tjhunt2

Congratulations on your pig now go get your wife back out there and make this her first pig. Good luck to your wife. My very first encounter with pigs ended with no arrows left and a long ride home. Keep us posted and thanks for sharing. Nice looking pig. TJ

Good luck in the morning. No congratulations til I see you holding it. Going to be a long night for ya. Hope you find him. TJ

We'll be waiting! TJ

Congratulations to your son. What a day for sure. Thanks for sharing. TJ

Where's the pictures? TJ

Von Hansen's in Chandler. They proccess all wild game. Great place to pick up sausage mix. TJ

Thanks Doug for all the information you have given here. just when I thought I knew it all when it came to the draw. I'm not 100% with it yet but I think I will not try and figure it out since I've only gone 1 year never getting a deer tag in my entire life here in az since the yearly 70's, always a pig tag, and somewhere around 25 elk tags with an elk tag the last 20 years straight. I love this system even if I don't understand it. TJ

There was 1 sheep tag in 24bw this last year. Those with the most bonus points would be in the 20% draw first if I'm right from what you are saying Doug. So how does a guy with 2 bonus points get the tag? Surely there were more bonus points in for that hunt I would think. Then maybe not. One other Question.......we can put all 5 choice boxes for our 1st choice? I'm loosing it! TJ

Thoughts and prayers go out to family and friends. May God watch over those shot and let's keep them in our prayers. This just makes me sick and I won't comment on my feelings at this time. TJ

No one has to tell me I'm not the smartest apple on the tree or even close to being but where did you get all this information. Did I miss it in the regs? I never heard of such a thing. Is this just for non-residents? I read what you said and if I got it right they start the draw from whoever has the most bonus points and work down until 20% of all issued tags are gone. Then the rest of the tags are thrown back in the pot and if I have 10 bonus points then I get 10 numbers issued to me and a person with 1 gets 1 number issued to him. If the person with 1 has a lower number than my 10 then he gets drawn before me. Am I making any sense here? TJ

Congratulations on a beautiful ram. I too say it's not about the score but about the hunt in general. I envy you and hope someday to hunt one myself. Thanks for sharing. TJ

Congratulations on an awesome buck. There's no doubt you worked for your buck in that weather. If I would have shot something like that i would be pounding my own drum as well. Thanks for sharing. TJ

Doug, your work is the best I've ever seen. Your work is always awesome and we are lucky to have you as a cwt member for our viewing pleasure. Thanks Doug! TJ

That looks like a really nice pig. Thanks for sharing and congratulations to your brother. Your next! TJ

Holy crap, look at the color of them horns. I just love the chocolate color antlers. Looks like your day was a great one. Congratulations on a beautiful buck. Now go get a pig. TJ

Congratulations on your success this year Lance. Them are are fine looking trophies and congrats go out to all your clients. TJ

Good luck Brian and be careful going in and out of there. You and your Dad are really dedicated hunters that's for sure. Keep us posted. Wow, 71 archery kills for your Dad. That is just amazing. Not only can you guys catch fish you nock the heck out of the deer herds as well. Thanks for posting and I look forward to the next report. TJ

My bad.........it's got to be the age thing working way to soon. Sorry! TJ

You could always grab a Rez tag and go for #33 this year... how much are they and do you know if any are available?

