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Tony Mandile was a long-time contributor to this forum. He passed away yesterday morning from complications from COPD, Covid and an infection he got while at the hospital. His wife, Ellen, also got sick about the same time and spent time in the hospital, but is recovering at home. His family says he did not wish to hold a service, but I wanted to share with you all some more about his background. Tony went by the handle Outdoor Writer in this forum as well as other hunting forums. He made a living as a professional write for almost 40 years and he was a wealth of knowledge about the outdoors. I enjoyed my conversations with him and he will be missed. Tony and his wife attended some of our CWT campouts so many years ago. In addition to being a hunter, he was an outstanding photographer and he enjoyed cooking some excellent meals, which he often shared on Facebook. Many of you have enjoyed the book he co-wrote with Duwane Adams, "How to Hunt Coues Deer". He hunted and fished in 39 states and 10 Canadian provinces. He also hunted and fished in Africa, New Zealand and Mexico. Mandile began a part-time writing career in 1969 and has been a full-time freelance outdoor writer/photographer for 38 years. His 30-year active membership in the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) included three years on the board of directors. He also served on the board of the Western Outdoor Writers (WOW) and the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA), which he helped create in 2005. He was a contributing editor for ARIZONA HUNTER & ANGLER magazine for 10 years, and wrote seven years as the Arizona Editor for OUTDOOR LIFE magazine. Mandile wrote his book -- HOW TO HUNT COUES DEER -- with noted guide Duwane Adams in 2003, and the Arizona Game & Fish Commission selected him as "Outdoor Writer of the Year" for 2011. More than 2,100 of his articles and 1,300 of his photos (50 covers) have appeared in OUTDOOR LIFE, FIELD & STREAM, SPORTS AFIELD, CABELA'S OUTFITTER JOURNAL, PETERSEN'S HUNTING, PETERSEN'S FISHING, AMERICAN HUNTER (NRA), DEER HUNTING, ROCKY MOUNTAIN GAME & FISH, CALIFORNIA G&F, WASHINGTON-OREGON G & F, ARIZONA HIGHWAYS, NORTH AMERICAN HUNTER, WHITETAILS UNLIMITED, NORTH AMERICAN WHITETAIL, OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHERS BIBLE, PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER, ROCKY MOUNTAIN SPORTSMAN, WESTERN OUTDOORS, BOWHUNTING WORLD, SOUTHWEST SPORTSMAN, SAFARI, ARIZONA WILDLIFE VIEWS, ARIZONA HUNTER & ANGLER, OUTDOORS UNLIMITED, several books and a few dozen other outdoor, conservation and travel publications. Rest in Peace Tony.

Rest in Peace Tony. for those interested, I posted more about his life with photos in the Memorial section of the forum.

My family and I are having a Celebration of Life Service for my dad this Saturday at noon. Attached is his obit with some of his life's highlights. Hope you'll indulge me as I brag a little bit about my dad. I was fortunate to have him in my life. He's gonna leave a big hole. Dads obit[15003]_js (1).docx

So, you seem to think that repeating an unverified rumor constitutes proof? Why am I not surprised.... How about doing us all a favor and moving on to Twitter where that kind of crap flies.

Tony and I had been communicating back and forth the past few months. He drew a late rifle Unit 23 bull tag this year and knew his worsened physical condition was going to prevent him from getting out for that one last hunting trip. After our talking back and forth, Tony felt he had finally found the right organization for his tag in Heroes Rising Outdoors. He wanted to be sure that his tag would be going to an Arizona veteran who had been disabled due to an actual combat related injury. I assured him that we'd make that happen. It hit me to the core when Tony told me he doubted he'd be here when the time for the hunt arrived. I hated to hear those words, but prepared myself for what might be. For those of you in the younger generations, you really missed out on a special man who contributed greatly to the hunting fraternity through the years! Tony had accumulated a wealth of knowledge he shared through many decades of writing. He was direct in what he had to say, whose thoughts carried much merit. You definitely will be missed, Tony! We were fortunate you were an Arizonan ... Godspeed!

I believe it was 1998 but a young man working for Adams was busted by AZGFD but I don't believe Adams got into any trouble for it himself the guide lived in San Manuel. Haven't heard of any other issues since then. Plenty of AZ guides or guides that work for big name AZ guides have been busted for various violations over the years. Chad Smith, John McClendon, Steve Ward, Jed Larson, Ryan Hatch even Blake Owens worked for a guiding outfit I believe. Where there is big money to be made and even bigger egos there is bound to be some foul play going on. Right now Wade Lemons out of Utah has a couple felony charges over hanging him one of them has to do with a bear killed by Trump Jr.

