bullwidgeon

You find any bears tough guy?

My grandfather was buddies with Joe Fanning. A Catalina tough cowboy if there ever was one. He said back in the old days Joe was riding up the Cargadero trail looking for some cows in the days of the old Rail N ranch and the old powerline running up to Mount Lemmon had blown down in a storm, somehow the live line hit his horse and immediately fried it and knocked Joe out and scorched him pretty bad. Joe awoke a few hours later covered in snow, looked around and saw his fried and dead horse. He couldn't feel his arms and his hands got burned real bad in the accident somehow. He had to walk/crawl several miles back down that rough trail to get to his truck and then try to make his hands work enough to get the truck started and back on the route to Catalina. I do not know how many of you have been way up that trail but it aint smooth and probably alot less smooth after being fried and having your horse zapped out from underneath you. Stories like that and the one in that article make me realize what a pansy I really am after complaining about a tough pack out somewhere. Bret M.

I babysit computers for Wells Fargo. I work 12 hour night shifts and get a bunch of time off to practice my other "budding professions" of fishing, walking around the hills looking for wherever I parked my truck and hunting things in season . I just can not figure out how to make any money on those later professions yet... Bret M.

Roads everywhere, that's probably why there are no deer left anymore. The Young road runs the North-South length of the unit also the Cherry Creek road runs a long darn ways through it. The A-cross road runs the entire East-West southern end of it. All these roads have a bunch of smaller roads poking off them, and there are other major roads I do not even know about on the North and West ends of the unit. A guy could go through a few tanks of gas in a little 4-banger foreign truck and still not see all the roads in that country. Good luck. Bret M.

There are some good deer in the wilderness area. I would hold out for awhile especially if you can hunt till after Christmas with that tag and get a good ways back into the area. Bret M.

Saguaro lake is 22 and 24B. There are carp and hogs there. There is nothing wrong with with 33/37B. If you are not finding hogs and deer in those 2 units then it will be tough to find them anywhere. Bret M.

Let me make it clear, Border patrol has nothing to due with the problems down there, I was just trying to show them some guys that potentially could have been dangerous to someone. I have a feeling those two guys and their "packs" were not coming to work at Mcdonalds here in the valley for minimum wage. I feel sorry for BP agents mostly. I am just glad I wasn't being carjacked or something and really needed some help, that might have been a heartbreaker if that was the case. That job BP has on their hands down there is about equal to trying to dam the Mississippi river with toothpicks and chewing gum, a way bigger task than our government feels like dealing with properly. Bret M.

I spent the last 2 days across the street in A. I saw 70 something deer, 40 something illegals, 4 burned out and trashed trucks, and 2 gigantic bails of something being packed around by 2 guys with a gun. I also glassed up 0 Border Patrol agents that were not on pavement and sitting in their trucks. To be fair, it had rained quite a bit, it was hot and the bugs were bad. Had I not had a deer tag I wouldn't have been out of my truck hiking around in that crap either. I also wouldn't want to get one of those shiny new government trucks muddy or maybe even stuck in some of those washes down there. I even tryed to flag one down on the Arivaca Highway last night to point out in my binos on my tripod the magical moving bails up on the ridge above me. The agent smiled, waved and never hit the brakes. His shift must have just ended or maybe his buddy was buying beers down at the Longhorn in Amado either way he had someplace else to be. If you ain't seeing illegals you ain't glassing hard enough or your lost and in a Northern unit. On the positive side, horn growth should be good this year and that country has more water than it can hold right now. Good luck Bret M.

When Lark is not punishing a mule or hitching a ride on the shortbus his plate says GOOFBAL Bret M.

So the entire East end of Aravaipa is now locked up for good? Dang I am glad I stayed away from that unit 32 and 31 hunt. Bret M.

Allen, I do not know much about the Silvertips. I have watched them tip over two bulls out of 7MM Remington mags though. One was a spine shot at over 200 yards and the bull literally never moved again, he just flopped straight down like an anvil landed on him. The other was kind of uglier but not due to the bullet. Lets just say some bad shooting went on from 80 yards initially to about 300 or so. The bullets did their job but the rifleman didn't . We eventually got the bull later that morning and the holes in the bull which I inspected while skinning and boning him indicated no forms of bullet failure. These were the 140 grain model. If they shoot well out of your rifle they will ruin any carps day. Bret M.

