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Klaus Offline OP
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being a 40+ year member of the "turkey hunting community", i thought having to miss the first weekend of the season to go to a funeral was a bad thing. this was the first time i got to hunt turkeys during the week, when the rest of the "turkey hunting community" was at work. dang, it is plum cool to have the woods to yourself. got some nice toms. caught a buncha cold water trout. (i'm a lifetime member of the fishing community too). by the way, big lake and crescent are plum full. first time in about 20 years they've been to the highwater mark. didn't try crescent. don't know about a winter kill or not. but we had our way with em at big lake. didn't try carnero either, but did chase a big tom and buncha hens to it somewhere around it. with all the snow and the long winter it seems to have either pushed the strut back later or lengthened it some. turkeys seemed to be still bunched up fairly well and calling a fair amount. sorta windy tho and it hampered calling efforts some. saw more deer in a week than i've seen in the last 10 years in unit 1. then i heard the azgfd ended the archery deer draw for that unit? what the heck for? it "was" good to see all them deer. not for much longer. saw thousands of elk. saw a couple that still had antlers and bunch that were in various stages of growing. drove down a 2 tracker one day, then again the next day, and there was a 4 point shed laying in the road. saw a buncha spikes that still had antlers. anyway, it was a great time. melting snow, lotsa water, deep mud. you could actually watch the country green up. i think it's gonna be a banner year for all animals in the mountains. well, if road bombers don't wound every small buck this fall anyway. but there are gonna be some big antlers and a helluva a fawn, calf and chick crop. really had a tremendous time. headed back again this week. ya'll best take advantage of good fishin'. when you guys are old you're gonna tell stories about "back in ot 10". Lark.

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Sounds like you had a good time out enjoying the spring weather trying to come thru and overtake the snow melt. Good luck on getting Mr. Gobbler and keep us posted how it goes. Thanks for posting.

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Klaus Offline OP
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i got a turkey wednesday. pretty nice. 9 inch beard. not much for spurs. i left the beard, neck, head and neck feathers on it so mr bunny sherrif wouldn't hassle me for no proof of legallity. i thought it had a sorta skinny beard. when i cut it up for fryin' today i cut the beard off and could see why it was skinny. looks like one o' my 00 bucks cut about 1/3 o' the beard off about 1/2 inch from where it starts. we grilled some o' the trout over mesquite yesterday. put a piece o' pork shop bacon in em. mmmmmmmmmm good stuff. my boy is gonna smoke the rest this week. my buddy still has a tag and we're gonna go back up for a few days before the end of the season and see if we can't get another turkey. my youngest son got a really big ol' tom. big son of a gun. still can't believe all the deer. i'd recommend anyone to go catch some fish. caught one about 16 inches and a lot of em in the 12 -14 inch range. all holdovers from last year. pink meat. the cutthroats were real red. only caught a couple brookies. hit it 3 times tho and caught a lotta fish. you ever fry turkeys? i don't mean in a bucket o' grease. we like to take em, cut all off the meat off into strips a few inches long and an inch or so wide and maybe about that thick. bread it like a chicken and fry it up. man, it is good stuff.

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I've been telling anyone who listens that the mule deer have been coming back in unit one. I'm convinced it's because the tree thinning the forest service has done for fire control also has helped the browse.



I drove up to Greer alone last Monday, the day after the big snow, but didn't feel well and spent the entire week in bed without going out to look for a gobbler. I'm back in Tucson now for my grandson's UA graduation and will return next week. That should give me a couple days to hunt. Hope you left a bird for me.

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Klaus Offline OP
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Davies, it was a welcome experience to see so many deer. there were more deer and big bucks in the mountians than any place i'd ever been. any area, any state. man, i shot a buncha big ol' bucks up there. took me awhile to figure out how to hunt the timber for them, but once i did, i had some fun. when the elk population exploded along towards the mid, the deer population really suffered at the same time. i still think the elk herd increase had some to do with the deer demise but after awhile it was real apparant that unchecked bow hunting with guys riding around in the back of trucks with compound bows, wounding every young buck too dumb to get off the road was having a really adverse affect. game wardens hated to even see me because i'd give em heck about it. all they ever wanted to say was that the buck/doe ratio was ok. buck/doe ratio doesn't matter when there ain't any bucks or does. anyway, when they went to a draw for u1 archery i thought that at least we'd see if i was right. the population shot straight up. i'm sure thinning and some other factors help, but nothing helps like letting bucks grow up a few years. can't imagine what kinda reasoning went into this decision. when i realized what was happening to the deer herd was when a buncha guys i knew had a big camp set up, over a dozen of em and many of whom were cops too, and everyone in the camp wounded at least one buck. one tag got used. one guy told me what a great hunt it was and how they had stuck over 20 bucks, like it was a good thing. not everyone has that kinda attitude, but a lot of young bucks were getting gutshot and dieing. heck, that time of year a superficial wound can be fatal because of the flies. anyway, it was great to see the deer. big herds everywhere. hope like heck it continues, but i'm pretty skeptical.

