Non-Typical Solutions

Happy Birthday old man! Many more to come.

Love that movie. But you left part of that note out....about "Lord hope it to be a......" My other favorite quote was when JJ woke up on fire, and the Bear Claw said, "Didn't put enough dirt down. I saw it right off", then rolls back over and goes to sleep. That is one of our family favorites.....Saw it right off.....great movie

I, Hatchet Jack, being of sound mind and broke legs, do hereby leaveth my bear rifle to whatever finds it. It is a good rifle, and killt the bear that killt me. Anyway, I am dead. Yours truly, Hatchet Jack.

And I walk around in the woods on game trails at night......with those guys lurking........must be crazy. Cool pictures for sure............

Streaks are made to be broken........hang in there.

After years of putting in for this tag we finally got lucky and landed four tags, three of my boys an myself. As a dad I always feel pressured to make sure I put my boys in a successful situation. Two of my boys had to hunt earlier and we didn't get to hunt together at all and this year Cole wanted to do his own thing so our first day out he went the direction he wanted and me, I just wanted a nice high spot where I could glass in the sun, be out of the wind, get comfortable and listen for a possible shot from Cole. As I am sitting there lazily glassing the bowl in front of me all the sudden I see movement. What the heck it is a deer......and it from a distance appears to have at least one antler!!! Yep, sure enough that little buck is walking straight down the mountain right towards me. I have alot of time to think this through because he is in the wide open part of that bowl....a little too far away for my shooting skills and I gotta decide. Am I going to pass on this little guy in hopes of a bigger buck or am I going to take this gift given to me and be happy to hunt the rest of the hunt with my boys. Duh....no brainer, been waiting for this late December hunt for years where all the big bucks come out looking for some action right!!! Wrong......I can't let this little guy get away with flaunting it right in front of me like that. Buck is about to hit the bottom of the drainage and head into some thicker stuff but still very visible. I am way up high, I could a been doing jumping jacks up there and he probably never would have seen me, he is just a forkie after all. I get my pack set up on the ledge I have been glassing from, get my .270 laying across it. Pull the deer up in my 10 X 42 Swarovskis, he has bottomed out and angling away from me now just slightly. Put the little buck in my scope.....what the heck I can't even find him. Back to the binos, yep he is just right there......back to the scope......ahhhhh yeah there he is the little bugger. He is working his way up just about to get to some thick right at the top of the saddle, if I am going to shoot I better settle in and get it done. I aim right at the top of his shoulder broad side standing. Boom................what???? How in the heal did I miss....he is still just standing there. I shoot again...............now I have his attention, brother I missed again but he did start moving again but I have a good clean shot still right at his shoulders, I put the cross hairs right in the middle and let it fly. Dang..........where did he go? I can't see him, crap did I really miss again? I glass for 15 minutes looking for movement, nothing. Now I am worried that I can't remember exactly where he was when I shot!!! I start looking for landmarks........ahhh there is some flat rock and that big dead tree.....I think he is right there if he went down. Nobody there to be my guide I take off down to the saddle hoping I can recognize that flat rock area and dead tree when I get down there in the cedars. Doing a real slow walk in case I missed him and he is still hanging around, thick cedars with very little visibility. I look over my right shoulder towards the basin he had come through and out of the corner of my eye.....there it is.....little fork antler sticking up. Buck down......... Got him all cleaned out, packed him out, wishing I had my brothers mules. Caught up with Cole and the wave of questions on how it happened. Week and a half later and 3 days of hunting, snow storms, iced roads and the help of some friends we get some deer located. We are on our last day available to hunt. I send Cole hiking while I sit in the sun again and glass. Unable to close in on the buck we had found it is time to pack it up but wait. There is a little buck under that tree.....yep it is a buck............Cole successfully puts the little guy down. From the looks of it could be a twin to the buck I killed 20 miles away!!! Two guys that couldn't be happier. Cole taking care of his buck!!! My other two boys spent 3 days out there, saw lots of mule deer, put the stalk on several groups of whitetail trying to capitalize on the rut but the white tail didn't seem to be ready for that yet. Thanks to those from this site who helped us get some general information I appreciate the help. Memorable December hunt

Your president here in your state said that while he had been in office he had cut the deficit by 2/3. What deficit was he talking about? What a guy.......I about puked my lunch out.............