If you do not reload or do not have access to someone who will reload for you, the Weatherby factory 150 grain hornady spire points kill things dead and shoot well out of my Weatherby. Some guns are picky, you might have to try several different factory loads until you find the right one for your gun. Bret M.

I spend EVERY summer hunting wolverines. My skillset is flawless And I voted for Pedro. Bret M. Pedro in 2008

I have not been there and looked for muleys in 2 years however, 2 years ago there were quite a few large herds of muleys using the grasslands around the Buenos Aires. They liked the closed hunting zone area around the ranch too. Bret M.

Did they let you keep the rack Bill? You should have charged him a tresspass fee if he didn't . I am going up Friday to look around where you shot your last bull. The hunt is quickly approaching. Bret M.

I would look on the south end by I-10 and Mescal and such. The herd on the North end near Oracle Hwy has been on a steady decline since I was 14 or so and now I feel older than dirt. Bret M.

For the purpose of entry into the Boone and Crockett Club?s? records, North American big game harvested by the use of the following methods or under the following conditions are ineligible: I. Spotting or herding game from the air, followed by landing in its vicinity for the purpose of pursuit and shooting; II. Herding or chasing with the aid of any motorized equipment; III. Use of electronic communication devices, artificial lighting, or electronic light intensifying devices. Not that I care, not that any of you care, not that anyone would find out but never lie about it. Just muscle up, admit you used a radio and go do like the high fenced and zoo animal shooters do and enter it in SCI, heck the buck could have been tied to a tree and hand fed for a month and SCI will welcome it with open arms. You would be suprised who listens to radio traffic out in the field and how many people might actually know if someone guided you with a radio to said trophy. I am not here to argue the ethics of radios, but apparently the way I read the above from the B&C websight, using a radio might or could be construed as an "electronic communication device". Bret M.

FWIW I know some dudes that got the leftover permits last year in I want to say 30A. They ended up killing a deer or two but did not put in for there again this year even though they knew it would be a sure draw. I guess they really were not impressed enough to "waste" a bonus point on the unit/hunt again. I do not know where they were at and I didn't want to know. If it is not worth "wasting" a bonus point on then I probably do not need to see and punish myself in that country. Also, at the time, New Mexico was giving tags away to any goofball who had $190 in his pocket and as everyone knows, just about every other juniper tree in New Mexico has a whopper sleeping under it. Bret M.

The rut is tough on them. I know of several sheep that have fallen in catchments all over the state. I have a buddy who has fished a head out of a catchment too. I am sure some were knocked in during rut skirmishes. I have also found alot of skeletons and bones at the bases of cliffs, some were rams and I am sure some met their demise fighting with others. Anyways, that must have been amazing to watch, too bad most of the lake is 50 foot deep back there, pick-up sheep heads go for big bucks on Ebay. Bret M.

That how truchas should look! Awesome!!! Bret M.

That's where the one I was talking about was killed. Nice to know that freak gene is still around. Bret M.

Carp mainly walk the roads and ask to get shot by roadhunters, other than that I do not know much about them . Bret M.

My grandfather killed one all palmated like that in the 70's. It scores alot and looks like a freaking moose. Good luck, that would be awesome to get that thing with a bow, who knows how that beast looks this year. Bret M.

Rifle bull again in my top secret unit and 36A october coues! Man I am going to have to settle for another measley 330 bull . Good thing too because I am about out of elk steaks! Bwaaahahahahahaha!!! Bret M.

Unit 27 has them around Hannagan Meadow. They like spruce and fir habitat with interspaced aspen patches and those short conifer looking shrubs that have berries on them, we always just called them grouse bushes. Someone told me they saw one once on the Escudilla. I have seen them myself in the high country between Carnero Lake and Green's Peak and seen sign along the East slope of Baldy in unit 1. They also have them somewhere up on the Kaibab. There is a group of guys who hunt up near the Sunrise turnoff on HWY 260 every year specifically for them with dogs, they must do OK or enjoy it because they are always up there year after year. I am not sure if those guys hunt the Reservation or the National Forest area around it, either way there is not a ton of them anywhere that I know of. I only know a few people who have killed them and that was mostly by luck while hunting ducks or squirrels and then seeing a grouse and killing it. I used to always keep the bigeye out for them while up there cruising around hunting ducks in the fall but I never did get one. In fact I think last year they closed grouse season before duck even opened, but that might be changed now. I think with dogs and focusing on timber patches you should be able to get into some though. Good luck. Bret M.