mattys281

I've watched Dave on dual Survival kill enough stuff with his bare hands that I've decided from now on I'll be doing all my predator hunting with a nice, flexible green switch. Probably hickory. Swat them into submission & then drag 'em to the jeep.

I use cameras too & I don't want them taken by anyone. However..... I've come across many a treestand that's there year after year, all year long. They should be removed. In fact, I think the type of equipment is irrelevant. Hunters leaving any piece of equipment out unattended is no different than if a bunch of backpackers started setting up tents deep in wilderness areas, because they'll be back in a few months or next year or whatever. Wilderness areas & National Forests in every state I've been in have signs all over the place, especially in trailhead parking areas, that say very plainly, "Leave no trace". Why does that not include cameras or treestands? Do you guys really think that because you spend a couple bucks on a deer/elk/whatever tag that the rules should be different for you? Get off your high horse. The forest is there for everyone to enjoy, not just us. Period. AS for me, I'm leaving my cameras out. But if they disappear, it's on me & I'll not come on here crying & whining about it. It's the price you pay for the info you're trying to gather, so either accept the risk of loss or spend the effort to hike into a more remote location.

I can see their point. The FS is not the G&F, they're not there to make hunters happy, they're there to conserve the forest for everybody, hunters, fisher, hikers, backpackers, family campers, etc. I've known some hikers & backpackers that hate the cameras & would love to see them gone. I'm pretty sure the FS has received more than a couple complaints from non hunters regarding the stuff left behind by hunters. The simple solution: leave no trace. I'm carrying a climber with me this year on my backpacking hunt. I've never seen one of them pick up a beer can or cigarette butt. FS employees or hikers? I can't speak for everyone, but I very often end up carrying out more than I packed in, whether I'm hunting or just hiking. I'm not saying they're right for taking people's property, I'm just saying I can see the point. The forest is for everyone, not just hunters, & lots of people don't want to have their pics taken by our trail cams or see our treestands & blinds while they're out enjoying nature in their own way. Just another reason why I stay a considerable distance away from roads & hiking trails. The two cams I have out now both require a hike of over a mile to reach.

I can see their point. The FS is not the G&F, they're not there to make hunters happy, they're there to conserve the forest for everybody, hunters, fisher, hikers, backpackers, family campers, etc. I've known some hikers & backpackers that hate the cameras & would love to see them gone. I'm pretty sure the FS has received more than a couple complaints from non hunters regarding the stuff left behind by hunters. The simple solution: leave no trace. I'm carrying a climber with me this year on my backpacking hunt.

I hunted down there once a couple Januaries ago & had 3 of them pass by me at about 25 yards. They kept moving & that was the end of it, but still made me feel on edge. Migrant workers are one thing, but I wouldn't want to bump into a coyote moving cargo through the mountains.

That's a big cat. I know they're not good for the deer hunting, but I like seeing them. Adds more than a little excitement knowing that they're around.

Great pics, Amanda. Love seeing the bears!

I present you all with the new 'American Dream' = earn enough money to get the heck out of America. Better be quick though, a couple more democrat administrations & none of us may be able to save enough to buy a book of stamps, much less retire some day.

The wife just brought me mine. 24b whitetail, November. This is my first rifle tag for anything.

This situation sucks. I've recently lost a couple, both of which were in lock boxes & more than a mile off the road, no where near a hiking trail. You just never know where or when somebody will come across & snag you cameras. Unfortunately, it's par for the course when working public land, especially areas that are close to water & easy to reach.

I'm curious what the legality of it will be. There are already laws in place that make it illegal to harass hunters during a legal season. Does this count as stalking???

I don't care much for hunting shows in general. I've seen plenty of animals die in person, don't need to watch snuff flicks. Specifically, I don't care for the fact that they always seem to focus entirely on killing, when killing is such a small part of hunting for me.

I believe the 2nd amendment states that, "the right to keep & bare arms shall not be infringed". It doesn't mention anything about ammunition though. Since our pal over there promised to use all the power of his office to prevent gun violence, it seems like buying the market dry may be exactly in line with what he's promised to do. Without bullets, guns are nothing but bits of metal, plastic & springs.

You really think Az is lib enough to let this guy slide on the sympathy vote? I don't think he'll make it if he does, folks in this state love their guns.

If you guys haven't read Crime & Punishment, you should. Dostoevsky discusses this type of person at length. They honestly believe that they are intellectually & morally superior to us simple, confused folks in the masses, hence are above & exempt from the law in order to achieve the greater good. They're on a mission to protect us simple creatures from ourselves (i.e., they're a bunch of egotist socialists). No amount of logic will ever convince them they're wrong. Harvard couldn't. This is an excellent study on private gun ownership vs. violent crime: http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol30_No2_KatesMauseronline.pdf

The old machinists I used to work with would refer to the tool salesmen like this as 'snakeoil salesmen'. They always try to portray that they've uncovered some magic secret & lots of inexperienced people (chumps) will fall for it.

