sneakem33

Awesome buck, Congrats!

Yeah... I'm a spot and stalk guy, would be a bad year to sit water and I don't like to sit either. I had a late rifle coues that I hunted after Christmas, super tough, no deer movement and could never turn up a mature buck so I ate the tag. Started the new year with archery, tough go with the moon, temperatures and rain. Seemed as though there was rut activity throughout the hunt in every unit I hunted but the movement was less than an hour a day. As the hunt progressed, deer movement increased, but the deer were really spread out with the abundance of green forage everywhere. By the end of the hunt bucks were rutting hard, but they were locked down on a hot doe and were tough to turn up unless it was early and they were running or chasing off other bucks. Most bucks were still in heavy cover including the buck I killed. Just happened to watch him run a smaller buck off and return to his doe, I crept in the thick crap with him and snuck an arrow in... toughest year I've had for turning up good deer, so I feel like I was fortunate to have killed. Only saw 1 really good buck, 100+, and maybe 3-4 in the 80-90" range in 22 days of hunting. Quality and population has been trending downward for the last 10 years for sure IMO...

It was a tough year to be a coues hunter... managed to scrape out a decent buck, thought I would share.

I would assume these are for mule deer. I'm sure that there are a bunch of mule deer utilizing these habitats with the ongoing droughts..... I don't really keep tabs on mule deer populations in the unit, I'm more of a coues guy, the coues population is not very high compared to other units.

Just curious if there's anyone that spends a fair amount of time in 30B? I have a late rifle tag this year and I would love to bounce a few questions off anyone that has decent knowledge of the unit. I've spent a little time in the unit, but mainly in the Dragoons portion. I would prefer to do it over PM rather than openly on the forum. I spend a good amount of time South of I10 archery hunting most of the units so I'm willing to trade some info as well,(as well as other states/species) if anyone is willing.

30B late for me... will be fun to have a rifle in hand for a change...

My grandfather had to quit backpack hunting into the wilderness when he was 70, maybe I should have told him to cry a river of tears to have someone let him take a dozer and make a road, because it's not fair for his old aZZ.... Instead he realized he was just too old to do it..., it will eventually happen to us all in some way, shape or form... Or maybe we should all just get thermal drones with guns and sit our lazy aZZes on the couch and hunt deer from there. There are programs to help people with disabilities, and lazy jack wagons take advantage of them and ruin it for everybody. There are two types of people, those that sit around feeling sorry for themselves and make excuses, and those who will put forward an effort no matter how the odds are stacked against them... It is what it is... I'm entitled to an opinion...You're entitled to an opinion... legal is legal... Doesn't mean I have to change my opinion or like it. If it went all primitive and we had to make our weapons, I for one would just be happy for the opportunity to continue hunting and would give it my all, while some would just give up and cry... Doesn't make someone an anti just because of a difference of opinion.

I'm primarily a spot and stalk guy myself, also which is very successful for me personally. I'm not going to be a hypocrite and say I've never sat water though, I just hate sitting. Everyone's experience is a little different, I hunt with a bunch of guys that love to sit water, if it hasn't rained in a month, they all kill deer. If it's wet and they spot and stalk maybe 25% kill. Personally, I wouldn't be a bit hurt if they eliminate hunting on water at all. Might piss some people off, but I just base my opinion of personal experience in the areas I hunt, I've sat water and I honestly felt bad for the deer, to each their own. I have no doubt there are different situations in different areas, some of the higher elevation, lower density deer areas you would probably not experience that type of success... I will also say that a number of tanks still have cameras... and enforcement, I've seen exactly 2 game wardens in the last 10 years and only 1 even stopped to check my license.

Yes.... This isn't monstermuleys.com 😉

I was the one that said slam dunk, with the caveat "in the right conditions". There's nothing that you're going to say that will change my mind. It's legal, it's a great way to kill a deer in a drought year. I hunted sixteen days during the OTC, I sat water 3 of those days. I did not kill a buck, but I was looking for a particular deer, which 90% of the hunters out there do not do. My worst day I had 46 deer (Yes I count them and keep a log) come to water, even with crap wind those deer would circle that tank trying to water, even though they could obviously smell me. I could have shot a number of solid coues bucks during those days and gobs of smaller bucks. Every one of these tanks I hunted I could drive a vehicle right next to without 4WD, probably even a car... If people weren't into just killing any deer 1 & 27 wouldn't hit the quota in 3.5 seconds... I know for a fact that one of these tanks had a buck killed off it every day for at least a week....

Most people will never admit to hunting over water in an epic drought, however there's a blind on EVERY decent waterhole in Southern Arizona. But don't kid yourself, hunting water is a slam dunk given the right conditions... I've sat water, but I just hate sitting still, and feel better about taking a buck on the stalk overall...

Also... Javelina tags are mostly draw tags, and are restricted to certain units. Hopefully you have a 36 javelina tag if your planning to hunt them there.

This year was super unusual, there was very little water in the Southern units. Tanks that I had never seen dry. Very few deer in the hills comparatively, most of the deer way out on the mesquite flats. Most of the coues in the cholla as I think that's where they were getting the majority of the water source from feed. The rut was super weak and sporadic. Most of the reports out of Mexico are very similar. The deer in the thick $hit and flats have always been in that habitat, no one likes to hunt it because it's tough and not conducive to glassing and seeing bunches of deer. How many places do you go anymore and see crap tons of does and no bucks. I personally still find good bucks, but I'd be lying if I said that I find them like I used to, it takes a serious amount of work to find a good one anymore and buck numbers are wayyyy down. The amount of rifle tags issued is absurd, this coming from a CO guy who's state whores their wildlife for the almighty $$$. We have or had approximately 450,000 deer in CO and don't issue those types of numbers of tags and we're slaughtering our deer herd to reduce CWD. Arizona has a much smaller deer population, you'd be naive to think it's not having an effect...

IMO... The amount of rifle tags is unsustainable. Every time I read about a rifle coues hunt it's I shot my deer at 550, 605, 680. Ray Charles could sneak within that type of range. Too many deer are being shot, many of them shooting any buck with horns, and the large bucks take a beating as they are fewer in number anyways. Technology has improved to the point that even so-so marksmen are slinging lead at that range. This is not meant to be a bashing of rifle hunters... it's just numbers of deer hitting the ground, Especially with a few units issuing tags in the thousands, and most in the 600-800 range. People bitched about the OTC bow hunt are killing all the deer. It's been limited now, and rarely do many units get near reaching the quota for coues. Most Southern coues units there are only a handful of bucks killed... Mule deer are another story... I definitely see less mature bucks during the rut, it's been steadily decreasing for years. Sure, someone kills a slug every now and then... but proportionally the number of large bucks seem to be getting less...

Story is short and simple. Had a tough hunt, punched my 2023 tag on the last day on a smaller buck, jacked my ankle pretty bad packing it out. Unfortunate, because I had a Javelina tag and a 2024 tag. Fortunately after a few days of rest at camp I was able to get a brace on it and limp around killing my javelina. By the last few days I was able to navigate a little on the hillsides, so I got after the coues again. Encountered this buck the day before I killed him, bumped him with does and really couldn't pursue him where he went. Returned the next day, turned him up around some does, slipped in and had him walk to 12 yards behind a doe. Could only see his head and we were in a standoff. The doe eventually blew, the buck bolted but curled back to look for the doe. Stopped at 27 for a brief moment and I arrowed him....