MattMan

305-310

Anyone been charged for anything OTHER than deer yet? Seems almost everyone's amounts are divisible by $19.50... The $39 authorized on my card would either be strip country mule deer or December whitetail... or my wife and my dad's whitetail tags. I'm hoping for the first scenario, but I'm pretty sure it's the second.

Looks very similar to the 5x5 I took last year.

180s and a 300 mag are hard to beat for ANY game in AZ. Buck the wind and arrive with authority out to quite a bit farther than anyone has any business shooting... I gave up on 150s in the 300 after one application on coues. (The 150s were ballistic tips though, which I've also given up on. I like to eat the animals I harvest.)

Nothing but bonus points for me... but after having Unit 1 early rifle bull last year I can't complain... and I get enough in refunds to pay the taxidermist. My wife got a cow tag for unit 1 and various other bonus points.

Well, I don't think it's the interest on the money, since putting money that doesn't belong to them in an interest bearing account is illegal. At least that's the way it was explained to me. I don't know if they enjoy delaying the results and surfing chat rooms to see people in agony or what... seems like a game every year. Just think if they leave the website how it is until July 29th... and how many gray hairs you will have gained by trying every hour on the hour anyway even though it still says no results are available.

I paid with postal money orders so I have no clue, but I did drop mine off a week prior to the deadline for them to contact for corrections. I'm not holding out much hope... I think my household used up all of it's luck for a few years last fall.

I'm fortunate enough to have had lots of good coues hunts with good people... sweated, bled, cried, picked cactus needles out of various parts of my own and other's bodies (including from my own tongue... that was a first... ha ha ha), ran from a herd of javelina I spooked from their bed on my way to glass right at dawn once, wondered in midair (like Wily Coyote) if I was going to break anything when I slipped and fell down a rocky slope slope once, stepped on rattlesnakes, shot nice bucks, shot little bucks, shot no bucks, been outsmarted repeatedly by one really good buck, been on the verge of my wife divorcing me while convincing her that there was a huge buck at the end of a "heck hike", missed out on a good buck with my wife cause one of the kids had to pee, and have always found a way to laugh and have a good time while doing it. But the best two will be my son's and daughter's first tags... four more years and he can put in... five more for her...

It never ceases to amaze me how the same people who preach evolution strive so hard to keep everything exactly the same. Maybe spotted owls have been on the decline for the last 10,000 years?

Are you doing a skin mount or a fiberglass reproduction? Look up Dan Bishop in Tucson. I've been pretty darn impressed with his work on big game and fish. I've got his number if you need it.

Didn't figure my opinion would be popular... but I've never been accused of beating around the bush. Trust me, I know what a hardship it is to put in for some... when I was in engineering school at UofA full time and working full time, with a wife and son at home, $17.50 for a deer tag was a lot of coin, and the elk tag was even tougher. I set my priorities and found a way to come up with it. I put in for early bull all those years too, hoping to heck I DIDN'T get drawn. Why? Cause I knew I really couldn't afford the gas to go, and couldn't miss work and school anyway. Realistically they couldn't raise non-resident tags and leave the residents alone. Rember, part of the Taulman judgement was discrimination against non-residents.

As often as a person is likely to get drawn, the cost of a resident tag for just about any species listed is dwarfed by the cost of the rest of the hunt. If you can't afford the tag, you probably can't afford groceries or gas to go anyway. Just my opinion. I promise you I spent well in excess of $350 to harvest a bull on the early rifle hunt this year... and no not on a guide. A non-resident desert sheep tag should be 3-5k. I'm kinda disturbed that they raised the resident fees instead of just the non-residents. But, someone who is a meat hunter for the family should easily afford another $25 for a cow elk tag. That's two extra dollars each month if you save all year for your tags. If you're trophy hunting, your hunt and mount will cost you way more than the resident tag anyway. The non-residents have been getting primo AZ tags for dirt cheap for way too long. Taulman will have less competition for non-resident trophy bull tags if this goes through... but don't underestimate the number of people who would buy two trophy AZ bull tags at $3200 if they could.

