flagstaff

When I got mine, I thought I died and gone to Heaven. I own the 10X42 SLC, but the 15's sure made things so much more enjoyable.

I take my Lab all the time. I bought him a dog backpack so he can carry some of my load. My pack was 26 pounds (with the water, tripod, optic gear, and stuff), I gave him 12 pounds of it. Now we are both happy - he goes with me instead of staying at home, and I don't have to carry as much up and down all those hills.

I blew out a disc in my lower back back in 2000. The pain for the next year and a half was bad - I can take pain but it was bad and never wasn't there. It got the point I couldn't sit, the pain from turning over in bed when sleeping would wake me up, the pain in my right leg was incredible, driving was painful, always short with family members because I was in such pain all the time, I lost weight, ect. In 2001, I had the disc removed. The doc said it was the worse he had ever seen (and he had been doing it for a while). As soon as I woke up from anesteshia, the pain was gone. I was out of the hospital the next day (I hate those places). I was back to work 2 weeks later. My back isn't as good as it was before I injured it, but far better than those years after the injury. I still feel it sometimes, but the doc said the disc is kinda like a pillow between two bones, and without that pillow, I have bone on bone, so it isn't gonna be like before. But I can walk for miles (my hunting backpack weighs about 20 pounds with all the optics and gear I pack), work out everyday, can quad and 4 wheel with the best of them, and have helped packed out 2 deer and 2 elk and helped a couple people move since then. One bull elk (he was a 6X6) last year was all by myself a mile from the truck up a steep hill. Bottom line, try to avoid surgery, try physical therapy and their exercises first, but if it gets bad, I mean bad, get it done. And if you get it done, it ain't the end of the world. You can still hunt and do just about everything you did before - just be careful and know your limits. That was my experience anyway. Hope this helps. Good luck.

I wash them under the faucet when i get home. Out in the field, I use a lense brush and try to always keep the lense covers on.

Well, I got another elk tag for unit 9. Pulled a 363 2/8 out of there a couple years ago and now I want his big brother. I've gone up there so often with my hunting partners and brother when they've gotten drawn that I always see big elk. Don't hunt the water holes though, nothing there during daylight except cows and dinks. Antelope? I've got 19 bonus points now. huntin' hard

Those are funny looking prob holes on the side. Buckhorn My daughter found a chard with holes in it like that on our property up here in Flagstaff (we have LOTS of chards on the property). We don't have Anasasi, but Sinagua (or so I'm told). When she asked, I couldn't explain what the holes were for. Any ideas???

I appreciate the info, RR. Still, with each of us having a 20% draw rate last year, and at least that this year, and whatever smallish chance we had the preceding years, that neither one of us applying on seperate applications for the last almost 30 years and can't get drawn is hard to swallow. Being the two of us, we should be doubling our individual draw rates. Looking at the probability, it should have happend for one of us by now. But with the luck I/we have, it is about par for the course. I dread that we may both will be drawn next year. That would be my luck too. I would prefer spreading it out because just going (even if you are the spotter and not the shotter) is the best part. I understand the probability and math involved, but it is hard to explain to yourself sitting on this side of things. I promise you, it makes you doubt the system.

They say it does , but all I can tell you from my personal experience which is my brother and I each had 18 points heading into the antelope draw for Unit 7 this year- neither one of us were drawn. Yet last year, we both put in for Unit 7, and a 14 year old kid we know put in for the same Unit with with only his hunter safety course bonus point - the kid was drawn. At least we helped him get a really nice buck (which was fun), but it was a jagged pill to swallow to wonder how we are unable to get drawn - we have been applying since the late 1970's and have yet to be drawn for antelope . Does it work? Well, somebody is going to have to explain it to me REALLY SLOW - A COUPLE TIMES to get me to believe it does .

Didn't get drawn for elk or antelope. My brother an I each had 18 points heading into the draw for antelope - we put in for Unit 7 on different applications to double our chances one of us were gonna get drawn - neither application were drawn. I was so confident one of us were going to - I have already been out a couple times and found the buck I had been watching for 2 years now - making sure he survived this past winter. Guess I jinxed myself...... Congrats to all of you who were drawn.

I always heard they were more closely related to rodents than swine. I don't hunt them anymore - had to choke them down with a lot of beer (but then, maybe I need to start hunting them again!!!!!) I recent saw some up in Unit 9 very near the South Rim - it shocked me to know they have migrated that far north. About 25 years ago while motoring in a boat across Apache Lake, a buddy and I encountered 2 javalina swimming in the middle of the lake. The only thing we came up with why they would be doing that is it was "boys night out" on the other side of the lake and they were tired of being yelled at at home.

According to Jim Heffelfinger (aN AZ Fish and Game employee who is noted as a deer expert and wrote a book about deer), he says "Coues shed their antlers late April throughMay with the peak around May 7th." Bucks have a home area and don't migrate - they'll be in the same general area all year

You might consider the Zeiss 85MM Diascope. 3.5" shorter, 6 oz. lighter, 6% brighter, about $600 cheaper (new from Cabelas), and I thought every bit as good as the Swarovski 80HD. I thought digiscoping was easier with the Zeiss too (I liked their flip up camera adapter) if that is a consideration. Digiscoping opens up a whole new opportunity to get into the hills too! That being said, if you are commited to the Swarovski, go to the 80MM rather than the 65MM. You will be glad you did all things considered.