IHunt2live

Wasn't that a buck? To me it looks like they had been shed, maybe cut off. That was sure one fat deer though. thanks for sharing, I had a good laugh.

I'de like to propose a question for you all. Me personaly, haven't been around for long enough to compare, but I know a lot of you have been hunting coues for a while and I like to know what you all think about whitetails moving to lower and lower elavations. I've visited with a lot of people, and some biologist, who have said that the coues can be seen in much lower elavations then were they have been historicly. Have most of you seen this? Why do you think it is and do you think that has an impact of the desert mule deer at least in some areas? Just curious what you all think.

Quit a few years ago I was invited to a nature conservency meeting and the gentalman who was the first to document a jaguar in AZ was a speeker. It might have been the same man mentioned here. It was realy neat to see the rugged mountain lion hunter hold his own around all the tree huggers. Anyway, There were rumors that there were jaguars in az but there was no proof until this guy was out running his dogs an treed a jaguar. That day he acualy had a video camera so not only did he get pic he had video. The game and fish both in az and nw decited to make this man the jaguar expert so they sent him to South America to study how they feed so they could know if it was mountian lions our jaguars that killed livestock. Jaguars were historicly in az and the last know one, I not sure how long ago it was, was killed around the grand canyon.

That is a nice mount. I got my first bobcat and mearns this year and I wish I could do something like that. I'm getting the bobcat tanned so mayby someday down the road.

A friend sent me these. Don't know if you have all seen them. Kind of freaky if you aske me. The text in the e-mail want like this... These pictures were taken by a guy in Martin, SD. He took the pictures from his kitchen looking out onto his patio deck after he discovered the mountain lion watching his children playing on the kitchen floor.

Hey Cramerhunts. Are all those pics from the same spot. I know the first trwo are but I'm not sure about the third . Thats intrusting how the spot changed over time. And what have you used for bait. I just got a trail camera and I'm excited to set it out for the first time this weekend.

Looks like your on your way for an exciting fall. You guys that can spend so time scouting in the off season are so lucky. You can learn so much about the deer herd. I'm planning on spending most of my spring break from school in the hills scouting and looking for sheds, can't wait.

I see habitat loss as the greatest danger. Desert mule deer numbers are down in many areas and there may be a a few reasons for that but I think a big one is the loss of habitat. I've personaly lost access to one of my favorite whitetail spots, in national forset land, because a private landowner built a house and closed access to the area. Habitat imporvment projects are great but theres a limit to what you can do with only so much habitat.

Heck of a buck. I like his right ear, looks like he got into a fight with Mike Tyson.

This is good info.........the AZ trail winds smack dab in the middle of some of my favorite "honey holes"! WHT-MTNMAN also has great info.........the "stalkability" of an area is a huge consideration! Your time is better spent in an area that offers a better chance of actually getting a good shot at the deer you find. Some areas are great at finding deer, but killing one is a different story........ie: I'd rather find less deer and have a better chance of also getting a shot! My opinion is when looking at new country, find areas with limited access and get away from the crowds. Spend alot of time there covering ground on foot in hard to get places and you'd be surprised at how fast you learn the area and find hidden water sources or trail intersections and bedding areas. Also, like bobbyo touched on, don't tell anyone about what you find.......keep it for yourself! I like what Coosefan had to say. I also like to find those areas that hard to get to. The harder it is to get to the better hunting is. It's those places to search for an old coues. I've also found a lot of deer hunting places while quail hunting. I cover a lot of gound while quail hunting and well, I'm searching for birds not deer so i don't feel to bad bugering up the area sence I won't be in that area for a while. I search for any deer sign and look water. Basicly what I'm saying is that put some rubber on the ground and explore before the deer hunting season. I also look for those places that allow me to glass a lot of country.

thanks for sharing. Thats a good one

Those are some intrusting pics. thanks for sharing. I have no dought that they have the stregth to do that but pic. 3 got me thinking. I wonder if the unlucky bull had fallen during the fight and cought his antlers in the ground and it was is own wieght that could have brocken his neck. Doesn't realy matter I guess.

