catclaw

I pulled a tape across the front paws last night when I finished caping it. About 6'2" across the width measurement without stretching. Probably square 5'11" or so. Looking at the teeth and face, I would say at least 10 years old. I wonder if they still send a report on the age like they used to? Stopped at region 6 and Jon Hanna took a DNA sample and tooth. He couldn't get to the back teeth so he couldn't venture an age other than to say it was not a young bear. I would guess the weight at 250#-275#

Way to go!!

I have had several repaired by them. I have no complaints. I have tried Mystery Ranch, Kifaru and Eberlestock. I prefer my 2200 to any of those I have tried. I can wear it all day with 30# in it and not get sore. I can strap a 100# load of meat on it and come out if needed. I wish it had a few more external pocket for the stuff I need to get to more often but other than that, it is an excellent pack. I have thousands of miles on it now. I finally learned how to lube the zippers as they would get dusty and stick. My buckles have not broken. Not sure what you guys are doing??? I wear mine 4-5 days a week, almost all year long.

I have had good luck making my own mineral licks. Plain salt is not as good for WT as for elk. It took about a month for the bucks to start hitting this spot. I have a 50# trace mineral block to keep it going over time but they mostly eat the ground. The elk will lick the block itself! Salt works a lot better in June and July than it does in Aug and Sept. I don't count on it after they are hard-horned but out of habit, they will still come by. This spot is on a natural route to water so it helps. Your spot might not be any good until next May or so depending. I think you just started a little late is all. Here is the same lick with hard-horned bucks. I guess this guy wanted in on the action too!!! Cows, on the other hand, will flat camp on your licks and just about eat them up!!!

There used to be a guy in Elfrida or Hereford who made barrels too. Danny Pederson in Prescott makes excellent barrels but has a long waiting list.

Hey, there's an antelope where the guns are supposed to be!!!

WOW- that is intense. I spent Tues night in a back-pack tent in Tonto nat forest at about 6000'. I though I was going to get washed away! Glad I didn't have hail like that!!!

Dave made me a 25 cal barrel when he first started out a number of years ago. That barrel shot as good as I expected it to- 250 Savage on an old Mauser action. I took him the old barrel and he duplicated it and had the new barrel to me in 2 days! How's that for service?

There were a lot of problems with the HCO Scoutgards early on. I had four bad cameras in a row! Amanda finally sent me a covert and it worked great, right up until it was stolen last year. I prefer the style of camera that you have to the new ones- they are more compact. Too bad you didn't get more pics- looks like it could have been a good spot!

I had one stolen from a box this week myself. Looks like they took a crowbar to it! This is what I found!

I have two of them and they are awesome!

Very nice bull!

Glad it worked out for you Jim!

My friend Mike, killed this 6x6 this week. After many days in the field, this was the largest bull that we had located. We never saw another hunter and had no disruptions like some are complaining of. We ran into a hiker who had a hoochie mama in his hand but didn't affect us any. We located this bull with 14 cows one morning and watched to see where he bedded. We thought we had it all figured out and went back the next morning. We got out of the truck and could hear an elk orgy in progress. We went to our ambush spot and found that what were two bulls the day before were now six 6x6s and a couple of smaller bulls fighting over about 40 cows. They weren't coming our way so we went back to the truck and drove to an area above them where we could glass them better. Eventually, Mike made a nice shot with the bull going about 75 yds before going down. He was the dirtiest bull I have ever been on. It took 7 blades to skin, cape and quarter him! His neck skin was 7/8" thick on the top! His cape weighed almost 50# fleshed! Elk hunting is a great time in the woods!!

Anyone have an early rifle or muzzleloader tag in 4A? (not sure if there is one or not this year).

HAHAHA- I thought the same thing. Thought we were being warned to look out for meth labs. I found one last year in the white mountains while scouting for elk so you never know. (meth lab, not dog)

There are about a half-dozen threads on this topic now. Do a search and see everyone's opinion. You do get what you pay for to a large extent. This much I will say.

When Lyons killed that big bull, I did notice that they never did bother to dress him and cool him off. I am surprised that the hair wasn't slipping! I had to laugh when Doyle said , referring the the bull lying in the road, that this was the only road they had ever blocked!!! I had to scratch my head after that one. When I mentioned that I had observed a lot of ruined meat with Sierra match King bullets ,I had a very prominent AZ outfitter tell me that he was a "trophy hunter" not a meat hunter and could care less how much meat he ruined! I let it go at that. It is an argument that you can't win- kinda like arguing for or against legalizing marijuana. Impossible to win!

Canon Vixia HF20 or HF21 depending on how deep your pockets are. True HD, holds TWO SD cards and has a pretty good sized hard drive. To add to that, arguably the best anti- shake feature in its class. I think the HF20 will set you back about $800 and the HF21 about $1300. You will need better batteries though. You are crazy not to buy an HD camera these days.

That is a tough one to score- I will put him at 122 7/8"

Depends on where they hit the elk. If it was a good hit, they need to get a lantern and get after it. If is is a gut shot, then you should wait 3-4 hours MINIMUM to make sure that it doesn't get bumped out of bed and run off. This is the most common reason that hunters lose elk that they track- the elk quit bleeding, get bumped and move out leaving no blood trail. Most hunters are poor trackers and it doesn't take much to lose a trail. If you are going to shoot in poor light you should invest in some illuminated nocks so as to see your hits. Otherwise, as Lark says, quit early! I saw some pretty amazing stuff during the hunt in 10 so far this year. I wanted to take a bugle away from one guy and shove it where a thermometer goes! Holy crap- It think guys watch an outdoor show and become elk experts! I swear some hunters must NOT want to kill a bull. Sure doing everything they can to ruin their hunt!

Where we were hunting all week, the elk were watering after dark. Cameras confirmed this. It's more fun to chase them than to wait for them but you do what works. If your elk are watering during legals shooting hours, then sitting water is a good bet. It is going to continue to get hotter as the week goes on- can only improve. No cool weather or storms before end of season in forecast.

That is exactly what I now use; an 8x30 SLC around my neck (don't like the harnesses), small compact Nikon rangefinder for archery or Leica for rifle hunting, and my 15x56s and 80mm Spotter in my pack. When guiding, I would like to have an 8x42 Geovid but not for hunting.

Got the firmware update, I will install it soon on a couple and try some before and after photos. (fingers crossed)

I have both the original style Coverts that are shaped like a keyhole and the new and improved models. I have been really disappointed with the newer ones; they lose their programming often and any movement creates a blurred photo. My older cams would freeze any motion, the new ones don't. I wonder if they have slower lenses or just different sensor type or size. The only improvement I have enjoyed is the ability to use a 4 Gig SD card over the 2 Gig. Anybody else have both and noticed any of this?