mattys281

Kind of an unusual bachelor herd, but I guess if it works.... Rev. Jackson would be real proud of the way these guys don't let race (or species for that matter) impede their friendship.

He's got more velvet than the button bucks I've been gettin of camera. Hope he turns into a nice on for ya. Put some mineral out & help him along!

I don't even know what to say to that. I sure hope they catch the person(s) & prosecute to the fullest extent possible.

After numerous delays & a couple cancelled trips, I finally made it back to 27 to do some scouting this last weekend. The first order of business was to pick up a trail cam, which had already been removed for me. After spending more than an hour fuming & searching to make sure I wasn't over looking it in the chest high ferns that had sprouted up over the last 5 weeks, I finally resigned myself to the fact that it was gone & headed off to another spot I like, where I set up another camera. I worked my way down the ridgeline nice & easy. It was still early enough in the morning to come across some critters, so I was being watchful & taking the opportunity to practice my calf & cow sounds w/ my diaphragm call. About half-way to my camera spot, I was paused doing some calf calls when I suddenly heard something behind me that sounded like a branch popping. I turned around & leaned on the tree I was standing next to for some cover in the shadow & almost immediately I saw a huge round head w/ two little ears silhouetted under a tree. My first though was, 'Wow, I snuck right up on that bedded bear! Wish I had my camera (it broke last week).' After a moment, my eyes adjusted to the shadows & I saw that it was not a bedded bear that I'd snuck up on, but rather a moving bear that had snuck up right behind me. He was facing direcltly towards me at around thirty yards, eyes locked on mine, ears forward & fully alert. He'd been stepping over a fallen log & stood there with his front legs still straddling it. He apparently froze when I heard him break the branch & turned to investigate the noise. When I realized that he was coming up behind me, it sank in at once that he had been responding to my calf calling and was investigating a potential meal. Thirty yards away, on the ground, and nothing between us except my bow & an 8" k-bar strapped to my hip. My first thought, out of fear, was to shoot him & I nocked an arrow. I didn't shoot though, as it's obviously out of season and he was not threatening me at that point. He was just standing there staring me down. After thinking, 'Ohh crap! What do I do?!' over & over again for a few seconds, I recalled the safety tips on one of my bear videos at home & began to shout & wave my arms over my head to scare him away. He didn't move. He just sat there, still as a statue, staring me down, evidently also trying to decide what to do next. My mind was doing about a 120 mph at that point. Should I pick up a stick? Should I try to throw some rocks? I've got a rubber blunt in my quiver, maybe a shot to the chest would show him this was serious & he'd better get the heck out of here? I discarded that idea as soon as I thought it. That could go the other way & succeed only in pissing him off, at which point I seriously doubt I'd have enough time to nock a broadhead before he covered that 30 yards between us. This was the third bear I've run across in the woods during the last year. The two previous ones had bolted immediately upon noticing me. This guy was different, though. He was in his hunt mode and not impressed by a 160 lb. hiker yelling cuss words at him. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, but couldn't have been more than a minute or two, I decided that if he wasn't going to back away, I'd better. I began waving my bow over my head & shouting again, while slowly back stepping away from him. I'd taken only two or three steps when he slowly pulled his front leg back over the log & turned broadside. He walked away, back into the trees on a line perpendicular to me, while keeping his eyes on me until he was out of sight. He walked away verys slow & calm. I don't know if he was confused about me or if he was just completely unafraid, but he never showed any sign of alarm. He walked away, I checked my shorts. Literally. I was shaking so bad I couldn't hardly stand by the time he split. The shorts were still clean, but I don't know how. No matter how many close encounters I've had with wild animals, nothing was as tense as those couple moments that I spent staring down that bear at that range. When I first realized he'd been coming in to find me, I thought, 'This aint going to end good.' Had it been a sow with cubs, I'm sure it wouldn't have. I love that unit & can't wait to go back, but the next time I'll definetely be sporting more than a knife to protect myself. After all, bear & lion maulings are rare, but every year they happen to someone. Lessons learned: 1.) Carry bear spray! 2.) Check your back trail. I usually practice this religously, but he caught up to me the one time I wasn't. 3.) My luck isn't as bad as I claim. If it was, that would've been a sow w/ cubs & you'd be reading my obit. now instead of a first-hand story.