25-06 is right. But what I like about hunting around here is that there are so many ways you can go about it. If your hunting in the pines for Coues then the tree stand works great. However, there are a lot of whitetails in the more open areas were a tree stand might not be your best bet. Me personaly I like the spot and stock, especialy if your rifle hunting. You can cover a whole lot more ground that way. Some might disagree with me but I think Coues, especialy in the lower more open areas of Arizona, don't have much of a patern they will have a home range that they will stay in but I don't realy think that they have a set patern they stick to like the eastern whitetails. If you're intrusted in spot-n-stock get some good optics, personaly I perfer 12x and above all, get a tripod. A tripod will be a hudge help. Practice those long shots to. I like to get to within 200 yards but if you feel comfortable shoting way out there, more power to you.

I love seeing bucks like that after the season. Thinking how smart he was, or lucky, to make it through the fall. And then knowing he'll be there next year. I guess some archer might get lucky in the next few days. There was a couple of good bucks I saw the last couple of days in December and I've haven't see anyone out there hunting them in January so they'll be there next year. I haven't seen them the last couple of times I've been out but I'm sure they are still out there, things have just slowed down. I'd still like to keep track of them and maybe find there sheds.

I agree with Kevin. I've never fishe the Black but I have fished some other white mountian streams. If you can bait works great. Lift up some rocks or go to moist medows and find some worms they work great. Worms work great under cut banks or deep holes. Like Kevin said, Use your stalking skils. Aproach the holes as lows as you can get. You might also be suprised were some fish will holed up, small little holes can hold lots of fish. Personaly I love flyfishing but I'm no purist so when it comes catching a few fish for fun or for the frying pan I don't feel bad about putting a worm on the end of the line.

I've never hunted with them but i hear good things. When I shot my bobcat on Dec. 26th I tride to take it to Dan Bishop's, also owner of Cola Blanca, taxidermy shop and they were gone, I assume in Mexico, all week. I know Dan and he is a great guy, diehard hunter. Hes guided some big names down there to.

Just read this and thought you all might like to see it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16666091/

BowNut... If I can, I try to come from up above the deer. That sometimes requires a round about way to get to them but they almost always seem to be watching downhill. Take that advice for what its worth. I have yet to get a buck with a bow.

Well put, I agree with you but I still am confused why the game and fish hadn't got the word out more

I was just thinking, why hasn't the game and fish posted anything about this on their web page or even their news-letter. I get their news-letter and this site is the only place I've herd about this. If its such a big deal for the game and fish why haven't they tried harder to get the word out?

I'm not that good of a writer so I was thinking someone sould write a formal letter that we could copy and send. That way you might get more people willing to do that then sit down and try to write a good argument. In these types of cases I've learned that quantity of letters are better the quality. just and idea to hord the mailbox with our view. Maybe some at the g&f sould do it.

I'm looking for spotting scope but I don't want to spend much money. I know most of you would think I'm crazy but I would like to spend less then $200 maybe less then $150. Any good advice, other then spending more .

I to am worried what might happen in the future but no matter what happens I'll continue to hunt and there will be trophies out there to find. I'm not trying to take sides with the G&F but I don't think they are all crack-pots. There are a whole lot of good people who work there and there are probable some people there who look at it more as a business looking for profit. I have spent the past two summers working for a Utah State University Grad. Student studing sage grouse up in central Utah and we worked alot with the Utah DWR. I saw and learned alot about the devision up there and compaired to them we've got it good here in AZ.

Wow, it sounds like you sure did have a good weekend. I to went mearns hunting with a friend. We could only go a half a day so we didn't go to far from home but we did get into some birds. I love to quail hunt and I've been doing it for years but this is the first year I've gone for mearns so I'm still learning lots. Their sure fun to hunt and neat looking birds.

What I do is after I get off all the skin is just start carving away at any meat that is on the scull. No real science to it but I found that the boiling time is a lot shorter that way. To get the brains out I take some wire or bend a cloths hanger and put it on a power drill and basicly turn the brain into mush. Be careful or you might end up with some on your face. and then just wash out the mush with water. After that just boil it out, it won't take long, a couple of hours tops. As mentioned they sometimes can have a little oder to them for a few days but that goes away. The problem I have come acros though is sometimes oil spots begin to show up on the skull after a while, they are no problem exept for looks. maybe someone else has pointer to prvent that. Also, I've learned not to use the ordinary houshold bleach, it will eat away at the skull.