daverp

Don't want to ruffle feathers, but this is a disaster waiting to happen with most bolt rifles. In that condition the firing pin is resting directly on the primer. One good smack to the back of the bolt when dropped, and that rifle is discharging. Pull your bolt from your rifle. Rotate the firing pin assembly (the condition it would be in with the bolt closed and when firing pin assembly is not engaged by trigger sear). The firing pin protrudes beyond bolt face.....and is resting on primer if there is a cartridge in the chamber.

Was a kid growing up in near Flag in the early 70's. The old man and some of his buddies knew an old houndsman (don't recall his name) who spent a lot of his time in Sycamore. Guy had some outstanding artifacts in is den from his days of wandering the canyon. His den was a mini-museum with artifacts acquired over many years of working that canyon. At any rate, at the time, he was certain of a grizzly he knew of in the canyon back in the mid-60's or so. Who knows if that was a thinly strung yarn or not, but the guy certainly did not seem to be the type to embellish, or have a need to do so. He was of the opinion Sycamore would be about the last place in AZ to give up all of her secrets. Eh, who knows. Was fun to think about at the time.

And there you have it. The "reputation" for the subject of this conversation was irrevocably damaged by none other than the subject himself. It's akin to an over the hill hooker suing for slander on her 14th bust in as many years for being caught in giving a hummer to some guy on the duct taped front vinyl seat of an old beat up 80's F-150 who "is a friend" (whose name she can't recall) in alley with a 10-spot stuffed down the bra holding up her stretch marked sagging boobs. Yeah..."slander". Because it wasn't caught on irrefutable video, and someone "leaked" the arrest info. But everyone knows what went down. Good luck with the slander lawsuit...

kevy why is it that you dip shots on here can’t get it threw your head that a judge dismissed it ? If you will remeber DADDY said from day one this was going to be dismissed . There is sooooooo much I wish I could tell you about what’s going on . Remeber you clowns are 3 weeks behind us . We k re charges were dismissed right away . You clowns barely realized this last week . I’ll just tell you what the legal team is calling this . The sting that got stung . Remeber that when this all comes out it’s going to blow your simple minds . I’m sorry you don’t know who to pray to .toure not the only one struggling kevy I have witnessed the moral decline of society over the past few years . I will have bc777 pray for you ! So what do you think about the recent turn of events ? Well, hopefully the story will eventually come out that amazing buck was not poached off of the res. Could be many reasons for the charges being dismissed, not the least of which is it was out of G&F jurisdiction and will be handed over to the feds if this happened in a USFW jurisdiction. The best of reasons being the charges were completely groundless. Only time will tell. I don't have a dog in this fight one way or the other. But dang sure hope a buck like that will not be "wasted" at a G&F auction or tainted as a poached animal. What a crying shame that would be. IF he gets the buck back and shows off the mount, then I could be fairly easily convinced G&F and / or USFW made a mistake. Until then, and as long as that mount is sitting in a G&F or USFW evidence locker room though... If he took it legal....kudos. Can't quite say "it couldn't of happened to a more deserving guy"....but kudos nonetheless. Bucks like that don't come easy. Bucks like that don't get shot out of the front seat of an F150 or while standing beside an idling RZR flinging arrows. Even if it wasn't scouted and patterned....bucks like that just don't typically put themselves in a position to get lucked upon. But this "accuse the accuser" tactic don't sit (or look) too well. I get defending family. But when said family is a begrudgingly admitted thief (only admitted to the fact after he was caught dead to rights and later outed on the forum), maybe toning it down would be a better play. Face it, the people that cams were stolen from might have even been complete douche-nozzles themselves as well, but that was not known when they were stolen. And no matter what kind of azzhats they may have been, that does not excuse the theft. How jacking a game cam even occurs to someone who wants to call themselves a sportsman and hunter....well, I can't fathom. And neither can most here. Hence the serious doubt over subsequent events and the subsequent questioning of the legitimacy of that buck. And if you can't see how BAD this looks, from start to finish (zero blood on the heart shot critter, photos under power lines, a 200" "heretofore unknown buck", well...). Had BC777 not shown himself (repeatedly) to be a complete azz, both before and after the taking of the buck....as well as before and after getting nailed for stealing game cams, I'm guessing he'd of gotten a lot more slack - and a heck of a lot more support - from most on this forum. Don't know you or your brother from Adam, and could give zero chits either way. I sincerely hope that amazing buck was not poached though. Were it not (or if it was), looking forward to the full story and final outcome.