Prayers for the doctors and prayers for Jared and his family that they may all be strong.

He will be back.....maybe afterJan. 31 but he will be back.

And people wonder why we fight so hard to protect what we have cause as soon as the hippie ites get their claws in you they just want more.

Not quite an 80, maybe a 79 buy Coues standards but I bet is probably more like a 45 or 50 without actually seeing the headgear....................I can't even stop laughing over that.........

What did you think of the explanation given as to why Fox News was no longer offered on DISH.......DISH tries to throw it back onto Fox for strong arming negotiations......I am not sure I buy that explanation....I think it's BS. Fox News has the best rated shows on the air they should be paid what they are worth. Funny, CNN was pulled too but they are back and nobody watches. I just got back from Pacifica Commifornia. No Fox News there, ever. Go figure. That is funny right there, I was visiting with my son the other day and told him we were allowing our state to become Californicated........he looked at me like.....what are you talking about Dad??? Which led into the discussion of the California influence on all of our state laws and restrictions.

Thanks for your help Scott... hope to bump into you sometime running around out there.

Boquillas will be open for this hunt weather permitting no fees charged. Contact Lee at Lee@huntbigboranch.com or Tommy at 928-607-0188. This is a great contest that proceeds in the past have gone to the wife of a fallen police officer and things like that. Man if that Boquillas is open what an excuse to get out there.

Not sure if you have seen this publication, I found it at the Game and Fish when I went in over the break to get new license. It is definitely put out there to try and soften the stance for those of us opposed to the wolf program but with in the publication there are some interesting statistics if you believe them to be accurate. If nothing else it seems like a decent documentation of the program although I think they don't really put out there how much money is being spent on the program. Just my bias. Some interesting numbers I pulled from the publication. Wolves consume on average 16 elk per year. Due to the size of the Mexican gray wolf they seem to focus more on coues whitetail deer. Yellowstone in 1995 had an elk population of 17000 and have declined to about 4500. In Arizona we went from 50 to 83 wolf count in 2 years with that increase being naturally born in the wild wolves. In Yellowstone/Idaho the wolf goal was 150 wolves in each area by 2012 they were at 1774 wolves in the two areas combined. The only statistic I could find about elk in Arizona was from 2009 with 35,000 elk count. But if in fact the Mexican wolf leans more towards deer then that would be of more relevance. The original range of the Mexican gray wolf was Mexico and the very southernmost part of Arizona and the bootheel of New Mexico. From what I could find Mexico has placed 9 wolves with only 2 of them surviving so they don't really seem too committed to the program. If you happen to be at the G&F it is worth the read, it seems to put information out there that flys into the face of common sense and reality.

I asked Tommy where entry forms were, he said Prescott, Chino and Flagstaff....not sure exactly where but he said to tell everybody to just give him a text or a call and he will mail you an entry form. Real easy guy to work with.

What did you think of the explanation given as to why Fox News was no longer offered on DISH.......DISH tries to throw it back onto Fox for strong arming negotiations......I am not sure I buy that explanation....

