Red Rabbit

Ilene, the aspens between Lockett and Inner basin were still green, as you can see. Maybe later in the week or the weekend they should be good. Seems the ones in the neighborhood are turning fast now. Have a nice picnic and hike; the weather sure has been nice for one. Amanda, i hope to make it up to Lockett in a few days (early Thurs morn?) for another shot at sunrise. Elk77, thanks. Doug~RR

Hunter, Congrats to you on your first buck, and the best to you in the future. Doug~RR

The Coconino National Forest reported that the aspens near Hart Prairie were better, so I took in sunset from atop Fern Mountain. I did not see any vivid oranges and reds driving out there or while atop Fern. CNF also opened the road up to Lockett Meadow last Thursday, so I got up early Saturday, drove to Lockett and hiked to the Inner Basin for sunrise. Not much color up there in the remaining leaves. The road to Lockett is in better shape than in past years. The aspens near Lockett Meadow still need some time to change, so maybe this coming weekend will be good.

Just a heads up if anyone is interested in 15x Kaibabs before the coues seasons open. Seems to be a decent deal. (I do not know the seller.) http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID49/3403.html

Jake and John, glad you had some success with a filled tag. Did your friend's son get a cow also? Doug~RR

Happy Birthday Amanda. I hope you treat yourself to a prickly pear margarita along with the fine Mexican food. Doug

Call the AZGFD region office in Flag to see if they have the unit 10 map in stock.

Another option (besides resizing yourself and amking them an attachment in your post) is to use the photo hosting site "Photobucket" to post photos on the web. It will automatically resize the images. Then you can link the IMG tag from photobucket and the image will appear in your post when you submit it. Photobucket is free. A plus for using Photobucket is that those hosted photos do not use up Amanda's server space like attachments do.

There are some free downloads of image editors. One like Photoscape will will allow you to do basic editing and resizing the image. For the web, resizing to 800 to 1200 pixels wide is fine. Too wide, and it forces to scroll to see the whole image and read comments if the web host has no limits. People may hate you for posting images being too large.

Can't get much better! Congrats to you Jaycie!

Sehr Gut! Congrats to you Jett on a great hunt. Looks like you shot was true and your dad and Colton must be proud and happy for ya.

The Initiation: My First Coues Whitetail Hunt A long time friend convinced me to put in for a December whitetail hunt in Unit 29. I was teaching in Texas at the time and this hunt would be on the trip back to Phoenix to see family over Christmas break back in 1982. I arrived after dark one day before the season, to find the creek swollen due to 5” of rain that day. Not wanting to venture across the creek which I could not see its depth, in a 2wd S-10 towing a boat to be used later at Lees Ferry, I waited to cross until morning. My friend drove down from Phoenix the next day. We set up camp and took a scouting ride so I could see some of the area before we hunted the next day. At the time, I had only been hunting for a total of one year. I had never hunted Coues before and asked what a nice one was. He said they were small, about 100 pounds, and with 3 points on a side. If it was big enough to see antlers, I should shoot. I envisioned something like a small basket racked Texas Hill Country 6 point (eastern count). The next morning in the rain, we set out together up a draw. When the draw split, we decided to go separate ways. While my friend continued up to the right, I stayed at the juncture to glass the opposite slope. Quickly I spotted a buck and could see antlers, but I lost him when he went behind a juniper tree. Frustrated after not being able to relocate the vanished deer for several minutes, I decided to journey on up the left draw. After walking a hundred yards, I told myself, “This is stupid to be walking away. The buck has to be there. It didn’t just disappear.” So, I hiked back and started to look again through my Bushnell 7x35 InstaFocus binos. After a few minutes, the buck was located in the same spot I had lost sight of him originally. To get closer to for the shot, I went on the backside if a curvature to hide me, down to the bottom and maybe 50 yards up to a boulder I could rest the rifle as I shot uphill at the deer. When the buck stepped into a clearing, maybe 150 yards up the slope, I sent a 150 grain CoreLok from the 7mm Remington Express to the lungs. The buck dropped instantly. I went up to him, looked at the small 8 point buck, tagged him and proceeded to field dress him. Rather than pack him down the hill, I decided I could ride the Honda ATV up the hillside and bring him down the easy way. After walking back down to where we left the ATV that morning, I drove up the creek bottom and up the hillside to the buck. I needed to sidehill about 30 yards to go over to the buck. I traversed about 10 yards of it before gravity and slope decided that I had overcome the center of gravity. It rolled over with my body cushioning its first rotation. Fortunately, the seat was the part that pressed over my back, and not the handlebars or racks. I looked down hill to see it rolling over and over and over, with flashes of red flailing outward on each revolution. I envisioned a complete loss of the plastic fenders. Picking myself off the ground, I walked down to the Honda, noted the red was the red straps and not busted fenders, rolled it over from its side, cranked on the starter a few seconds to hear the sound of the dependable Honda. I drove straight up to the buck and tied it onto the rear rack. The first attempt at turning made me notice that I could not, as the handlebars had been bent down to thigh level. A couple of upward yanks on the bars and I was on my way back to camp. My friend returned to camp that evening having walked miles up the right draw and only saw two muley does. He asked how I did. I pointed to the buck in the oak tree. He remarked, “Geez Koepsel, that’s a nice one.” I had no idea at the time how nice it was till I was told. I decided to take it to Seivers Taxidermy in Phoenix and later scored it at 97” (I believe a "first buck" thread was posted in the past, but the change of servers may have resulted in the deletion of old posts)

