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Thread: Hunting pictures thread (possibly gory)

  1. #201
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    In the desert, looking for water.
    Coues whitetail hunt this week.

    In Arizona, we get tags by lottery, and it is it unusual to get a hunt during an inconvenient time, or to not get a tag at all. Bucks only for deer, except for the Kaibab youth hunt.

    Our herd management might be a little off.

    Anyway. I got the late November/early December hunt this year. The last time I connected on a deer hunt was in 2015, but I have gotten a couple of tags that went unfilled in between then and now. One was during grad school, and I got out to hunt one day that year. The other, I also wasn’t able to get out too much and just never saw a buck. Except for one smart old guy hanging out in someone’s yard.

    This year, I got a new M70 Winchester, and used it.

    The hunt started the day after Thanksgiving, and all of my planning went out the window because of the holiday. Instead of camping in a distant area of the hunt zone and starting hunting before first light, I stayed home Thursday and did the things SWMBO needed me to do. So I went Friday to a canyon I love near our home. It was slammed with hunters. I left and went to another canyon. Much less pressure, but still a lot of hunters. I saw does.

    Saturday, I felt lousy, so I didn’t get out till the afternoon. I hiked a mountain in another favorite canyon. I saw a lot of does, and only a few hunters.

    Sunday I stayed home, Monday I went to work. Tuesday, I went back to the canyon I’d seen so many does in, but there were a lot more hunters and they were already hunting where I’d been before, so I went to a different branch and hiked a mountain.

    I saw a few does, both while feeding and in shelter belts. Just in the last few minutes of shooting light, I finally saw a buck, but he was small and far away. I relocated twice to get closer, but he moved into a shelter belt and I didn’t see him again.

    Hiking down that mountain in the dark was a little bit treacherous.

    Today, I went back to the same place as Tuesday, and saw a couple of does. But then one of them had a spike buck following her up a wash and into a saddle. I tried to get an angle to make a shot, but it wasn’t to be. Momma wanted him off that ridge and into shelter - she knew I was there.

    20 minutes later, he was back out eating, and I made a shot I’ve never had an opportunity to make before while rifle hunting in Arizona: 130 yards, animal broadside and motionless, me standing with my rifle resting on top of my binocular tripod.

    Slam dunk. 110gr Sierra Prohunter cut his heart, shredded lungs and part of the liver. He ran 8 yards, spun out, and was laying on his back tangled in some deadfall.

    Yeah, he’s a spike. Any Coues is a trophy, though. They’re hard work. I hiked a lot of mountain miles to get him, and had a long hike down a mountain to get him back to the Durango. His momma was calling for him while I was carrying him out. That was a little bit strange feeling.

    Taking a break from cutting to rest my back.

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  2. #202
    Took the oldest out after snowshoe hare, today. Had to bring shovels to dig our way into the trailhead to even park. Single-barrels, 16 gauge, and plain lead #6 still work even if the forend has to be taped on. Speaking of work, stalking winter coat hare sans beagle. Also without snowshoes as the country was so thick:



    This was at the outside edge of my comfort zone with a cylinder bore and left no blood trail until it finally* expired in the real thick spruce and finally drained some red.

    Kid spotted another taking off at my shot but it was behind trees and gone by the time his 20 gauge pump was mounted. He also barely missed out on a shot at a grey squirrel. I was working around the tree to push it to his side but it dropped enough altitude that he couldn't safely take the shot. Proud of his fire discipline. And his traffic control letting passing motorists know we were good and trying to park, not dig out.

    Now to make bunny stew and begin preserving lucky rabbit's feet.


    * Edit for wording: "Finally" as-in "after a short sprint to thick cover."
    Last edited by SCCY Marshal; 01-03-2021 at 01:35 PM.