Okay, that made me lol. Nice.

Man, that's one tough bear. That model 83 had to HURT coming out!

And in Eastman's... It will all come out in court more than likely a plea agreement. My guess is others new about this buck and had trail camera pics. He had a tag for another unit than where this buck lived. The first charge is contributing to the delinquency of a minor so probably had someone under 18 with him. Then there are two counts of having illegal game. There was enough evidence to get a warrant so get more popcorn as this will take a while, might even hit page 40. That would be my guess as well. He popped the buck on the res, then took pics of it in an over the top likely recognizable place in an adjacent AZ GMU. Really, who pops a monster buck like that and does not go to the slightest bit of effort to position the buck for pics so there are not power lines in the background? He plastered the buck all over CW, MonsterMuleys, and Eastmans'. Someone who had been patterning or watching the buck on the res, heard about and saw the story and pics, and tipped off AZGF and USFW, and probably provided game cam or scouting pics and video to boot. Several bucks are taken as potential evidence by AZGF and USFW, along with his cell phone (since he was on FB the next day asking if anyone had a smartphone he could borrow) and who knows what else. Sounds like the "ice cream cone buck" deal. Yeah, that monster was going to leave his ice cream, strawberries, friendly tourists, and travel miles from the interior of the GCNP to jump a fence to just see what was on the other side. And Joe Skillfulhunter just happened to be waiting with arrow knocked. Riiigggghhhhttt.

Heading out on Monday for a couple weeks in U10 for rifle deer. Kind of a tough hunt, but if you're patient and work hard, you can bag the bucks. We've taken a couple very respectable ones out of there over the past half dozen years or so, and passed on many a lesser buck. Love the unit, the relative solitude during deer season, and the challenge. With a little luck, may bag another 180 type buck. But this year, honestly, I just want to put some venison in the freezer for a change. The bucks in U10 that have been passed on in years past may not want to be quite so casual around me this year. Looking very forward to chasing U10 bucks and chillin' out by the fire with the brother and nephew. And if the deer gods smile on me, there will be a venison roast cookin' for Xmas. But...hunting muley's in U10 isn't about filling a tag. It's about the experience. And am so very much looking forward to it, tag soup, or Xmas venison roasts be damned. Can't wait. Our U10 bucks the last years...

Not this year. Long story short, decided on day 2 to take a meat buck. Two shots felt solid, great rest on a tripod, sitting with back to tree, elbow on knee. Short of shooting off a table, couldn't ask for a better rest in the field. Basically a dang near chip shot. Shots looked good. They weren't. Showed signs of a hit on shot one (spun and raised his right shoulder like I busted it...right where I was aiming for). He went down hard after the 2nd shot, then got back up 25 seconds or so later like his rear end was spring loaded. Ultimately was foiled by a scope off 3.5" to 4" left at 100 yds (shot at 260, broadside, standing, facing left). Tried to track until midnight, then returned for another 4 or 5 hours next morning. Blood stopped after 100 yards. Spent a lot of time looking, and then in the following days sitting and waiting to see if he'd show again, looking for signs of birds above, etc. No deal. First time I can recall not checking zero right before the hunt. First time I can recall having a scope knocked off zero. First time I've lost one. A little complacency got me big time on this one. What a dang waste. Had I any inkling they weren't rock solid shots I'd of backed off and come back in the morning. I had no reason to suspect they weren't, and probably pushed him into the next county looking for him that night. No sign of him anywhere within 10 miles over the next four days or so. That was it for me on this hunt other than running the predator call trying to get the nephew on some coyotes and bobcats (bagged his first coyote).

Chris Favour at Mount-N-View Taxidermy in Flag. I made the pedestal, he did the rest. Real nice work. Love the mount, he does a great job.

They're there. But maybe not so fast! They aren't hiding behind every Juniper! I can't tell you how many times we've been into 3, 4 or 5 days of glassing 12 hours a day without seeing so much as a jackrabbit moving, let alone a deer. Elk? Sure, this is the place. Deer? Hope you have patience! Frustration defined is glassing for muley's in U10. You really begin to question yourself and your hunt unit choice on about day 4 or 5 of a deer hunt without having seen a more than a button buck, couple of does, or a forkie or two (on a decent week) after climbing up to glassing points at 0'dark thirty in the dark, and not coming off until it's black out again, day after day, on 3 or 4 hours sleep a night. That I can tell ya! If you need opportunities to stay motivated, this is not the place to hunt! But...patience...persistence....and every once in a while you get to see a "oh dang" buck. And when you don't, you sill get to sit under that awesome blanket of stars, sipping a glass of Jack, Amaretto, or a beer around a dwindling, perfectly fueled pinyon campfire, maybe eat a hotdog, bratwurst, an elk burger from last year's hunt, or just a can of soup heated over the fire, and not be bothered by a dang other person. For the most part. Looking forward to a beer, and a tortilla wrapped bratwurst cooked over campfire coals come Tuesday about 2 a.m.!

