curmudgen

There used to be some good mule deer hunting in the area I think you'll be looking at, but now it's being cut up into ranchettes, or whatever, although access has been blocked to most of it for some time now and will be blocked even more as the development proceeds. Maybe you can negotiate to make it part of your deal that you get access to the Galiuros through that part of the Eureka Springs that's in unit 32. Jack

Depends on what Nevada might charge us non-residents. Ten dollars sounds about right, considering that we have to get up there and then find a legal horse, shoot it, pack it out, and butcher it. If horses had antlers or horns they could charge a lot more. We don't have to worry about sport hunters being used to manage out-of-whack feral horse populations, though. The squawk that would rise around the world from horse lovers would be deafening, and any politician or bureaucrat who suggested hunting horses would be drawn and quartered. Bill Quimby Bill's got it right, although it shld be the excess horses that are eating up our ranges that shld be drawn and quartered, humanely, of course. (But don't let my wife or grandkids see this.) Jack

That should do it. Jack

I have had several deer guns and now have a Tikka T3 in .270 which I like better than all the rest. It's light, well engineered, has a great trigger and shoots straight, but there are several more out there in the same price range, so get what looks and feels best to you. For what it's worth, the Leupold VXI with LRD reticle is a great scope for the price and Leupold's warranty can't be beat. Jack

Take a look at the thread on the archery forum and you'll see where this is going. Texas style stands and feeders. There's even an outfitter bragging that his feeding deer is resulting in more twin fawns and improving the health of the herd. What crap. That's not deer hunting, except back east and in Texas. What'll we have next? Food plots in the forest behind some rancher's locked gates and accessible only for a fee? Bow hunters already are privileged to hunt before the rest of us and during the rut and to avoid the uncertainties of the draw. They always told me it was the challenge they wanted, but now they seem to want box blinds and food plots and think hunting as we know it will end if they don't get their way. They may have some valid concerns, but Game and Fish has some valid points as well that need to be addressed. Jack

Here's a photo of the deer my son, Jacob, shot the Day after Thanksgiving. Jack

You guys are bad. Jack

Here's another view.

He PASSED on a Buck as cool as that It wasn't nearly as big last year. Jack

Cool picture. That reminds me of the days in the 50s when we hunted without optics of any kind and old thutty-thuttys or military surplus rifles of various kinds. It was like hunting quail without dogs. Flush 'em out and hope to put some lead in 'em afore they was outta range. Times have changed. Now we hunt them like the exotic game animals that they are. Change is sometimes good. Jack

Jake and I had seen this deer last year during his hunt but he passed him up. This year he was hunting alone while I was home eating leftover turkey. When he got to his glassing spot the fog was so pervasive he went to a sunnier location to glass and spotted this buck in his bed and shot him at about 200 yds. After taking care of my Thanksgiving guests I arrived at the scene just in time to take the pictures and come home. If you want more you'll have to ask him and he's not a member of this forum. Sorry. Jack

This is one of those topics that will be discussed here and around campfires forever, that is until someone produces one of these supposed subspecies and the DNA is compared with other Coues deer. I'v shot a few small Coues deer that from a distance fooled me with their nice 3 and even four point racks that turned out to be young Coues, so far as I could tell, with several points where they shld have had one or two. I've also shot Coues deer with tails ranging from red to gray to almost black. In my opinion they are all Coues deer within the range of natural diversity for the species. Until someone shows me evidence backed by DNA I'll continue to believe that they are the same species, but it's a topic that many like to discuss, as witnessed by this thread. Jack

I'd rather have her than the two we've had since 9/11. They've both done little but go around talking a good game, but getting hardly anything meaningful done to secure our borders or to improve our intel infra structure, etc, etc. Chertoff is a joke. Look at the fiascoes we've had with the border fence. He comes to Arizona, talks to a select few, doesn't listen to our local sheriffs and others who know what's really going on, then goes back to Washington and reports all is well. He hasn't convinced either Congress or the President to invest the funds or make the effort to create and maintain an adequate force to provide for our homeland security. And don't tell me that the fact that we haven't had any big hits on our soil is proof that he's doing a good job That's more a function of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan keeping the bad guys occupied than of Chertoff's efforts here at home. Just my opinion. Jack