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Too many people wounding and losing aa many bucks as you describe is awful, and I do remember when we could drive through certain places in what now are units 27 and 1 and see 250 to 300 deer in a morning from the roads. Also, your observation that the collapse in deer numbers occurred at about the same time our elk herds exploded concurs with mine.



However, excessive killing of bucks can't explain why (seemingly overnight) there were fewer deer of any age or sex, or why this reduced population persisted for so many years under restrictive permit-only hunting.,



No one knows if the widespread tree thinning that began after the R/C fire is one of the reasons we're seeing more deer now, but for what it's worth, I'm guessing it is.



Whatever the reason, I (for one) welcome it and am also happy to see that elk herds so far aren't declining as our deer return.



In mid August last year I saw herds in two different locations with more than three dozen does and fawns in them. That's not yet like the good old days of the 1960s and 1970s, but it's a darned good start.

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Klaus Offline OP
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it is a welcome thing, whatever the case. and i was so excited about the turkeys, fish, elk and huge bunches o' deer, shootin' a coyote, water, etc., i forgot to even mention all the fun i had with my boys and big john and willy, 2 o' my best friends o' all time. ya best get up there and partake.

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Glad to hear you had a good time in the woods. I agree that the animals are out in abundance now and this is the best time of year to see them. As summer and fall approach they will become wiser and will move off the roads but right now it doesn't seem like they have a care in the world.

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Your comment about bow hunting rang a memory bell for me.
Some years ago, I met a rancher in the Texas hill country who told me that he had a lot more deer since he stopped letting bow hunters on his property. It seems that they all took their limit AND left several bucks dead and dying from arrow wounds. He had found some dead bucks with the arrows still in them.


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Originally Posted by Klaus
Davies, it was a welcome experience to see so many deer. there were more deer and big bucks in the mountians than any place i'd ever been. any area, any state. man, i shot a buncha big ol' bucks up there. took me awhile to figure out how to hunt the timber for them, but once i did, i had some fun. when the elk population exploded along towards the mid, the deer population really suffered at the same time. i still think the elk herd increase had some to do with the deer demise but after awhile it was real apparant that unchecked bow hunting with guys riding around in the back of trucks with compound bows, wounding every young buck too dumb to get off the road was having a really adverse affect. game wardens hated to even see me because i'd give em heck about it. all they ever wanted to say was that the buck/doe ratio was ok. buck/doe ratio doesn't matter when there ain't any bucks or does. anyway, when they went to a draw for u1 archery i thought that at least we'd see if i was right. the population shot straight up. i'm sure thinning and some other factors help, but nothing helps like letting bucks grow up a few years. can't imagine what kinda reasoning went into this decision. when i realized what was happening to the deer herd was when a buncha guys i knew had a big camp set up, over a dozen of em and many of whom were cops too, and everyone in the camp wounded at least one buck. one tag got used. one guy told me what a great hunt it was and how they had stuck over 20 bucks, like it was a good thing. not everyone has that kinda attitude, but a lot of young bucks were getting gutshot and dieing. heck, that time of year a superficial wound can be fatal because of the flies. anyway, it was great to see the deer. big herds everywhere. hope like heck it continues, but i'm pretty skeptical.


Guys riding around in the back of trucks shooting deer close to the road aren't hunting, they are poaching and there is a very distinct difference between their attitude about flinging a wild shot off and a true hunter. Whatever the weapon, a slob is a slob.

Last edited by MOGC; 10/10/21.

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Im jealous! Sounds like you had a great time out enjoying Gods country! I love hunting during the week, sure is nice to have the woods all to yourself!


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