naturegirl

I'm assuming after shooting one with my 270 (150gr setup for deer) the preference to go with the guns that have been mentioned is so it leaves a smaller hole and flies flatter. Is the 270 out of the question even with a smaller grain bullet? I've killed a pig with 130 gr same gun and the hole was still. I don't reload

Great buck! Congratulations

I just bought this tent a couple months ago and spent about $125 on it. Shoot TJ wish I would've waited..lol This is my second tent I've bought with the "insta-set" poles. I love it and it's so easy. No losing poles or having to thread them through. It's a very good price for a super easy tent.

A man had a game camera out back east. The camera captured what appeared to be a healthy mature whitetail buck being taken down by a pack of coyotes. It was in a national hunting magazine that was delivered to my house. I'm not 100% sure if these are the same images but it sure looked just like this and the time is about right. http://www.buckmanager.com/2011/12/11/on-predator-control-coyotes-and-whitetail/ I'd like to post this link on Facebook to show the one person who made a comment about my coyote kill, but I won't. I've found quite a few people do not understand why I would kill a coyote. I take the time to explain the buck being killed by a pack and how horrible it was. Then if people still continue to question why I killed a coyote, I tell them about all the cute baby deer and javelinas that the yotes kill. That seems to quiet them up pretty good because nobody wants cute little babies being eaten

Maybe with due time, but I still haven't looked into the legality of it. I had this opportunity and I took it! I did talk to neighbor #1 who has zero issue with it. She wasn't very fond of the young bobcat eating her chickens a year or so ago.

Had a report yesterday from unit 7 of a 5x with a group of cows.

Wow and my arms are sore today from carrying one coyote!

thank you. all of you guys and gals have helped me a lot over the years. Its nice to learn from a great group of people! PS - its not polite to ask a girls age, but I'm 42

Usually I'm better with the make of a truck, but i was too busy looking at the big ol CWT sticker. It was a yellow extended cab truck with a yellow sticker Howdy! I saw you on Ellsworth & Hunt Highway in Queen Creek.

I suggest spraying for bugs to get rid of them and their food source. You will always have occasional ones, but it helps getting rid of their food source. It's helped me around my place a lot. Curious to see what other answers people have.

I have to laugh at myself as I replay this. yesterday I was out front mowing. I left my lab in the backyard and she was yelping and doing her obnoxious crying thing thinking I'd go let her out with me, but I didn't. I finish mowing and am pushing the mower to the backyard and here comes a coyote right towards me coming up my side fence line. This isn't the first time they've visited my yard so I repeat what I've done before, but last time it was in the pen with my horse. So I raise my arms, start yelling, and chasing this coyote (this has worked before very well). Well, this coyote would run about 20 yards and then just sit and look at me. I'd continuing running toward it and this dang thing would just run a little ways, stop and look at me until I got closer, then run another 20 yards. After chasing it through my neighbors property, the idea of my bow hits me. I run to the house and grab my bow. Shoot my broadheads are where? I had packed them away for my Illinois trip. Gotta dig those out. Oh yeah then I remember I went to Bass Pro today to start replacing all my calls and I had bought a rabbit call. So I get it all together and of course the coyote is nowhere to be found. Legality of hunting coyotes on your own property? I would assume since I have a small child and animals that it wouldn't be an issue. Their pack needs thinned. I hear them every night.

I thought about that. When I've ridden horses in washes around here, I've ran into bow hunters in the wash who were coyote hunting. I myself on horseback have crossed coyotes paths a time or two in a wash here. It's a highway for them.

Yucky!

I think my dog's yelping is what brought it in. I will look at regs and maps. Neighbors aren't an issue, but not sure about the call, but who needs one if it was my dog I'm willing to take the bet if it's in my yard anyway threatening me, my child, or my animals and my bow is within reach there will be a dead coyote regardless of what any of the above says. I'd take a big ol stance on that one. Still laughing about it because I don't believe I was very frightening to this coyote. The other one in my horse pen (in the past) couldn't find the hole under the fence and scoot his rear under quick enough.

I'm completely stir crazy. It about drives me crazy all these people hunting and I'm sitting here typing on a computer

Nice pumpkins! Puts my pumpkin to shame...lol

Very nice! Congrats

I'm not sure if I just have a really cool family, but my NY family was here and these are some of the things they got to see with me. Swimming in the lake at the end of October was awesome and sheep to boot! They REALLY enjoyed the after dinner scorpion hunt at my place. Who would've thought? A picture my cousin took and posted on Facebook. A pic from the past. They get big here.

Nice buck! Great job

Pretty girl

I don't want to spend the money on a new one, but need someplace to put my guns. Just checking if anyone has an small full size gun safe they want to part with that holds 8-10.

