AZ hunting

That’s awesome! Congrats to the young man!

 

Amazing bird. Congrats to the little man. Impressive harvest for his age.

 

Online applications are being accepted for fall deer etc!
https://www.azgfd.com/azgfd-accepting-online-applications-for-2019-fall-hunts/

 

Sorry for the delay. Haven't check the thread in a while. Here's a few of them The area is amazing and the ruins are very impressive.

The first 3 pics are of Devil's Chasm. The 6th pic is an abandoned Uranium mine enroute to Pueble Canyon ruins. The 7th pic is a side shot of some of the Pueblo ruins. The rest are scenery shots from the area. Everywhere is picture worthy....

 

Anybody have thoughts on deer in 32 vs 33? I've hunted the southern portion of 33. Looking at 32 but it's not as easy to get around because of private land. We went into Redfield Canyon last week and scouted a dozen Coues does in a morning. Seemed good but damn is that area rugged. I haven't checked out any other areas in 32 though.

 

That place (or places) looks amazing. I gotta get up there sometime when I'm not hunting. Thanks for sharing.

 

33 is a great coues unit but it's also packed during the hunts. EVERY campsite along redington road is occupied. I've heard good things about Mt. Lemmon but you've obviously gotta use more caution with so many non hunters around. I've also heard there's a good coues population around charlou gap, but it's a commitment to wheel in there. If you've never run that trail before, definitely go with multiple trucks.

I love redfield canyon. I ALWAYS see deer there when I go. And I'm wondering if all the deer you saw were actually does. I've got shed bucks showing up on my cams since early this month. My in-laws hunt 32 every year. They usually get 5 or 6 bucks down out of 8-10 hunters so there's real potential there. Another place in 32 to check out would be the aravaipa canyon area. Aravaipa itself is protected but the whole area is great habitat. And turkey creek, which connects to aravaipa, is a great place to camp. That's pretty much all I got. Hope it helps

 

Thats awesome man I appreciate it. I had good luck last year in 33 but more south. I spent most of the time north of Benson near Ocotillo road and saw a lot of deer. Agua Verde Ranch had some good bucks last year too.

For Redfield Canyon, any idea if they go low or stay on the rolling hills/cliffs on the sides?

 

I've never seen any down in the canyon itself, but by the time you get down there every animal already knows you're coming. I was in the canyon bottom one time and a group of people arrived, parked at the top and hiked down. I could hear their conversation the entire time they were hiking down. They weren't exactly trying to quiet, but still, the way sound travels to the bottom I could hear their voices from nearly a mile off.

I've always seen deer on the rolling hills up above the canyon. I've spooked quite a few just driving along the road, and I've bounced them out of bedding while hiking around up there. There's a cattle tank out there that I've always wanted to stick a trail cam on to see what comes in. My main interest in the area was lions and coati. I've seen coatis and I've found a javelina skull in the canyon that I'm sure was a lion kill. But I figure if an animal doesn't want to walk all the way down into the canyon to water, they've gotta be hitting that tank. It might be worth your time to check that out.

Tank location is marked in the first pic with a green cross and those are the coords to it: the marked location in the second pic is where I saw a nice 3×3 buck on New year's Day 2018. It's a hill that you can see from the road. If you're heading south, the hill will be to your right as you're heading down into a wash. The buck was with a doe and a fawn and it was during the rut, so I don't know if he lives right there or if he traveled there looking for some ass. I went back a couple weeks later to have a look around and I found the fawn bedded down, but never saw the mom or the buck. Unless he was killed by a lion or another hunter he's probably still out there somewhere and if he is, he'll be a dandy son of a bitch with two more seasons on him since I last saw him. I wish it hadn't been the rut when I saw him so I could better say if that is his home range but I just don't know for sure.

 

That's funny. I'm pretty sure that campsite you marked is exactly where we camped last time. It's a plateau with the canyon on three sides? It's a great glassing spot. We saw 8 white tail in that area one morning. Couldn't see any antlers though. I really appreciate the info man. It's super helpful.