Have not hunted U9 myself, but it borders both of my two main units of U10 and U7W which are very similar. If you're not familiar with the unit at all, I'd spend at least several weekends out there familiarizing with the road system, area, and scouting out glassing points. If you can afford a week off in September or October, and a few more weekends thrown in to familiarize with the unit, then another four or five days to a week before the hunt to locate the bulls, you should do well. Don't worry too much about seeing elk now. Get familiarized with a good section of the unit far and wide, and find areas you want to hunt in various terrains and vegetation types. My limited understanding of U9 is terrain features for glassing from can be hard to find. If you can locate good glassing points in various areas of the unit, you're off to a good start I'd think. If you haven't already, read up on the unit at the G&F website, and go from there. Pick up some topo maps and try google earth for your couch scouting time. Once you are familiar with the unit, your best scouting will be done the week before the hunt (but try not to push the elk). Glass, look for fresh sign, but try to stay out of bedding areas or otherwise pushing them around. The bulls are not going to be in November and December where they are in September and October (generally speaking). You can find areas with good concentrations of bulls in October (heck, even 2 weeks before the hunt), and then the rut is off or the weather changes, and they vanish. Be prepared for the contingency of weather pushing them around. It has been my experience the elk in these units are relative "wimps", because they have the option to be. They can be somewhere one day, get a decent snow, and they move off a few miles to lower elevations where they don't have melting snow dripping on and around them while they bed down for the day. Don't understand why a moderate snow would push them so quickly, but that has been my experience when they have easily accessible and close by elevation drops. I've seen it too many times to discount my belief these elk get very annoyed by water dripping on and around them, and if all they've got to do is move a few miles as they move around at night to get out of it, they often will. I've also seen them move not an inch (so to speak) if it snows a little but the weather is cold as heck and there is no snow melt. Just one guy's opinion, but keeping that in mind has worked for me. Might be something to it, or it might be nothing more than coincidence. But the point is, if they do move for whatever reason (weather or hunting pressure) have a plan B area ready, and be ready to move there if you don't see elk in your preferred spots. Concentrating your efforts in one geographical area and not having a "plan B" and "plan C" could lead to you not seeing much if they do get pushed out. Then you're looking for elk and a place to hunt in the middle of the season in unfamiliar terrain and surroundings. The week before the hunt I like to set my preferred spots based on what I've seen in the days immediately preceding the hunt. And I'll hunt those in the morning (unless I have reason to stay all day), and move off to another area for the evening. If I don't see elk move into my glassing area in the morning, I'm not wasting my time there all day waiting to see if somehow they magically appear for the afternoon and evening hunt. Showing up opening morning of the hunt and expecting to see elk where I saw them a couple weeks or months ago is a gamble I don't like to take. Good luck. U9, like U10 and U7W produce some NICE bulls!

Son's bonus point tally also seems to reflect a no-draw for him, and mine are gone except for the loyalty point.

Mine says "pending" but if you click on "details" it shows tag #278 for U10. My son's says "tag #0000" Looking like he didn't get his Dec Coues tag, and I'll be chasing the elusive Boquillas bucks again.

Looks like I'll be chasing mulies in U10 again this year. Unless my son drew his Dec Coues tag. Not very likely with 7bp's.

