catclaw

When you use a target bullet, there is always the risk of poor terminal performance. The only bullets that seem to be very reliable are the Berger hunting bullets. I have had Sierra MKs work good one time and pencil through the next and explode on the impact the next time. I have heard mixed reviews on the Amax. If you don't know better, you should probably work loads up with hunting bullets to begin with. Bullets such as Accubonds, interbonds, Scirocco IIs et al are both very good hunting bullets and very accurate. You are talking about 300-400 yds, there is no advantage to using target bullets at this range. If you want to shoot 800-1200 yds, then I would stick with the Bergers or other PROVEN ultra long range bullets. I have never used the current generation Amax bullets on big game. It may work fine for you. If it disintegrates (correct spelling) after impact, it will be fine as long as it penetrates a few inches before doing so. This is typical with the Bergers. Since you don't have time or money to change, you take your chances and let us know how it does.

I found the Bogen 190 to be too flimsy. It is a nice tripod- just not really sturdy with a full sized spotter or even with 15s. That is why I went to the heavier (slightly) 4 leg section Velbon. It fits in my pack and will stand up tall enough for a 6' guy. There are even better ones, but they start getting real expensive. The velbon was $300 and came with a head. I switched it with my Bogen head and use it on my old tripod for taking photos. Same reason I don't carry a 4 1/2# rifle, I want to be able to hit something when I shoot!

Looks like a fun pack! Been there, done that!

The cheapy, light tripods are OK if you are sitting AND the wind isn't blowing, add either of these and you need more tripod to be effective. What is the point of carrying one if it is not doing the job. Not everyone needs and can afford a Gitzo carbon fiber tripod. I used a Bogen aluminun tripod for years and still do but my main tripod is now a Velbon El Carmagne 640. It is carbon fiber, magnesium and has nylon locknuts as opposed to the $700 Gitzo alloy locknuts. I use a small Manfrotto ball head and love it. For use with the Claw, I am switching to the 710 HDV head which is a fantastic head. The Velbon comes with a head for about $300 but I don't like it for binocular use- it is fine for cameras and spotting scopes however. A 5'10" guy can easilly stand and use the 640. If your budget is tight, you are going to have to go heavier to get cheaper. sorry!

WRONG This is what you don't get. Many of the title 17 laws specifically state that in less words, that if a Wildlife Manager chooses to use discretion and give you a warning, he, himself, is now guilty of a crime! Titles 13 and 28, the other two commonly enforced laws by Law Enforcement, don't have those provisions. And to make it worse, almost all the laws in title 17 are "strict liability" which means if you did it, you are guilty as opposed to typical title 13 and 28 laws which add culpability into the mix. For example, if you trip over a log and your gun goes off and shoots a doe, you are GUILTY of whatever host of violations you can think of; big game out of season, antlerless in an antlered season, exceeding the bag limit and so on. In title 13 (criminal statutes) you have to have some level of culpability- usually the minimum is reckless. If you applied this standard in title 17 they would have to show that you were either Reckless in your actions that caused whatever violation or you did it knowingly or intentionally. If you took careful aim at a deer, with nothing but and empty hill behind you and shot the deer but the bullet went clear through and hit a grapefruit sized rock on the hill, riccocheted off and hit another deer that was 50yds away and completely out of your possible view, you would be guilty of exceeding the bag limit and possibly other violations under current title 17 rules. If there were levels of culpability applied, they would have to show two things; that you in fact killed the second deer and that your actions were reckless... Add no allowance for judgement on top of this, and you have a pretty screwed up system with respect to game laws in Arizona. This is why I would NEVER turn myself in if something like this happened. You are going to get screwed big-time. Don't blame the WMs, most of them I have encountered are good folks. I met a very lazy one in 24A a few years ago but that was the exception and not the norm. Blame our ridiculous title 17...

Has the talk forum been down a lot for you guys lately? Seems like about every 4th time I try to get on I get a server error. I check another site and all is fine.

I could get into the main website but when I clicked on the forums it was not found and I got a server error.

Mike, I swear you are a retard sometimes. I was making the point that the WM are good guys for the most part but that their hands are tied by the stupid laws. You have obviously never read title 17 and have no grasp of criminal law in Arizona-especially when it comes to culpability. Like I said, I don't trust the current commission one bit.

The commission we have now would suspend you for leaving a candy bar wrapper on the ground by your stand- I wouldn't trust them with something that significant. If the animals is still alive that long after the shot, you don't deserve to tag it. Our game and fish laws by and large are quite archaic. Many of them allow NO discretion whatsoever to the wildlife managers. They state that if....such and such happens and it comes to the attention of a WM and he/she does not arrest you, then THEY are guilty! With laws like that on the books, I wouldn't dream of finishing one off the day after. I would still pack my pistol, but wouldn't shoot it unless it charged me.

My friend found an I-phone while hiking this weekend in the Globe area. If any of you know who this might belong to, contact me via PM. Dennis

Yeh- but nobody has no pictures this time!!!

He charged the phone up but it has a password on the screen saver so he can't get the numbers. Aren't all I phones A T &T? I guess he can try and go to the service provider and turn it in. I have never found one that I couldn't dial out on.