 

Set up a game camera on the backside of my property. We are pretty close to the Tanque Verde wash so there's a bunch of wildlife out here. Coyotes are here all the time but I was surprised to see racoons and a badger.

 

Yea, it sounds like the same spot. The cliffs on the opposite side of the canyon are absolutely beautiful at sunset! Happy to help in any way I can. I hope you have luck on your hunt, but if you're going to redfield at least you know you'll have some beautiful scenery to enjoy.

 

Nice bobcat and badger pics! That's badass. I was checking trail cams all day. Hadn't checked these ones in almost a month. I got my first bears, turkey, racoon and lion today! I'm super stoked about the lion and bears.

 

I should start playing with trail cams. What do you guys recommend? Any good sites to purchase from?

 

I've got 3 different kinds. The first two cams I bought were from Amazon. Company is blaze video. They take good pics and video, do good night stuff, but even on low sensitivity they trip on grass or branches blowing in the wind constantly. I typically have to sort through thousands of shots of nothing to get to the two or three dozen images of animals. They work well but are too damn sensitive in my opinion.

The next batch I got were wildgame cam terra 10. I got a 4 pack for about $150. This is my buddy's favourite brand as they are cheap and take great images. They're simple to set up but there's no custom settings. It's either on pic or on vid. Takes one image per trigger and you can't set the interval between trigger time. The one thing I don't like about them is the ir lights throw a shitload of light so if something walks by too close it just shows up as a white blob, same thing can happen if you set it up too close to the ground. This pic shows it pretty good. If the coyote was a little closer to the cam he'd be lost in the light splash.
But the daytime images are beautiful. Here's one with no animals I saved just cuz its a nice pic
Some of the night pics are good, you just have to play with them to learn how to set them. Here's a better night pic
All in all, the wildgame's are a reliable cam for a good price. I like them, I just hate going back after a week or two and finding that all my night pics were ruined by the ir light splash. These ones will trigger on wind sometimes but it's a reasonable amount, much better than the blaze ones.

The third ones I tried were also from Amazon and I absolutely love them! They're campark brand. The cheapest ones they have. $50 a pop. These trip on wind the least, even on high sensitivity. And the images are great, and the ir light saturation is perfect for close up stuff. You get really good detail on them at night.
My favourite feature for these cams is that they record audio. I didn't give that much thought when I bought them but listening to a javelina sniff the cam makes everybody who watches the videos giggle and the best video I got so far was a queen bobcat doing a mating call! So cool to be able to hear something like that! I'm looking forward to being able to get some bear vids with audio of them walking, drinking, growling...
These cams can do custom setting. Pic, video, or pic+video. You can also set it for multiple pics per trigger and set the video length and set the interval between triggers. I bought 3 of these at first to try them out and I was so impressed that I bought 3 more a few weeks later. Assuming they keep working well, I'll be buying these ones again when the time comes to get more cams.

 

Wow!! You sold me based on the pictures alone! Great price too, I had seen some cameras at $200+, but I'd rather get 4 for that price! I'm gonna try a set and see how it goes! Thanks!!!

 

I'm sure the really expensive ones have their virtues but, for me personally, I'd rather have more cams in the field right now that will give me the info I need to learn. 4 cams that do the job is definitely better than one that takes 2000 megapixel pics. Lol

 

Dude those are solid shots and a great spot.

I have a few of these cameras since they've been on sale lately. They work pretty good. The only issue I have is the sensitivity. It will pick up trees moving or shadows. So most times I'll have to sift through 100s and 1000s of pictures. Other than that I'm happy with them for the price.

https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/...ct_Order_Shipped:LINK_1&customerkey=434341254

 

Thanks.

I'm surprised you have that issue with the wildgame brand. Maybe they get more sensitive on the more expensive models. My wildgame terra 10's do trigger on shadows and wind but not nearly as bad as what you're describing. That is a killer price on those cams though.

 

Welp... My hunting buddy and I went to the huachucas on Saturday to discover that some thieving piece of shit stole the SD cards out of our cams. We only had one cam each out there in a steep ravine that is way off the beaten path, hoping to get some good bear footage. We're thinking either illegals or a professional hunting guide. Anybody else ever have experiences like this?