I don't claim to know whether the proposed Rosemont mine is necessary for our nation's security or welfare, but I do know that once it's in operation that area will lose all its value for hunting or anything else forever. No open pit mine has ever been "reclaimed" unless by reclamation you mean planting grass on the tailings dumps like you see as you drive fom Miami to Globe. Reclamation is a farce. Look at mining sites throughout the west and the coal mining back east where they take off the tops of mountains and fill in the streams and valleys totally destroying the ecosystem forever without regard for the value of what has been destroyed. Mining is necessarily destructive and there is never enough money left over for reclamation notwithstanding the good intentions of the mining companies. The Mining law of 1872, think of that: 1872, governs hardrock mining and has not and will not soon be amended to require meaningful reclamation no matter how much the company or the government reassures us. So the question boils down to whether the area is more valuable as a copper mine or as a beautiful area to run ATV's and do other kinds of outdoor recreation. Both cannot coexist there. It's going to be one or the other and I suppose the mine will win out as the law favors mining over recreation. As John Denver sang, "more people, more scars upon the land".

I'm sorry, but that was 8-10 years ago and I don't have a clue who it was or how to find out. My recollection is that it was someone in the Willcox area, but things have changed a lot since then. Jack

After my Hornady SSTs made entrance wounds this year that looked like exit wounds on my deer and lion, I have ordered some tipped Barnes bullets to reload for my .270. (And that after I'd always had good success with Hornaday Interlock bullets in the past.) I'm wondering about how to deal with copper fouling, if that's a problem with bullets with no lead in the middle to form to the barrel. Also, whether I need to come down and how much with my starting powder charge. Any comments, especially based on experience or articles dealing with these issues would be welcome. Jack

I already bought the Barnes bullets so I'm going to try them out. I'm also going to try the new 110 gr. Nosler Accubond bullets. I've gone to several other sites where these bullets have been discussed and the concensus seems to be that they both do a great job on game, although many users have commented that the Barnes bullets, at least the older versions, go right on through and don't give up their energy in the target. The tipped Barnes bullets are supposed to open faster and do more damage than the prior versions while still retaining weight for penetration. We'll see. I've used 110 gr Sierra Pro-Hunter bullets in my .270 with good results, but they don't have a high ballistic coefficient, less than .320, which really doesn't make much difference out to 300 yards where I've killed most of my deer, so I may go back to them as I still have a box of them on my shelf. The Barnes and Nosler bullets have BC's of abt .375 and are prettier than the Sierras so I thought I'd try them although they are really too rich for my taste. Whatever I do, I'm going back to 110 gr. bullets and these three seem to be the only 110's that are designed for big game, and by that I mean Coues deer and antelope sized game, and not as varmint bullets. Jack

That is one beautiful photo. And now the curmudgeonly comment: Lion tags ain't that expensive. Jack

Good luck with finding a way in. I have a buddy who has hunted 30a for years who reported to me recently that he could only find one access point this year in the whole Dos Cabezas range. That's why they have leftover permits. I heard of some guys a few years ago who hired a local cropduster to put them in by helicopter and had a good hunt. Jack

Congratulations. I'm glad gramps was successful as I know that was one of your main gols for the hunt. I wish I could have spent the whole week out there, but I can't complain either as I had a great hunt just across the canyon. Jack

I agree to a certain point, although since I only shoot one, or sometimes two, shots at game each year I can't develop much data by that method. Jack

That's amazing. Two in a row. I've hunted whitetail for 56 years and have taken three that scored over 100. But none of them were as pretty as those two. Congratulations. Jack

I've always had excellent results with Hornady interlocks. I used to shoot a 25-06 and the 100 gr interlocks were my standard bullet. I recovered a few of them after they stoppet on the far corner under the skin on a quartering shot and they looked like the perfect mushrooms in the ads. The plastic tip on the SSTs must wedge in and cause the bullets to come apart. The reason I'm looking for another bullet is that I wanted to work up some 110 gr. loads and not many bullets advertised for big game come in that weight. If that fails, I'll go back to 130 gr. interlocks, as I know they'll do the job. Jack

The SSTs are supposed to be pretty much like the regular Interlocks, but with a plastic tip. They have the interlock ring. I think Hornady's V-Max bullets are the ones that are supposed to explode on contact. I've used Sierra Pro-Hunter 110 gr. bullets with good success on whitetails, so maybe I'll just stick with them, although they aren't as pretty as the Barnes Tipped Triple Shocks. Thx for the input. Jack

What a wonderful hunt for you and Kalyn. It sounds like you and your daughter have a great relationship and know how to build on it. Best wishes for many more successful hunts. Jack