The new ranch rules and fees are out. Some people won't be happy.... General access bumped from $60 to $80. Not terrible...I could live with it. But, the big changes are the "HD" or "High Demand" access permits for antelope, early rifle bull, archery bull. Costs are now $500 for permits during these hunts, AND hunter numbers are capped at 25 for early rifle bull and archery antelope hunts, 30 hunters for rifle antelope, and 50 hunters for archery bull. Each hunter can have a maximum of 2 hunter assists. Permits will be "first come, first serve". No hunter caps on general deer / elk hunts, and looks to be no cap on number of assistants. Not sure what their purpose is in limiting the number of hunters and granting the permits on a "first come, first serve basis", considering the hunter numbers on these hunts are very low anyway, but will leave some people who have been hoarding points for years for a chance to hunt this area on one of these hunts "out in the cold" and having to hunt an area they may possibly consider a less desirable area of U10 if they're #26 or later applicant for a hunter access permit. And I'm sure any buddies of the ranch leasee sure won't be left out...which could really limit the possibility of the average Joe getting a chance to hunt the ranch on one of the early hunts. Limiting the number of assistants on the early "HD" hunts will certainly put a stop to the "glasser on every hill" for guys who sometimes have 5 to 10 spotters working for them (which admittedly can be a little frustrating at times), but limiting it to two people? What of the guy with an early archery or bull hunt who wants to share it with family and friends? He'll have to pick his two favorites to join him in camp? Don't know about this. How does the $500 figure translate into a fair and reasonable "environmental impact" fee, or "improve hunter experience" as they claimed when the rules and fees were back up for negotiation? I suspect it won't be long before a good number of us close the ranch gate at one of the camps and watch it disappear in the rear view for the last time with the way this is progressing.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but guide fee has always been $500, as I recall (at least since they started charging fees a few years ago). Certainly seems to me like the leasee was trying to make some extra coin on the deal and perhaps even go against owner wishes, and the owners (Navajos) may have forced their hand to back off when there was an uproar over it. It is my understanding that historically the Navajos have been very good to work with and fair as far as G&F was concerned, and it was the leasee which was creating the issues and making life tough for G&F and hunters.

Yup, the new page is up. $80 across the board, no "HD Hunts", and no cap on permits it appears. Glad it got resolved, but am thinking the leasee will try this again in a couple years.

What I suspect this will do (for the time being, until they feel they need to "renegotiate" access terms again so they can soak hunters for even more money) is leave a few more big bulls for the late rifle hunt guys. But that seems like the only real positive.

Brother and I were talking about just this in elk camp last week. Tinkering with or trying to steal a vehicle in the woods should be dealt with as horse thieves were allowed to be dealt with back in the day, and for the same reasons. In some areas in AZ, or in your case with a diabetic friend, the disabling or loss of a vehicle could put someone in a serious survival jeopardy if they aren't prepared or if there is a medical emergency. I sometimes leave things of value in a tent or camper (laptop, spare binos, etc) if I'm pretty remote, but never a firearm. I get nervous leaving the AR or a backup rifle locked up in the truck when out scouting or hunting, but never leave a firearm unsecured. Things are getting to the point these days where I will start running a sturdy cable and lock through trigger guards or mag wells and around a rear seat mount when leaving a firearm in a vehicle for the day. In a remote area where it is "just hunters" about, I don't worry too much, but when you've got other "recreational users" or potential opportunists in the area, things change. One reason I guess I'll never own a Yetti cooler!

From my understanding it is not the owners (Navajos) but rather the lessee. Probably splitting hairs though. I don't believe for one second the ranch is trying to "provide more in the way of a quality experience to the hunters that access the ranch", and seem to recall that they were making a push for landowner tags in the past. My guess is they want to jack up the access fees, and will probably continue to do so until they begin to see a reduction in revenue from the higher fees. I do believe this is all about one thing, and that is making as much money off of hunters as possible, and profit in some manner from the state's (our) wildlife. If their ultimate goal (and it seems it is) is to close off the ranch completely except for leasing out hunting rights to outfitters or rich hunters, my hope is G&F closes that section of the unit to all hunting, and decreases the U10 tag allotment accordingly. Let the lessee deal with the overpopulation of elk, and deal with the coyotes, lions, etc. That would, however, immediately spur the ranch into action to demand a legal method to control wildlife population on the ranch that is impacting their cattle operations negatively. In other words....landowner tags. And I imagine they'd ultimately get it, other ranchers would follow suit, and we'd lose a good chunk of hunting areas in this state. I personally do not have an issue with paying the current fee. It seems reasonable to hunt this area I love. Damage is undoubtedly done to their road system by hunters during the wet months, and certainly much more so than they would have if there were no hunting on the ranch. There are costs involved for them to maintain some of these roads and keep them passable for ranch vehicles and equipment. The problem I will have is if they start jacking up the costs to profit off of hunters. I do believe the "damage" and incidents reported over the years on the ranch have been over exaggerated by the ranch, and have been used at leverage in an attempt to first obtain hunter access fees, and to now attempt an increase in those fees. A cleaner, more well kept non-national park, "public access land" area in AZ, would be hard to find. The vast majority of hunters accessing this area seem to do an exceptional job of keeping it clean and leaving minimal traces, especially when compared to adjacent NF areas. I personally make an attempt to always leave with more trash than I brought in, and I know others do as well. But in the areas I hunt, there just isn't a lot of trash to be found. I've seen more beer cans and trash tossed on the side of the road in a single season of hunting 7W than I have seen in 10 years hunting the ranch. Ironically enough, many of those beer cans I often found strewn about 7W, were tossed from the window of the local rancher's truck as he made his rounds. As the ranch has exaggerated hunter impact on the ranch in the past, I would be highly skeptical of any "transparency" they're offering regarding their costs here.

