curmudgen

Great story and beautiful buck. Well worth the wait. You appear to be an awesome hunter, and a good dad too. Jack

I feel the same way for the g&f for creating this situation. Quality is gone, now it tag sells how many they can get into one area. I've been hunting Coues for more than 50 years. I believe the number of hunters has declined the last 10-15 years. I don't blame game and fish. The big problem is access and it's just going to get worse. When I was young it's true there weren't as many hunters, but you could go just about anywhere to hunt. I pity my kids and grandkids who may have to pay for a place to hunt or know a friendly rancher like they must do in many other places in the country. Jack

At my age I just call my kid on the radio, another of those awful electronic gadgets, direct him the deer and meet him at the truck.

I agree, Lark is right. The .270 is perfect. Jack

The weirdest thing I ever saw was a mountain lion jump the deer I'd just shot. After I recovered from the recoil of the the shot and looked back at the deer I noticed something redish brown wrapped around the front end of the deer. It turned out to be a lion that had apparently been stalking the deer and attacked it when the deer reacted to being hit. I then took 3 shots at the lion and missed them all before it split the scene. The next morning the rancher who owns the ranch where I was hunting took a lion hunter and his dogs to the spot. The deer remains had been eaten and the dogs got right on the trail from there. After a four hour chase they got the lion and it had some of my deer ribs in its stomach. J. Wms. PS. One of my greatest regrets is that I missed that lion.

I've hunted 35a the last two years. The first year I got onto one nice buck in the area west of the Coronado Monument, but blew the shot. I must be getting old. There are a lot of deer in that area, although it's hard for me to hunt as most of it is pretty thick with lots of small parallel ridges that are hard to glass or is real steep stuff on the side of the Huachucas. Last year I hunted just south of the West Gate of the Fort and got a nice 4x5 that scores 98. I shot it the second day just before sundown and there were no other vehicles or hunters within several miles as far as I could determine, so that is apparently no one's honey hole. I found a wetback trail going along the mountain and followed it about 1 1/2 miles before climbing up a ridge where I'd seen this deer 6 weeks before. He was still there, but but he's not now as his horns are on my wall and I've eaten the rest. There are lots of deer in the strech going south from the West Gate for 3 or 4 miles and several trails running along there. I wouldn't recommend backpacking into there unless you feel comfortable being run over with illegals every night. J. Wms. Sorry, that shlld be Coronado Memorial.

I'm new to this board which I've browsed with pleasure for a couple of years. This is my first inquiry. I've got the early hunt. Any ideas on strategies to deal with temperatures in the 80s (probably) and the full moon? Curmudgen

You guys are harsh. That's 98 Boone and Crocket points. Jacx

The last few years I've gone to the Canon 15x50 image stabilization binocs and love them. They have good optics and I don't need a tripod. I don't see many comments about them in the national mags and have never seen them mentioned on this site, but I and several of my hunting buddies have used them for the last 8-10 years with success and no trouble. We get about one day out of two alkaline batteries or several days from lithium batteries. They weigh in about 40 ounces which compares favorably with other 15 power glasses. I still have a pair of Nikon 7x35 E-series binocs which I use occasionally when I know the light is going to be bad and I don't expect I'll need the extra reach of the 15 powers, like last year when they helped me relocate a 98 point buck in a conyon where I knew the distance would not be great. I've had them for about 30 years and they have been great glasses for the money. I've found and killed a lot of nice bucks using them. Jack