bear402

Good Job ! 60 pounds is a lot to pull starting out. !! If you are comfortable with it, that's great. If it's difficult at all, you might consider going down to 50 pounds or so. You will shoot better and enjoy it more ! That's a nice healthy looking Buck.

Do a google search on line for the Eberlestock Tred Barta and you should get several hits The specs I read said 2300 Cubic inches. 7.4 pounds They are well made packs !

I spent another week in Arizona trying to close the deal on a Coues Buck ! No Buck for me this time but I had a good time hunting Solo . Lots of exercise packing the doghouse to various locations and trying different setups. The windy weather and Border Patrol agents doing their job. busted up several of my attack plans , but That's huntin'. I did have one shot at an 85" class Buck but no cigar. The shot felt and looked good but passed over the buck high and smashed into the rocks on the slope just behind him. The Buck left with a insulted attiude and I netted a Busted arrow and bent dull Broadhead for my efforts. Here's a few pictures of ambush setups and a couple of does from the hunt. First set didn't work . Deer spotted the tent like a fly in the soup. ??!! Second set same pond , uphill in the shade of a lone oak. This worked, had deer come in and missed decent Buck. The view from the oak tree down to the pond. I spotted the buck come in within the reflection of the hill in the pondl. He was upside down in the pond walking across the hill A pair of Coues does sharing the pond. Another pond set . I had a buck coming in off the ridge, but the Border patrol busted up this hunt looking for illegals. The view out the window on pond 2 These two does finished their drink and grazed a bit on the sweet new Grass. I got busted by this doe when the flash on my camera accidently popped up with a loud click ! Here are a couple of sets with blind material and a disk blind on a seep and another pond. I hunted hard and covered a lot of miles for 6 days. Things almost came together a couple of times but I was always just off synch to close the deal. Now I'll wait for August or December to try and fill my tag. Just means I get to hunt More !!

Brrrrrrrrr ! Nice Pictures! I like looking at snow . But I also like to be able to get out of it after looking at it.

Good points all. I like the Ugly Coffee Table analogy. Not being local to my Az hunting areas makes it difficult to set up very far in advance. The best I can do is usually to set up couple of days ahead of time. , When things go wrong like illegal & border patrol activity or bad winds at the tank location, the only option is to break it down and change locations. I absolutely agree that under or sucked up to shady cover works out best to conceal the blind and movement. I have been using the pop up tent blinds exclusively for the past 7 years with fair success on deer and coyotes, but they do limit my distance of travel as I get older and become an OLD FART. I generally pack those blinds in 3 or 4 miles to get to fairly remote tanks in an effort to up the odds of deer activity and get away from the cattle and other hunters. I am trying to lighten the load a little so I have been experimenting with a small disc blind, leafy blind cloth and natural materials. I definately will make mistakes along the road, but I am a quick learner. Taking photographs of each set and reviewing the pictures usually shows me what the deer might see as they approach and gives me that "well I could have done this" or "I shouldn't have done that" look at each setup. Optimal cover in the right location on a tank isn't always favorable to wind direction so that's one more challenge to be met. I try to figure out the prevailing wind directions on a tank , but I swear half the time it changes the morning you go in to sit the tank. Murphy's Law always messes with Me !! Here are a few tent setups that worked out in my favor and I killed deer out of. I killed my first Couse out of the blind in the Background. It wasn't brushed in that well, but being in the shadows under a mesquite tree made it work. I took a Ca Muley and a Coyote out of this blind on the same evening. Took deer 3 years in a row out of it. Hunting it after 4:30 P.M. puts the setin the shadow of the hill behind. It works well. This tent on the levy yielded the forked horn pictured below. It stuck out pretty bad in my eyes but the deer didn't give it a second look ! I custom painted this tent to try and blend in with the desert . I named it the "Pond Monster" because it looked like it had a pairof dark eyesr. This set didn't work but I partially blame cattle on the pond . I'm going to conitnue working on perfecting a run and gun blind setup that works in quick set stiuations and doesn't weigh 50 pounds. I'm sure Ill make many more mistakes along the road but, Ill learn along the way and that's half the fun ! I appreciate the input from you guys and will post pictures of future sets , good or bad!

Thanks and I agree with your opinion on being to close to the water and not brushed in on a couple of those sets. I set the first pond up in the dark and having never been on it before, made a bad set. The deer told me right away that it was wrong . I moved it up the hill and it worked well. The last set was more of an experiment with the leafy blind material that I picked up at wally world. The afternoon wind was really bad and the pond bank was the only break that was available to get out of it. It was so windy I didn't bother to brush it in . It came back down in short order and I hiked ot of there. I'm not done for the year just for the January season !