The firing pin has been updated on April 2002 as per Winchester Recalls Thanks

We have finally settled back in at home so it time for a write up about our hunt. I have had a burning itch for a bear the last few years. I was talking to a good friend who is a guide and he pointed me in the right direction of a generally good area and a particular tank. I ran a cam there for a few years and made a few day trips to hunt it. I had many close calls, but no luck. Twice I had sows with cubs come in and more than a few times I had missed a legal bear by a day after I checked my trail cams. I knew from past years trail cam photos that this time of year a bear hits the tank at least every other day. My son finished kindergarten last Thursday, and didn't start his summer camps till after memorial day. I figured if I took Friday off and hunted with him for 4 days in a row we should have a very decent chance at a bear. I loaded the truck up Thursday morning, and when he got out of his last day of school we hit the road. We finally got to our camping spot around 10:00 and set up camp. Where the tank is, is about 5 rough miles from where we camped. Our camping location is where we javi hunt and has cell service. Gives mom peace of mind to check in at night. Friday morning we loaded the truck and headed up the mountain. We put up our pop-up blind and spent time brushing it in. Within about 2 minutes of finishing and settling in we had a young Jake turkey come in and give us a good show. When he left the tank he walked within about 3 yards of our blind. At the 15 minute mark we had a big coatamundi come in. Already I'm getting excited. I've sat this tank probably 100 hours over the past few years and in the spring/summer hardly anything comes in. It just seemed like a good day for animal movement. At the 30 minute mark I set my kid up on his i-pad and I pull out my book, getting ready for the long haul of sitting 15 hours a day for 4 days. While I am reading, I I pull my head up and scan every paragraph. This area is tight with some topography and the vegitation really shot up the past few weeks, so there are a lot of approaches a bear could take that you would see till they are right up at the tank. At the 45 min mark I pull my head up at see this bear already at the tank! I get my son's attention and he stands right over my shoulder. I told he we are going to watch and make sure there are no cubs with it. After a few minutes of watching and paying attention to see if the bear is looking around like it's looking for cubs to fallow I decide this is a solo bear. I tell him to plug his ear and get ready for a shot. The bear is a pretty, fluffy, stereotypical black bear. It is standing up on the rim of the tank drinking, slightly quartering towards up. I aim for the shoulder at 50 yards and squeeze. The bear goes stiff, and drops right in the tank. After I collect myself, we make our way to the tank. The bear sank right to the bottom and the water has no visibility in it. It took a while to finally noodle around a find it and pull in up. Not a monster, but a decent pretty sow. We tag it, head back to camp and take some pics and start cutting it up. I was expecting a long, gruelling weekend trying to keep a 6 year old happy and we were all done and finished in an hour and a half. I told my son that it can go in his room and let him pic out the taxidermy because he is always a good sport and always willing to go on any hunt with me. He decided on a bear rug which will go great in his room. Logistically, shooting a bear on memorial day weekend is not the best as I couldn't check in my bear, contact a taxidermist or a meat processor. We decided to process the bear ourselves and did breakfast sausage, brats, jerky, roasts and cured hams. So far the breakfast sausage and jerky has been awesome!

born on mothers day. We have 1 white female, 1 black females Wanting to have all of them lined up for homes at 8 weeks and they are 5 weeks old on sunday the 12th. Call or txt for questions or more pictures. 928-301-9169 full or partial trade for guns

I have to start off with a big thank you to zaccarp and qcchevy for sending me some locations and Little Creek Calls for getting my calls done very fast and actually bringing them to my house. Sunday i got off work and headed down to hunt some Goulds. Best i could do with short notice tag. Monday morning comes and first stop i get into a bird and he is coming right for me then gets to 100 yards and i watch him walk around me. Stop one is done. Try different location and i get hammered and watch a hen walk him right around me and i cant make it happen again. Now i am starting to question myself. I know i can hunt turkey but i must be making some mistakes or just not finding the right bird. Drive around and see some birds and get a few responses but thats it. Now i am worried. Everyone talks about it being an easy hunt and it was seeming to be the normal grind of turkey hunting going on for me. I wake up Tuesday and get into a bird again and work him for a bit and then coyotes start barking and howling and fired the bird up but also pushed him out as i hear him gobbling and going away. I decided to go try a different area and find nothing. Drive to a differnt location and throw out some calls and boom two birds hit me. Its on. I work them for an hour it seems and cant break one off the knob they are on and dont know why. Didnt seem like they had hens. Decide i am going to try and get closer and blow out two deer and the turkey shut up. I think its done and move out to try a different spot. Not and the next spot so i head back to wear i the birds were that i thought the deer spooked out to pick hp a nice pile of fire wood a saw and i hear them again. Decided to try and work around them and come from different side. I get to a spot i can actually glass back and see all the glass up two strutters and a bunch of hens. I work into them while my buddy took some good pics thru the glass. Got to within 63 yards of two toms. When i get there i didnt have to do anything. i ended being surrounded by hens and two other toms. The hens started walking towards me and i take a shot at one of the toms and miss and he flys up and over a tree and i was about to shoot again but the two other toms run right in front of me and i shoot and i drop one. I could hear my buddy and son Cheering for me as they watch the whole thing thru phone scope and binos. Was an awesome experience. Cant wait to do it again. Thank everyone again who helped out it was a great experience.

SEXY!

Now someone is going to refer back to this thread as “proof” back to the OP…same as others said I saw Duwane post somewhere (probably Facebook…I think that’s the only place I’ve seen him post recently) that he had retired and his son in law was taking over. I’d like to think he’ll still be around some and in camp periodically, but who knows…

just learn to run faster than your friend, or clip the achilles and your golden.

I will let 1lb go that I have for a pair of Swarovski 10x42 NL Pure

Sumbitch this is a sewing circle in the off season!

RIP

Bulls are looking good eveywhere.

That is just solid proof as 9mm bullets blow out lungs.

That's proof? Come on ....

Great deal and hard to find!

So true, he doesn't have a clue about much of anything.

This tag takes 25 points to draw. anybody with less than15-20 points would be crazy to turn it in . Unless they are real young. I will Enjoy!

hold your phone like this....