hunter4life

Congratulations on a very nice buck!!

Congratulations, it looks like you had a great trip!!

"Our G&f went from managing game to managing hunters and with that we will all suffer until they come to their senses." When hunters are one of the tools used to manage the game, you have to manage the hunters. Managing hunters (and all of their conflicting wants) is probably G&F's hardest job because no matter what G&F does somebody is going to be mad at them. Arizona is facing a supply (deer) and demand (hunters wanting tags) issue and the demand is growing larger while the supply is not. The G&F will have to impose restrictions at some point and IMO it is better to do it before the deer population takes too big of a hit from overhunting. If they are going to go to a draw system I think they should just do it across the board. Then it would be like OutdoorWriter said, "ONE permit annually for ONE season with ONE weapon in ONE unit," which makes sense to me.

I have eaten quite a bit of bear meat over the past few years. I can't say that it is very good. We have tried making sausage and they were not good. The best way I have found is to make roasts and cook them until you can shred them and use green chile and make it into a meat mix for burritos. Made this way the meat is actually okay, but one bear makes a ton of burritos and when it isn't very good any other way you can get burnt out on the burritos. If you are hunting primarily for meat, I would say to stay away from bear. Now mountain lion is another story and I could hunt them just for the meat.

I am all for keeping ATV's on designated roads and trails, but to really change things they need to enforce the new regulations. We will see if the enforcement occurs.

Nope, looks like a track from a canine of some sort.

I have to agree with Bill, Tony, and many others on this thread. I think that using euphemisms is a cowards way out and lets the anti-hunters know that they have the power to make you try to sugar coat what you do (hunt and kill), even though it is a perfectly legal activity. This probably leads the antis to believe that some hunters might be just a tiny bit ashamed of killing an animal, and gives them hope that they can change that hunters mind. I have a muzzleloader deer tag this year and will hunt hard in the hopes of killing a buck that I can butcher and enjoy eating. Like somebody mentioned earlier, leave the harvesting to the farmers.

I have never hunted up in northern NM, but I generally go on several backpacking trips during the summer into the Pecos wilderness, Wheeler Peak area, or Latir wilderness.

Sorry to hear about the hide Elkman. I am really surprised that it is not salvageable. I shot a bear during the August hunt in NM one year while I was packed in 12 miles. I skinned it (leaving paws and head in place) and let it cool slightly just from evaporation then packed it up, hiked back to camp and broke that down and then started doing the 9 remaining miles to the truck. Then a 6 hour drive home and popped it in the fridge at 4:00 AM. Brought it to the taxidermist at 8:00AM and got it in a freezer. The taxidermist warned that some hair would probably slip but I said go ahead anyways. Well, the rug turned out perfect without any slippage whatsoever. This was in the gila with daytime temps probably in the upper 80's.

Would this be in unit 53? It looks very similar to an area I was backpacking in about a month ago. I saw about 175 elk including a number of bulls when I was there. I have never been up in the northern NM high country during elk season, but during the summer I always see a bunch hanging out at and above treeline. Here is a pic with a herd of elk in the saddle. The batteries in the camera died before I attached it to my spotting scope to get good pictures. You have got to love the NM high country, especially in the summer where it makes for nice cool hiking and backpacking.

Thanks, those were some good links RedRabbit. At long distances and steep angles a lot of factors must be taken into account, but at shorter ranges things can be very much simplified. For me the take home points for shooting at game out to my comfortable range of 400 yards with a fairly fast cartridge (ie. 7mm mag) are: 1) Uphill or downhill have basically the same effect. 2) Using the horizontal range works fine out to 400 yards with a relatively fast rifle cartridge. 3) Out to 200 yards on a deer sized animal most of this doesn't even matter because a bullet hitting 2.5inches higher than expected due to a very steep 45degree angle should still be within the kill zone. The same can be said for 300 yards if the angle is 30 degrees or less.