We often do the bacon grind with deer. I usually buy the bacon" end cuts" in a 3 pound package . It's usually half the price of regular bacon and ready to feed through the grinder. I use a 1 to 4 ratio with deer which yields a fairly lean end product but still has a nice smoky bacon flavor. I cool thhe chunks of meat in the chest freezer until it's almost frozen before grinding. That makes the grinder cutting head more effecient with less meat juice flowing out the head with the grind. My wife and I love a good Coues or Muley Bacon cheese burger hot off the grill with Mayonaise, Brown mustard, pickles and topped off with "Sweet Baby Ray's BBQUE suauce. I'm pulling the Teriaky Billy Jerky out of the dehydrator this morning . A taste test says Thumbs Up ! It's good , but not quite as good as the bear and deer Jerky I made last December. Are you getting Hungry TJ ??

I been doing some inventive Butchering upon my return from Arizona. I brought back a Javelina and a large domestic Goat that Cowboy Bob gave to me out of his herd . The Goat was around 180 on the hoof so there's a lot to work with. Anyway I decided to try something new and stretch the grind off the Javelina . I went 50 % Goat and 50 % Javelina on the grind. . It came out really nice . Looks good, great smell , good binding texture and really amazingly tasty. The Javelina is processed into Backstrap hunks , cutlets and Goatelina Burger. Now all I have to do is process the other 90 percent of the goat into palitable tablefare. :? The Goat was similar to the one on the right only bigger ! Here's my burger ready to grill on a plate in front of my 1HP Cabelas meat grinder power train. ( love that grinder it just idles through everything I've stuck in it!)

Thanks for the "salt as a binding agent" tip Chef. I mixed some breakfast sausage seasonings up with some of the Goatelina . A combo of standard breakfast and maple sausage seasonings made a tasty grilled breakfast treat. We grilled some straight goat meat as a cheesburger and it was very good. I was able to use the fat off the goat in the grind as there is no bad taste to it. I'm Making some Billy Jerky tonight in the dehydrator for snacks on my Coues hunt this up coming week.

Way to hang in ! That's a great looking Buck ! Someday I'm going to get one of those 100 inchers !

The "Bow Madness" made a trip to Arizona for a little Coues and Javelina hunting from January 3rd to the 13th. The trip started off great with last minute blown a tail light fuse investigation to get trailer lights before hitting the road. Twenty five miles out of Bakersfield at the base of the Grapevine, we ran into a Sand Storm that totally sand blasted and and pitted the the windshield , headlight enclosures and front end on the "New to Me" Sorento SUV. Headwinds killed the gas milage until we got to Palm springs and then we got caught up in a 1 hour traffic "bottle neck" where road construction had I-10 down to one lane just outside of Buckeye Arizona. Way behind schedule, we picked up our Archery deer tags at Walmart in Buckeye and sailed on down to our destination in unit 33 arriving at 2:30 A.M after a 15 hour drive. Tempurature was 16 degrees so it was'nt bad setting up our tents for a few hours of shut eye. We took the next morning to set up a proper camp before hitting the desert for an afternoon preliminary hunt/ scouting trip. Deer and Pig sign was sparse and waterholes had few tracks , due to the untimely rain and snowstorm just before our arrival ! Temps warmed up over the next few days and tracks and sign started increasing slowly. My cousin Marc scored a nice 90 inch Coues Buck on about the 5th day of the hunt and killed his Javelina on day 7. The buck was a main frame 8, but had broken off one of his G 2's fighting, making him a 7 point Marc still hasn't emailed pics to me so I'll post them later. I saw a few small bucks on my mutiple traverses over desert , mountains, ravines and through the Cactis groves. Had a small forked horn at 30 yards while sitting water in my tent blind. I didn't take a buck this trip buck the tag is young and will be good through out the year for various archery seasons. I finally killed a pig on day 9 but after a 2 hour long belly crawl through the salt cedar for recovery, didn't bother with any Pics of him. The traveling bow had a great hunt and protested a little when it was time to head home on day 12 . I was able take some good pictures of whitetails pesky " deer chasing range horses" and of course the Traveling bow. The trip home was smooth and I'm ready to do it again as soon as my work load lightens up. Here are a few pictures I took over the course of the hunt. ===================================== The Madness Hanging around a ground blind. Couple of Couse sucking Aqua. A single. A Triple. Just passing By. Madness Hiding out in the tent. Mesquite serenade. Madness on a TREK. Pesky horse chased deer off the tank off and on . Love those flags. I'll be Back Arizona !

I like that rack ! Looks like he charged straight into a petrified Saguro !

