mattys281

Congrats on your elk! I've seen cows on the wall & they make beautiful trophies. Is this girl headed to the taxidermist?

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! the only doe you will be getting is if you hit it with your car and get a salvage tag from highway patrol. we have bad drought, lots o lions and 10s of thousands of coyotes that play heck on fawn survival rate. they have also re introduced the mexican grey wolves and are trying to expand their range! James Incidently, fawn survival in 27 seems to be very low this year. I got very few on cam this summer & saw zero during 4 days of hunting over there.

I don't know about that. That video made some good points, but to me it seemed like extremism from the right trying to scare people off the left. Scare tactics from both sides. I don't by that Obama is a communist. Many of his ideals are in line with theirs, but to me it looks more like social elitism more so than communism. He's an egotist. He really, honestly believes that he is much, much smarter than everyone & knows better than we do what we need. These people have been around for ever, dreaming of their utopian society. It's never worked any where & it's not going to here either. I really don't think you need a boogey man. The American people are the bad guys, their own worst enemy. The only solution is to actually change the mentality of each & every person (or at least most of them) that are content to live off the handouts & convince them that working for a living is better than collecting welfare. Good luck with that. But now the question arises, do you really want to do that? As someone who pays more in taxes than a lot of people earn, it's very easy to get emotional & shake my fist & curse the lazy bums who should be supporting themselves instead of living off my tax dollars, but is that really in my best interest? I've climbed the ladder in my career by being smarter than most, working harder than most & being willing to take responsibility & make decisions that other people shrink from. The last thing that I want is to have a couple hundred thousand people suddenly show up who are willing to work just as hard & do all the things I do. No, it's better for me for them to overspend, complain, cry the victim & be content to receive charity. I want to make more money next year than this year & it's easier for me to do that if the competition is weak or not there at all. http://keywiki.org/index.php/Barack_Obama_and_the_Communist_Party It is very clear to me that Obama is a Communist, and these are not just scare tactics. There is proof and facts out there, you just have to look for them because the media will not spoon feed this to you. Even the Russian news outlet Pravda said that Obama is a “Communist without question, promoting the Communist Manifesto without calling it so." You could be exactly right. I honestly don't know. My point is that the politicians & the defunked political systems are not the sickness, they are the symptoms of the sickness. The sickness is that there is no unity in this country, no shared values, no common goals, not even a sense of nationalistic pride. I mean people go out of their way to not be Americans. They're 'African Americans', 'Mexican-Americans', 'Asian-americans', etc, etc. Where the heck are all the American-americans??? A house divided cannot stand. These politicians are nothing more than vote panderers, regurgitating whatever filth they have to to win elections so that they don't have to work. It's the same old song over & over again. There's also no sense of personal accountability. Everyone seems to be content to skate by on minimal effort & then blame other people for their problems.

I see. I used to roadrace a long time ago & everyone had a 'pit bike' they used for cruising around the pits to run errands, get tires, stop at other teams' pits & bs w/ other riders, etc. That's why I asked.

Nice looking deer!

I don't know about that. That video made some good points, but to me it seemed like extremism from the right trying to scare people off the left. Scare tactics from both sides. I don't by that Obama is a communist. Many of his ideals are in line with theirs, but to me it looks more like social elitism more so than communism. He's an egotist. He really, honestly believes that he is much, much smarter than everyone & knows better than we do what we need. These people have been around for ever, dreaming of their utopian society. It's never worked any where & it's not going to here either. I really don't think you need a boogey man. The American people are the bad guys, their own worst enemy. The only solution is to actually change the mentality of each & every person (or at least most of them) that are content to live off the handouts & convince them that working for a living is better than collecting welfare. Good luck with that. But now the question arises, do you really want to do that? As someone who pays more in taxes than a lot of people earn, it's very easy to get emotional & shake my fist & curse the lazy bums who should be supporting themselves instead of living off my tax dollars, but is that really in my best interest? I've climbed the ladder in my career by being smarter than most, working harder than most & being willing to take responsibility & make decisions that other people shrink from. The last thing that I want is to have a couple hundred thousand people suddenly show up who are willing to work just as hard & do all the things I do. No, it's better for me for them to overspend, complain, cry the victim & be content to receive charity. I want to make more money next year than this year & it's easier for me to do that if the competition is weak or not there at all.

