DesertBull

Don't you think it would be much easier to just vote in a new Governor that try and change the whole system? I don't fear the unknown as much I as fear the 7 ear ring wearing, 37 tattoo sporting, Hybrid car driving, hemp shoe wearing, North Scottsdale vegan voter having a say in the game and fish laws.

Most people don't hunt. You want some lifetime member of PETA or a greenie in Paradise Valley voting for the Commision? Anti-hunters would love to elect a barn full of commissioners.

I believe it used to be this way, but people started complaining that the prisoners had access to your SS number, address, birthdate, and possibly the dates that you would be away from home, they stopped doing it, I THINK.

Actually, Colorado is the exact opposite. They went from OTC deer tags, to limited numbers and a drawing. Their sportsmen were fed up with dwindling deer herds and declining quality and got their G&F to listen to them, stop selling too many tags, and manage the resource instead of the revenue. Now Colorado, once again, has one of the top mule deer hunts in the country. Now, sportsmen in Colorado have started to hammer the powers that be on their farce of a landowner tag system. They recently got the rules passed that prohibit the land owners from selling to tag brokers who then turn around and mark up the price and re-sell them. Next up, they are trying to remove the provision from the land owner tags that allow the purchaser to hunt unit-wide on a land owner tag. Right now, if you by a tag from a "rancher", you are not linited to hunting the ranch, you can hunt anywhere in the unit that the ranch resides. The Governor of AZ has succeeded in populating the Game Commission with individuals that are in favor of managing our wildlife as a source of revenue that they can tap into (see the recent posting reguarding the legislature's attempt to raid the G&F coffers) when needed instead of managing it with biological reasoning. Notice the reaction of the commission when the legislature passed the recent non-resident caps. They were furious. Why? Maybe because the NR tags sell for 4x the cost of a resident tag? Notice also that they were not real keen on trying to get the USO court ruling overturned. They put up a good show when it originally went against AZ, but it took a liberal congressman from Nevada to actually get anything done. Were they really (secretly) happy that they were going to be able to sell unlimited numbers NR tags? Who knows? Notice also the timeline of events in the last year or so. First, the Commission and G&F lobby for increased fees. They use then current license and tag sales to justify their need for higher prices. Then, once that is passed, they start in with hunter recruitment campaign. This is designed to sell more licenses and tags. IF they had increacded tag sales first, their budget numbers would not have looked so bleak and they probably would not have received the price boost that were looking for. So, now they have not only increased the price of tags and licenses, they are on way to issueing many more tags and licenses to further increase the revenue stream. I am not against the G&F making more money, as long as it used to manage wildlife with sound biological principals and with those that are paying the bills having some say. If they just want to fill the bank so that it can be later raided for some general budget shortfalls, well then, they can pound sand.

My browser locked up when I hit "submit application". $10,000,000,000 worth of business in conducted per week on the web, yet every year the G&F departments (not just AZ either) can't complete a simple transaction. Maybe they should take some of that money they use on chub minnow rescue and update their Commadore 64's?

Pentax already had some ED glass binos (The SP's) and they are awesome. I wonder what the improvements are?

NICE! Just goes to show you can still kill animals with an "old school" bow (overdraw, cast riser, and aluminum arrows!). Who needs $1,000 Mathews?

That's cool, but if you ain't got pics, it's all just rumor! Just kidding. Congrats on the deer. We saw some bruiser muley bucks going nuts on Saturday, after the storm went through. Two 4x4's that I would guess at 160"+. My friend shot a pig on Friday evening.

They changed the web page again. It now says, "..Mid January". Looks like more problems with the online apps.

It's not the G&F that is cutting their budget. It's the Legislature that won't cut spending that wants to raid the G&F coffers. Even that is not the worst of it. If $1 of the G&F money from license sales goes to the general fund, the G&F loses $18M in matching Federal funds. That's moeny that you and I paid in the form of taxes on sporting goods. A tax that we, as sportmen and women ASKED for in order to improve habitat, build shooting facilities, etc. It's robbery and in some sense, taxation without representation.

I agree. I think the tag fee for premium hunts should be about $4000. That will REALLY weed out the ones that aren't serious... LOL!, can apply on your app?

If they take $1 from the G&F budget, they lose $18M in federal matching funds. How much brain power does it take to know that is a bad decision? On a side note, who can see the irony in the G&F asking for our help when it comes to them losing a boat load of money, but didn't want to hear from us when we told them we prefer them not to issue more deer tags? They even asked Amanda to post it on her website, but they didn't want anything to do with the survey that she and the ADA put together on deer herd managment.

We have to go through this crap because the majority of our state's populace are condo-dwellers in Scottsdale who don't give a rat's butt about hunting, or even going outside for that matter (unless it's to a golf course). If you follow the links in the article, it's very easy to track down a phone number and e-mail address for your district's legislator. We don't mind listening to you vent, but it'll be more productive if you direct it to them. Rebecca Rios of district 23 just got a page and a half long letter from me. I sent my responses to the appropriate people BEFORE posting that rant.

Why do we have to go through this friggin crap every friggin year? If it's not the G&F budget, it's the Heritage Fund. How about stop paying for criminal tresspassers health care, education, and ESL classes?

I think we all know how these survey companies work. When you hire them they ask you what you want the results to convey.

AMEN! The Department works for us (in theory). We can change things if we can get organized. To just sit there and say, "well, we can't do anything about it" is defeatist.

IMO, they need to go to a system with waiting periods after drawing a tag and limit the number of applications each hunter can submit. That way you can still keep some quality hunts, but shuffle more people though. They would just have to decide what they REALLY want to hunt. Also, it's time to move rifle Antelope to the once in a life time status. Odds of drawing a tag are getting into the sheep level now. Example: Apply for only one from each group - Rifle Antelope, Sheep, Buffalo (once in a lifetime) Kaibab/Strip deer, December Coues Deer, Bull Elk (3 year waiting period) All other deer, late bull elk, cow elk (one year waiting period) Again, this is just a a quick example, not something that was thought out.

ya I know what you mean. those questions were kinda chicken sh!t and that was the outcome. ask for an inch take a mile. We can hunt elk every year if we want. If it is just a hunting experience someone wants, they can draw a cow tag almost every time and it's a fun hunt and they are held at a great time of year to be in the high country with your family. If you want to hunt deer, you can draw an oct/nov tag almost every year, as it is now. IMO, higher tag fees is more detrimental to hunter retention than not being drawn for a year or two. When a cow tag is $120 and you have 2-3 kids that want to hunt, that gets hard on the average family. Anyway, the only way to change the direction the department is heading is to elect a new Gov and get rid of the greenies / bean counters on the commision.

Here come the November archery elk tags, watch and see.

Sweet! Don't they give you a lion tag with your deer tag?

I wish for the fleas from Saddam's camel to infest your private areas.

Has anyone tried to apply for NM yet? I tried this morning. Antelope app went fine. However, when applying for deer hunts, some of the hunts I wanted to apply for were not included on the drop down list of hunt #'s Unit 2C mule deer, hunt # DER-1-110 Unit 17 Elk ML'er, hunt # ELK-3-277 Unit 16E Elk ML'er, hunt # ELK-3-268 Anyone else have trouble?

30 yards from a 180 Muley? You failed the test, my friend. God was giving you a gift.

Did you see that the Mexican Gov't is now considering giving GPS locators to would be border crossers? http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...ps.2010e07.html

That's cool! What was attracting the bears to this spot? Water, acorns?,