It was definetely on heck of an experience. The way he sat there staring at me, I thought for sure he was about to come over that log for a closer look. Sure glad he didn't. Bears are my favorite animal to see in the wild & I can't wait to get back over there. I can tell you for certain that I'll be payin much closer attention when calling. When ever I've called elk in before I've always heard them before seeing them, but with the heavy pads those bears sport on their feet, that's obviously not always going to be the case. In addition to the bear spray, I'm also going to make sure that I've got my camcorder handy, in case I get to see him before he sees me next time.

I agree. It's a fantastic time to be out in the high country. All the cows & does I've been seeing are still running solo or in pairs without their young. Can't wait for them to herd up during the next month or so & let us have a look at those babies. It's also alot of fun seeing the velvet grow. Great pics.

I just discovered that one of mine was taken this last weekend. I've still got three out there, but the nearest one to the road is a half/hour hike (at my pace - that probably translates to 40+ minutes for your average, lazy - a$$ed, bottom dwelling, scourge on society thief). & They're all in areas where quads are either not allowed or cannot go, so hopefully the amount of effort required to reach them will prevent them from being discovered. I think the cheapy-bait camera is a great idea w/ a second one concealed. Maybe invest in one of those fancy ones w/ the satelite uplink that e-mails the picture to you, so even if they do steal it, you can post their ugly mug on here, at.com, bowsite & everywhere else. Label 'em a rotten thief & see if someone out there doesn't recognize them.

I know the trail cams are weather proof, but I hope they have some fire-retardant built in too. Saw smoke to the south when I pulled out onto hwy 191 Saturday afternoon & there was a DPS guy blocking the road. There was also about 2 dozen forest service trucks & firefighters staged at different pull-offs along the highway as I drove back into Alpine & then today I read on Azcentral.com that there's a 1000+ acre fire just south of the rim! That's right across the canyon from my cameras! Looks like I may have had one stolen and given two others away to the fire god all in one weekend. Now that's typical of my luck. Sounds like they're reasonably confident that they'll hold it from cresting the rim & I sure hope they're right.

Great pics. It doesn't surprise me at all to find out they're running around the Verde Valley. That's great habitat for 'em & that's where I'd heard they were from other people.

String or cable stretch shows up most noticably in your nock point no longer being square. It would account for vertical sight deviations, but not horizontal. When bows sit for long periods & things stretch out, sometimes the two sides of the buss cable stretch unevenly & you get cam lean. If your cam is leaning you should be able to see it by holding the bow in front of you & staring right down the string w/ the cam away from you. You'll see it hook one way or the other. You would also be able to see your arrows fish-tailing. If this is the case, you'll need to twist up which ever side has stretched more until you get it square. Note that the Zebra strings mathews equips their bows with are notorious for stretching. I, personally, go with a set of winners choice strings & cables on everything I shoot (have a set arriving this week for my Diablo). There's also a guy on AT.com called bucknasty who makes strings & cables. His are supposed to be excellent quality & a lot of guys on there prefer them to the Winner's Choice. Sometimes my bow goes wacky & it's not the bow at all, it's me being tired or impatient, or p.o.'ed about something & rushing my shooting which can manifest in several things you don't usually do, such as torquing, anchoring differently which shifts you sight pin further to one side of you peep instead of being centered, or just punching the trigger & generally speaking flinging arrows rather than shooting them. Often if you put the bow down & then pick it up again tomorrow you'll be right on. Can't tell you how many times I've adjusted my sights just to move them back again the next day. Good luck.

Finally got back to 27 to check my camera. Apparently someone needed it worse than me, because it was gone. The area it had been in that was a nice logged down, grassy hill side back in the beginning of May is now completely covered w/ 4 foot high ferns. I was leary of placing one so close to the road, but the trail I stuck it on was just hammered w/ elk tracks so I decided to risk it. Should have listened to my gut & put it some where else. Lesson learned.

That's an awesome lookin bull, Fred. I've got a cam out in 27 that's been there for about 5 weeks now. I'm sure the battery has to have konked out by now, but every weekend when I try to go check it something comes up! First work & then the weekend before last I caught that stupid cold that's going around & it had me laid up for almost a week! I'm going to check it this weekend for sure though, so hopefully I'll have some good elk or muley pics to post on monday.

