40-year-AZ-hunter

I have the Leica 12x50s and use a tripod adaptor made by Jim White. Screws in the front stud in place of the normal cap.

Wow, Snort. As I remember it you excoriated the rest of us (in your first post on CWT) for our opposition to HB 2072 on this forum. On 3/9/12 in what I think was your first post you wrote "OK, people these blog posts are getting out of hand. First, you have taken it upon yourself to determine who and what groups have the wildlife and sportsmens best interest in mind. You all are self proclaimed champions of the Arizona Sportsmen and their voice. What makes you different than AZSFW? You claim to be the majority voice of sportsmen in the state. Between all 20 or so of you that are active participants in the Political Discussion Blog topic of this site, you represent .0037643% of the membership of Coueswhitetail.com. Ill let you figure out what that equates to on a statewide level." You NEVER said you were opposed to HB 2072, only the way it was introduced. I offered to discuss the issue with you over the phone so you would not have to get "carpel tunnel" as you warned us about and you said " I will send you a PM ". Not only did you not ever send it, you did not reply when I sent you two different PMs with my phone number offering to discuss the issue. Pete C. (who you seem to know alot about) has accused me of "hiding behind a keyboard". Well, we know nothing about your proclivities and loyalties. Now you are defending Mr. Johnson and claiming you were against HB 2072. Perhaps so, but you never revealed that while the battle was being waged. Instead you criticized those who were fighting the good fight. The fact that you are now defending Mr. Johnson does not give me confidence. Bruce

Allen, The trouble is, our representatives have NOTHING to say about whether this happens or not. It is solely up to the President. The President can declare areas to be National Monuments. In an ironic way, this is more likely to happen if Obama is defeated in November. He then will feel no repercussions from controversial actions. That is exactly how we got many of the monuments in Arizona right at the end of President Clintons second term. His secretary of the interior, Bruce Babbitt was instrumental in gettting Clinton to declare the Grand Canyon Parashant (strip), Ironwood, etc as well as some in other states right at the end of his term. It was even litigated in the courts and found that he did indeed have the authority. Prior to the designation on the strip, Babbitt held public meetings in AZ about the idea. I went to one in Flagstaff in 2000. There was considerable opposition to the idea. When the designation came out, it included an even bigger area than had been discussed in the meeting. They just went for broke. While it takes Congressional action to designate Wilderness or National Parks, it only takes the President's signature to designate National Monuments. The law that gave him the authority was originally believed to be for small areas of exceptionally unique characteristics. The nature mystics have found that liberal Presidents can us it to designate ever bigger "regular" areas and put them under the more severe management that goes along with the designation. Bruce

May depend on how the survey was worded. The ABA survey was very neutral. It gave a link to the AZSFW and AWF positions without any leaning. I wonder if the ADA survey gave just unbiased views of both sides? It's pretty easy to slant a survey if that is desired. I never saw what ADA actually asked and how they asked it. Bruce

In my humble opinion, WCC needs to quickly undo the merger with AZSFWC to regain the respect it once had. Welcome back Snort. Do you have any first-hand knowledge about the status of the concept behind 2072? By the way, I never got your PM from 3/9/12 and never heard from you when I sent you my phone number a day later. I was trying hard to avoid "carpal tunnel" as you advised. Be well. Bruce

If you missed it or just want to see it again, here is a link to one version of the 3TV piece. They actually ran a couple slightly different versions on TV. http://www.azfamily.com/news/Hunters-fear-dead-House-bill-could-resurface-145022235.html Bruce PS. Sorry, I just saw that Chef posted about the same time!

Well, that would certainly be good news....but, is this the same Pete C. that wrote the letter a few weeks ago saying "Kill HB 2072" then continued to advocate for the "concept" which was being pushed while we all knew that the number "2072" was already dead? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I'd like to see an email blast from AZSFW (like all those they have sent out pushing it) to everyone on their mailing list that makes it clear that they are dropping the concept FOREVER. Anything short of that will be suspect in my mind. I personally have no trust in anyone that has been pushing this thing. Bruce

It's not only on their website, I got it in an email. I assume they are sending it to their email lists. Looks like they are finally taking a proactive stance! Bruce

They just ran it again on the 10PM news but it had different clips and quotes. I bet they will run a segment tomorrow AM also. Great exposure guys! Bruce

I cant tell you guys how proud I am of the new friends I've made, some in person, some over the phone, some just here, while engaged in this process. Ryan has it right - the GOOD GUYS and GALS! All the efforts are sooooo appreciated! Bruce