Every empire throught out history has gone through a life cycle of prospertity, abundance, government dependence & eventually collapse. The Romans & Egyptians all had to distribute grain to their poor masses that couldn't take care of themselves. The cycle repeats itself over & over, because over the last 10's of thousands of years, while some exceptional humans have learned more & created more, the basic nature of the masses has not changed. You want to understand what's going on? Quit thinking of people as being superior intellectual beings. We are animals. Period. You can understand basically every human behavior by watching dogs, peacocks & just about any other type of animal. If you keep feeding a stray dog, he'll initially seem affectionate & appreciative, but this will quickly fade into a nuisance animal that will tip over your trash cans, let himself into your house & help himself if you fail to serve his needs quickly enough. As for peacocks, even if a person is adept enough to provide a little bit for themselves, they will quickly squander it on a big house & a Lexus so that their neighbors can see how affluent they are. Look at me, look at me! Sad. No 401k, IRA or money for your kids to go to college, but you have a garage full of boats, quads, rv's, whatever. Selfishness across the board. People are stupid & lazy. If you are neither of those things, you are the exception, not the rule. As for myself, I think this ship has already taken on too much water to be kept afloat & at this point I'm just hoping it can hang on long enough for me to make enough money to get the heck out of here. There's very good reason for the number of expatriots growing each year. Under the new tax laws, we saw 4x more people turn in their US passports last year than at any point in history. Most of these people were not CEO's or the other villains of the media, but small business owners who'd amassed just enough to have a good life & were not willing to have it taken from them to feed the lazy & unmotivated masses. The writing is on the wall & the people who really stand to lose are already taking measures to prevent it.

Do you have a buddy that's in to archery already? Best thing to do is pair up with someone that's already involved & maybe has a bow you can shoot & play around with a little bit. Depending on on how much you want to spend, you can find some really great deals on bows that are a year or two old on ebay. A lot of times you can find brand new bows that are last year or the year before models for hundred less than what they cost in pro shops. The down side is that if you buy in a proshop they'll set it up & tune it for free, but if you buy online & then take it into a proshop, they'll usually charge you for setting it up or you'll be on your own. I usually put my own together anyway & it is definetely not rocket science.

I just picked up a new stick flinger this week (Hoyt Spyder) & bought one of the Fuse carbon fiber 7-pin deals with it. It's a very light weight sight & has steel tubing around the fiber optic wires. Seems very sturdy & is quiet. I'm not crazy about all those pins though. I prefer a 5 pin & am thinking about removing the last two.

Wow, that's some great elk footage.

Pit bike, ehh? What kind of racing are you involved in? Motorcycle roadracing?

I've used one for the last couple years. If you're backpacking & sleeping on the ground, you still need a foamy or thermarest pad for insulation & to protect the airpad from punctures. The one I have is a 3/4 legth. Paired with a full length thermarest pad it has greatly increased the quality of sleep I get on the trail, especially as I get older & sleep becomes less comfortable all the way around... Money well spent imo.

The more of this stuff I read, the more I think about just selling all my cameras on ebay. I miss the days when I used to go whereever I wanted in the woods without worrying over whether or not some other guy had pissed on a pine tree, thus making the entire holler his forever. It used to be nice to bump into another hunter expecting & receiving some pleasant conversation & sharing information about who'd seen what & where they'd seen it...

I've yet to do an elk, but my first coues buck was about 1 1/2 hours away from the car on foot through some nasty, steep rocky crap. It turned out that the 1 1/2 hours without the deer = 3 1/2 hours with the deer. I could only go about 20-30 steps at a time between rests. Took the field dressed deer & all my gear in one 80 lb. load. I thought that was murder.... Sounds like you survived a helluva lot worse. How many trips did you end up making?