  3. #203
    Quote Originally Posted by SCCY Marshal View Post
    Took the oldest out after snowshoe hare, today. Had to bring shovels to dig our way into the trailhead to even park. Single-barrels, 16 gauge, and plain lead #6 still work even if the forend has to be taped on. Speaking of work, stalking winter coat hare sans beagle. Also without snowshoes as the country was so thick:



    This was at the outside edge of my comfort zone with a cylinder bore and left no blood trail until it finally* expired in the real thick spruce and finally drained some red.

    Kid spotted another taking off at my shot but it was behind trees and gone by the time his 20 gauge pump was mounted. He also barely missed out on a shot at a grey squirrel. I was working around the tree to push it to his side but it dropped enough altitude that he couldn't safely take the shot. Proud of his fire discipline. And his traffic control letting passing motorists know we were good and trying to park, not dig out.

    Now to make bunny stew and begin preserving lucky rabbit's feet.


    * Edit for wording: "Finally" as-in "after a short sprint to thick cover."
    My first shotgun was a single shot 16 gauge I bought about ‘84. I dug it out a year or two ago and took it turkey hunting but had no luck.

  4. #204
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    the Deep South
    Quote Originally Posted by Duelist View Post
    His momma was calling for him while I was carrying him out. That was a little bit strange feeling.
    Congrats on the Coues. The closest I've ever come to one is reading some of Jack O'Conner's stories. I've shot a few whitetail does out of pairs of antlerless deer. Typically the smaller one seems to be the baby and doesn't want to leave without mama. I've had to run a couple of them off--waving my hat over my head and yelling at them. One year I shot a doe that still had milk. Makes me feel a tiny bit sorry for shooting the mama, but there's no shortage of deer here and those young ones are old enough to get along on their own. I rarely get to hunt before Christmas, so it's not like I'm shooting deer in September or October.

  5. #205
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    In the desert, looking for water.
    Quote Originally Posted by pangloss View Post
    Congrats on the Coues. The closest I've ever come to one is reading some of Jack O'Conner's stories. I've shot a few whitetail does out of pairs of antlerless deer. Typically the smaller one seems to be the baby and doesn't want to leave without mama. I've had to run a couple of them off--waving my hat over my head and yelling at them. One year I shot a doe that still had milk. Makes me feel a tiny bit sorry for shooting the mama, but there's no shortage of deer here and those young ones are old enough to get along on their own. I rarely get to hunt before Christmas, so it's not like I'm shooting deer in September or October.
    Thanks!

    I never hunted whitetail before moving to Arizona, so the only variety I have experience with are Coues. Since I grew up hunting mule deer, Coues all looked like babies until I’d been here for a few years, even the biggest and oldest of them.

    I was hunting quail in the river bottom a couple of weeks ago and bumped a mule deer. After all that time looking at Coues, that doe looked like a horse!

  6. #206
    First time hunting for ducks… had a grand old time, first time processing an animal for me, too. I think I overcooked the birds, need to work on my recipe.

    Watching the dog work was amazing.

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  7. #207
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Fort Worth, TX
    Quote Originally Posted by jc000 View Post
    I think I overcooked the birds, need to work on my recipe.
    Nice!

    I like to smoke duck... Then make curry out of anything left over after the first meal.
    I've never tried to pluck a duck though.... I might be tempted to just cut it up. Plucking seems like a PITA, especially on a smaller (<5lb) bird.

    Beautiful dog too...
    "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776

  8. #208
    Quote Originally Posted by jc000 View Post
    First time hunting for ducks… had a grand old time, first time processing an animal for me, too. I think I overcooked the birds, need to work on my recipe.

    Watching the dog work was amazing.

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    Waterfowling is one of my favorites. Haven't been since my lab died.

    I like my dabbler duck breast served medium-rare. Delicious!

  9. #209
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    Called this one in to 68 yards.

  10. #210
    Site Supporter Odin Bravo One's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    In the back of beyond
    One of our dedicated volunteers putting in the long hours necessary for a successful archery hunt. Her and her dad tagged a nice doe at 20 yards for some meat in the freezer.


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    You can get much more of what you want with a kind word and a gun, than with a kind word alone.

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