Casey's in Flag. Have used him several times now, and have never been anything but happy with his work. Worth the trip.

Couple years ago on the U10 late rifle bull hunt, the bulls disappeared after that first good snow a few days before the season. Everyone was saying the same thing "they were here yesterday, now they're gone". A lot of conjecture about the "why" of it, but one sure thing remained...they just were no longer there. (As a side note, the following fall when I was scouting and hunting for deer in the same area, we only picked up a couple small sheds, where in previous years, we were picking up multiple, nice sized sheds in the same areas. Some years they stay in that area, and some years they don't). I got stubborn continuing to scout my go to areas for 4 days before the season, and into the 3rd day of the season, and was coming up nearly empty. Glassed up one broken up 5x and a few scattered cows the entire time (kicked a couple more up driving back to camp at night, but that was it). Walked into one "hot spot", almost two miles, fairly fresh snow. Saw ONE elk track on the 4 mile round trip. (This area, BTW, is the same area we hunted for my son's bull hunt last year. Elk...big elk...up the wazoo, the entire hunt, and scattered over a pretty wide area. Difference? Only obvious one...no snow). Back to two years ago...Knew we had to at least try to make a move. As soon as we dropped lower, started seeing a lot more sign. Unfortunately the fog then rolled in for a couple days, and we couldn't get the kid on a bull. But we were seeing a ton of fresh elk sign, and spotting some elk. Lesson learned. They are either there, or they aren't. If they aren't, don't waste time hoping they'll magically appear, or thinking that you've just had a bad couple days of glassing. Go somewhere else. I am half way convinced U10 bulls are spoiled wimps. The first sign of significant snow (a couple inches or more), and they can easily drop to lower areas, and seem to do so. I'm not positive about that yet, but that's been my experience so far, with 3 late season elk hunts (and four or five deer hunts) as a spotter or hunter under my belt there. I agree that scouting bulls this far ahead of the season is nearly useless (some years), and is best left to scouting out areas you'll investigate and glass from the week before the season. Plan A's, plan B's, and hopefully plan C areas. Scouting this far out could work...if nothing pushes them out of the area for whatever reason, but that seems to be a fairly sizeable "if". I'm headed out to U10 again in 10 days to scout for my nephew's second bull hunt there (and our 3rd bull hunt there in the last 3 years). I won't make the same mistake twice as I did a couple years ago. I'm going to hit my "go to" areas in the first two or three mornings, and my butt will be somewhere else, far from there, glassing in the evenings, pretty much regardless of what I see in the mornings. If after a few days of our best spots, we don't see anything, they will be all but abandoned and the mad search for the bulls will commence, hopefully finding them before opening morning.

Have that sinking feeling. Thinking it's over save for the last few who are going to be the recipients of CC hits due to cards being declined with other hunters. Doesn't seem like as many are posting up about CC hits this year and was hoping for another rash of "I got hit!" posts today, but doesn't seem to be happening. If you have a CC hit today, post it up and give those of us looking at BP soup again a little hope!

Heads up...the Duratracs are good in the snow and mud, I'll give you that. But throw in some rocks and they are incredibly weak tires. Lost three of them (C rated) on one elk hunt in U10. I have never had another tire fail in the rocks, but these were horrid. Lost one to a 3/8" wet stick that went through the sidewall, and the other two were lost to sidewall gashes. Not sure if the E rated Duratracs are any better. Have run those same roads and same type of terrain for years with BFG's, Bridgestone MT's, Firestone MT's, and my latest tire, the Goodyear MTR's Kevlar without a failure. When I got them years ago, they were a new tire. I did not get a chance to check sidewall thickness before they went on. When they came off I sure did, and was surprised they lasted as long as they did.