TAM

Hey Becker, I sent you a PM about that shed.

Spotted owls, Barred owls, I don't understand what the big deal is. They all taste like chicken!!!

I don't use an actual bow sling, but I do use one of those loops or hooks that slides onto your belt. I got the idea from my quiver when I was practicing at the range or shooting in tournaments, and just took the hook off the quiver and placed it on my belt when I hunt. I think they cost around $10 and they sure make a difference if you're walking a lot.

Thanks Amanda! Sorry if I came across as impatient, I know your busy outside of the website and did not mean to rush you. 25-06, we mostly get coues deer, elk, and bears. I've got a few of turkey, fox, coyote's, and javelina. I was not planning on submiting them for the website because their not that interesting. The one animal that we've yet to get pic's of is a bobcat. Mike and I are both a little surprised by that. Next time I scan some more pic's I'll scan some of them and maybe email them directly to you? I'd be curious to get people's opinion how big the bear is that goes swimming. He looks like he's got a pretty good size melon to me? What do you think Bullwidgeon? That buck with a radio collar comes in alot! We might have a dozen pictures of him over the last month or so. In fact, he's been hanging out with a real wide buck that we think will score around 100 inches or so. We're excited to see what they both grow into this year. I'll get the next group of pic's to Amanda here in the next couple of days.

Sorry it's taking so long 25-06. I emailed them to Amanda over a week ago (5/26)and they've still not been posted. I think I emailed her a couple of a nice bear, a mountain lion, and a coues buck with a G&F tracking collar. I've got more ready to send her as well, but I was waiting for those to get posted first. Perhaps Amanda could let us know the status?

Rode my quad into my bear hunting area yesterday afternoon. It's south of Rye in 22 and I didn't have any problems with road closers.

Yep, we're starting to see some growth on the coues bucks as well. How much growth are you seeing so far? At this point we've only got pic's with bucks showing an inch or two max.

Ok Bullwidgeon, I've got a couple pic's of what I think is a pretty good bear. You'll have to let me know how big you think he is. 25-06, I think I've got another lion pic or two that I can submit as well. We also recently got a bunch of pic's of a little coues buck with a radio coller on that I'll send in. I'm going to email Amanda the pic's right now.

Maybe we should start taking requests. Deer, bear, or lion?

With the exception of the pre rut and rut, I've always believed that a big mature bucks home range could be better described in mere acres rather than miles. I know they will move for food and water as needed, but I don't think they cover much country. I agree with the previous posts about their home range being five miles give or take, but I think that takes in to account the rut when they tend to move about much more often. I tend to believe that throughout most of the year they stay locked into an area much, much smaller than that as long as there is food, water, and cover.

Bill, yes we've tried using a varmit call to call in some lions up there without success. Treestandman had a pretty neat encounter with a cat at another tank in the same area that we tried to call in the next morning with no success. I'll let him tell you the story if he wants to.

The pic's of the three lions was taken two summers ago in july. The lion at the bottom left is a female and the two others are 1 1/2 year old kittens. If you can't tell from the pic's they are coming into a small spring. We were getting pic's of lions coming in a lot that summer, then last summer I don't think we got a single lion pic on that tank, but got several bears. The quality of the pic's is typical of the cheap $100 35mm trail cameras we use, but I think the actual prints look better than the scanned images do on the website. We've got literally hundreds of photos over the last couple of years from our trail cameras. We have had 5-6 of them out working for us almost continuously for two years. I just got a digital camera and set it out last week that has a video feature that I'm hopeful will turn out some good results. I just got 5 or 6 pic's of a couple of good bears this past weekend that I may post soon. I can't believe how many pic's of bears we have been getting! Now that I have access to a scanner I will be submitting a few of the more interesting photos to Amanda each week so stay tuned!

