Jimmer Negamanee

Wow! Please don't tell me you found all those this year! (nice Bronco in the background, too.) Thanks for the post. -Jim

Great pictures! Thanks for posting.

Great pictures! The one sticking his tongue out at the camera is hilarious. P.S. That bull is gonna be big! I wonder if I could go to RadioShack and make a telemetry reciever...oh, never mind...I can't even program the time on my VCR. (please no posts about me still owning a VCR.)

Three generations out in the field + seeing animals? Sounds perfect! Thanks for the pics.

That is art, man. And you, sir, as loath as you may be to admit it, are an artist. Well done. -Jim

I feel bad for the kid but the press report was hilarious. Here's a quote from the newspaper article about the unidentified animal: "They’re looking at the tracks in the area to find out if it was a cougar, mountain lion, or bear." (emphasis added) So it appears they are looking for a cougar OR a mountain lion. They shouldn't stop there. While they're at it they should also look for tracks of a puma or a even a catamount.

Great finds and beautiful work! You may end up with a side business before you know it.

I'm looking into mounting a pair of coues sheds and a pair of elk sheds. As far as DIY projects I've seen set ups like the Van Dyke's shed mounting system. Here's the link: http://www.vandykestaxidermy.com/product/01005035/ But I have no idea if that type of system is the best way to go or even if it works. (To boot, I'm all thumbs to the point that my 8th grade shop teacher promised to give me an A as long as I promised to not touch any of the power tools.) If I decide I don't want to make guinea pigs out of the sheds that it took me forever to find, are there taxidermists who do this sort of thing and if so, about what should I expect to pay for coues and for elk shed mounts? If anyone knows any taxidermists who do this, I'd appreciate a recommendation. Thank you.

You might want to try Desert Bull Scouting Maps and GPS. They might be able to help point you and your grandfather in the right direction. They have a product where they send you a topo map with likely areas marked. Here’s the link: http://www.desertbull.com/Unitinfopak.htm It only costs $30.00 but would probably save you that much in gas if you are completely unfamiliar with the area. I think he is the same Desert Bull who frequents this site. Although I’ve not dealt with him personally, from the comments I’ve seen, he’s not only an interesting fellow (he quotes Nietzsche in his signature line) but understands that a spike you take with your grandpa means more than any toad you could ever take on your own. I plan on ordering a few maps here myself in the near future. I don’t know if he covers 15 or not but it wouldn’t hurt to ask. Good luck.

Agreed. Great info! Thanks to both of you for the quick response. I guess it's gut check time for me. AZantlerhead, you sure picked an appropriate screen name. I am very impressed with your ingenuity. You probably surpassed my abilities when drilled the pilot hole and you definitely did when you broke out the welder. I wish I could practice on somebody else's. Thanks again.

Congratulations! That's a great bird. I also thought it was very sportsman-like of you to fire the warning shot. (It beats the "shoot and release" hunting that I do. ) And Lance, you are a pro. Finding the birds, calling them in and getting it all on film! Well done. If you don't sell that video to some outdoor channel it would be cool to post it. Thanks to both of you for this post.

You should post your shed mounting tips. I've seen a couple of systems but can't tell if they'd work or not. So far I've not had the guts to drill into a pair of decent sheds. Also, since I'm all thumbs for most home improvement projects, if you know someone who can do that l'd like to know what is being charged for shed mounts (elk and coues). Thanks!

Orange even works with our four legged friends! Here’s our dog Daphne on her first shed hunt this weekend with her first shed, a gnawed-up 3+ year old 5 pt. (We also saw matching rag-horns but they were still attached to an elk and going about 20 mph.) Before anyone asks for my shed-dog training techniques I should admit that I saw this shed first and when I walked Daphne over to it and gave the “where’s your stick” command that we’d been practicing in the back yard, she sat obediently looking up at me waiting for me to throw an antler. Her wagging tail was literally hitting the shed and she didn’t notice. She does okay in the back yard but outside she seems to think they are only slightly more interesting than rocks. We haven’t found a brownie yet though. I’m sure that will make all the difference.

Five hours of bushwhacking this weekend yielded nothing so on the way out we stopped at a stream so the boy and his friend could try to catch some crayfish. This 3 point set was forty yards from the road on the other side of the stream. The Boise State shirt is the actual shirt used worn that day. So, apparently Grong is right. Orange shirts really are the ticket. I can give a testimonial for an orange shirt infomercial.

Great finds! Next to each other they look like Beauty and the...well, let's just say it definitely has lots of character. FYI - The website below has an article called "Abnormal Antlers and Pedicles in Rocky Mountain Elk in Northern Arizona". The scientist who wrote it lists many causes of abnormal antler growth but was looking for a genetic link. She never found it. It seems that her best guess for a cause (if I read the article right) was a pedicle that gets injured in a fight with another bull which in turn makes next year's antler grow funny out of the injured pedicle. No word if a bull with such an injury can ever grow normal antlers out of that pedicle again. http://www.cnrhome.uidaho.edu/fishwild/Rachlow Thanks for posting the pics!

In '06 in 36b along the Ruby Road I saw blue handprints on the back of some road signs. They were all the same blue color and all appeared to be the same size, maybe made with a stensil. I didn't go that far south last year to see if they were still there. I tried a google search but didn't find anything. Does anybody know anything about them? (If this has already been discussed could someone post a link to that discussion?) Thank you.

Great question! I’ve never really thought about it but now I don’t think I’ll ever be able to drive by that dang sign again with out asking myself the same question. With a few basic assumptions (spread, etc.) it should be knowable. There should be some numbers people here who can help with this. I would volunteer to help but math and I went through a really nasty divorce during my junior year in high school. We haven’t spoken since. We were young and immature. Looking back, I just don’t think we were ready for the commitment. Anyway, hopefully we’ll get the answer soon so we can strike this off the list of things to ponder. I think in the end you’ll be impressed with how close your guess is, though. Congrats on the draw and good luck in 21!

Great post, Lance. You motivated me to post for the first time. I generally consider myself liberal as heck (see, I even feel bad swearing lest I offend someone). But the point you bring up is something I believe in because it goes to the very the essence of hunting. Do you want to be an observer or do you want to be a participant? Anyway, viva particpants! I know some people who are even more liberal than me who have asked me to take them hunting because they understand the primal difference you pointed out. Anywho, thanks for the post. -Jim P.S. I hunt coues like I do most other things in life, not very well but very enthusiastically. Also, I think Bob is closet liberal. He's got the lingo down, man.