I believe that the senario you paint of checkerboarded land is rare compared to all the public land in Arizona. We are not Utah where private land is plentiful. The rancher can only prevent access to the private portions and that requires extensive posting of the bounderies of each square in the checkerboard. Now, they can close roads on private land, but most stretches of checkerboard are not that far from edge to edge. Most of the checkerboard land along I40/railroad is open to anyone that signs in. I do have a solution for the "average joe" tho if it ever gets to be a bigger problem. Assuming the Commission is not in the pocket of some special interest group (wink, wink), the Commission can redraw unit bounderies and make separate units out of the areas that don't allow access. Then they merely have to cut the number of permits in those units to zero. Much like they did in all of 19b for antelope a couple years ago, but go further and redefine the unit bounderies to eliminate hunting all together on the offenders lands. Bruce

GREAT WORK guys and gals!!!!! Bruce

In 2011, the mule deer auction tags brought in more than the raffle tag. Of the two antelope auction tags, one exceeded the raffle amount and one was less. For every other species (elk, sheep, Coues, etc) the raffle tag generated more than either of the auction tags. Bruce

Now G&F is wise? Which is it - are they wise of not? Funny, the 2072 supporters don't quote the Commission when it voted 5-0 to oppose the legislation. To listen to some of the supporters, G&F has completely messed things up and that's why we need to give SFW 350 tags to bring in money to fix the mess (like Utah has done in their minds). Bruce

With all due respect bigjohnson123, it is exactly that attitude (we know better than you all do what is good for you) that started this whole ordeal in secrecy and continues to try to hide it from the light of day. I have attempted on many occasions to engage the proponents in rational conversations, on their turf, to no avail. Yet, they continue to say, while hiding behind screen names, that it is us that don't understand. Well, we include the entire current G&F Commission, a number of past commissioners, and many hunt (critter) groups. I will PM you my phone number as I have done with others in the past if you decide you would like to help me understand how I am in over my head. Be well, Bruce

Really! You think any good can from you going on TV, into the livingrooms of the public and talk about Auction Hunters vs Regular Hunters?? It is one thing to discuss the division us hunters have amongst ourselves on a forum like this one, but to publically bash any form of legal hunting on National television is completely insane!!!! Think about it!!!! Guys, bigjohnson123 is a big supporter of 2072. Me thinks we are on the right track! He has only one previous post from 2 weeks ago when he said "I am 100% percent fully for the passing and implementation of hb2072 ..... ...... How many of you bitchers have ever done one thing to perpetuate, improve and conserve AZ wildlife for future young hunters? So few of you that it is pathetic, just like your argument against this bill....Get off your self rightous high horses.." http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=30998&st=45&p=298234entry298234 I sure would not be taking advice from him! Perhaps they are not happy about the light of day being shined on this mess. They have been against any transparency from the beginning! Good work guys! Bruce

Well, even tho I cant make the banquet, I want to thank AES for their unabashed support of the average Joe hunter in AZ. I did join a few weeks ago and was able to spend some time yesterday helping them set up the banquet room. Bruce

Sooooooo, all this stuff about the Utah miracle since "expo tags" is a bunch of hot air. They pick and chose their statistics. What a surprise. So lets compare what has happened to the deer permits between Utah and Arizona from 2006 (when the expo tags started in UT) to 2010 From Craigs data, the number of deer permits in Ut dropped by 1% in 5 years From the "2011 Hunt Arizona" book published by AZ G&F Dept and available for download on the G&F site, Arizona had 38,138 general deer tags in 2006 Arizona had 43,993 general deer tags in 2010 AN INCREASE OF 15% Gee, UT goes DOWN by 1% Arizona goes UP by 15%! Funny that's not what AZSFW is telling folks. Bruce

WOW, I'm impressed. That is one conscientious representative! Good for Ms. Judd! Bruce

Suzanne and Alan (and whoever Pete is) will really let the genie out of the bottle! Bruce

OK, I'm just an average Joe so I guess it's to be expected that I'm confused and don't understand, but if I believe AZSFW, since Peay started the Expo sale of tags in UT the game is doing so well they should not need this (wink, wink). Wasn't predator control part of their pitch for the tags there? What the heck is that in the article about declining deer herds? According to the stats from AZSFW, UT is a model of expanding herds. Seems someone is not quite telling the whole story. Oh, I forgot. Its just that I'm too stupid to understand. Bruce

+1 Bingo!