In my experience the Burris has a tough time taking the recoil from 300 mag and up, in the higher powered models. Don't overlook the VX II, it's got the same multi coat 4 coatings that just the Vari-X III had previously... and is pretty affordable. The VX I is basically what the Vari-X II used to be, and is even more affordable. If you have problems, Leupold can turn a scope around in two weeks. Burris is more like two months. Haven't ever used the new reticles, but from what I understand they only work on one power setting... like 9 for a 4.5-14.

I ran into some in Unit 1 on my early bull hunt, but I don't think that would be the best place to start. I was pretty amazed when I found them...

Interesting point of view... when he was alive, my grandfather would shoot a small buck or bull and pass on the trophy. He said you need to leave seed there for next year, and you can't eat the antlers anyway... one big buck or bull can make lots of spikes. Of course he was raised during the depression, actually hunted for the meat, and had a little different perspective than the average hunter of today. Would you rather see a person harvest a spike, that will be a 2 point or small 3 next year... or a decent 3 1/2 year old that if left alone has the potential to be a friggin toad in a couple years? I'm not sure of the answer. I do think that certain hunting parties over harvest small areas, with coues, but even more so with carp. How many times have you seen a group of hunters just completely decimate a bachelor group of 2-4 bucks? It would be interesting to actually know how much of an effect that has on the overall health of the herd. BTW, I plan to do my part to help control the lion population, if given the chance. I've seen a herd of carp killed down from eight deer to zero in a period of a few months by a female with two kittens.

Gotta love that Ruger M77 Mark II 300 Win Mag. That's the only new bolt action I would buy, and I tried quite a few. Definitely a shooter, but I did glass bed that tip-hump in the stock and worked the trigger to get a 3 1/2lb pull, so mine's not quite right out of the box... but close. Bedding that tip hump makes a difference. And mine used to wear a Burris Signature, until groups opened up to 8" @ 100 yards... then it was right back to the L-word... in the 4.5-14 flavor. I've got a picture of what a couple of 180 Barnes-X look like after penetrating some serious elk tissue, if you guys want I can email them to you. That Barnes is almost all I shoot these days... with RL22 and Federal primers.

Couple years ago I helped a friend... he picked up a used M70 in 270 with a Simmons 2-8x scope on it for $350, then shot it almost every weekend from the time he found out he got a tag until the December hunt. He practiced from field positions all the way out to 500 yards. I got to watch him whack his first Coues at a laser measured 347 yards. It went about 10 yards before piling up. The sun was just right and watching through big glass I actually saw the bullet in flight. Pretty cool. The key here is that he was very familiar with the trajectory of his gun out to 500 yards... because I told him to be. He had burned up well over 100 rounds practicing. That said, I shoot a 300 Win Mag and LOVE it. I've shot it at everything from coyotes to elk, and the outcome has never varied. As far as overkill... I guess I could accomplish the same result with a smaller caliber, but it's never killed anything too dead. Pretty much piles them up where they stand. As far as recoil, I've shot several rifles in 270 and 30-06 that were much less forgiving on the shoulder, despite kicking "less". I have one 180 grain load that I use in this rifle for everything, and it flat works like magic. I think you'd be wise to shoot some rifles and decide what brand you like and which one fits you the best. Then pick a caliber, and practice with it for next year. You just flat don't have the time to get a new rifle ready to take into the field... at least I know I wouldn't have time at this point. I'd much rather be out with someone with a 243 that they were very familiar and comfortable with than someone with a brand new 300 mag... but that's just my $0.02

I recently looked at some trail cam pictures that a guy at work had. They were in remote country, found a really fresh kill, and set up the camera. When they got the pictures developed, by the date and time stamp, the lion was back on the kill within minutes of when they left. It was so freakin close that in the first string of pictures it's ears are perked up listening and it's looking down watching them leave back down the canyon. It had to be sitting there watching them set up the camera. He said he's set up on kills a bunch of times before and gotten just birds, and one up the nose picture of a bear sniffing the camera. And you can definitely see that they GORGE when on a kill... the thing looked like it swallowed a beach ball toward the end of the string of pictures. Looking at that string of pictures really tells a story, kind of like one of those flip books we made when I was a kid.