Funny story......we were on Cable one cable.......called them up cause my bill had gone up $5 bucks and I wanted to know why. After calling them they decided I had been receiving the next level of service for over 2 years and wanted me pay for those years. I told them I was unaware of the problem, never ordered the upper level service and I would not pay them. So I did the stupid thing and over reacted went to DISH......oh my gosh....internet service is horrible I am guessing because I have the cellar option. I am wondering how everybody gets the internet service without one of these bundle deals? Remember....I still use a flip phone

I am suspicious of the genetics of the wolf as well but I wouldn't be able to look at a picture of a wolf or a wolf in the wild and make that judgement. When you start with as few of wolves as they claim it is hard to imagine that there hasn't been some other genetics injected into the plan. I find it interesting that they decided to jump clear up to the Blue area as the re-introductory area, I think I know some reasons why they didn't stick to the southern portion of Arizona where its origin supposedly is but I don't think we could get them to admit to those reasons.

Silly people........

I hope to be looking for a nice white tail buck under the tree somewhere out there in 27 on Christmas day having a very Merry Christmas and hoping that all my CWT buddies are having a great Merry Christmas as well. Thanks to the man upstairs we are given each day the breath of life,

I agree with that......what a fun find.........I think I have found them but.....I know I have walked within 3 feet of an antler and not seen it so......

Anybody out there ride a bike for exercise? Not a stationary bike.....real deal bike. My wife wants a bike and I am looking for a good brand, quality bike that won't fall apart on the first 10 miles.

http://www.wmicentral.com/sports/recreation/boom-in-moths-a-bust-for-pines-of-far-northern/article_5159ad62-7c06-11e4-8807-57d26d7696c1.html Alexa Armstrong - Cronkite News | 0 comments FLAGSTAFF — The lab countertops at Northern Arizona University’s School of Forestry are covered with ponderosa pine branches that have several Pandora caterpillars munching away on the needles. Richard Hofstetter, a forest entomology professor, is studying a population boom among Pandora moths in the northern reaches of the Kaibab National Forest — the most seen in the past 20 years. It stems from a bumper crop of caterpillars last summer, before they burrowed underground and spent a year turning into moths. “It’s important to understand our native species, and especially one that has such a high abundance and can outbreak like this,” Hofstetter said. It’s especially important, he said, because as caterpillars the insects are prodigious eaters. In great numbers they can seriously damage a forest, as was the case last summer, when 1,000 acres of Kaibab National Forest north of the Grand Canyon wound up completely defoliated. Shayne Rich, who with her husband owns a gas station near Jacob Lake, said that during a peak in August hundreds of moths would swarm the lights each evening. “It was crazy. As soon as the sun went down and lights came on the moths came out. By the morning a lot of them had died,” she said. “The whole base where the cars drive was covered in moths. It took a couple hours to sweep up.” It’s thought that the Pandora moth’s population surges around every 20 years due to a virus that controls its numbers dying off. When there isn’t a surge in population, Hofstetter said, over the span of a year researchers will catch 50 to 100 moths. These days their traps are catching 16,000 moths every three days. Hofstetter said these moths have already laid eggs. “We expect this coming summer to have a big boom of caterpillars throughout the forest,” he said. Forest entomologist Amanda Grady said the acreage destroyed last summer was small but gives researchers an idea of what to expect from the next generation: bigger numbers and even more damage. “That really is going to impact a large amount of acres, potentially up to 20,000 acres next year.” Grady said the Pandora moths aren’t to blame for ponderosa pine mortality but are a contributing factor. Other stressors include bark beetles, drought and parasitic plants. “Mistletoe is a parasitic plant that takes nutrients and water and things like that from its host,” she said. “So if trees that have a high infection rate of dwarf mistletoe they will be more likely to face mortality if combined with the defoliation.” Grady said because the Pandora moth’s population booms are so rare it’s important to study them. “The pandora moth is really incredible, Grady said. “We are in a really unique position right now where we have the opportunity to study an amazing event.” Grady said some entomologists believe the moth population is controlled by a naturally occurring virus that attacks the colony sufficiently to keep down numbers for 20 to 30 years. “What it does to the insect’s body is it kind of liquefies it from the the inside out and dissolves its guts,” she said.

What ever the name......that is cool looking stuff and I have never seen it before. As far as that quail......you weren't hunting close to the nuclear reactor were you???