Coues79

http://www.coueswhitetail.com/hunt_stories/mace_cochran.htm Here is the link. It was in the story section. I appologize for that. It is one of the lower stories on the list. I hope I can take one somewhat close to this in my lifetime. I better start prayin' now.

The buck is on this website in the photo section and on the video Amanda made. It all started right here on this site. He's pretty stoked that it made Trophy Hunter magazine too.

Man it's hard to say what the best day really was. The times out hunting in my younger days with my old man were pretty good. He taught me a lot. I'd have to say the same about my two brothers, cousin bo, uncles, friends, heck they've all been good. Some of the more successful days that I've had have been when I go solo. Fortunately have had good success this way. For instance, one of the days that stick out the most, the first bear I ever did take. I had never hunted bears before in my life. As a matter of fact, I had probably only seen two bears in the wild that I can even remember. Well one day a few years ago, I decided to go get a bear tag and go out huntin'. I got a late start that day, had been out to late the night before. Didn't even start til the afternoon. I headed down to 29 and started doing a little hikin' and glassin' four a couple hours. It was hot, sticky and the clouds were starting to build up. I was feelin' like crap from the night before too. Basically, I was gettin' ready to call it a day. Before I did, I sat down for about 15 minutes to do some glassing. After about 15 minutes of seeing nothing, I put my tripod and glasses away and just sat there for a minute taking in the country before heading back out to the truck. About 5 minutes passed, and all of the sudden, I heard some branches break. I looked in that direction and about 300 yards away, I could see something moving some trees around. I pulled up my 10's and looked right into the face of a frickin' bear. He appeared to be chompin' on some juniper berries, and lovin' every minute of it. He had drool comin' off of his face, chomping like a cow. I just sat there for a minute and watched him. He started to make his way into a pretty generous flat opening only about 150 yards away. Down below him, there was a stock tank full of water. I would later find all of his crap down this trail, so he pretty much lived in this area for a while. Anyways, I waited a while to shoot just to make sure it wasn't a sow with a little squirt cub running behind her somewhere. I eventually ended up seeing his jewels as he was walking and as soon as I saw them, the game was on. I already had my bipod down and just easily squeezed the trigger. BOOM, he humped up a little bit and took off running about 40 yards, tried to tree himself, and just fell to the ground. That was it. First day bear huntin', within 3 hours of huntin' the afternoon, and I had me a big ol' bear. I was pretty stoked. He was pretty big. He measured out at 20 7/8. 1/8 away from the all time book. He was 13 years old from the cross section of his pre-molar. Beautiful cinnamon bear. I wish I had a digital picture to post. All I have are pictures and can't shrink the size to get it to post. Anyways, that was a pretty good day for me. Hope to have many, many more of them. Cochranj

Nice work Amanda. Some great photos in there. Some killer bucks were taken. Hope this year brings the same results. Thanks for putting the time and effort into that. CochranJ

Looks like a toad!! Those are some great pics. Up close and personal with that bad boy. Good luck gettin' him.

That is great. I love to see photo's like this. I give the man a pat on the back. Sometimes I take for granted that I am able to walk up a mountain and set down to glass. Even get mad at myself for getting too far into the country. Then I see this man, doing what he loves to do and he is in a wheelchair. I really like those pictures and even more, love to hear of folks like him taking advantage of our privelages to harvest animals. Thanks for posting these pictures. heck of couple of big mature animals.

Congratulations. Very nice buck! Cochran

Thats one nasty lookin critter I was thinkin' the same thing. He's lookin pretty rough. Probably don't smell too good neither.

I'm heading out this weekend. I cannot wait to get out of the city and sit up in the hills ALONE!! Man that outta be a good feeling. Heck, I'm even gettin' my wife out with me. I feel my feet gettin' cold. heck must be icing up; real close to freezin' over. j/k. We want to check our endurance in the hills, set out some salt, and enjoy the beautiful greenery. I went out two weekends ago and absolutely could not believe how much water and grass were in the vicinity. Even had to take out a couple jackrabbits and rattlers. Don't particularly care for the rattlers. Anyway's, huntin' seasons gettin' pretty close. I can feel it in my bones. Good luck to anyone goin' out with a bow. Jeff

You won't find anyone that will do a better job than Rex. He does awesome work and is a great guy. His trophy room is quite amazing too. I did a half mount with a bear I took a few years back. I butchered up the hide pretty good trying to get him out. Rex did an awesome job patching things up and making it look good. At the time, a rug was I believe around 800. The half mount was 1200. I'm glad I spent the money to get it done. If you do choose Rex, feel confident in his work. He does awesome whitetail too. Jeff

