hunter4life

Those are great finds in some awesome looking country!!

Tell your daughter congratulations!! I know that in years past they were cow elk hunts, but maybe things have changed. It would be quite an experience to get such a good bull tag for her first hunt.

The biggest problem I see is the statement "Took meat to meat processor." My family has been butchering our own meat for many years. Every once in a great while we don't have the time to do it ourselves and get it done by the meat processor and it is never as good as when we do it ourselves. I think the main difference is that when we do it ourselves we take the time to get off all the fat and get it really clean, where it would never be economical for a meat processing place to spend the same amount of effort unless they charged a lot more. With that being said, sometimes a certain animal just tastes more "gamey" than others when the way it was handled from the time it got shot until it was packaged in the freezer was very similar to other animals that did not taste gamey. In these cases it is a mystery to me, and I just chock it up to variation between individual animals.

I have seen it quite a number of times with deer, antelope and barbary sheep. I have gotten there in time and released two deer that were both hung up by a single back leg. Both deer bounded away looking uninjured. I have also released 2 antelope that were hung up the same way. In many areas of NM where there is sheep fencing the antelope have learned to jump fences and I have seen them do it many times. Both antelope that I released had dislocated their hip joint and I gave G&F a call and they told me that they had tried to fix other ones with the same injury and they could never get the joint to stay together and there was really nothing they could do. The first one was in fairly poor condition after probably being hung up for about a day, so they just shot it. The second one had probably only been stuck for an hour and was getting along pretty well on three legs, so we left it be to at least give it a chance. It is always heartbreaking to see, unless you get there in time and can let the animal go and it appears uninjured.

Nice pictures, those Mearns sure are pretty birds!! Penny looks to be really enjoying the snow.

Great job, that is an awesome buck!!

It is hard to tell, but that looks more like a dog track to me. The toes don't look quite right and the pad is not big enough in proportion to the toes. Here is a picture of a lion track in the dirt that I took a few years ago.

Neat pictures!! I have watched several big rams go at it up in the NM high country and it sure is an awesome thing to see. These look to be rocky mt. bighorns to me, just judging off of their build. Are these rocky mt. bighorns?

Here are pictures of two nice bucks that I have digiscoped. The pictures of the first buck were taken at about 600 yards, and the second buck was out at about 900 yards. Enjoy.

Amanda, I will send you an e-mail with the pics so you can put them in the live coues photogallery. Firstcoueswas80, that buck in the last picture is actually a 2 point plus eyeguards on the L side and those 3 points on the Right all come off the base and there were 4 sticker points as well that just don't show from the distance this picture was taken from. From this angle he doesn't look that atypical, but from different angles his right side was really funky.

That first buck really has some character!! I would guess him at 105" gross score. Those sure are some well fed deer.

What a bummer!! A really similar thing happened to my dad this year. He saw two bucks go into a little canyon and not come out so he figured they bedded down. He had to move to get in closer for a shot, and when he got to that spot he couldn't find the deer so he sat and waited. After about 30mins the smaller buck of the two got up and slowly fed across the hillside and into the next small canyon over. He then sees another deer get up from close to where the first buck was bedded and it starts feeding in a bush. He puts up the binos real quick and is able to see antlers that are branching at least once, so he puts up his gun and shoots. Gets over there and to his surprise finds a forkhorn with eyeguards. The big coues that he was guessing at 100-105" then jumps up at about 40 yards from where his buck was lying dead. He had watched the two bucks work their way into the canyon and never did see a third one with them, so as soon as he saw a branching antler (although it was somewhat obscured by the bush) he figured it was from the big one.

I would go with the TC omega. My dad and brother both have them and I really like their design. They are nice to shoot and easy to clean. TC also has good customer service. As for .45 versus .50 caliber that is up to you and what you are going to hunt as well as whether or not there is a minimum caliber size where you are hunting. I shoot a .45 cal Knight that I like, but it is a bigger chore to clean and the rifle is longer due to how the action is set up when comparing it to the Omega. In the past 3 years, this gun shooting 200gr. Hornady SST's has accounted for 3 coues and 1 elk with no problems with bullet penetration, even on the elk.

WOW, awesome buck!!

Congratulations RedmanJr., on a nice coues buck!!

Great buck, he looks like he has a few years of age on him!!

Nice buck, I would definitely be proud of him!!

Tell both of them congratulations on some awesome bucks!!

Congratulations to both of you, on two great bucks!! I like Deerslam's idea of the double pedestal mount.

Congratulations to your wife on getting a great coues deer!! I recently got married and hopefully my wife will draw a tag next year and I will also have some awesome pictures to share.

Congratulations to everyone who had a good hunt (irregardless of whether or not a deer was killed)!! I have not been on much lately and there were so many pictures and hunt stories posted that I would not be able to reply to all of them.

Very nice coues!! I would guess right around 100".

I am with TAM on this one. I am usually so many miles from the road that I never even see a road hunter other than when I am driving out. They can drive the roads all day and it doesn't bother me in the least. I think more people should take up road hunting, so I will run into even fewer people in the backcountry. Although the one bad thing about road hunters is that they end up drawing tags that people like many of us on this site could put to better use.

You have some very nice sheds there. How long are the eyeguards on the first shed? The last two look like they are both muley sheds to me.

I am also a fan of Hornady bullets, but I usually use 160gr. bullets in the 7mm. A 140gr. bullet should be more than enough for a coues at the ranges you mentioned.