cramerhunts

Way to continuously improve! Congratulations.

Congratulations to your wife on a very nice bull!

Congratulations to her on a nice buck and a heck of a long poke for a 30.06!

Unbelievable buck! A true trophy for sure. Congratulations on taking such a giant.

Love the mass on that buck! Congratulations to your dad on one heck of a cool buck.

Sweet buck! Big time congratulations! Hope to see some pics of your dad's buck on here soon.

Congratulations on a couple of very nice bulls! Love the write up and pictures, looks like you guys definitely put the work in and it paid off! Sorry about your stolen camera, just hate thieves!

Congratulations to her and you for getting it done again! I'm all kinds of excited to get my daughter out for her second deer hunt in a couple of weeks!

Just doesn't get any better than hunting with family! Way to make it happen on a limited amount of time, congratulations.

Congratulations on a very nice buck! Sounds like you better hang on to a buddy like that.

Congratulations on a nice buck, nice of him to help save you some distance on the pack out.

Congratulations on a great buck! I love the wide frame on that bad boy, I bet it was hard watching and waiting for him to come back into Laurie's unit. Congratulations again on a great family hunt.

Congratulations to AJ on a great first buck!

Thank you everyone, had a great home cooked meal and a few cold ones last night. Happy to spend one with the family for a change.

Congratulations again to the both of you! The pictures turned out great!

Happy birthday! May you have a great day and year to come. Enjoy your trip and travel home safely.

Dang nice finds! sounds like a great day....right up to the snake part. Good luck to Jen on the upcoming hunt.

Congratulations to Parker on a stud of a first buck! Awesome job!

Congratulations to Jared and you as well Dad for getting him out there! Sounds like you made the most of your time with a very busy schedule.

Great video that Jim that leaves me wishing for more! Way to go, I can't wait to see the rest, come one get that editing program kicking.

Congratulations to the both of you on a great buck! There just is no better feeling then watching your child take that first buck.

As a member of the Sportsman's Constituent Group and particularly the head of the sub committee for department issues I have been communicating back and forth with the department on this issue. Below are questions that I asked and the answers that I received back. Please feel free to contact me with additional questions that you would like answered. I really appreciate the department's willingness to work with me on getting answers. Is the proposal being put forth to prevent possible spread of disease or is it due to the supposed increase in success of archery hunters? Disease and wildlife health is the primary issue. We have other ways to regulate harvest. In the preamble that was provided from the department it states that baiting is increasing hunter success and therefore forcing the department to lower tag quantities which negatively affects hunter opportunity and retention. If the hunter success is the reasoning behind the ban on bait where is the numbers obtained from that provide this information? What percentage is too successful? How is it determined what success was a direct result of baiting? Hunt success is certainly a consideration. The implications of the change in hunt success results in limitations on how much hunting permits or season length we can offer. We can detect the change by comparing units where we know baiting is more prevalent with those in which we have little evidence that it occurs substantially, and by looking back through time and seeing the creep in hunt success in these units. White-tail hunt success in Units 22 and 23 are an example. Mule deer seems much less affected, and elk is somewhat intermediate. But hunt success is secondary to the issues of wildlife health. If unnatural congregation of animals is the reason behind the ban on bait why is feed or salt for agriculture or livestock use OK? Do these not still cause unnatural congregation of animals? Livestock operations already have quite a bit of salt across the landscape. Additional salt will influence wildlife movements by giving them more choices and reduce the concentration at the existing salt sources. The same can be said for water developments, in addition to being an essential requirement. Further, we don’t have the authority to regulate the livestock industry, and the use of salt and supplemental feed is important in livestock operations. Have any studies been carried out in Arizona that back up the reasoning behind this proposal or is the department strictly basing it’s reasoning behind studies performed in other states? Disease transmission studies, specifically on the diseases of CWD, brucellosis, and tuberculosis, have not been conducted in Arizona, primarily because those diseases do not occur here. Grain toxicity has been documented in several neighboring states, and this effect is well documented in domestic ungulates within Arizona. The presence of unhealthy toxins (aflatoxin) in wildlife feeds was detected in a study in a southwestern state. The results of the studies that have been conducted are not equivocal. Grain toxicity occurs if a ruminant animal consumes too much high protein food when they are not used to eating it. Disease transmission is greater in locations that concentrate wildlife, be it a natural wintering ground for Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep or a bait pile placed by humans in the woods. People transmit diseases among themselves more frequently in areas of concentration – such as in airports or confined aircraft. We know that this increases risk of disease transmission. In Arizona water would also be a common spot for animals to congregate, especially at drinkers with a small access to the water. This is obviously a necessity yet does this also not pose the same problem that the department is saying bait causes? Water certainly does, but as you note, water is essential. The more water available on the landscape, the less concentrated wildlife are than when water is limited in availability. Also, increasing the distribution of water allows for greater distribution of wildlife on the landscape. In Mr. Wakeling’s comments he says that feed for agriculture or livestock is regulated so why would it not be allowed to be used for the purpose of attracting big game? If ranchers or farmers are still allowed to use it then animals will still congregate unnaturally so why wouldn’t hunters be allowed to use it? Livestock feed is regulated, wildlife feed has fewer restrictions currently. While there is the ability to increase regulation on feed quality that is intended for wildlife, that only addressed one issue (specific toxins, like aflatoxin, in wildlife feed). This does not address grain toxicity (too much protein) or disease transmission. Assuming that CWD is the main disease that the department is trying to prevent, what significance does baiting have as the biggest threat area is the border with Utah where little to no baiting is being conducted? Baiting influences the likelihood for spread of virtually all diseases. While prevention is optimal, limiting or reducing the spread once a disease is detected is also a goal which we strive for with the proposed regulation.

