mattys281

I was out on Monday & watched a couple herds of does all morning, hoping a buck would show. No luck though. Heading out tonight & tomorrow. Hopefully I'll see some activity this time.

Saw 3 groups of does on Sunday. No bucks & no rut activity. That was in 24B.

You're right on there. Can you imagine if 1700 some odd CW.com fans showed up to their meeting to boo them for their price gouging! I think they had one in Phoenix this last weekend. I'd wanted to go, but was out of town. I'll be at the next one though. See you there.

Increasing the herd size by decreasing the tags alotted to the group with the lowest success rate and increasing the number of tags to the group with the highest success rate seems kinda counter-intuitive to me. Of course, I only had 5 or 6 semesters of math in college, so maybe I'm looking at the numbers wrong. I did read recently though that hunting was over a $100 million a year industry for our state. Maybe that's the herd they really want to increase.

My understanding of it was the group was measured from the aiming point to the centerline of the furthest hole. Maybe the bowhunters could arrange something too. I'd even be willing to give you hoyt guys a handicap!

Me, my pack, my bow, an empty deer tag & 5 days straight in 24B... Hopefully I can break the missing streak! Good luck to everyone else.

As long as you didn't spot this carcass using a chute plane, ethics aren't an issue . Nice rack - I hope you go back for it.

Ask your friend if there are any large factories around where that deer was taken. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but I've seen people get blisters like that from having corrosive wastes get on their skin. Could be somebody dumping something out there in a pond or something & this poor guy got into it.

I'm admittedly completely ignorant on lions, but do know that for any species to be successful it must adapt to a changing environment. In our case, the population of our state has grown over 40% in the last ten years and as a result we've had thousands & thousands of acres developed. Eventually, game populations will decrease to suit the new smaller size of their range, but in the mean time I think that you'll see animal behavior adapt to having higher concentrations on smaller pieces of dirt. It's called natural selection and no magic is required. Lions may be solitary & territorial by nature, but when their territory shrinks, it forces thier home range to more grossly overlap neighboring animals & they can't fight them all off.

Guess I'll have to be extra careful in Jan. Don't want to be the next "victim"!

I've yet to see anything in print (outside of this forum) that says what Mr. Ulmer was doing in the plane at all. He may have been trying something new on vacation to take his mind away from hunting & writing, as while those are our hobbies, they are his job. None the less, these developed into an ethics debate, so everyone feels free to chime in with their opinions, which is as it should be. I personally enjoy reading everyones point of view. A lot of excellent points. My view is unchanged though. The way I look at it, there are three parts to hunting: 1. find'em, 2. stalk or ambush 'em, 3. bag & tag. I think the chute plane idea vastly over simplifies #1, as finding them is most of the work involved in hunting! Most people scout for weeks ahead of their hunt. I'd rather enjoy my tag soup at the end then stare at a buck I bagged that way.

What do you guys think are the best units to see cats in? I've only ever come across one, but would really like to see some more. Anyone have any luck calling them in, or is it mostly chance encounters? Thanks.

I have to correct myself. It's the Humane Society of the United States. Not Az. I believe the state organizations are just branches of the main one, but don't know for sure. At anyrate, their article states that even a ranch of thousands of acres is unfair, because it hinders movement, escape routes, etc. They draw no distinction between a small pen & a huge ranch.

The Arizona Humane Society is currently campaigning to ban "enclosure hunting". I'm sure PETA & IDA are also backing it. Hunters dividing on issues like this is dangerous, because if they succeed and pass a law that bans hunting within an "enclosure", but it does not specifically define what an "enclosure" is it leaves the door wide open for interpretation. Before you know it, every piece of ground that has a 3 wire cattle fence around it is an enclosure, even though it's public property. In fact, I can't think of a single wilderness area I've backpacked in that isn't completely enclosed with barbed wire. It's what they use to mark the boundary.

What worries me is that it's not so unrealistic. 10 years ago people used quads for hunting, but not nearly as many as now. Sometimes something like this catches on & takes off like wild fire. No way to predict if this will, but it could, especially if they're as cheap as a quad and have financing availabe. Then you have they scenario that someone already brought up (don't remember who), where you climb up to your favorite glassing point & after an hour a couple chute planes float up & join you. And you know those guys probably never would have hiked that hill, but it was nothing to fly there! I like Az Guide's point. Who needs Adams or Ulmer. I enjoy reading the stories on here from "the real world" a lot more. Nice to share victories & defeats with people that are in the same boat instead of reading about some guy who spends 40 hrs. per week chasing the big ones. You have to ask yourself, when they go to lengths like this, are they really enjoying it? Or is it just their job now?