Yeah me too. At least he went down swinging, I guess.

No worries bud, when I make my run for the White House in 2016, this will be one of my favored campaign slogans: "Africa can feed it's own poor, lets worry about the starving kids in Oregon & Arkansas. But we won't worry about Texas, they can figure it out on their own." I also promise to trade California to Mexico for something that is infinetely more valuable ( a costco size package of tortillas & a 12 pack of coronas), & we're going to sink Chicago into Lake Michigan, because they deserve it. Although, I'm not sure how we're going to get by without Hollywood & all their spot-on politcal commentary....

This mentality is what I think a large portion of the problem is. We are not the majority. You guys need to get that line out of your heads. We are the minority, fighting against an ever bolder, ever increasing & ever more vocal majority that doesn't give a crap about our sweat & sacrifices, they just want to squeeze us & make us pay our 'fair share'. And now they're worse than ever, because they have a jackass, vote panderer in the White House that tells them they're being taken advantage of by all the greedy business owners. The go-getters & butt-kickers who made this country great have largely faded into the pages of history & now we're left with complacency, lethargy & a total lack of respect for the fruits of your neighbors labor. Nobody sees the guy in the big house with a nice car & thinks, "wow, he must have really worked hard & made some sacrifices for that stuff!" They look at it & think, "Hey, why can't I have it too? I work just as hard as he does?!" When if they really took a good hard look at themselves they would see that they don't work 1/10 as hard as their neighbor does, they just like to believe they do. 51% of the people in this country pay no federal taxes at all. They get child credits & earned income credits & you're too stupid to efficiently turn oxygen into carbond dioxide so here's another $2000 credits & God knows what else, so that at the end of the year they've maybe, MAYBE, paid $2-3k into the system & what do they get? A check for $5k. Because they're 'working families' & they deserve it. Then on the other side of the coin, you've got folks like myself that work for months without a day off, invest every dime you earn into trying to make more & provide a better life for you family & what do we get? I got to pay 30% in income tax, another 10% in sales tax & at the end of the year I got a bill to pay a little more. Sure glad I could help those folks out. If our government doesn't want to tax them, fine, but don't steal from the rest of us & give it out for nothing. Don't think for a minute that we are the majority. The tax records very quickly debunk that theory. If there's ever to be any hope of solving a problem, you first have to understand it. The problem here is that we are out numbered & this juvenile jackasses are really gullible enough to believe that there's enough money to make everyone middle class. The problem is that it's impossible. When everyone becomes middle class, there is no middle class, just a much larger lower class. Ask anyone who lived through Soviet Russia or any other country that has ever tried Socialism/Communism.

Do they need machinists?

Sadly I think this is the only real option left to the working class people would like to retain their wealth. Farmers with muskets were able to take on soldiers with muskets, but there's nothing that AR15's will be able to do against apache helicopters & tanks. I really think the apathy has already spread too far & is now a culture of its own. heck, there are third & fourth generation welfare families. Four generations of people who can't figure out how to support themselves?!?!? That's Americas greatest threat, Americans. Forget about China, Korea & Russia.

My wife & I are constantly talking about where we will settle down permanently. I've got about 5 more years left in Az until my daughter graduates high school, but once that day happens, I'll be setting my sights for some place greener with more favorable tax laws. I've already been down on trying to manage, much less start, a business in this place what with the general lack of work ethic & sense of entitlement that seems to be rippling through the 'american work force', but having recently had to struggle through a surprise OSHA inspection & dealing with workers comp..... well, at the risk of sounding overly negative, I'll just say there's a reason why so many plants go overseas. It's not just wages that make it too expensive to do business here. Plus, if you're successful, they tax you to death. Google the 'exit tax'. You can bust you butt your whole life & if you decide to leave you'll be giving Uncle Sam 40% of the money that you've already paid income tax on! Lessons learned here: invest in technology, not people & do it somewhere else.

Did you have the Conquest line or one of their higher end models? I was not happy at all with the conquests. Not only did I think the other binos I compared them to transmitted light/color better, but the Conquests had much worse fuzz around the edges. That combined with a small field of view in the 12x45s drove me nuts.

I would steer clear of the Zeiss Conquest line. I had the 12x45 & did a side by side w/ them against the Alpen (don't remember the model name) 12x & Nikon Monarch 12x. Zeiss was the loser, even though it was more than twice the price of the other two. I don't know about their higher end stuff, but there is much better glass available for way less money than the Conquest line. I now sport a pair of Monarch 12x for when I'm doing ultra light hiking/scouting trips & tote my Minox 15x around when I'm spot & stalk hunting.

I quit carrying mountain houses, oatmeal & anything else that takes water, because I don't like carrying an extra 1/2 gallon (4 lbs.) of water. Now adays I just live on beef jerky & cheese sticks for dinner, poptarts or muffing for breakfast, pb&j for lunch & fill in the gaps with Clif bars & K bars.