It snowed twice, once, my buddy had an inch on him while sitting in a tree stand waiting for the 370 from the night before. The wind was bad and he wasn't boogered so we figured to set up on him the next night. No dice! There was an inch on the road at Hannagan Meadows and a little less than that in our camp (9200') It was 36 inside the trailer when I got up on the morning of the 23rd. Strange 2 weeks. When they are rutting hard, they are screaming their heads off, smaller bulls are cutting in, bulls are running after cows to keep them in line. I saw this last year but not a trace of it this year. Sure, they are rutting, but it never became the frantic scramble that makes this hunt so enjoyable! A rifle would have resulted in an early kill in our case, but would not have made the hunt any more enjoyable!

I don't have the answer but I agree it was tough. I spent 9-8 though 9-23 in unit 27 and it was cold and rainy most of the hunt- we got snow twice! The rut NEVER did pick up; it was worse on Thursday the 24th than it was the week before. I have never had to hunt so hard to find bulls. They were nocturnal in spite of almost NO moon. I watched a 370 class bull breed a cow about midway through the hunt and there were no satellite bulls to be found. Very, very strange hunt. There was plenty of water in 27 and it made no difference. Bulls wallowed at night and shut up during the day. There were bears and turkeys everywhere. We saw two lions to boot. The dates are not changing- the second Friday is going to shift with each calendar but it returns in a cycle. I don't think the rifle/muzzleloader guys are going to fare much better unless the moon phase changes things.

WOW- how is that for memories!!

I looked through most of them and liked the Leica the best but couldn't get over the spaceship look it had. I ended up with the Pentax 80mm ED. It is a great scope but BIG. If I bought another new one today, it would be the new Leica ($4000) or the Vortex Razor HD. The Kowa 88mm is superb as well. All of these I like better than the Zeiss and Swaro.

That was pretty good! Love those steep hill jobs. I once had to tie a boar to a tree to dress and skin him in a prickly pear patch. He just kept sliding down the hilll!

They are not worth $800 unless they are NIB.

Buddy shot his elk last day with a Vortex- perfect performance. Rage is not the "rage" that it has been cracked up to be! I had two pro-shop guys tell me that they would never use them for spot & stalk because of the issues with them opening up in the qwiver and when stalking!!!

I don't think you can blame the department for Macho b- that was obviously an over-zealous researcher who was deceitful and selfish. I think they just made it worse by defending the guy. They can "help" this guy all they want, he has lots of relatives and he is eating my deer!!

I had a camera out on a wallow during the elk hunt in 27 and pulled it Weds morning. I didn't look at the dark pictures until I got home tonight. This was about a mile from our camp. Boy, was I surprised!! The date on my camera is wrong because I took the batteries out and forgot to reset it- this is at 9000' so obviously NOT a January photo!

He won't net 350 but he might gross 360ish.

We had fits this year tuning arrows to shoot. If you have an ultra-fast bow (X-force, Monster etc) you will need mechanicals or short broadheads like Montecs, Wac-ems et al. One of the guys we were hunting with this year had a hunter shoot a bull broadside with a Rage and the arrow went in and hit a rib and came back out!!! The same client shot another bull with the same set up and got complete pass-through because he didn't hit a rib. This is the second guy that told me a similar personal story. We tried Slick tricks but the blades would break off in the "block" when practicing! The Rage broadheads are a nightmare in the qwiver, always opening up and rattling and then you have to put them back together before trying to shoot them. I would not use a Rage on an elk period and would not use one for stalking but limit them to shooting from blinds or treestands at deer. I would not use Slick tricks on elk either-they are not strong enough. I would use Slick tricks on deer in a heart beat. I killed my deer with an 85 grain Thunderhead this year and last. They shoot great from my bow (270fps) and have killed great. They are cheap and work well- I don't see the need to change. The popular broadheads are all at least $10 a piece, spend $12 on an arrow, $10 on a Lumenok and you are shooting $30++ down range with each shot! For a coveted elk tag that might be OK but for pigs and such- it's a little much!

Contrary to some opinions posted, eye-dominance is a big factor; that said, you can overcome it if you want. Let him shoot both ways and see which HE prefers. You can shoot with glasses on and put a patch on the eye you don't want to use. The one thing that won't work is to look through the opposite eye from the side you shoot. I am left eye dominant but right handed. I normally shoot right handed. I can shoot my son's left handed bow about as good as I can right handed but I have trained a lot with both eyes. Some eyes are overpowering in their dominance, in this case, you will have a hard time shooting otherwise. Often, the dominant eye is only mildly so and doesn't present a huge problem.

I found a nice water source in 27 the day before the archery elk hunt opened. We jumped a HUGE bull off it so I built a blind and set a camera. We sat it the next day and turkeys came in - then it rain and rained and rained! I left the camera up and found this spot was pounded with bears. I had three different bears come in one day. I didn't have my laptop with me so I think I deleted all the pics off the card to re-install but I will double check. I saw bears and bear sign every day. I have bear boxes on my cams but the bears always seem to mess with them!!