Coues79

Sorry to hear you didn't find him man. Don't hang it up though. That's just part of hunting and what makes you a hunter. You care about the animal that you shot. Hunting is not just about going out there and killing anything you see. You respect the animals and care about them enough to not want to make them suffer. Sometimes, even with the most careful placement on a shot, it just so happens they slip through your fingers. Hang in there.

That sucks man. Sorry to hear about that bad news. That is one of the worst feelings that a hunter can go through, to know that you have wounded an animal and cannot locate it. I've had that happen a couple of times. One was very similar to what you are describing. I stuck a little spike at the end of the year to just try and get a buck. Well, I stuck him and he bled like crazy. I watched him for about 2 or three minutes go down the canyon and up the next set of hills. They were steep too, but he handled it like he wasn't hit at all. All of the blood was in big pools about the size of the perimeter of a basketball. I was sick not to be able to find him. His blood eventually fizzled out to nothing. Then, this year, I drilled a really nice bull on the November hunt. Found blood at the close of the day, went back the next day got on the blood again. About 1/2 mile later, completely no blood. I had a lot of eyes helping me look, but no blood. Nothing. It's hard to say where the buck could be. Deer and elk are pretty amazing animals. When they have that adrenaline in them, they can go for a long, long way. Good luck if you try to find him. I'd spend a couple hours looking for him at the last place you found blood. If you can't find him, you gotta move on.

A deer is like many other animals. They use the particular molecules of scent and can break down almost single molecule that is in the air. If they smell one molecule of something out of the ordinary of their daily lives, they know somethings wrong. Scents are there to cover your scent up. It is not there to block it or eliminate it. No matter what you do, there will always be human scent coming from something on you. Breath, clothes, hat, skin, whatever, it's there. I think like a lot of others too, use the wind to your advantage, be as still as you can and as quiet as you can.

I agree with Sundevil. More emphasis needs to be put on predation to increase the amount of deer. This will inturn produce more opportunity for hunters to harvest animals. Its like it was mentioned above, it's not rocket science. You could easily bump up the price of rut hunts and people will still pay for them. I'm not in favor of hiking the costs up on hunts, but when all this crap starts getting around, I would definitly rather do that than see more people out in the field during the November hunts. There is already too many as it is.

Who doesnt believe you Big V? I know you're the main man down in Safford for big coues bucks. The only drawback is, you won't let me in on your little honey hole. Give a guy some love man. We'll keep it between the two of us. Mace has already taken a record book buck. We'll keep it a secret from him. We need the next two. We're getting to old to be humpin the hills for much longer. Talk to ya' later bro.

That's wild man. We''ve both been in the outs. I just got out of the hospital for four days with viral meningitis. Talk about some killer headaches man. Being in this dang city is about to drive me crazy. Mace has seen a monster mulie out in the place by the place you can see from your house. I personally think it could be the one that I missed during the november hunt. Too close from where he's seen it for there to not be a possibility of it being that buck. With being sick and student teaching, havent had time to get out in the hills and I don't see a chance to get out before the end of the month. The city is no place for a country boy man. Hope you get better and can draw that bow back pretty quick. cochranj

KeithV's a bridge..... You can see it from the house. cochranj

That is one great big beautiful buck. Wish I could have pulled the trigger on that bad boy. Congratulations!!!!! CochranJ

I was kind of the same way. Why do they call them carp? I don't think that a giant mulie is easy to harvest in any setting. I have taken some pretty nice mule deer and some pretty nice coues deer, but never a true monster. Whoever says a giant mulie is easy to take is a little far fetched in my opinion. I'd like to see them take one year in and year out. I have respect for all monster bucks, and in my opinion, a monster mule deer is a pretty intelligent animal. They know how to get away and where to hide. That's why you don't see them until January every year.

I had a friend of mine get tagged on trespassing in Unit 32 a few years back. He took it to court and I believe won because the land was not properly marked for private property/no trespassing/no hunting. As far as I know, it does have to be marked in a specific manner in order for it to hold up in court. It would just be a matter of wanting to try the system or not.

Wow that's a toad. Looking at the pictures of that buck, I can catch a glimpse of what appears to be another toad in the background. Looks like he has some good mass to him. I'd like to see that buck too. That's an awesome deer. Congratulations to that guy.

Great buck. Sounded like a lot of fun. Congratulations.

that's hilarious. thanks for that one.

Hey that's a nice bull. I had the late rifle hunt in Unit 1. I killed mine with about 30 minutes left on Thanksgiving, the last day of the hunt. I am a firm believer that when you hunt hard you get rewarded. I'm sure you hunted hard for that bull. Congratulations man!!! CochranJ

That's a really nice buck. That's cool that you had the opportunity to take your daughter out and experience one of the finer things in life. Congratulations!! Jeff

That's an excellent story. It truly makes you feel like you were there when it all happened. I wish I would have had that chance at that caliber of buck. I just wish he would have been only in the 120's so it might seem realistic to top him. It will probably take a lot of time and a lot of water in the hills to match him. Excellent, Excellent, Excellent story. CochranJ

I think you hit the nail right on the head. I'm brand new to the website and for someone to come to fresh into it and read all the crap that has been said about Mace's buck is pretty ridiculous. He's my brother and I think I would have been the first one to talk crap about his buck if it weren'f for real. But it's real. I consider myself a pretty dang good hunter but my hat's off to him for being an even better one than me or anyone else I know. If guys have something bad to say about someone, keep your mouth shut and vent off the website. It does give us hunters a bad rap.

Hey I'll slug him in the gut for you. Someone's gotta knock some sense in to him. He's too young to be getting senile like he is. Youngest Cochran

That's a beautiful buck with a great picture. A good picture makes all the difference in the world. Congratulations on a good trophy.

that is a frickin toad. Hey it's a buck none the less. There ain't too many in the world as small as that one. Congratulations on filling your tag though.

Nice Bull. Hope you can draw a tag and find him. He'd be a great trophy.

You know I kept thinkin about the ol' boy that stated something just didn't look right. You know I have a comment about that. I thought the same thing as I sat there with this buck in my hands. "Something just doesn't look right". Well it took me a few days to realize why it doesn't look right. The buck is so flippin' big, there ain't many people seen anything like it. I know I haven't and probably won't ever see anything like it. Ever. This buck is so big it would be a respectable mule deer to harvest. I'm still amazed with it. I'm glad I was able to put my hands on this rack.

You know, for coueshunter12 to say that kind of b.s. makes me question the integrity of that prick myself. I sure hope he is joking. If he's not, it's easy to tell the maturity and mentality of someone such as he. I'd really like to see a buck he has killed that could even begin to match the bruiser Mace took. I just harvested a 6x6 bull that would have a hard time beating the score on this monster coues. Brother you did good. I know where you killed him and bet on it, I'll be there next year. I think you have plenty of reason to puff your chest and be proud of him. Hey for all you Safford guys, quit inviting all these city folks to our areas. Man its already hard enough to draw a tag (Just kiddin). Congratulations Mace. You deserve everything you got.