I love Mulies but I hate Cactus!!

I've been in Arizona for 2 years in february and have been hunting for my first time in the real desert in lots of cactus. In the last two weeks I've aquired all sorts of little spines and infections. You see the cholla especially are good at moving . If the wind blows they fly off the plant and roll. If it rains hard they float with the water in the open washes. You can't sit or kneel anywhere even if it looks like bare earth because there are spines. I guess that's why everyone but us is road hunting. We saw a friend of ours a few days ago and got talking. They've been seeing some deer and missing too. He was jogging to keep up with one and fell into a barrel cactus. They have fish hook spines that are triangular in cross section, about 1/8 inch in diameter and 1 to 3 inches long. He has 2 rows of about 20 holes up his right arm and can't draw his bow. It's about twice normal size and they aren't sure all of them are out yet. Says he's having sweats and nightmares. I'm walking slowly from now on like an old man should. We're taking a day off today. It's too warm and they are out all night lately. When the puddles freeze again life will be good, except for the cactus!!
Mark
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MuleyMadness
ouch...thanks for the update...never hunted that type of country. Sounds fun but testy. :)
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AzRednekRabbit
Arizona acupuncture buddy. Welcome to my world. Everything out here either sticks, stabs, pokes, stings, or bites ya and you usually end up with a little poison left in ya from whatever got a hold of you. It can be a bit of a pain but I'm pretty much used to it by now. Sounds like you had a good learning experience. Great story. lol
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79Ford
As fun as that looks I will stick with hunting within a few hundred feet of the timberline, not much cactus up there. Good luck to you.
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Hiker
Mark, Thanks for the update. You know you are welcome to come back home, where the cactus' are smaller. To make you feel better, my daughter and I just got back from her elk hunt in NW Colorado, the temperature read -23 degrees without the wind.
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hound_hunter
Dang! Dedicated! Now I know why everyone ends up in Utah for the deer hunt, I guess I'll be more courteous and understanding now :thumb

Good luck on the hunt, keep us posted
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Default Avatar
Thanks for the invite. We'll be coming back to Utah next year for sure. Saw some whoppers last year. There are few deer here but just to see some of the big ones rutting is beyond belief. Some folks come every year. Last year the SCI record for bow was broken. I believe that SCI allows animals shot over bait to be entered or it would've been entered in P&Y. The way the politcal winds are blowing there will be no baiting in 2009. Go to the PSE website to see it. It was on the home page because it was shot with an X Force bow. We can't go back until tomorrow. The Silverado is broke. I'm sitting here chewing on the leash today!! lol
Mark
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a_bow_nut
Somebody told me once. "If you don't have spines, thorns, or are poisonous then yopu don't belong in Arizona. After a couple of javilena that I went on with my brother down by Tucson I have a whole new appreciation for that saying.
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ABert
I once kneeled in some unseen cactus waiting for a shot on a buck. Ended up kneeling for about 5 minutes without realizing I was in the cactus. Good news is I got the buck. Bad new is I was still having needles coming out after more than a month later. Funny thing is, as soon as I shot I felt the pain.

Be careful out there and be sure to post up pics when you finally did stick that rascal!
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Default Avatar
We just got back from a morning of javelina hunting. Saw no pigs but lots of sign. We spotted a buck and a doe mulie at 600 yards though. We got to within 80 yards of them and the wind shifted and they became alerted and walked off. He's a buck we haven't seen before. A 30 inch 160 class buck. No brows, short G-3's and G-4's. Really dark antlers. Yeah, we watched him for a long time. We haven't seen anyone hunting except on the roads. Tomorrow's a new day! :) :)
Mark
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