Basically what matters is the horizontal distance to the animal. So if it is 300 yards line of sight to the animal and it is either up or downhill, then the horizontal yardage is less and your bullet will hit like it is 260yards if the slope is 30degrees (212 yards for 45degrees) for example. As you can see at moderate distances with a moderate 30 degree slope, such as my example, with a fast shooting caliber you don't really need to adjust much at all. Many people grossly overestimate slopes of hillsides. A hillside with a slope in the high 30's is very steep. The only time you will be shooting with slopes greater than that would be when there is a tall cliff somewhere between you and your target.

Elkman, Congratulations on an awesome bear!! Personally I am partial to rug mounts, but they do require a big wall when you have a big bear like the one you shot. The full mounts seem to make even a big bear look much smaller than the way you remember it being in the wild. Here is a pic of a rug of my dad's bear. I think you will find that the skull unfortunately ends up losing quite a bit of score between the fresh skull and after it has been thoroughly cleaned and undergone the 60 day drying period. At least that is what I have noticed with our skulls that have been cleaned by dermestids at skulls unlimited.

My brother had that hunt about 5 years ago and the numbers of elk were amazing at that time. He passed on 5 different bulls in the first 30 minutes of the hunt and then we looked into a valley with about 50 elk in it and probably 8 bulls ranging from raghorns to the bull he shot that was just shy of 300". There were elk bugling all night long and they continued for several hours in the morning. Everyone we talked to at the camping area filled out within 2 hours of first light. There is no need for an outfitter to help find elk as they are very plentiful and you could likely find one within reasonable walking distance from the camping area. Last time I was there (during the hunt mentioned above) you could only camp in one designated area where you also park and access is only allowed by foot, horse, or bicycle. There is a road that goes up the main valley, which is locked by a gate and serves as access to private land on the other side of the sargent WMA. There are lots of big, open, grassy valley bottoms and then the hills are wooded with some large meadows interspersed throughout. Most all of it is good elk country and we saw or heard elk in many different spots. Between what we saw scouting and during the hunt I would definitely hold out for a 6x6 with 300" being quite attainable and 330" being a very nice bull for that area. I did draw a sargent ES tag in December once and it was a real bust. A storm dropped 3 feet of snow two weeks before the hunt and everything was pushed into lower country. I saw 2 cow elk in 2 full days on horseback covering almost the whole hunt area in that time and tracks were very few and far between as well. However this should not be an issue on your hunt.

Wow, that is a monster coues right there!! Making an animal look like that can be done, it just takes a bit of work. My brother hunted with a guy who would clean any visible blood off the animal and then put it in a walk-in freezer and prop it up in the position he wanted it and get it frozen into that position.

I believe the 2 day thing is just when the landowner is required to let you scout according to his agreement. Most landowners I have dealt with have no problem with you coming out a week or two before the hunt and taking a look around.

I grew up in Roswell, but have not heard of that ranch. Which direction is it from town and how many sections is the ranch? The ranches around Roswell can be hit or miss in regards to quality of antelope, but most of them have high numbers of speed goats on them. Depending on what size you are looking for you might have to look over a lot of bucks before finding what you want, and sometimes the best you can find is a low to mid 70's buck. However there are some ranches where an 80" net buck is quite attainable.

My dad got the Leupold B&C reticle for his 7mm WSM and after sighting in at 200 yards, I was impressed that the 300 and 400 yard aiming points were pretty much spot on. Even if they don't work out exactly for your cartridge I would bet that they would be within several inches and would be much better than using the holdover guesstimation method and quicker than the turret method. I don't have any experience with other similar offerings from Nikon or Burris.

That is a tough call. I think that calling the warden was the right choice because it sounds like you were in an area with cell service. When you are in an area without phone service the choice is a lot tougher. Here in NM I have called the warden twice for antelope with dislocated hip joints from when they got caught up jumping a fence. Both times the warden came out and the first time the warden shot the antelope because it was in pretty poor condition from being in the fence for 1-2 whole days and the warden said that once the hip is dislocated they can't get it to stay back in place. The second time I had actually seen the antelope get hung up and was on my way over to free it when it ended up freeing itself. It was dragging its hind leg but was in otherwise good condition. I called and the warden took a look at it and didn't want to kill it as it was healthy otherwise, so he was going to check on it over the next couple of days. The leg never became usable again and I found the antelope dead about a week later. At least in NM there is something that the warden can do, and I would think it is the same way in AZ. Nature can be cruel at times and I hope that a predator kills that calf soon, however it is probably just as likely that the calf will die a slower death due to dehydration or sepsis.

