not to be too critical cause you have more talent in your little finger than I have in my universe; but you asked. Casey hit on this and maybe it's the angle of the picture but is the neck, head and antlers larger in proportion than the rest of the body? Kevin

Easy there Jeff--before you get your panties in a ruffle you ought to know that I taught 7 hunter education classes last year and 3 so far this year to over 300 students (not including their siblings and friends that they may have passed the info on to). I teach a section on turkey hunting safety and include the information on the youth only weekend not to mention promote turkey hunting as one of the only animals you can hunt without being lucky in the draw. So before you condem me for not posting the info on a COUES WHITETAIL web site you might consider there are other ways to promote youth hunting! As far as G&F not promoting this hunt: What other hunts are promoted? Like I said, the info was in the regulation book last year, the same as it is this year. It's not your fault or mine that parents or the kids themselves didn't read up on the particulars of the hunt. To me, it is the hunter's responsibility to read the regulations to know the legal bag limit, open areas, means of take, etc. If your or anyone else had taken the time to read through the one page turkey regulations you might have known about this opportunity sooner. Get off your high horse as to being the only one publicizing this info. It is on the Game and Fish website in the turkey regs and over 120,000 copies of the paper regulations that each hunter should read and have a copy of. Don't blame Game and Fish for you and others not reading their publications. Kevin

Congrats from one recurve shooter to another, that's a heck of an accomplishment! What broadhead did you use on him? Kevin

Jeff, This started last year. It was in the regs last year as well. Wake up and smell the coffee man Kevin