With all the thoughts now on elk hunts and the deer hunts which are drawing closer, don't forget that the deadline for spring hunt applications for turkey, javelina, buffalo and bear is Tuesday October 11. Doug~RR

I was waiting for this story. HUGE CONGRATS and many blessings to your future.

Another problem with some chronographs is the variations in speed one gets in different lighting conditions. I can sometimes get excessively fast readings on clear sunny days, even with the diffuser panels, wiht my old chrony F1. Try shooting on a cloudy day, or some say to put a piece of matte Scotch tape over the window of the sensors. I have thought of making a big diffuser from a 2 1/2 gallon water jug to block direct sunlight from the sides and angles.

Some info here also http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19335

Congrats to your wife on drawing a unit 9 tag, and then getting her first bull after the shakes. Nice trio of turkeys also.

The older BCs came with a tiny piece of foam that acted as a bumper stop.

With my 6.5 WSM, I was getting about a 40 fps increase with each grain of powder with 130 gr bullets. I suspect the 270 WSM may be close to the same. With the extra 100fps, you may get about 100ftlbs more energy at 600 yards, and almost 4" less drop. I would be more concerned about greater accuracy and having less deviation(shot2shot velocity spread) than the extra 100fps. Velocity deviation and accuracy may tighten up as you approach max though. Good luck.

What do you notice different between the old and new versions? What part is breaking?

From what I understand, they are working on the road that washes out through the burn area. Road is open to horses, mountain bikes and boots. One can still hike/pedal to the inner basin.

The 36A junior deer camp may be a good event to attend, help out, and maybe garner some useful info. Nov. 18-20: Juniors Deer Camp* • Location: South of Tucson • Hunt units: 36A & 36B, apply for hunt number 1163 or 1164 • Hosted by: Safari Club International, Arizona Chapter • Contact: Lisa Marie Gandara (520) 312-8099, or azsci@yahoo.com

Should be a good weekend of weather for your junior elk hunts. Good hunting to ya. The elk should still be bugling too. Maybe there will be some snow on the SF Peaks Friday morning to go along with the aspens. Flagstaff forecast from NWS: Wednesday Night: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy and breezy, with a low around 42. Thursday: Rain showers. Some thunder is also possible. Snow level 7200 feet. High near 53. Windy. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Thursday Night: A chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy and breezy, with a low around 28. Friday: A chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 54. Friday Night: A slight chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 26. Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 59. Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 30. Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 62.

Good looking bull- on the ground and sides hanging. Congrats on your success. I like how the brow and bez tines have the nice upward curl.

Little Bitty Goose NCS with velcro.