DUG

Guess that time at the range paid off Yes it certainly did! Are you hunting a bear in Alaska? Let us know how it goes.

Great shooting Josh! That is awesome.

Great story and pics. That's what it's all about. You have your kid started off right. I can't wait to take my daughter on her 1st elk hunt this year.

Got my bow back yesterday. Got a green and black string. 3 shots and I was dead on at 20 yds. Thanks to David at Ross Outdoors for all his help and patience with me. Thanks everyone for all your responses, I guess it is that important. Now to start practicing again.

I have an '06 Mathews Switchback XT. It is now about 3 years old. I have 2 archery elk hunts this fall. My bowstring is the original and according to Mathews, they put on the Zebra bowstring at the factory. I'm wondering if I should get it replaced soon or could I make it through my 2 hunts. Nothing seems to be wrong with it that I can tell. And if I replace it, what string is recommended? I'm still an archery newbie and want to hear what more experienced people have to say.

You got it, it's Telluride. The pic was taken from Main Street. Telluride was one of the most beautiful spots we saw.

Our family just spent the last 10 days in CO. We started off in Winterpark for a night. We just got off the I-70 and spotted these dudes right off the side of the road. These 3 were feeding 30 yards from us and there were 2 more rams right across the road. We drove into RMNP and found these guys hanging out. We saw lots of deer in RMNP, mostly 4x4 mulies and most were bedded right near the highway. Someone said they bed like that because the mountain lions won't go near the roads. We saw a moose and her baby near Winterpark. Only got video of them. That was my 1st moose sighting ever. We went to the Rockies/ D-Backs game Monday night and drove to our hotel under a tornado warning in pouring rain. Anybody know what town this picture was taken from? We were hoping to see a bear but that was about the only animal we didn't see. It was a great trip. Colorado is beautiful and we hope to visit again soon.

You're getting closer.

My son and I both got 23 early WT. Now I can scout elk, too.

Anywhere to shoot a bow? I'll be in Tucson this weekend for my daughters softball tournament and will have some free time between games. There's an archery place on Broadway east of the Hilton I may check out. I wonder if it's even open though as the last few times we went by there was no vehicles.

So Robinsons has an indoor range? I'll check them out on Saturday.

I am reading the regs for NM and it looks like my elk license is also my nongame species license. Does this sound right? So I could shoot a coyote if I saw one on my elk hunt? I'm mailing in today for my 2 habitat stamps also. Thanks Griz for that heads up.

I don't blame you for wanting to take the class with your son. It's definitely quality time as is the hunting you will be doing with him. I took the class with my son 7 years ago. A lot has changed since then. My daughter is playing lots of softball and there was no way we could take a real class. Hope you find a class to take soon.

Try the flats out in 37B south of Florence Jct.

The online course is kind of boring. I started out reading it to my daughter and she said she would read for herself. She spent about 3 weeks time on it. She took 3 practice tests and got 76%, 84% and 86%. On the on-line final she got 88%. You have to get 80% or better to get the certificate to go to field day. And you have to pay $15 just to take the on-line final exam. The field day was easy. They got to shoot rifles and do a simulated hunt. Then they took the 50 question test and got her patch and certificate.

Dang it Aaron, I would love to have one but we have 4 already. They sure are cute. I would love to have one to guard my truck.

You would think there would be more classes in Tucson. I just looked at the updated list and there are classes in a lot of towns but not Tucson. My daughter just did the on-line class and had her field day at Rio Salado in Mesa. There were 11 people there for her field day. Rio Salado does a field day the 3rd Sunday of every month. Might be something to consider if he needs it to be able to hunt in a jr. hunt in Oct.

Hope I can get through to G&F while we're in the CO mountains. With 5 elk tags in our family this year I kind of hope we don't get drawn for deer. Well, I hope my daughter gets a deer tag.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to get the string changed while I'm on vacation. Ross is going to do the work for me. I'm going to go with America's Best as that is what they recommended and shoot.

It's all new to me. I have the e/s archery tag for Sept. 1st thru 15th. Water Canyon WMA is in my hunt but not Marquez.

Did you draw a tag there? I'm scouting it later this month.

I took the kids camping last night up in 7W. This morning we stopped to shoot some rabbits, when Luke heard some coyotes. I blew on my call knowing nothing would happen. Well about 5 minutes later I look behind us and to the left and there was 2 coyotes just passing through about 100 yds. out. I got Luke's attention and he hit the bigger one running and then missed the 2nd one. He had to trail the one he shot about 200 yds. and then 1 follow up shot. I couldn't be prouder of him! His sisters yelled and screamed when he came walking back with it.

Anything else I should know about hunting in NM? I know I have to report by Feb. 15th even if I didn't kill anything. Don't bring in firewood from another State. I'm going to look it up, but what if I score on an elk? Can I bring it back to AZ to get it processed? Should I get it processed in NM? Sorry for all the questions, I will look them up, but I figure some of you all already know. I don't want to get dinged for doing somehing illegal. Note to self, bring a couple zip ties.......

Thanks for the advice guys. The bow hasn't been shot a whole lot. Not sure how many arrows shot is considered a lot. It still puts arrows where I want. I'm trying to shoot about 100 arrows a week before the 1st hunt on Sept.1. If something seems funky I'll get it changed before the Nov. hunt.

My 1st hunt was a pig hunt near Kearney in 24A when I was 12. We were sitting on a ridge and I thought I saw a pig go from 1 bush to another. I told my Dad and he didn't believe me. ( After all it was our 1st hunt.) He decided to take a nap and I just sat there looking at that bush on the ridge across from us. Finally my Dad woke up and said I could start walking over to the bush with the pig in it. Just as I crossed the wash and started up the other side pigs started running everywhere. I shot twice at 1 pig and missed. My dad saw one and shot and missed. I finally connected on one running up another ridge. Shot at him three times and hit him twice with an old borrowed Winchester 94 with iron sights. I took my 1st deer the next year on the other side of the Dripping Springs, a 3 pt. muley that my Dad missed and my friend missed. We spent a lot of time in 24A and 37B back then.