That's what I thought too when I was your age. The ten years between us have definetely flown by & I think you'll be surprised how many unexpect turns you'll take. Remember this Younghunter, chimpanzees can learn from their own mistakes, people should be smart enough to learn from the mistakes of others. The biggest mistakes of my life always seemed to start with a woman and end with a lawyer.... but I'm feeling much better now. If you would like to know just hom much money I've spent on woman & lawyers over the last ten years, take your elk tag and stretch it out vertically - this will approximately equal the height of the stack of Ben Franklins.

Here's what one of your eye-ball shots turned into.

Try playing w/ the correction features on your picture software. I had a couple like your that were nothing but foating eye-balls & when you lighten 'em up they turned into more javelina. Not sure what this one is. Looks like a fox-butt to me.

SD cards are compatible from one camera to the next.... if they use an SD card... I love the little veiwer I bought cuz I can view the pics on TV, on the Computer, or in the field.... it is a blast! Good luck. This isn't true of all cameras. I've got a Kodak Easyshare & it won't read the card unless it's formatted for the camera & formatting the card wipes out all the pics. Learned that one the hard way. HAHA! You probably had a bunch of big bucks, bulls, a couple of bears, a 1/2 doz Jaguars, Cathrine Zeta Jones and Jessica Alba skinny dipping and pack of wolves on the card too. Yeah, that was the camera I had stashed in the locker room over at Christie's.

Kinda makes you thankful we don't have to do that to attract mates, doesn't it. Although, on the other-hand, peeing on yourself migh be a lot easier than getting a high paying job, being charming, shaving, pretending that we have feelings, and acting like we really do care about her new shoes and what her girlfriends are up to. I'm only nodding off because it was such a long day at work, not because you're boring me, honey.

SD cards are compatible from one camera to the next.... if they use an SD card... I love the little veiwer I bought cuz I can view the pics on TV, on the Computer, or in the field.... it is a blast! Good luck. This isn't true of all cameras. I've got a Kodak Easyshare & it won't read the card unless it's formatted for the camera & formatting the card wipes out all the pics. Learned that one the hard way.

I use a very simplistic field judging method: a) legal? illegal? If legal then aim, shoot, gut, drag home & repeat following season. If illegal then aim, squeeze button on camera, download picture to computer, & post on cw.com for others to see. Might change my tune after shooting a few more animals w/ my bow, but for now, as someone who's pretty green, that's the way it is.

Just wondering, how do they score the "bulls" of this species, & what would be considered record book material? I have a little trouble discerning between the bulls & cows at 15+ yards, although I had one run right onto my boot last Sept. while still-hunting & based on what it dragged across my toes, I'm pretty sure he was a bull.

If you open them w/ microsoft office picture manager, there's a resize function that has an option to compress for documents, web-pages, or thumbnails. I've never had any trouble w/ it in the past, but had to compress them to web-page size in order to post the ones I put up today. Kinda sucks, they come out really small.

That one on the right seems to be a bit of a voyeur. I think you should get that on video & post it on youtube. I bet we'll get more viewings than that dog on the skateboard.

I recently bought a trail cam at SW & then found the same one at Cabelas for $20 less. Returned it to SW & got my money back, no questions asked. I've also had to exchange items once or twice before & always been right in & out. They've been very easy for me to deal with so far.

Anyone shooting the Liberty or Black Ice? I'm more interested in the Liberty, due to the slightly longer a-t-a length. I've shoot the Drenalin, Vectrix, Switchback, Illusion, Diablo, & a few others & have to say that I liked the liberty the best. Smooth, fast, no hand shock (or almost none, at least). Can't wait to get one & was wondering what you guys that shoot them think now that you own one. Thanks.

THat's awesome! Don't be a hater though, I only drew a cow tag. Didn't want to wait ten years for my first elk hunt, so went with the good draw odds. And it's in 27. The fact that that unit has a hecuva good bear population, the season for which runs right along with my elk hunt, did not influence my decision to put in for over there at all. Young hunter: I know some spots up in 7w. Haven't been there in a couple years, but I used to do a lot of camping & hiking up there. PM me if you're interested & I'll point out some spots worth a look.