Congratulations ! Don't back up , there's a Cactus right behind you!

Way to keep after him ! He's A FINE LOOKING bUCK ! I'll be on the road today for 12 hrs to begin my deer and pig hunt on Monday.

My resolution is to hold out for a Pope & Young Coues this coming archery season. We'll see what happens when a smaller buck presents himself and my Coues fever kicks in !! I might want to drop afew pounds too !!

Just count him eastern style and you can count those eye guards. An 8 Point sounds better tham a 3x3 ! It does look like you drug him out with a quad or you drug him about ten miles over rocks ! He's a great archeyr buck , Congratulations !

Definately a Niiiiicccce Buck ! He's all head and Horns !

My First Bear, October 1978. (rifle) Labor Day Weekend 2000 (This bear was aged by the DFG at 18 years old) September 2003 triple. (Mine's in the middle.) (rifle) September 2006 (Archery) 2004 Cousins Bear on my Deer Cart (Archery) August 2009 Archery Bear September 2010 Rifle head shot at 8 feet

I haven't hunted AZ bears but if you find the tracks & find the fresh bear poop they'll be close. Warmer climate bears aren't much into hibernation, with the exception of sows with new cubs. Not sure what other food sources will be availbale , but spring bears love fresh green grasses around water sources and meadows. If there's any insect larvae hatch going on they'll be rippiing into that in dead rotten wood and humous earthern banks. They'll eat roots like pig too. Good Luck !

That's a Slammer ! He definately has character ! Isn't it great the way instinct takes over on a pressure shot like that ??

All of my bears were taken in the California Sierra Mountains at 6000 to 8500 feet. Archery bear season opens in late August here, followed by rifle season in late September. I hunt as much as possible during that time period. I've taken 10 bears since I began hunting them, 5 archery and 5 rifle I hunt using strictly DIY by spot and stalk, still hunting and ground sitting and waiting. concentating on food sources and travel routes. I have been alone in the field on all of the bear kills I have made. I have had help on packing out a few of them but several of them I have packed out alone. It's a lot of work but very rewarding. I butcher and process the meat myself and my wife and I enjoy the eating the meat to supplement the venison and wild pork that's generally in the freezer. The bear I shot in the head at 8 feet this past September was actually a finishing shot . Here's a rundown on what happened. Not having scored a bear during the archery season, I took the Browning BAR 06 out on the opening day of rifle bear season. I took off with pack and headlamp an hour before light and hiked about a mile up into a rough canyon that I have take bears out of before. It takes a couple of hours to get up to where I set up so I didn't get settled in until about 7: 30 A.M. The spot that I sat was at the top of a large rock out cropping, overlooking a steep canyon of Scrub Oak pines and brush. The bears use it for cover, bedding and as a food source when the Scrub Oak is bearing Acorns. I was set up so I had a good view of the canyon below and a ridge on the far side with expectations of possibly seeing a bear moving through. I had been sitting about a half hour watching the landscape below when I heard a commotion in the brush directly behind me. It didn't take long for me to realize that it was the distinctive sound of a bear busting brush coming right into where I was sitting. I got to my feet and turned around as the racket got closer and closer. The brush and rocks were really tight where the bear was coming through and my field of view was limited to about 20 yards. I remained motionless as the bear kept coming and it suddenly popped though the rocks and brush above me. The bear quickly dropped off the rocks into a brushy depression at about 17 yards from where I stood. It was thick stuff but broken up a little and I lined up the crosshairs on the bears front shoulder as it quartered towards me. I squeezed off the shot expecting the bear to drop on the spot, but instead it just balled up a little momentarily and stayed on it's feet. I was totally surprised as the bear recovered quickly and started running right towards me. The bear closed the distance in what seemed like a heartbeat and was within 8 feet as I realized the situation wasn't going as planned. I instinctively pushed the barrel of the BAR towards the bear and pulled the trigger without thinking. As the rifle roared the bear dropped as it's momentum carried it right past me. As it turned out the first shot had hit the bear in the gut and the bullet exited the rear hindquarter. My off hand shot caught the bear right in front of the ear and exited the back of it's neck .Out of the bears I have taken, this was the closest that one has gotten to me. I don't really think the bear knew where I was when it ran towards me but I ended up right in it's chosen escape route and I am thankful I hade the BAR for a quick second shot. The following picture shows my pack laying at the spot I was standing and where the bear went down..

That's a great looking Muley ! I hope the same thing happens to me when I go archery Coues hunting in January !

Nice pictures. That cat looks young and Hungry !

That's Goodun ! Very symetrical. Congratulations.

That's not a hand gun, it's a hand cannon !! Good looking Couse buck !