SunDevil

here is probably my favorite trophy pic. there is one or two other pics of this deer I know other people prefer but this is my favorite one. the second one is probably my next favorite one of Juan.

you guys are DOGS! how many points did you have? I put in for that hunt with 13 points and didn't get squat. congrats anyway. good luck. chris.

DOG! How many points did you have? This is the hunt I put in for with 13 points and guess what - ZILCH. Congrats and good luck. Maybe I will draw next year and you can share the wealth. Chris.

christian - we first have to get drawn. then we all know finding big bucks on a scouting trip is a whole lot easier than finding them during the season. we are trying to concentrate on areas that may get less pressure and then go in there and see what kind of deer the area holds. sure wish we had got a better pic of that buck. his mass was incredible. so were his G2s. he looked kind of weird broadside because his mainbeam curved in real hard while his G3 went forward and from the side looked to be longer than the main beam. still can not get over the fact we saw 2 turkeys in this area. we were a long way from pine trees. later.

here is some info on unit 1 from another site. http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID12/7501.html

So Saturday was our only full day scouting. In total we spent about 8 hours hiking and glassing (6 in the morning and 2 in the evening). The area we were at in the morning was different than for the 10:00 am stretch and yet another completely different area in the evening. We estimated we saw 60 different deer on saturday. 55 does and fawns and 5 bucks. This would be 9 bucks per 100 does/fawns. If you took the fawns out the number would go up slightly. I do not think a third of the does and fawns we saw were fawns. Probably more like 20%. This would make 5 bucks, 11 fawns and 44 does. This would make 11 bucks per 100 does. Even if a third of the does and fawns were fawns this would only increase the ratio to 14 bucks per 100 does. Also, if you assume we may have missed a couple of bucks (it was our observation the bucks were bedding significantly sooner than the does and fawns) the number would go up slightly. So based on Amanda's information earlier. This unit would be below target for fawns per 100 does and below target for bucks per 100 does. I would guess the population in this unit to be stable and the hunter success for all hunts combined is > 20%. 2 of the indicators would be to decrease tags, 1 would be to hold the same and 1 would be to increase. It will be interesting to see what the G & F does with tags for 2007. Doubt they will go down. FYI - last year the number of tags in this unit for the Dec hunt doubled. Later. Chris.

2001 was a really good year for me. here is rocky my lope from that year. he was 16.4" on one side and 16.0" on the other. that same year I also drew a Dec whitetail tag. here is the buck from that hunt. I harvested him on my 8th day of hunting. it was the first year I truly learned, accepted and was willing to pass on smaller bucks in order to hold out for something bigger.

this is the smallest 3 point I have ever taken. it was my 2nd deer (a step up from the spike I had taken a few years before). he only has a 7.5" inside spread.

there was a ranch on the san pedro river near cascabel that had transplanted some from the south (Arkansas I think). they charged a couple of hundred bucks to hunt them. some of them wandered off from their propoerty and were free game. I know a guy who killed one on their ranch and then his brother and he killed a couple off from the ranch. this was about 4 years ago or so. would have been in unit 32 I believe.

a couple years ago while scouting deer I glassed one up on the far northern end of the catalinas - south of Oracle. Chris.

the 10s you have should work for now. save your money for the 15 swaros. then a spotter and then upgrade your 10s. do not undervalue the benefit of a good spotter. chris

Sorry I was going to post this yesterday but got interupted and forgot to get back on and do it. Hope you had a good one. Later. Chris

Danny - you are more than welcome! "still look the same?" I dont know about that. Here I thought I was better looking today than I was 20 years ago. Anyway, it must have been because I had a hat on in the picture and she couldnt see my hairline. Take care. Chris.

you'd never know it but this is scout'm before he started hunting coues deer

Recently, Archeologists discovered the remains of what is believed to be a 10,000 year old Liberal Democrat!!!!

4life - thanks! I will shoot you a pm with my email address. Chris.

must be beginners luck. this is the first time I have ever put in for Oryx and guess what - I am going to be on the Stallion the weekend of 2/16/2008. man that is a long was away. will definetly be on here trying to get info on the hunt and how to field judge these animals. it is kind of a two sided sword. one side - I got drawn for a once in a lifetime hunt. the other side - nonresident tag fee is $1,616. ouch. oh well you cant take it with you. gotta spend it on something. guess I wont be heading to mexico to hunt coues next jan. later. chris.

you guys are killin me. first of all I would never disrespect someone else by calling their buck little or a dink. secondly, as some of you are aware, I accidentally shot a small deer last fall. I refered to it as a dink. I do not feel I was disrespecting the animal in using this term to describe it. the fact is that it was an accident and I felt and feel bad about it. it also was a little deer. I was using the term dink to replace the word little. I looked the word dinky up in the dictionary and found that it means small OR unimportant. trust me I was using the term to mean small and NOT unimportant. also, I am a firm believer in the saying 'you cant shoot big bucks if you are always shooting little ones'. I believe that if you know you are in an area that holds big bucks (scouting, prior years hunting, etc) you should be holding out for a big one. let the little ones grow up. there is a chance though that your tag will go unfilled and you have to be comfortable with that being a possibility. just my 2 cents. later. chris.

what about an instant message chat room? would think it might be pretty cool for everyone to know that they could log in at 9:00 on wednesday night and everyone available would be on to shoot the bull with. thoughts? chris.

"good shooter with factory test targets" - what do you mean by that? have you fired this rifle? how do your groups compare to the factory target that came with the gun? thanks. chris.

that is quite some stabilizer that one guy has on his bow.

so is the verdict out on last years elk antler growth. it has been mentioned that winter rain is more important for elk than deer. so was last year better, worse or average. what could one look forward too this year if they were lucky enough to drawn an elk tag? CB

more than likely you will have to lower your tripod head when you move from your binos to an angled spotter.

one other thing to throw into the mix is that the 82ED Nikon has an eyepiece that goes up to 75X. I think the most the rest of the bigger scopes go up to is either 60X or 65X. On a scouting trip in the fall of 2005, I glassed up a buck that was a long way away. In the 15s, we could tell he was a buck but didnt think he was anything special. I threw the spotter up on him and zoomed it in at 75X. I was floored. Talk about being up close and personal. He looked like he was 25 yards away. We estimated the 3X4 buck to be between 100 and 105. We were glassing from a very distinct point and the buck was on a very distinct point, so when I got home I measured the distance on a topo map and was amazed to find we were 8/10ths of a mile from that buck. Bigger scopes are that, bigger, and heavier but they have their advantages. My pack probably weighs twice as much as what some guys carry around because of my scope, cameras, tripod, binos, etc but hey, I'm a big guy and it serves as a reminder as to my need to get into shape. Later. Chris.

I am not positive but I am pretty sure you could get into a Nikon 65 ED scope, eye piece, bracket and camera for under $1K. Their ED scopes are very good. I have the 82 ED and other than being pretty big and heavy I love it. You can get a Nikon P2 camera which is a very good camera for $150. The brackets are camera specific. I used straight eye pieces for years but have an angled one now and prefer it. Scout'm just bought a swaro scope and got the angled eyepiece as well. There are pictures in the photo section that I have taken with my 82 with the digiscope setup I described. Let me know if you have any other questions. Chris.