Azhuntnut, I think we're all quite aware that there are no animals in 5BN, but there is a very healthy population of Sasquach. I've only had the occasion of finding someone else's trail camera one time a few years ago before they were real popular. I left it there after it took a couple of pictures of me. A few weeks later I was flipping through a photo album of hunting pic's at Don's Sporting Goods in Scottsdale and noticed several pic's of the water hole I had visited weeks before. It turned out the camera belonged to one of the owners of the shop and we had a pretty good talk about the area and what kind of animals he'd been getting on his camera. He even remembered the pic's his camera had taken of me several weeks before. On the flip side of that I've had one of my cameras stolen last spring and my buddy has had a couple stolen as well, and nothing gets me hotter than people that steal stuff! Chances are most people that steal trail cameras are other hunters, and that's PRETTY SAD! Kudos to the guy that took the high road!

Funnels are usually formed by either the natural landscape/topography, and/or the natural vegetation. As previously mentioned saddles and thick strips of trees or brush that act as travel ways for deer. Coues deer, especially mature bucks, are masters of using natural funnels. These are areas where deer can move about even during daylight with minimal exposure. They also use them to escape danger. It's been discussed on here numerous times about how coues deer have a tendancy to water at mid day, and many times they are using natural funnels to lead them to the water without moving into the open. During the rut often times these funnels serve as rub and scrape lines. Sometimes they are only a thin strip of vegetation only 12-15 feet wide that follows a cut or draw up a hillside but provides a deer enough cover to move about without being in the open. If you find an active funnel put up a trail camera and you'll be amazed at the amount of deer and other critters that move through them.

For me there are lots of variables like rifle vs. archery, rut vs. summer, how well I know the area, what kind of bucks I've seen in the area, how long I have to hunt. I take all those things into consideration but the bottom line is that I want a nice rack for the wall. Usually that means around 90 inches with a bow and 100 inches with a rifle.

I was expecting the same thing Redman. What's up with that??? Residents are going to get HOSED!!!!!

CHD, In your quote from Josh you posted above, Josh complimented you no less than 4 times. He said you take good pictures, great buck, and beautiful country! Those types of comments are considered by most to be friendly and positive. He also offered some friendly advise from one hunter to another on taking pictures. His advise was good and also offered in a friendly manor. Don't jump the guy for trying to be nice! I'd suggest you take a piece of your own advise and I quote..........."Some members have to toughen up and grow a thicker skin."

Treestandman just got some pictures from a trail camera back on Saturday and one of the bucks had dropped a single antler. Looked to be pretty fresh because his pedistal was still brigt red. There was one other pic with a deer that had a pretty good size body with no antlers and tarsal glands on his back legs (his ears were in the way so you could not see the pedistal's) so I'm pretty sure he had dropped as well. All the other bucks were still packing.

I was hunting with Treestandman over the weekend and must confess that I gave him a truck load of crap about using his bow! I even brought my extra 12 guage up to camp with me so he could use it cuz I knew there was no way he was going to put an arrow in one of them sneaky critters. He tagged out in 20 minutes Saturday morning and had turkeys gobbling all over the place while my other buddy and I hiked the entire mountian without hearing or seeing a single turkey! I guess even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and again! Congrats Mike.

Lark, what you're saying makes good sense in a perfect world, but I think that G&F's concern is that if they say it's ok to shoot any elk in Yuma than people will go and shoot elk off the rim and say they shot it in Yuma. How many guys do you know that won't buy a mt. lion tag because after they shoot one they can just go into town and buy the tag. I'm not saying it's right but it happens more than we know.

I've got an archery spring tag for unit 22 and have been out hunting once and done a lot of scouting. Haven't seen any yet, but I've seen lots of sign.

I know a guy that shot a 111" velvet buck about 3 years ago in unit 31 with his bow. Not sure about the other one though.

I have deer hunted NM unit 23 for 3 of the last 4 years and this paticular unit is in some desperate need of attention. Too many hunters and lions, and the drought have taken there toll on the deer herds. The unit has incredible potiential for coues and even carp but just needs some time and good management to allow it to recover. I think the new regulations are great for unit 23 and are a step in the right direction for a recovery. By issueing separate tags for coues and carp it will allow the NM G&F to more effectivly manage the two deer species. Coues deer are a very limited resource in NM, but with proper management they will thrive and produce great antlers.

They won't drop last years antlers until about late April, May and sometimes there are still a few holding on into June. You can still put your camera out right now and see if any good bucks made it through the hunting season.

All of them have pro's and con's but we've used Stealth Cams before and gotten great results. You should have a good time with it.