San Carlos Bull

Here is a bull taken by Duane Chapman on the San Carlos Apache Reservation a couple of years ago. My son Cole is standing with it. This bull was taken on a late tribal member hunt and ended up grossing 411 5/8 and netting 404 1/8. What a huge bull for a late hunt. He didn't have any broken points and was very symmetrical. San Carlos tribal members have taken some great bulls over the years on their reservation. We did a pedestal mount with Duane's bull that displayed his trophy very well.

Shoot for the Heart

Mountain Bible Church here in Payson that started a monthly get-together this year for outdoorsmen and women. Last month featured pro bass fisherman Clifford Pirch talking about bass fishing and how to become a better fisherman. February's event, last Thursday, had well known mule deer hunter Dean Pederson speaking about mule deer and mule deer hunting. It was attended by more than 150 adults and 20+ kids. Everyone is invited, whether from Payson, or out of town. The mule deer event had a great display of some giant mule deer bucks. There will be seminar on Coues deer in the future and this one should have numerous huge bucks on display. I will post the dates for these gatherings as they come available for anyone who would like to attend. The next one will feature renowned lion hunter Steve Smith talking about lion biology and habits. Hopefully Steve will share some exciting stories of his experiences chasing lions around the Southwest.

Waterhole project

Here is a photo of a water catchment project I took the kids on a couple of weeks ago. It was on Black mesa in the Sierra Ancha mountains. This area has a resident herd of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep that moved into the area more than 20 years ago. It is believed that the sheep came from the Ft. Apache Reservation to the east. This is some beautiful and rugged country, just what the sheep like. If you have never volunteered on a conservation project, these water catchment projects are quite the deal. A good group of dedicated sportsmen and women dedicate a weekend and get their hands dirty for the good of our wildlife populations. It is amazing how much work gets completed in just a couple of days. This project was funded by the Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society and the Arizona Deer association. They are both great organizations. For more info on how you can volunteer, check out their websites, www.adbss.org for the Sheep Society and www.azdeer.org for the deer association.

Archery Coues

Here is a buck taken by Dale Gonzales of Payson during the January archery hunt. The buck's green gross score is just over 130". Depending on how Pope and Young rules on the way it should be scored, it may end up very high in the nontypical category. Dale says he was hunting for meat and this buck showed up. That is a lot of meat on top of that buck's head.

The Last Day Bucks

With a lot of hard work and scouting, we were very fortunate to have taken these two deer this year. John (lower two photos) killed his deer on the last day of the third whitetail hunt in Arizona. Steve (top two photos) killed his deer on the last day of the late whitetail hunt in Arizona. We would like to thank our hunting partner, Will, for the help on these two hunts. He also was successful in killing a 100” buck. Note: I put a tape to these two bucks the other day and John's buck grosses just over 120" and Steve's grosses 116; Congratulations to John and Steve on great father-son double.

Shed and Skull

Here is a cool shed that Houston Davis found while we were hunting in Mexico. It has about four finger points at the end of the main beams. Houston found the shed and then started hunting the area for the buck, but unfortunately he found it dead. It looked like it had died while in the late stages of velvet growth; the ends of the main beams were chewed up and it had some old dried velvet on it. Too bad, but it is neat to find a shed like that and then later find the deer that produced it even though it was the skull. We took some photos of it and left it down there at the ranch house for others to look at and admire.

Four point plus eyeguards

Here is Mark W. with his coues buck he took last week in Mexico. It has five points per side including eyeguards. Mark has trail camera photos of this buck earlier in January on his first trip. He said they were really rutting when they went down the second time. With the point length and width, this buck should score in the 120" range and should definitely make the all time minimum for Boone and Crockett.