First just let me tell you that I have shot my share of game here in az so don't feel sorry for me. There's no pictures so most won't read this but I just don't have anything better to do, since I need rest and plenty of liquids after yesterdays pig hunt. Pigs are my favorite to hunt and eat and it's been three years now without one and my wife keeps telling me I'm know spring chicken any more and I can't do what I use to do so just suck it up and quit whining about your aches and pains. She says I have an obsession with pigs and it's going to kill me one day. I did once fall off a rock while chasing them which lead to a titanium plate holding two vertebreas in my neck, slipped off a small dirt bank after the dirt let loose under my footing causing me to knock myself out for a short period and brusing my hip to my foot thinking my hip was broke, and now this. I keep telling her not to worry I got the upper hand on them pigs. Last year opening day had me up on the mountain coughing my fool head off with the flu because I refused to stay home but just ended up elevating my sickness and wasn't able to get out much after that. My wife gets sick last week and I try and stay away from her but started getting what she had so I jumped on the antibiodics and hoped for the best. Yesterday finally arrives and I'm feeling pretty good so I drag my two nephews along and we are at our viewing spot by 8:45 and locate the pigs shortly after arriving. After watching and determing their direction of feeding I decide to make my stock and left the two boys to keep an eye on things. Because of the wind I had to circle around the area which took me an hour to get within 400yrds only to find the wind blowing not to favorable for my approach. I back out and change my angle and by the time I was within 100rds of the pigs it had taken me 2 hours. The hillside was steep with loose rocks, cacti and brush was thicker than it looked so it took me another 2 hours to close the deal to within 20yds with pigs in front of me but to much vegetation to shoot thru. It's now 2:00 and I've been frozen in that spot for 20min and find my legs beginning to shake due to the sharpness of the hillside. The pigs move out of site and my spotters tell me, thru signals, the pigs are bedded just 30 yds in front of me. I need a drink of water bad but decide I don't risk making any noise, first mistake, and after a short priod of time I have to make my next step or my legs are going to buckle. I fell alittle off balance and now have a back full of jumping cacti. Now I'm just about had it and been on this stock since 9:00. I take another step and kick out a pig I didn't know was 15yds in front of me. He takes the rest of the pigs with him and I blow on my varmit call. Two pigs come within 10yds but on the wrong side of the tree. They finally smell me and run off but I stop them with another call and one comes back and I have to shoot off balance and let an arrow fly. The string takes my varmit call out of my mouth and sends my arrow on another path other than where I aimed hitting the pig in the back leg. After all this I'm mad at myself for forcing the shot. I have my arrow and some blood and my spotters tell me I have pigs bedded 40yds below. I told them I wouldn't shoot another unless I give this blood trail my best. I sit down and find out I can hardly get my swandwich down and having trouble dringing water. I have dehydrated myself by now and think back at what my wife keeps telling me. You can't do what you use to do so why try? You guys know the answer to that one. After some time I track my pig thru a couple hundred yds and end up in a thicket that I have to crawl thru. The blood trail was getting slim and then I notice I've lost all my arrows but the one I shot the pig with and it didn't have a knock. Now I'm on my hands and knees back tracking and picking up my arrows. I finall get back and my pig had rejoined the heard and I bust them up. My spotters tell me they saw my pig and it seems just fine with a little red spot on a leg. Pigs running in every direction and I set up and blow my cottontail call and pigs running all around me. Two pigs behind me at 5yds and I can't shoot thru the stuff. Another pig charges towards me and I spook it as I try to draw my bow and send him off. More calling and in comes a few more from different directions and I'm just loosing it with excitement. I draw my bow back and I release an arrow before I get a chance to look thru the peep site and hit 10ft in front of a big bore. The rest of the pigs kept milling around but the brush was just to thick to chance a shot. It's now 5:00 and the pigs are gone and I radio my nephews I would see them in about an hour on the other side of the mountain. On my walk back I try and drink some water and it won't go down. I start choking and find myself gaging and having trouble with my breathing. Now what the heck has happened I ask myself. Try more water and get a little down but not without choking again. My throat felt like it had closed almost shut. When I get back to where the boys were to pick me up I wasn't able to talk to them. I let them drive me home and started getting a little better by the time I arrived. My wife wanted to take me to urgent care since she couldn't see an opening in my throat. I said give me a beer and I'll be fine. That p!ssed her of and I said don't give me that spring chicken bull sh!t either. What had happened was I got a case of uvulitis. It is caused by many different things, that you can look up for yourself on the internet, but mine was caused by dehydration and caused my uvula to swell many times bigger than normal size. I didn't know what it was untill I looked it up this morning. It's the thing hanging down in the back of your throat above your tongue. It just about completely closed off my throat from breathing and swollowing. It took about 3 hours before I could talk right again. I'm much better this morning but need some rest and plenty of liquids, I wonder if they mean beer and football, and I'll be ready for tomorrow for another bout with them pigs. Drink plenty of water and I hope someone learns from my experience with dehydration.

..... good one! TJ

I know exactly where you are coming from. On my very first archery elk hunt I watched a bull walk right by me and drew my bow back and shot 90deg. the other way while watching the bull at 20yds. Never knew what I had done until my Dad told me. I once popped a blood vessel in my arm trying to pull back on a turkey. Never did get the bow back. Better luck next time. That had to be pretty exciting to say the least. I wish I could help you with this but I still have problems of my own controlling my breathing and the shakes sometimes are still terrible. TJ

Well, are you going to tell us what the name of the book is or do we have to guess? TJ

Thanks everyone for your kind comments. I'm finishing my sausage up as I write this. I was taking pictures as I go on the sausage making this morning and saw where azslim posted this morning on some great recipes. Check out his post because he makes his about the same as I have been for years now. His recipes all sound so good. Come on next year!

Congratulations to both you hunters on your trophies. Great looking country. Thanks for sharing. TJ