I think the mount looks pretty similar to the picture of the actual deer as far as the width of the eyes. However, I do see what you are saying about the eyes looking forward. I think the only one to blame is actually yourself because as you said in your post "I was looking at his web page and all of his coues seem to have this look." Do your homework before sending your trophy to a taxidermist so you know what to expect.

Elk 1-154 is a rifle MB hunt in unit 5B (there is no North or South designation) from Oct. 27-31. Sorry I can't help you out, but I have never been in that area. Just looking at the location on the map I would think it would be a good unit.

Congratulations on making the summit!! It looks like you had quite an adventure. I would definitely recommend Kilimanjaro, it makes for an awesome trip and you will be able to see how your body does at those high elevations in a safer environment than on Mt. McKinley.

Nice cat and neat video!! Well said Wklman. The hard part is not the shot at the end, it is getting the fish out of the lake and into the barrel (or in this case finding the cat and chasing it up the tree).

I made it out into the woods this weekend for some turkey hunting. On Saturday I was able to go out in the afternoon, but the wind was really howling and I ended up looking for sheds more than focusing on turkey hunting. I managed to find one 5-point elk shed that was pretty heavy weighing in at 6.5 pounds. I didn't search too hard for the other side, which was a good thing because when I got to my grandparents house I found out that my grandpa had found the other side about a month ago. He found it about 600 or so yards from where I found the shed. On Sunday morning I got up early and drove to where I was planning to hunt, only to find that two guys had beat me there and were just getting out of their truck. I parked in a different location and hunted the canyons below where they went. The early morning was a bust and I only heard 3 gobbles that were way up on the ridgetop where I originally planned to hunt. After the early morning I started covering a lot of ground trying to strike a gobble, and did call in a lone hen but did not hear a single gobble. At 7:45AM I was coming up on a big meadow where I have seen turkeys many times over the years. I called and got no response, so I snuck over a small hilltop to look into the meadow and saw 2 hens feeding. Of course I was about 15 feet from the nearest bush or tree at this time, so I just sat down and figured that was safer than trying to sneak to the cover. I watched them for several minutes and then a gobbler strutted into view. He strutted around for about 5 minutes before he finally cleared some bushes and presented a clear shot opportunity. Taking a good picture of a turkey is pretty tricky when you are by yourself. I used my daypack to set behind him and hold his fan open. By the time I gutted him and packed him the 3 miles back to the truck he was not in the best condition for pictures with me in them.

If the warden is like the one here in NM that my brother called last season, I wouldn't expect much to happen. Last bear season there was a set of canyons that had good acorns and was loaded with bears. I saw 4 in 2 half-days of looking and my brother saw 12 in 4 days. There was a guy running hounds and he shot one right on dark as it was scooting by with the hounds in pursuit. The next day my brother was back and found a small dead bear in the bottom of a dry streambed right beside the road (it was visible from the road and wasn't there the evening before). He ran into the hound hunter and heard the story about the guy shooting one right on dark the previous evening and how he couldn't find it that night. My brother told him where the bear was, which was right near where the guy had shot it and the guy said that it had spoiled overnight and was no good so he didn't tag it and kept hunting. What we really think happened was the guy ground checked the bear, decided it was too small, left it there and made up some lame story about how he couldn't find it. My brother called the game warden who said it wasn't illegal to lose an animal and not recover it. The game warden said he might go move the carcass out of view from the road, if he had time. As far as I am concerned finding an animal the next morning after a shot just on dark and then just leaving it is not ethical for one, and even if you can't prove the guy has broken some law the warden could have at least hassled him a little bit and let him know someone was keeping an eye on him. Later, my grandpa found the carcass of another small bear in the same canyon system and the same guy brought a medium sized one into the taxidermist a couple days after the aforementioned incident.