To help me get into shape, I like to get a backpack on and put a couple gallons of water in the pack. This is just a normal pack so the gallons can get a little akward especially on the back. I have found that putting a good sized phone book in the compartment closest to the pack will give it a nice flat part to rest on the back. Then after all this, I'll go and hit a stairstepper on the highest setting it will go, for between 30-45 minutes. Really gets the legs burnin'. Then on the weekends, I like to go and run around a track to help with the cardiovascular endurance. Usually about 3 miles (12 laps) gets the lungs feelin' pretty good. Hope it helps out this season.

I ran on to a couple of these owls while working construction back around the beginning of the year. They were in a culvert exactly like the one's you have poster there. They are pretty funny to sit and watch. They'll let you get pretty close. Wouldn't want to have any claws sunk into my face though. Probably wouldn't make for a pretty sight.

Just wondering if anyone has any monsoon rain totals for the summer so far. Maybe from a rain gauge at their home or from some other source? It looks like some places get hit hard every dang day. Here in Mesa, we got hit again last night. It seemed like a pretty good one. Just don't have a rain gauge at my apartment.

I was thinking the same thing. It looks like a jungle wherever that is. Without any specifics, what unit is this in? These deer should be some porkers in a few weeks.

I look at weather.com about 3-4 times daily. Been doing it for about 2-3 years. Never even new about that. Thanks. I know my dad has had about 2 to 3 inches so far at his place over south of Safford. Father in-law says it been rainin' pretty good out at the tomato farms North of Willcox too. I hope to get out next weekend and see things greenin' up. It's kinda hard to see the concrete and asphalt here in the city benefiting from the rain. I hate the city. Why'd I move up here?

Yeah that's pretty much it. I would rather have dutch oven cobbler that way over any other. It really hits the sweet tooth's spot. Don't be too generous with the 7up. It can get soupy. You'll have to tinker around with it to suit your specific desire. OOOHHH boy, I can't wait until huntin' season. My mouth is waterin' already.

That's a pretty cool website. It made me hungry to be out in the hills and enjoyin' some good ol' dutch oven cookin'. Has anyone ever tried makin' dutch oven' peach cobbler with 7up? If not, your missin' out. It's pretty darn good.

This buck sure looks like he is gonna hold a pretty rack. I like the bucks coues bucks that carry a tall rack. That's a cool picture.

I've killed two bears. Both I imagine by pure luck and just being in the right place at the right time. I killed them both right around 2:00 p.m. right in the middle of the heat of the day. They were both heading to a water hole within 1/2 mile from where I found them. Actually, they both found me. One of them was a big boy. He was an 1/8 away from making the all time book. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Don't know much else than bein' lucky. Maybe check some tanks and check for sign around them. Check for available food source as well.

Chorizo, egg, potato and cheese wrapped in a Mi Casa tortilla. That's opening morning. Once all the adrenaline is gone and my legs hurt on the second morning, it's pretty much whatever is quick and easy. Protien takes more time to digest than simple carbs. Mixing the two shouldn't leave you hungry in an hour. Be careful with chorizo and eggs. It doesn't make for a pleasurable experience in a tent or trailer with other people around.

I would stay to the middle to the south end of the unit. The North country has been hit really bad with drought. Not a lot of deer in there. It's been steadily declining over the past few years.

Got two of three in the mail today. My elk tag and deer tag. Not the one I was hoping to get first, (my wife's december tag) but hope it gets here by Monday or Tuesday. I'll feel a lot better and it will finalize this messy year for the draw.

I just went down to the Warehouse in Mesa and tried on the eberlstock's as well. They are nice. If my memory serves me right, I thought the price tag was $169.00, but maybe that wasn't the Just One. I did happen to notice one of the eberlstock's at 259.00. Didn't pay much attention to it once I saw the price tag. I know I have been to all 3 of the warehouses in the valley and I feel that by far, the one in Goodyear has the better pack selection out of the 3. The one in Mesa was struggling for a while, but now they have seemed to have brought some more in. I'll be down there in a couple weeks to pick either a badland's or an eberlstock up.

Haven't had a chance to get to Cabela's but I sure do love goin' in to the Warehouse. I usually don't get much when I go, but I like to get away and just be in a place where there is a lot of cool stuff.

Sorry to here that man. Don't really know what else to say.