He looks just like the hybrid (according to G&F) I have a lot of pics of. I'd love to know where you got the beast at! Congratulations!

much larger and more $$ than I want to spend. My dad's large safe sits waiting for me to empty (been almost 3 years now and it still sits). I need something smaller at this time. Just throwing it out there to see if anyone has one they want to sell before I buy one. I'm not looking for anything fancy. I just need it to hold guns and lock.

I decided it was time to crawl out of my hole and go after some of the things I want in life. So early this year I made a call to my cousin and asked him to hunt with me in our home state of Illinois. He carefully went through all of the options with me, including different areas and ways to hunt, and we decided on hunting public land in southern Illinois. Sean was stoked and his exact words to me were, “None of my friends are bad *** enough to do it.” I still don’t quite understand this, but am a little flattered nonetheless. I was clear right from the beginning that yes this was a hunt, but I also wanted to actually see Illinois and not just sit in a stand. I budgeted well for the trip and my goal was $1,500 to see how cheap I could do this. A week before I left, I started packing for my adventure. Being a woman and packing typically means more than one or two pieces of luggage and this doesn’t include hunting stuff. I knew this was going to be extremely tough! I packed, repacked, packed, and repacked more times than I can count until I couldn’t part with another thing. The final tally was right around 90 lbs My cousin, Sean, and I prepared as much as we could beforehand, but there are many hoops to jump through to hunt in the beautiful state of Illinois. I flew Allegiant because I wanted to fly out of Gateway (there are some super cheap flights through Allegiant). After a very eventful flight to Rockford that included a woman coding on the plane and being revived by passengers who are nurses, thankfully we all arrived safely. After speaking with other passengers when the flight was over, it turns out I wasn’t the only person praying during this flight. The next morning we packed the car & that was no easy feat. Part of the budget meant a full-size vehicle was out so I rented a small SUV (30 mpg) for $235 for seven days. Sean is an amazing packer and somehow he managed to squeeze everything in. Then we started out on the 7-hour drive trek to Shawnee National Forest. The drive literally flew by because we spent the time catching up on the last 30 years. You see Sean was one of my first exposures to the outdoors. Our birthdays are a few months apart & he was one my best friends when I was young before moving here to Arizona. He unknowingly played a very important part in helping build my love of the outdoors. Upon arrival down south, Sean gave me a tour of some local sights including Garden of the Gods. Most of Illinois is flatland, but Shawnee has mountain ranges that have undergone some amazing changes over time. The tree canopy was a sight for these Arizona eyes as the leaves were just starting to show that fall was arriving. We set up camp at a whopping $7 per night with outhouses I’ve always camped without them, but boy they sure were nice to have. We fished the lake throughout the day and night catching up on lost time. THE HUNT Sean is 100% a meat hunter and goes by the motto “brown is down.” My cousin, my friend, in his youth had to go to the woods at times for food. It was either that or be hungry because money was lacking. I took this as my opportunity to have no self-placed pressure on antler size or maturity. Whatever walked in front of me antlers or not was going to receive an arrow as long as it was a good clean shot. Honestly, I had this little birdie named Sean tweeting in my ear constantly that the small ones are “the best and all steaks.” After tasting both Wisconsin and Illinois venison every day on this trip, I was 100% in with the “brown is down” philosophy. All I can say is Eastern Whitetails taste absolutely delicious and this is the first hunt I have ever gained weight on. He fed me well with truly organic food and lots of it. The Illinois DNR Wildlife Management Area I can best describe as state-managed fields separated by small strips of woods bordered in places by the Shawnee. The state required a separate “windshield sticker” in order for us to use this. The fields have approximately 20 foot cuts in different directions randomly placed throughout or at least it appeared completely random to me. The funny part is it didn’t take long for the deer to give me an educational lesson on how they use these fields. I can best describe the process of hunting deer in these fields as playing a game. The does bed down a few feet into the field and they whole heartedly prefer the corners of the fields because this gives them easy access into and out of both the cuts and the woods. These does sit, listen, and wait. In order for a human to get close you have to cover some extremely noisy ground with cut shoots sticking up and you guessed it – they sound exactly like walking on broken glass. The does end up hearing you 95% of the time before seeing or smelling you, which means they get up and just stick their head out into the field (this leaves no vital shot for me). Then if the doe is still trying to figure you out, she will come out directly facing you and then walk toward you a handful of steps. This surprised both me and Sean how they actually approach you and sometimes they do this more than once and within 60 yards. It seems the does do this until they get close enough to see that they don’t like you, then they spit and spit and run away. Yes spitting is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a sound different than anything I’ve heard from our Arizona deer. I quickly learned after a morning and afternoon of trying this method that the does won. I now needed to find a good spot for the ground blind I brought with me from Arizona. I found a cut between two fields and set up my blind. Hours went by, which seemed like