Congrats on a fantastic bull! How was that pack out?

Awesome bull! Way to get it done Max!

I don't. To me, he looks very young & with very good genes. Just like the older boys he's rolling with.

This is exactly how I feel, I didn't do such a great job of wording it the first time but this is what I was thinking of doing with the second tree stand. I figure that the bucks ARE going to come back to check things out, they may or may not want the salt at the stand, but if anything, they will be coming on by and may want to take a look as curious as they are.. That curious look upwards toward the stand may be the perfect opportunity.. I would put up a blind where you have a easy shot on the salt and stay the heck out of there for a few days. I haven't hunted out of a treestand for 10+ years and probably won't for the rest of my life, wind has considerably less effect when in a blind with the windows closed. That's the other thing, leave a window or two open with shooting lanes but that's it, you'll have time for watching nature after you fill your tag. I don't think the bucks are coming back because they are curious to see if you are in your stand, or because they are passing through, they are coming there to eat the salt, plain and simple, and will come in and eat it if they don't smell you. I would add to this that if you really want to stick a smart old buck, take your sleeping bag & some food & just plan on staying in the blind for a couple days straight. That way you're not dispersing scent & making noise on your way in & out.

That's the way it always seems to go. I guess this is why it's called 'hunting' & not 'killing'.

Looking for a youth rifle for my 12 y.o. daughter who I'm taking on her first deer hunt in November. Figured I'd see if someone had one left over from when their kids were small before I went shopping for a brand new one. Not really sure what a good round is for a 100 lb 12 y.o. girl. .243 maybe??? Input & offers are appreciated. Matt

I was kind of nervous about letting her try out my .308 after she shot my 20 gauge a few months ago & thought it kicked too much, but I think I'll let her pump a couple rounds through it & see what she thinks. Only one way to find out for sure. Besides, the more I think about it, she'll be out growing a youth rifle in a year or two anyway. Somebody might as well use the one that is already in the closet, since it seems like I'm not going to.

It's a fun round, but it dang sure can be beat on price tag & availability of ammo.

This would be my choice after handling the Ruger American, Savage and Remington 770. The Remington Youth Model is also great. I would choose the 243 as it has a very manageable recoil. I cut the stock down on a Remington Model 788 in 22-250 and my son and daughter used it to each kill a doe on the Kaibab when they were 11 and 12 but the 243 has a bit more power. I have a Remington Youth Model in 243 you could borrow to see if she likes it. It is a RMEF Edition my son won in a raffle in a Junior Elk Camp that was put on by RMEF and G&F. Just PM me if you are interested. Which Hunt does she have? I'm transferring my Nov 24b WT tag to her. Guess I'll have to swing by CAbelas & check out that marlin...

I think I posted in this thread a few years ago, but will up date it. I'm the GM of an aerospace machine shop in Tempe & also have my own small machining business that I run out of the garage. I have a couple of CNC machines & can make just about anything out of metal. Here's a video of an aluminum part I've been making for the last year or so. Always looking for new customers & am also more than willing to help the little-guy inventors, tinkerers, fiddlers, etc. I work at about 1/2 the normal machine shop rate & have been known to throw out some good-ole boy pricing for a project that I find particularly interesting, such as a neat idea for a product or something to do with racing or shooting stuff. Matt Stevens Zero Tolerance Manufacturing (602)908-2931

Considering that archery deer starts in August & then the elk, rifle deer, rifle elk, HAM & rifle Javi, etc, etc... There's big game hunting non stop from August to March. It stops just in time for the spring hunts to begin. IF small game hunters held off because there was a big game hunt in progress, they'd literally get about a 2 week opportunity to hunt. I think all hunters need to be courteous of others, regardless of what size game they're pursuing. And you should be doubly courteous to non-hunters that happen to be in the field, such as hikers & family-campers. Leaving a favorable, respectful impression of hunters in the minds of these voters can help prevent your privilige to hunt from being tossed away on the ballot as it has been in other states.