The Arizona State Legislature is a bicameral body with 30 members in the Senate and 60 members in the House of Representatives. Each district is served by one Senator and two House members. It is most effective to send a personal note to your own legislators. They want your vote. Written letters carry more weight than emails. They figure if you take the time to write and mail a letter, you really care. Any communication is better than none. If you know who your legislators are or know your district number follow this link for the House roster http://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp?Body=H&SortBy=2 and this link for the Senate roster http://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp?Body=S&SortBy=2 These rosters are sorted by district number and have email addresses as well as phone numbers. Once on the roster page, you can resort the lists by clicking on the column head. If you do not know your legislative district follow this link and fill in your address in the boxes in the lower left corner. http://2001.azredistricting.org/ In the upper left will be your legislative district (you do not want the congressional district). Go back to the links above with that district number to find your 2 representatives and your senator. If you want to send an email to all House members, you can copy and paste this list into the “to” field in your email program, but remember how you feel about SPAM. Dont be counterproductive! kyee@azleg.gov, vwilliams@azleg.gov, bwheeler@azleg.gov, jpweiers@azleg.gov, jweiers@azleg.gov, tvogt@azleg.gov, surie@azleg.gov, mugenti@azleg.gov, atovar@azleg.gov, atobin@azleg.gov, dstevens@azleg.gov, dsmith@azleg.gov, cseel@azleg.gov, msaldate@azleg.gov, brobson@azleg.gov, areeve@azleg.gov, tproud@azleg.gov, fpratt@azleg.gov, jpierce@azleg.gov, dpatterson@azleg.gov, lpancrazi@azleg.gov, jolson@azleg.gov, smontenegro@azleg.gov, rmiranda@azleg.gov, cmiranda@azleg.gov, emeyer@azleg.gov, jmesnard@azleg.gov, nmclain@azleg.gov, ddavis@azleg.gov, dlesko@azleg.gov, jkavanagh@azleg.gov, pjudd@azleg.gov, rjones@azleg.gov, khobbs@azleg.gov, mheinz@azleg.gov, jharper@azleg.gov, ahale@azleg.gov, rgray@azleg.gov, dgowan@azleg.gov, dgoodale@azleg.gov, sgonzales@azleg.gov, rgallego@azleg.gov, tforese@azleg.gov, jfillmore@azleg.gov, efarnsworth@azleg.gov, sfarley@azleg.gov, kfann@azleg.gov, jdial@azleg.gov, ccrandell@azleg.gov, scourt@azleg.gov, tchabin@azleg.gov, hcarter@azleg.gov, chcampbell@azleg.gov, jburges@azleg.gov, kbrophymcgee@azleg.gov, bbarton@azleg.gov, cash@azleg.gov, barredondo@azleg.gov, lalston@azleg.gov, eableser@azleg.gov For all Senators use this list, paboud@azleg.gov, sallen@azleg.gov, fantenori@azleg.gov, nbarto@azleg.gov, abiggs@azleg.gov, jburges@azleg.gov, ocajerobedford@azleg.gov, rcrandall@azleg.gov, adriggs@azleg.gov, sgallardo@azleg.gov, rgould@azleg.gov, lgray@azleg.gov, ggriffin@azleg.gov, jjackson@azleg.gov, lklein@azleg.gov, llandrum@azleg.gov, jlewis@azleg.gov, llopez@azleg.gov, dlujan@azleg.gov, jmccomish@azleg.gov, amelvin@azleg.gov, rmeza@azleg.gov, rmurphy@azleg.gov, jnelson@azleg.gov, spierce@azleg.gov, mreagan@azleg.gov, dschapira@azleg.gov, dshooter@azleg.gov, stevesmith@azleg.gov, syarbrough@azleg.gov

I'll take a stab at summarizing the list that Javi started this thread with and others can add to it or correct me if I have something wrong. In no particular order, Arizona Elk Society Arizona Game and Fish Commission Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Arizona Wildlife Federation Yuma Valley Rod and Gun Club Arizona Bowhunters Association Coconino Sportsmen National Wild Turkey Federation - Az Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society Bruce

TJ, I tried to send you a PM. With all due respect, this is a section of CWT entitled "Political Discussions - This forum is for discussion politics related to hunting" The latest post on HB2072 did not use any profanity, nor did it engage in any name calling. It was merely a call to action on the BIGGEST political issue to face hunters in years. To do as you suggest and "set aside this issue" is not up to those opposing the concept. As long as those proposing this for Arizona continue, there must be effective voices in opposition. Bruce Johnson