CouesPursuit

Buck in my avatar was 6 yards out and 25 feet down, quartering away. It felt crazy wrong as I put my 20 pin on the bottom of his belly, but thanks to a lot of practice, I knew it was right. The arrow entered just below his spine and exited just behind his opposite shoulder. Some pictures here to illustrate the entry/exit @ http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/46532-archery-coues-dirtnap/ Without taking so many shots out of my stand before the hunt, I'm certain I would have wounded or missed the buck at just 6 yards. Even if you don't hunt from a tree stand, elevated and close range shots should be carefully practiced and logged into memory.

I'm just a young buck but I have never and don't think I will ever part with a firearm. And I think they are all my favorite! Cool thread.

Must be a restriction or permission issue on my computer, I'm still getting the same thing. I'll try a few things, sorry about that, thanks. Edited/Addition: I can pull it right up on my phone, looks very good, a couple suggestions now that can make this spreadsheet more versatile later.. 1. Make the date fields all integers,Year (yyyy), Month (mm), and Day (dd). This way, we can concatenate to one date field that will always have 8 characters i.e. 20150805. Now the dates can be queried and sorted. 2. Nit-picky for sure, but some databases don't like spaces and special characters (/). It doesn't look as pretty, but I typically use underscores or bumpy caps i.e. Elevation_ft , Wind_mph , etc.. I also try to keep field names as short as possible. Then, the data can be taken into any database language, and it will never need to be modified. 3. Add a 'userid' field. Great stuff micropterus, even if you didn't make any changes, the existing fields could be manipulated. I only mention the 2 things above so there will never need to be a schema change, and it will always be a 1:1 relationship. I'm hoping people use it!

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Yup, just a Tonto Pass.

A little illustration to support oz31p's comment. It's paved until after the parking lot, the beach is long and the sand mostly compact.

He clearly states yesterday, August 1st, check the regs yourself. Lol Good job, Patrick.

Excellent man! Beautiful bird and amazing mount!

No they're not the best, but I like Vortex, both their product and how well they stand by it. A few things you need to ask yourself. Is this rifle just for hunting or do you have a desire to REALLY get into long range shooting? The LR commitment should be all or none. Do you have any limit on how far you would take a shot at live game? The 16x is plenty for taking 500 yard shots and less, and I think it combos nicely with the .270 in comparison to bigger LR calibers and more magnification. Finally, the reticle, do you plan on taking advantage of the complexity of the HS LR scope reticles? If not, this one person's opinion is you don't need it. I also like Leupold, and do not think the 50mm objective is necessary. It gathers enough light to add a couple minutes to your shooting window, and that's about it.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr5069 I'm mostly for it, it's been 24 years since there was an increase. It would have been nice if they did something to mandate the birders to contribute as well though.

Wow, you're going to be making some drool over these great pictures! Thanks for sharing. I like the mystery bear [bEARS (3).jpg]

You compile and maintain the database and I'd be willing to turn it into a precipitation Google Earth layers and/or other maps. Conceptually, it's quite easy IMO. Hundreds of ways to do it I'm sure, without researching, a couple come to mind. 1 - Use a open source document management system (so it's free - http://www.opendocman.com/) where the source data (spreadsheet) can be "checked out" by one individual, they add to it, and "check in" their modifications. One consideration, everyone would need the same software such as MS Word to access it. 2 - Google has been coming out with new features in Google Docs. https://www.google.com/forms/about/ You could make a form that writes to a google spreadsheet and go from there. There are also customization forms Adobe makes that can do the same thing. This would be quite the commitment for all involved but there is no doubt it could work and be beneficial to CWT members.

Between historic waterfowl survey counts, http://www.wideopenspaces.com/highest-number-ever-recorded-for-continental-waterfowl-population-video/ the strongest indicators in almost 2 decades for an El Niño event, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/07/20/el-nino-intensifying-could-rival-strongest-in-history/ http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/june-heat-breaks-records-el-nino-locking-us-in-for-back-to-back-hottest-years/54618/ and Drake coming into his prime (5 years old in December), I'm hoping this is the best year in my lifetime to not have any fall big game hunts. The depression still lurks but I can see shooting light at the end of the tunnel.

Wow that's cool, thanks for sharing.

Abandon his 3A/3C tag and pass down 13B to your son, save some money for college and have a ton of father-son scouting time together, all the while getting him a monster he will never forget!! I know, easy for me to say! Good luck, that's a good problem to have.

Hey TJ - The TNF is still "finalizing" their Travel Management Plan after 10 years. They have recently been evaluating 3 alternatives, A B and C, liberal moderate and conservative. Which alternative they choose, which will likely be modified even further before it's complete, will officially dictate where you can travel off road to retrieve game in the future. I read in the last proposal there were different distances among ranger districts as well. Funny the Forest Circus doesn't have a date posted within the document itself, but in the title of this link it claims it was updated 051015. So as it appears to me, currently, you can only retrieve down game in the Payson and Pleasant Valley ranger districts. http://a123.g.akamai.net/7/123/11558/abc123/forestservic.download.akamai.com/11558/www/nepa/59232_FSPLT2_051015.pdf "Hunting is another popular recreational activity, resulting in the influx of commercial outfitter guides and many out of town visitors to the Tonto NF. Motor vehicles, particularly OHVs, are used by some hunters for transportation during the hunt and for camping and off-road game retrieval, which is not prohibited in the Payson or Pleasant Valley ranger districts."