Would you drive a jeep? Guilty (a Blazer). And I'm not ripping on quads. I see their value & don't mind other people having them, their just not my thing. I guess I'm into self abuse or something, but I prefer to hoof it. I rush all week long, so when I'm in the woods I like to move at a slower pace.

The FAA has issued a Notice to Airmen mandating that they maintain a minimum altitude of 2000 ft above the terrain while over designated wilderness area. This applies to all aircraft. This, however, does not apply to remote areas that are not designated as wilderness. If you see someone trimming the trees over a wilderness area, call it in. Tam: I'm admitedly hypocritical on the general issue of technology in hunting. The gadget craze drives me nuts. I shoot a Mach 12, carbon arrows, fiber-optic sights, mechanical release, etc., etc., but won't touch a drop-away rest because it seems too high-tech for some reason. Like wise, I'll probably buy a laser rangefinder at some point & am going to order a new set of high powered binoculars this month, but you'll never catch me on a quad. The main thing that bothers me is how the airplane thing could be construed by our opponents. Everyone has their own idea about what is sporting & what is not. I personally would not hunt caribou out of plane either. Actually, I won't even hire a guide, unless the law requires it for the area I'm hunting, such as for certain species in Alaska. If I do have to hire one, it'll be semi-guided or a drop camp. I make plenty of money to buy food, which means that I'm hunting for sport. That being the case, to me it just seems more sporting to do it myself and that usually means doing it the hardway. I come home empty handed a lot more than I care to admit, but I'd rather do it that way than to feel like I have to credit someone or something for my victory. I think my main issue with it is that I live in the rat-race five days a week to earn a living, so when I go into the woods for a hike, hunt, backpacking trip, or whatever, I don't want to even remember that those things exist. I'm there to escape the noise, not to bring it with me. Again, though, that's just my opinion.

Somebody told me recently that dangling a white rage off a stick so it bouces around in the wind worked for luring them close. Ever hear of anything like that? Seems pretty redneck to me, but if it works, why not? I'll look for a rabbit decoy.

I know I'm biased, but I think ours are sure a lot prettier than the ones back east. Great photo!

What kind of range can you bring them into? I've tried for one w/ my bow a couple times, but have a hard time getting them close enough.

I've also been watching this thread since the start, and while I've been trying to convince myself that as long as people aren't breaking any laws, their methods are o.k., but it's not working. To be honest, this turns my stomach. At what point does it stop being sporting & become technological warfare against animals? According to PETA, 95% of the U.S. population are nonhunters. Some of those people support hunters & some oppose us. Most of them probably don't give a crap one way or the other, but when an anti-hunting bill comes up for the vote & PETA's smearing pictures of hunters floating around the mountains in their planes spying game from the air, whose side do you think they'll vote on? It won't be ours. Nobody'll take the time to find out that you can't hunt for 48 hours after flying, they'll just react on emotions that are prompted by their propoganda & vote accordingly. Everyone's entitled to make their own judgments on ethics, but you have to keep other peoples perception as a factor that you consider. Don't believe me? Try to hunt lions in CA. Major victory for the anti's & something like this could be a huge weapon in their arsenal. Our right to hunt is not written in stone.

I know nothing about New Mexico, but if you fail to draw an archery permit there, keep in mind that it's an over-the-counter tag in Az. If you look through the photo galleries on the main website, you'll see some excellent animals taken here.

Beautiful dogs too. Do you do your own training, or have someone do it for you? I've been toying w/ importing some rabbit dogs, but not sure if I can dedicate the time to them that they need.

Your pops is a lot cooler than I am. If I shot one half that size you'd see a big ole ear to ear Chuck Adams grin! Congrats. He's a beautiful animal.

I don't know the exact stats, but when I lived in Prescott Valley, it seemed like some years you'd see antelop fawns every where right after they were born & then a week or two later you'd be lucky to see any. The guy that owned the local archery store had told me that some years when it was dry & fawns were weak the mortality rate would be close to 100%, mostly due to coyotes. They're very efficient & incredibly well adapted at getting by in what are crap conditions for other animals. I once read that over 60% of their diet was vegetable matter & of the other 40% it was mostly insects & small rodents. Add trash cans & small pets to the menu, thanks to all the housing developments, & it's a virtual all-you-can-eat buffet for them.