days, well actually it seemed like weeks. I’m questioning if I have some sort of undiagnosed condition that doesn’t allow me to sit because making myself sit is the biggest challenge of any hunt. I was bored out of my mind so there I was checking out bugs, sticks, bees, spiders, trees, etc., when all of a sudden I hear leaves being trampled and I look to the sound. I see two does coming through the small slit of woods from left to right in front of me. I reposition myself on my seat and draw back my Mathews. Both does stop in the cut about 40 yards straight out in front of me. One doe turned around to look back into the trees where she came from and was perfectly broadside. She was closest and the best shot. I set my 40-yard pin on her and let my arrow fly. I heard the thump and saw it hit a little low and forward. Over 15 deer hunts and I finally arrowed a deer. Ahead of time, my cousin repeatedly told me if there are two does that I should sit and wait because the other would come back, which means a double. Well as soon as I shot the front doe she bolted back into the woods. I kept an eye on her as she trampled through the woods until I could no longer see her. The second doe just sat there looking for whatever just shot her friend. I could’ve easily taken another shot, but I just couldn’t do it until I had taken care of doe number one. Doe number two waited around for a good 30 seconds before she bolted and after she left, I heard doe number one bolt too. I waited about 5 minutes before getting up to look for my arrow because I couldn’t wait any longer. I marked where she was standing and didn’t see any blood. Finding blood on a forest floor littered with red, orange, yellow, and brown leaves is difficult and I couldn’t even find one drop at first look. I looked behind where the shot was and found my arrow about 15 yards behind the point of impact. Thankfully there was a slight hill that stopped my arrow. There was bright red blood and hair, which got me super excited. I waited another 20 minutes or so before going to find my cousin who was the opposite direction of where the deer went. It was an interesting hunt as far as electronics go because Sean & I had no means of communication once we separated. Cell phone service was zero and I only brought one GPS & Sean doesn’t use a GPS so I walked slowly through the fields whistling every now and then until I saw his head pop up. I relay what happened and he suggests waiting another 30 minutes or so before looking. I did this, but it was hard because all I wanted to do was start looking for blood. The sun was setting and we needed additional light. That is one thing neither of us lacked. I brought 4 methods of light with me from Arizona and I believe he had six. He goes back to get brighter light and I go looking for blood with the light I have. I head back to where I shot the doe. I stepped into the woods and was instantly being eaten alive by mosquitoes. I urgently needed to get in my pack for bug spray and as I went to set my pack down it was mere inches from a big area of fresh bright red blood. Yes! I had a great starting point! I marked the trail with pink tape, which led me out of the woods and back into the original cut, but out of sight from my blind. At this point, I see Sean and he is gesturing for me to “Shhhh!” He had just taken a shot at the other doe that came back looking for the one I shot, but he missed and I will say his shot was about half the length of mine Sean helps me start tracking my doe and we don’t get another 50 yards and she starts clotting. After 200 yards of blood and 3 hours of looking in the dark we couldn’t find another drop. I came back by myself the next morning before sunup because I had officially kicked Sean’s butt and he needed to sleep in. I’m always up before the sun and Sean, a tattoo shop owner, is a complete night owl. I spent another few hours walking through the fields and checking the cuts. I never did find one single drop of blood after the last one I found the night before. We continued hunting in the general area for the rest of the hunt. Buzzards were ever present and I never did see them hone in on anything close by during the additional days we spent hunting. I’m not sure why again my animal didn’t hit the ground, but this is certainly becoming a major challenge for me. This is twice I’ve had shots where I felt the animal should be dead. Now as I replay the story to friends over the last few days, I’ve had numerous fellow bowhunters tell me “That’s bowhunting.” After losing my elk, I was very close to quitting altogether. I found my way through it and quitting is no longer an option for me. I’m completely getting my rear kicked and at the same time being challenged to continue pushing myself forward. As far as hunting back east, there are choices on how or where you hunt. You can find your own way and just because most people do it one way, certainly doesn’t mean it’s the only way. FUTURE PLANS Sean & I are planning a repeat next fall. We are hoping his wife will join us along with my little girl and my mother. I just have to talk Sean’s wife into not having the comforts of a cabin. I shared with her how proud I was of myself that I bathed and washed my hair in less than a half-gallon of water and she was not the least bit impressed! I’ll keep trying. As long as money and time allows I want to do this but to other states. All I need is a lightweight tent & sleeping bag to bring with me. I’ll buy a cooler and food there. My total trip was roughly $1,500 and I could’ve saved another $400 if I bought just a doe tag. Out of state DIY trips are very doable and can be quite affordable if you plan well. Illinois pics This is NOT how I wanted to hunt. Fall is here The government warns you about the ticks! This beaver had his den right close to our camp. 6" long praying mantis I'm fascinated by barns It's been awhile since either one of us have seen this. We had to turn around! How they make their money Southern Illinois freeway overpasses Need a haircut?

CONGRATULATIONS to you and your wife! You have a beautiful family