Even though I did not draw an archery bull tag this year one of my hunting partners did. There is a small group of us that hunt together every year and as long as one of us gets a tag we all go and put in just as much effort as if the tag was our own. We have been doing this for a long time now and even though we have taken some great bulls we have never been able to get one that makes you go "wow". This year Keith happened to draw the tag and as soon as we found out we started making scouting trips every chance we got. Forum member RUT (Jim) and Keith found a spot that we would call home during these scouting trips and camp was set. I honestly believe that Jim changed his address as he has lived up there for the last three months. Even though we had a lot of help from our good friend Richie on where to start we were still putting up to 120 miles a day on the side by sides looking at country, setting trail cams, and trying to find where we might focus our attention. Before any of us knew it the season was just around the corner and final preparations were being made. Right up to the day before the season started we had found a lot of bulls and quite a few cows but still hadn't found something that Keith would draw back on. That all changed the night before the opener........Keith and I were glassing from a small butte and spotted not only one big bull but three different ones. We knew they were good bulls just couldn't tell how good due to the distance. From that point forward it was game on! Every morning Keith and I would try and get in front of the bulls pushing their cows back to the thick stuff while Jim would glass from the butte. Every evening Keith would sit the nearest water, I'd glass from the butte, and Jim would keep an eye on other areas. Keith passed up several bulls ranging from 330-370" waiting for a chance at one of the bulls we had seen. We had a few other hunters in the area and between their presence and ours the bulls quieted down quite a bit and changed their patterns some. I was still able to glass at least two of the bigger bulls every night from the butte which kept us going strong. On Monday morning we were following the same routine except that Jim had to head back to town to take care of some business so that he could stay the duration and the other hunters didn't show up. Keith and I had the area all to ourselves but the bulls decided to not make much noise which was a little discouraging. We decided to head out anyway so we left the truck in the dark and started hiking. We made our loop a little further south than we had been and soon started hearing that sweet sound of bulls bugling back and forth to each other. We hustled to get the wind right and slowly started easing in towards what sounded like the herd bull. It wasn't long before I spotted the cows and then the bull stepped out. I was able to take some quick video before he headed off after his cows. http://s81.photobuck...zpsd59aa1b3.mp4 After looking at the bull Keith told me we need to go get him! We were able to hustle around the group and get in between the bull and his cows, which left Keith with a 55 yard shot that he made good on. The big bull didn't go 150 yards and we were able to hear him breath his last few breaths. It always amazes me that with everything that can go wrong when the time is right and it is meant to be how fast everything comes together and goes perfect. Here is a video I took of the shot and the moments after. http://s81.photobuck...zps0a52e265.mp4 Congratulations to Keith on his 392" Trophy bull, it is definitely a "wow" bull! He has over 61" of mass, a 25" G2, fronts that are all over 20" and he's 43" wide.

Congratulations on a very cool bull! Love the eye guards and character all the way around.

Happy birthday bro! Going to be a great year, gotta feeling its your turn to bring home that monster buck! I'll tip a few back in your honor and get the girls ice cream. Lol.