I thought each of your kids holding their own rainbow was the best part.. until.. I noticed the Garfield Bubble Tape clipped to your younger boy's sweater! That may be me to T 20 years ago, awesome stuff!

I've been going to Lees Ferry for several years now in various times March-May, and for the cicada hatch in July. July can be a scorcher, so for my first family trip, with my wife and black lab joining me, I elected to stay at the lodge in Marble Canyon instead of camping upriver. I figured it would help to avoid any negative experiences for my wife's first time, it certainly did. It was a lot easier to pack and plan without camping and I was able to put a full charge on my trolling motor batteries each night at the lodge. I did however burn a lot more fuel commuting up and down the river each day. The other factor in fuel was the amount of drift fishing we did. The simplicity of drift fishing for my wife and her first fly fishing experience was a perfect fit. I couldn't be more proud of her as she fished relentlessly for 2.5 days, using one, yes one single 9 foot leader the entire time! I kept it on the boat, but she didn't pick up the spinning rig I brought for her once. She dealt with every single tangle on her own, she never hooked herself, or the dog, or me lol. In her joking words, she was "roll casting like a G" by the end of day 1. I can't tell you how many times I offered help, and seconds later she resolved the issue, with a resounding "I don't need no man!" She even drove the majority of the time as I enjoyed my beer(s). I don't usually share my family experiences on CWT, but after how proud I am of her, and it being outdoor related, I suppose I felt the need to brag, share, hopefully entice one of you to take your spouse or loved ones to Lees Ferry. I don't know, the place is magical, couldn't help but share. Thanks for reading, if anyone wants a report ask away, we caught quite a few fish drifting midges, egg patterns, and san juans. I had some dry-cicada action but not much. They buzzed a bit in the middle of the day but never saw one hit the water. Fishing was much better than it was in April, and the fish were very healthy.

Thank you guys! Heat, I'm going to play it safe and call it a 3-way tie! We had so much stinkin' fun there is no way to know! Edge, I'm a sharing person but.. lol No Way! You would really be amazed how often I can't catch a fish until she does. Hopefully, Hawley treats you better next time, I'm scared to go back as my memories are so fond of that place, I'd almost like to leave them that way!

I'll take them for $30, I'm in Mesa and can meet tonight. Sending pm now..

You don't need a boat to hunt ducks in AZ. Lots of wadable water out there. I'll leave the rest of your thread for its original intent. Hopefully someone will team up with you, I would but I know it's just not in the cards this year. Feel free to send me a pm if you want to ask any other questions.

Even if you had a boat, eventually, waders are a must. I prefer stocking foot vs. booted. Whatever is comfortable and warm to you.

Agree with no duck call ^ It will only hurt if you can't run it properly. If I'm ever in view of others, 95% of the time when I hear them call, the ducks flare away simultaneously. There are too many people out blowing on a call who can't talk duck. Full disclosure: I'm barely seeing the true benefits from calling after several years of practice and over a hundred days in the field. Steep learning curve for most, maybe I'm wrong and you're a natural. Arizona's typically bluebird duck weather doesn't help with calling either. Make up for no calling with as much motion in the water as possible (jerk rigs), with NO motion in the blind. I wouldn't buy a dozen mallards as my first set of decoys, too many others doing the same thing. 18 wigeon and teal take up as much space (or less) as a dozen mallards, and you look different, and real. Instead of a hen mallard call get a duck whistle, very easy to sound like teal and wigeon, just don't over do it. Take a look at some photos of good days shooting ducks here in AZ, larger portions of the bag are wigeon, teal, and gadwall. We aren't in Kansas anymore, aviatortony! JK, good luck out there. Here a couple other threads on this site with some good info. http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/43637-duck-hunting-etiquette/ http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/52188-duck-dummy/ http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/44862-frustrated-with-ducks/

Happy birthday TJ! Hope you have a great day!

Great story here, well done mda33 and Tony. And good advice here above fcw80 ^^. Come/heel and sit/stay are critical to the rest of any gun dog training. My advice is to get started immediately with come and sit, and graduate soon into heel and stay. The more stern you are about OB now, the easier training will be. What's next depends on what kind of dog you're looking for. Any of the books by Richard Wolters will get you a happy family and hunting companion. Keep in mind Gun Dog was written over 50 years ago, times have changed and research has evolved new training methods. If you want to take her to the next level, there are better, modern programs that come in DVD sets. My lab Drake and I train for waterfowl retrieving everyday at the park when the temps get back down in September, right now I limit him to water work when we can get to the lake and short backyard drills. If you'd like, send me a pm when the pup has her shots and is ready to join. I'm looking forward to seeing how she turns out, best of luck! p.s. what's her name?