The very fact that AZGF just kinda tossed their hands up and said "We gave it a good shot boys, but they got us" kinda leads me to believe that they don't have the resident's best interests in mind. They sat on their thumbs for TWO YEARS after losing the case... not doing anything just in case the appeals process didn't got their way... ending up in the crisis this year during the draw. Lots of people are under the mistaken impression that this is something that developed during the draw process this year. If AZGF truly had resident hunting opportunity in mind, they would have pursued legislation to exempt game services and wildlife from interstate commerce law... kinda like Nevada did. If the cap is found unconstitutional, how do you change it... enact a bunch of changes that are totally different from what your surveys indicated the residents supported, or pursue an amendment to the constitution that would allow reinstatement of the cap? What you have to remember about AZGF, is they are pretty much the only self-funded state agency. They basically exist from the revenue they generate. So if they put out fewer tags, the only way to increase revenue is to raise tag fees, or give more tags to the non-residents. So every decision they make regarding the number of total tags, and the portion of those tags that will go to non-residents, is bordering on a conflict of interest. The management of mule deer in many of the units in this state is a prime example... they simply put out too many tags. I think outlawing guiding services altogether is a pretty radical step. All that would do is encourage under the table type crap... creating the atmosphere for crooked idiots like USO to thrive. I think the penalties for any type of illegal activities by a guide should be ten fold. Maybe even permanent revocation of the priveledge to guide in this state. Like a driver with a CDL... they are held to a much higher standard than the driver with a standard license. Alaska has pretty severe reprocutions for any type of violations, from what I understand. They also place undercover folks on hunts with the guides to catch the crooked ones. The best we can hope for is that one of the other states, like Nevada, has a little different system, and will sack up and actually do something on a federal level to negate USOs case. The best you can do is call or write your congressmen to support those efforts... and encourage everyone you know to do so. Then AZGF will pretty much have to reinstate the cap... which they don't really want to do. Sorry for rambling, and telling you a bunch of stuff you probably already knew.

Hey, 270, I'll be joining some friends on the late hunt in 27. Maybe we can get enough people together and video the 'grudge match' or you force feeding that paper to some folks and we can sell the clip, "When good hunts go bad", to The Outdoor Channel.

Anyone who wants to share sightings of big bulls in unit 1, I'd appreciate it. Especially any archers that just couldn't make it happen on any big bulls... when they hang up at 100 yards, it's a little different outcome with a rifle. After nine years of putting in to no avail, I've finally got the early rifle tag in unit 1 this year.

23 can be a tough hunt if you've never hunted it before and you're truly after a good buck. Do lots of scouting, and the farther away from roads you get, the better and more enjoyable your hunt will be. Horses or a pack frame are very beneficial.

I bet it's "Bro-Beer".... Bud Light. The litter pisses me off too. I wonder what the people that leave it behind would do if you came into their house and drank a 12 pack, left the cans on the floor and whizzed on the couch. I think the FS has a permit for just about anything... even dumping the ashes of a cremated loved one is illegal on the National Forest. The only permit I would be darn sure I got is if I was guiding on NF or BLM. Going without that is pretty risky.

I finally pulled an elk tag after a nine year dry spell... Unit 1 Early Bull Rifle. My wife pulled a 24a coues tag and the December Cow hunt in 1, 2b, & 2c. We both sacked out on antelope... We're both pretty excited, especially after all of the crap with the residents vs. nonresidents. I just hope she can fill her elk tag in short order and we can get back down to hunt coues. Congrats to all who got tags.

Just got my first archery coues on the 2nd, spot and stalk... 20 yard shot. I've gotten a few decent bucks with a rifle, and just got a bow about a year and a half ago. This was by far much more exciting and difficult. He's a 2x3 with a 14 1/2" outside spread. My uneducated tape got about 72" gross score. Second year in a row I can't participate in the fall draw since getting a bow... and it was worth every second.